Budget build: .22 Avenger

Been out of the scene for a little while. Been busy with work and enjoying my time with my little girl. 

Anyways my cousin has been interested in PCPs the last year or so. He has been asking lots of questions usually every time I'd see him. He now wants to borrow one for a week. Well I only have my Taipan Veteran Shorty and HW30S. For some reason I thought I had a Mrod or something for him to try but no. I decided I wanted to do a build as a loaner/backup PCP.

Originally I was going to get a Mrod as I'm very comfortable with them but realized the Avenger would probably be a good fit to try for this.

So I ordered a .22 Avenger from Utah Airguns which I got the other day. Just got the scope last night being a budget scope IMO that will nicely pair with it. An Athlon Talos 4-14x44 I picked up from Cameraland which I got for $260 on the recent sale. I think for the money it's a pretty nice scope, nice reticle, glass seems good for the price and turrets are decent which will be a set and forget it scope, no dialing. 

Am likely going to set it up around the 26-28fpe range with 16gr pellets. I like that power setting for my Taipan. Hoping to have it all setup by the weekend for him to have it this next week. He has stated if he really likes it he will buy it from me. Depending on how it shoots not sure I'll want him to lol.

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Tuning it down a bit to get a good shot count with a 3000psi fill could help with a loaner gun so they can use a hand pump.... Or just tune it down for lots of shots so they don't have to fill it. Just talking out loud here. A 250 bar fill is kind of hard to accommodate for most people. Anyway seems like a good gun for the money. No tears for Scratches. 
 
Very cool Dillon. 

I've thought of doing the very same for my farmer uncle. He's asked me about PCPs a couple different times, the most recent of which was about 3 weeks ago. They got a new tractor, a big nice modern CASE with a cab last summer and just a few weeks ago finally wouldn't even start, after having progressively worse electrical issues for the past few months. Finally had it trailored back to the dealership a few hours away. Dealer called my uncle and said they found a giant ground squirrel nest in the engine compartment/under the hood. Dang things had cut nearly all of the wires on some primary wiring harnesses, big gauge stuff too. Needless to say, the uncle has found a reason to renew the rodent war.
 
Owning a .22 Avenger PCP, I would second the recommendation to tune it down from the factory settings. Out of the box it shoots pretty hot/harsh, and once you follow the procedure to turn down the regulator, the cocking action and overall shooting becomes much smoother (de-gas first, don't turn down the reg with pressure in the air tube). I turned my regulator down around 1100-1400 psi (hard to get more accurate than that on the stock gauge). With the hammer spring set about 1.25 from fully out, I'm getting ~878 fps average with Crosman 14.3 domed pellets and over 85 shots.



It's a great rifle to play with, and if you ever want to make it more quiet, Donny FL has a thread adapter so you can put a moderator on it. Have fun!
 
Great info guys! I was doing alittle digging last night at what to roughly set the reg at and didn't find what I wanted. That's great info and will start there. Am shocked the reg is at 2600psi on this one from the factory. Seems too high for majority of users.

Yeah Cole I could imagine he wouldn't be happy about that! I know how much those tractors cost so yeah yikes. No squirrel issues by us but we have birds namely sparrows and starlings that make nests in our tractors which create fire danger. My dad had one in the intake of his pickup last spring.
 
Decided to update this thread. My cousin had the gun for about a week and a half. In that time he ended up buying a .22 Avenger bullpup and compressor. He brought it over Friday and I got it setup for him and returned mine. Now my uncle is a gun nut and he got to shoot them alittle. He called me Saturday asking if I wanted to sell the Avenger he's pretty sure he needs it now. Lol!