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Cricket or Impact ?

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fabio

Member
Apr 2, 2018
29
1
SAO PAULO, Brazil
I am relatively new to the PCP world but beein hunting all my life . I started with the FX brand , first with a .25 Impact Power Plenum , then added a Crown wich I disliked very much , sold it , and added a new Impact MK2 in .22 cal..
I use them just for hunting pigeons picazuro down here in Brazil with my labrador, I don´t shoot more that 50/70 meters ..probably I set my blinds mostly at 40 mts because I want my birds stone dead and I dont feel the challenge of shooting far and cripple birds.
Now I am on my 4th year of PCP hunting and I have to say that these gun are incredible !! WHEN THEY ARE OK !! and they are not always ok always having experienced every sort of minor/major issues frequently .
Beeing a shotgun guy I know that you cannot compare a decent shotgun even with a top PCP but I am getting fed up also because down here in BRazil , services for PCP are very difficult.
Considering that I will not use slugs because I dont need them , my hunting beeing under 70mts what would be your opinion about the Kalibrun Cricket 2 Tactical in either .25 or .22 , I was told that is a reliable solid gun , non floating ,non liner type barrel , not that many knobs and frills , just plain hunting gun ?
 
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My experience has been very solid with them (Kaliberguns) very rarely do they need work. I sympathize with your FX struggles- I've a few and treat them delicately, especially compared to how I treat my eastern European rifles. They seem to require more attention and have problems I haven't experienced elsewhere.
But I still have them, shoot them, and enjoy them
 
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hawkeye69 said:
This is the first time I heard someone say they disliked the Crown.
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Possibly didn't work well for the OP's specific needs shooting out of a small blind?

At any rate, though, I think that the OP is on the right track looking at Eastern European guns. In my experience they tend to be more robust & simple, and less flashy tools as compared to many other 'top' brands. As such he will likely be more satisfied with anything Kalibr, Taipan or AGT than he has been with his FX's.

And I would think that for pigeons out to 70 m, no more than .22 cal would be necessary. Now you just need to decide how short you want your new gun for working within your blinds, whether you want a bottle for lots of shots per fill, etc. All of the fun stuff.

I have Cricket II Tacticals in both barrel lengths in .22 cal and while the 450 mm barrel will probably do the job, I prefer the 600mm barrel for anything past 50 yards/meters.
 
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fabio said:
Hawkeye..POI shifting constantly ..one week ok ...let it sit for 2 weeks and had to sight in again...maybe bad luck , I prefer Impact but I am looking for something less fancy but more robust than Impact for my pigeon hunting under 60 mts
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@fabio In that case an Eastern European bullpup should work great for you. Consider looking at some Edgun R5M/Lelya, KalibrGun, AGT Vulcan or Uragan, or Taipan Veterans.
 
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fabio said:
Hawkeye..POI shifting constantly ..one week ok ...let it sit for 2 weeks and had to sight in again...maybe bad luck , I prefer Impact but I am looking for something less fancy but more robust than Impact for my pigeon hunting under 60 mts
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Kalibrgun all the way for me. The first and last fx I owned did the exact same thing. Couldn’t keep it’s POI to save it’s life. I was told by fxusa & also by the owner of a very reputable dealer that “in .177 they were hit or miss”.
 
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fabio said:
. . .
about the Kalibrun Cricket 2 Tactical in either .25 or .22 , I was told that is a reliable solid gun , non floating ,non liner type barrel , not that many knobs and frills , just plain hunting gun ?
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I m a Kalibrgun shooter myself. Next to Crown and other.
All very, up to extremely accurate. Even though i dare not say that Kalibrgun is a 100m gun as the Crown and Impact are.

Moreover,
Bear in mind that Kalibrguns come with CZ-barrels, which compared to the FX Impact liner barrels you have been getting used to, are quite ‘lead aggressive’. So you might find it s necessary to clean your CZ barrel more frequently than you have been used to with your Impact barrels.

For the rest, when talking Kalibrgun (various models), Taipan Veteran, AGN Uragan & Vulcan… i advise them all.

