"jking"Muskrat, with all the new bull pups out what made you decide to go with the Cricket? There's been a lot of praise on the Mutant and of course the FX line of BP's and the Vulcans. Looks like you got a good one. Great groups.
Jimmy
I have both a Cricket Compact .177 and Mutant Short .22 and can give you some insights. Both are great choices and accuracy is a non-issue for me. That said, if you can cope with the appearance of a Mutant, in my opinion it's the superior bullpup. It may not look as good as a Cricket in many people's eyes but it has well thought out features that the aging Cricket design needs to better implement.
- For one, the Mutant has a very nice trigger with a trigger lock (safety) that is non-existent on a Cricket. Some may not care but for others it's an added bonus.
- The cocking lever on the Mutant is very smooth without any vertical play and it's switchable for left and right handed shooters. It's also thicker compared to a Cricket. I tend to be more cautious pulling back the lever on my Cricket.
- Magazine indexing lever/switch on the Mutant is superior in every way. Slide it back to disengage and upon cocking it and returning the cocking lever forward the indexing switch will auto engage. With the Cricket you have to play around with the switch and there have been times where I didn't properly engage it and mistakenly fired a blank due to the magazine not indexing. I'm sure all Cricket owners have had this experience.
- Fit in finish on both is good for a high-end bullpup but for a Cricket to be comfortable you need to have a cheek rest since the edge of the breech is square whereas with a Mutant it's chamfered and can be used without a cheek rest. Minor but again it's an observation having owned both.
- Both are very compact multi-shot bullpups but a Mutant short is noticeably shorter. Some like the compact size while others coming from a rifle may not.
- Parts wise I think Crickets wins hands down since they've been in circulation longer and you can almost buy a spare magazine around any corner it seems. For Mutants, I think you have to know the right people to get you spare magazines. Mutant parts wise I don't know what replacement parts would be needed aside from orings since it's a very solid platform so far.
I do enjoy shooting both and tend to use the Cricket more in the backyard since it's a .177 and is fairly quiet. Although I think the Mutant is superior in many ways, the Cricket Compact is like a classic and it being a fairly rare .177 I don't think I'd get rid of it. If a Mutant short .177 become available I would purchase it and use it more though. Again, this is just my opinion and observations. There are a lot of choices out there and each individual has to weigh in on the pluses and minuses of each.