Vulcan 2 or cricket for the money

[Njones6871]

I'm looking at getting either a Vulcan 2 or Kalibrgun Cricket in 25 or 22cal. Any suggestions on which is better for the money. I really love the side lever cocking but is not a deal breaker. I'm in the 1000-1300 dollar range in the used market. Thanks!!

 

[MikeVV]

There's what appears to be a nice Vulcan 2 in the for sale section. I think back about page 4 or 5 now. I've been thinking about that myself.

Have you done any searching on YouTube ? A lot of videos to get opinions from there.

Mike

 

[sonny]

Owned both guns, I like the cricket better myself

BTW the (new) cricket comes with side lever you can pre order from Georgia air guns. Might be worth the wait.

 

[Blejda]

I had cricket and few Vulcan's but my favorite is my Taipan veteran because it holds zero forever. 

 

[T3PRanch]

Cricket was my second PCP and it is a keeper in .25. 60 shots at 60 ft/lb and pellet on pellet at 50 yards. It is a bit heavy with the synthetic stock though.

 

[Enkey]

Hi

I have both going very well the only negative in cricket is the rear side lever and excessively heavy synthetic stock, there is also the taipan option that is similar and I have never heard anything negative.

Regards 

Enkey 

 

[Njones6871]

Thanks everyone for their replies! I will further do some research on the taipan. Forgot to mention that another huge thing I'm looking for is ease of resealing. I'm pretty handy but probably wouldn't attempt tearing something like an FX Impact down. I would love to save the money when the time does eventually come to do maintenance.

 

[Njones6871]

Also would love something that can change calibers if possible. I love the concept of the wildcat but have heard alot of issues with leaking

 

[bubblerboy64]

Is there that much difference with respect to maintenance and tear down between any of these guns. Does a few more O rings matter? 
I’m posing this as a question. If you have the nerve skills or just guts to dig into the innards of a gun you will probably rely on you tube and other online help and essentially if you are careful and maybe take pictures as you proceed is there a reason you would tackle one and not another? I haven’t done much on my guns but I’m going to take on what needs doing regardless. Having the right screw drivers and good quality tools and some ability to research BEFORE you dive in would seem to make it doable. Lots of info on the impact . It might be one of the easier guns to work on for that reason.

 

[Njones6871]

I've just heard that the cricket for instance is a much simpler gun to take apart and fix. Ive never done it myself. I attempted to reseal my fx boss one time but there is very little info on the web. So I ended up having to send it in to Airguns Of Arizona to reseal.

 

[Arash]

If I had that opportunity I would choose Vulcan 2 tactical.

I had experience with Vulcan 1 and cricket. Both were good guns.

 

[Centercut]

Both good guns. If I were going to just keep it a .22 and shoot JSB 18.1 at 885 FPS, I'd choose the Vulcan. Were I planning on increasing the power to shoot slugs or RD Monsters, I'd choose the Cricket. Both good guns, both reliable, both easy to work on. I think the Vulcan2 is a better looking, more refined gun than the Cricket, but I have both.

 

[JungleShooter]

If I remember right, the Cricket (the older versions at least), didn't have a safety lever — and for backpacking and urban hunting that's a deal breaker (and to head of the usual comments about this topic — I use a double safety, my trigger finger is the other safety, thank you very much ).



Matthias

 

[MikeVV]

Here's some real world info -



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Zt8fyaxUU



Mike

P.s. - Things don't really get started till about 3:30 minutes into the video.

 

[Yo]

The Vulcan 22 has a slight edge in accuracy if you are a paper puncher.

 

[Macros]

Couple of issues with that video, if using it to make any decisions...

First he jacked up his vulcan to match the crickets power output for the face off which may have been way off of its ideal tune.

Apart that the only thing he was really facing off was two cz barrels and his own shooting skill. By the sound of things he's had the cricket for longer too.

Fun video in any case and I doubt it was ever meant to be more than an enjoyable shoot off between his two guns, rather than buying advice

 

[Georgia Airguns]

I am going to weigh in on this one. I sell and have tested over a hundred of the above guns. To make a blanket statement that one is more accurate than the other would be incorrect. Each barrel is an individual creation, with that said, one day I can test a Vulcan and it is an exceptional shooter the next day I can test another Vulcan and is very good shooter but not as good as the one from the day before. The same can be said for the Cricket's. I will say the most accurate gun I have ever had my hands on is a .25 Cricket bullpup.

The owner who is a competitive shooter does not let people know ahead of time he is planning to show up at a competition because others won't show knowing what that .25 Cricket is going to do to them.

I will say this, now I am talking by a tiny edge here. If I were to pick a more accurate gun between the two on the basis of hundreds of guns tested, I would give a slight nod to the Cricket's.

Either one you can't go wrong, it comes down to the flavor and style of gun you are looking for.

Thanks

Charlie Frear, Georgia Airguns

 

[JungleShooter]

Wow, now that kind of advice is rare to be found — based on representative experience rather than a 1 or 2 gun experience where by chance the gun could have happened to be a lemon or lemonade....

Thanks, Charlie!

Matthias

 

[Njones6871]

Thanks for the great advice Charlie! I guess I will be leaning towards the Cricket in .25. Accuracy is by far my number 1 priority as i am a hunter. And I love that the Cricket 2 has side lever cocking. Hopefully it will perform as well in the accuracy department as the original Cricket. With that added feature I'd say that Kalibrgun has a winner of a rifle.

Thanks again, 

Nick

 

[mercado]

I purchased 2 taipan veteran long in both calibers brand new when they first arrived at TT .. and I really prefer my 3 crickets they are old and beetup except for the .25 I purchased from jasmin22 almost new..I don't se my self selling them, because I know there will be guns that could do the same...but not better at least for what I need them to do .. even the 177 at 90y in almost no wind is a kill shoot one after the other...no poi change never I take the gun in a week and is shooting exactly the same....if I knew they were going to be this great I would have purchased them NEW.