Btw fabio, the POI-shift you re mentioning with the Crown . . . such problems may have various causes, for instance not seldom scope related. Especially when talking stiffened up barrel configurations like the superlight barrel kits on Crown MKII.

Good luck.


If FX spent there advertisement money on there guns.
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Not the first time i establish airgunmike56 's FX-nagging attitude.


As for me,
In all of those years I ve never had any issues with my FX guns (except for that one time i had only myself to blame for an occuring malfunction).
So not any slow-filling problems, not any side lever mechanism malfunction, not even spontaneously arising leak issues.

I have however run into exactly such problems with Kalibrgun, (small) issues with the sidelever mechanism, (much too) slow filling, and once even a spontaneous leak.

Nevertheless i won t advise against purchase of Kalibrgun. Very much the opposite even. Because i ve learned that once the minor problems fixed, Kalibrgun proves very reliable and very very accurate.
 
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Another vote for the RTI Prophet.

I have had mine for about six months now. I have put at least 7000 pellets through it and it has not misbehaved at all
Very clean straightforward design and appears to be very easy to work on whenever that is needed. So far it has not been.

When I bought mine, I was looking at several brands an models. While the FX Maverick had my interest, the simplicity of the RTI won out in my case.

The Cricket looks to be a solid design too. Just something about the Prophet called out to me.
 
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One reason I have the RTI prophet on my wish list is I shoot from my left shoulder because I am left eye dominant (but right handed). FX guns are not at all friendly to left shoulder shooters, particularly the bullpups which I prefer. Most of the eastern European guns are very friendly towards both right and left shoulder shooters. On the Prophet you can put the magazine in from either side so it is not in your face (my biggest issue with an Impact). I think the Uragan is a flush magazine, like my P35s.
 
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I think there are some additional things to consider when choosing an airgun, especially if you are a hunter that treks in the woodlands. I will list some of my experiences with the Kalibr Argus, as for no other reason than to give you more data to make a personal decision.

  1. The Kalibr Argus .30cal, is a fancy looking gun, but it weighed a ton. I knew what the gun weighed before I purchased it, but I was not prepared for how heavy the gun felt when I shouldered it.
  2. There was not an easy way to add a sling to the Argus without mods to the stock, that may weaken the stock permanently.
  3. This is supposed to be a superior high end airgun, but it had a plastic trigger, A PLASTIC TRIGGER!!! And a flimsy plastic trigger at that! It completely ruined the feel of the trigger that was already not great since it was a single stage.
  4. The safety system of the Argus is not good. I could barely brush against the safety and it would flip between safe and fire.
  5. The magazine system on the Argus is supposed to be one of the highlights of the design, but it would not reliably feed JSB Hades because the pellets would be offset in the magazine silo, and snag when the round was chambered. This caused me to bend the pin probe of the airgun, and I don't know if alternate probe styles are available.
I classify the above issues as Design For Useability defects. These may be things that may not matter to you, or you can find a suitable workaround that works for you with little time or money invested. But what made me send the gun back was it's lower than specified velocity.

Any product can have problems, and that also goes for airguns. I believe you will have a better chance of being able to get parts for airguns that are produced in massive numbers than expecting to purchase a gun that will never need servicing. Everything needs maintenance eventually.

With that said, I do feel the FX Impact is just overly complicated. I have the FX Maverick, and I feel the Maverick or the Wildcat BT are better choices for what you get in the FX Line, without having complexity for complexity's sake.

I also am fond of the RTI Prophet Gen II when you look at it from the design choices they made.
 
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I would avoid the cricket II tactical .22. I bought one and had to return it because the magazine doesn't index properly. It's a well documented problem for this gun. And as you said, servicing an air gun in Brazil is difficult and you will likely get the same problem like many of us have.

I do own an Kalibrgun Argus 60 in .22 and love it. It is a non choke barrel that shoots 25 grain mrd MOA at 75 yards with speed of 900fps. As other have stated, it is heavy when scoped but it's built like a tank. I would recommend this gun without hesitation.
 
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