Recommended accoutrements for the Crown!
1. Chronograph. The Caldwell can be had for around $100. If you want to tune the gun yourself, this is an indispensable aid.
2. Elbow Pads. Sounds stupid, but my elbows get raw and irritated when shooting from a bench for several hours. I've seen people use Vet Wrap, Ace Bandages, and every other thing, but something to protect elbows would be nice.
3. support. that can be sandbags, bipod, or other inventions. For the Crown, perhaps a set of Caldwell Tack Driver bags to start. You'll undoubtedly want to try several types of support to see what works best for you.
4. Targets. While you can use range targets, the Splatterburst or Shoot N See targets are really nice at 75 and 100 yards because you can see results without zooming your scope in.
5. Cleaning - Everyone has an opinion on this one. DO NOT USE BRASS BRUSHES. While they won't hurt the barrel, there's a rubber O-Ring in the breech that brass brushes will scratch. Either get a Bore Snake and take the brush out, or a Patch Worm with Ballistol works great. I'd avoid anything going from the muzzle down to protect the crown. Do clean the gun before use. Shipping gunk in the barrel can effect accuracy. Once you do the initial cleaning, DON"T DO IT AGAIN until accuracy drops off. It'll take 50 or 100 shots to "Lead In" the barrel and accuracy to settle down. Once there, don't clean again till accuracy drops. That could be anywhere between 500 and 10K rounds. You'll have to figure it out for your gun.
6. Metric Allen or Hex Wrenches. You may never intend to work on the gun, but a set of wrenches can be invaluable at the range.
7. Plastic coated cleaning rod. OK, now if you never do what I did, and double load you'll never need the plastic coated cleaning rod. and I said I'd avoid anything that enters through the muzzle but if you double load you don't have much choice. (I have an Impact and have lost count, countless times). When you double load, uncock, open the bolt, and push the pellets out with the rod. Plastic protects the crown. Just be extremely careful.
8.Diamond Scale & some 7 day pill boxes from Walmart. Sounds strange, right? Here's the deal. Pellets only average the weight printed on the tin. So, for bench shooting, you'll eventually want to weigh pellets. While watching paint dry is a bit more exciting, weighing will provide consistency in the elevation of your shot. A light pellet can shoot an inch higher than a heavy pellet from the same tin. Mark the pill box with the weight of pellets in each of the 7 bins, and sort accordingly. There are entire threads on the forums about weighing and head size. Forget head size on the Crown, the Crown and Impact reshape the pellets to a uniform shape while shooting. Long discussions on this one. Scales on eBay are $10 to $20.
9. Consider your source of air. I use a local paintball shop. Several have advised me against paintball shops as their air filtration is typically zero. This can translate into gunk in the gun. Scuba shops are better with breathable air filtration, or consider your own compressor. Cheap Chinese compressors start at $200-ish, decent compressors start at $1000 or $1200, and you can go all the way up to $10K dive compressors. Do research as you go along.
10. Take your time. While a Crown will be accurate out of the box, I managed to talk to MR. FX (Fredrick Axelsson) himself at the Utah Airguns grand opening. He said that a Smooth Twist X barrel takes at least 500 rounds to break in. Ted Bier was also there, he said his barrels really got accurate after 8 or 10 thousand rounds if I remember correctly, I know it was more than I've put through all of my guns combined. In other words, these barrels get better with age. Keep shooting and it'll just keep getting better and better.
11. Final suggestion - forget most of what I've said, and just get out and shoot. All of this stuff will come with time and practice. These are minor details that you can live without for the most part. They (in my opinion) make shooting more comfortable, but aren't necessary in any way shape or form.
Just get out and have fun. I also shoot bench almost exclusively as my legs are giving way to MS. Local ranges here are good out to 75 yards and my Impact can produce 1.25 inch groups and I am a lousy shooter. Met guy with a Crown a couple months ago at the same range. His groups were incredible. 16 shots in a group about an inch across that looked more like a rip in the paper. incredible accuracy and he was NOT weighing pellets. Straight out of the tin. The Crown is an incredibly capable gun.
Have fun!
