I have always had a soft spot for the old Crosman pistols and had a crosman 150 as a kid the was a real gem. To this day I dont knowwhat happened to it but I think I loaned it out and never got it back.
I have always been on the look out for another one but it seems they are like chicken lips to find in NZ. So last week I decided to pick a 2240 to customise instead.
For me, one of the main ingredients that made the model 150 so desirable was it's VERY compact size! It's really surprising Crosman doesn't currently offer a barrel shorter than 7 1/2 "on their 2240 pistols. Whatever performance figures lost by using a 6" barrel over the 7 1/2" one are more than made up with the "fun factor" for what this setup is REALLY great at, ...."plinking"! Not every rig needs screaming fps numbers. Although my old model 150 accounted for many sparrows and the occasional "unlucky" starling, age and experience now tells me the CO2 driven 150 or 2240 is not suitable for hunting. So after putting 40 odd shots through the new 2240 over the chrono I got some very average factory velocities.. I think it averaged about 410fps with 14.3gr accupells.So I set to work customising it to my tastes and to fill a .22 plinker hole in my ever growing pistol collection.. The mods so far are as follows: *Trigger and sear lighten and polish *Drilled and tapped the rear tube cap for an 8mm grub screw that pressed against a ball bearing on the rear of the hammer spring acting as my new velocity adjuster. *Valve and transfer port "liberated" slightly and ported to a more suitable size for a short barrel. *Barrel shortened to 6" to line up with the end of the gas tube. *Front sight block cut back and mounted with a longer grub screw into the barrel band * I temporarily fitted some benjamin Marauder smooth grips just to do away with the tacky cheap "wood grain look" grips.
So even with an inch and a half off the end of the barrel the post mod tests were pleasing.The velocity now sits at an average of 445fps (on a frosty winter morning) with JSB 14.3gr pellets and gets a total of 38 shots per cartridge. Thats 6.3ftlbs and about the same as what all others I read about are getting with the 2240 pistol fitted with the factory 7.5" barrel with a few mods. It seems to like the JSB 14gr pellets over the Crosman pellets of the same light weight so Ill feed it tose from now on. I managed a nice ragged 10 shot group (1 flyer) rested at 20 yards with open sights so happy with that result. I even managed to connect with my 50y gong a couple of times! ;D
I decided to put the nice walnut grips off my .30 cal for a photo shoot.
.
Whats next for it?Im considering making an even shorter gas tube and shortening the barrel to 5 inches and running it on the shorter 9gr CO2 or nitrous oxide powerlets.
Something that will most certainly be on the project list is a "Stace style" machined full length blued steel breech for it whatever over all length it ends up. I will pick up some steel hex bar next tim im in town to drop in the lathe and mill.
I have always been on the look out for another one but it seems they are like chicken lips to find in NZ. So last week I decided to pick a 2240 to customise instead.
For me, one of the main ingredients that made the model 150 so desirable was it's VERY compact size! It's really surprising Crosman doesn't currently offer a barrel shorter than 7 1/2 "on their 2240 pistols. Whatever performance figures lost by using a 6" barrel over the 7 1/2" one are more than made up with the "fun factor" for what this setup is REALLY great at, ...."plinking"! Not every rig needs screaming fps numbers. Although my old model 150 accounted for many sparrows and the occasional "unlucky" starling, age and experience now tells me the CO2 driven 150 or 2240 is not suitable for hunting. So after putting 40 odd shots through the new 2240 over the chrono I got some very average factory velocities.. I think it averaged about 410fps with 14.3gr accupells.So I set to work customising it to my tastes and to fill a .22 plinker hole in my ever growing pistol collection.. The mods so far are as follows: *Trigger and sear lighten and polish *Drilled and tapped the rear tube cap for an 8mm grub screw that pressed against a ball bearing on the rear of the hammer spring acting as my new velocity adjuster. *Valve and transfer port "liberated" slightly and ported to a more suitable size for a short barrel. *Barrel shortened to 6" to line up with the end of the gas tube. *Front sight block cut back and mounted with a longer grub screw into the barrel band * I temporarily fitted some benjamin Marauder smooth grips just to do away with the tacky cheap "wood grain look" grips.
So even with an inch and a half off the end of the barrel the post mod tests were pleasing.The velocity now sits at an average of 445fps (on a frosty winter morning) with JSB 14.3gr pellets and gets a total of 38 shots per cartridge. Thats 6.3ftlbs and about the same as what all others I read about are getting with the 2240 pistol fitted with the factory 7.5" barrel with a few mods. It seems to like the JSB 14gr pellets over the Crosman pellets of the same light weight so Ill feed it tose from now on. I managed a nice ragged 10 shot group (1 flyer) rested at 20 yards with open sights so happy with that result. I even managed to connect with my 50y gong a couple of times! ;D
I decided to put the nice walnut grips off my .30 cal for a photo shoot.
.
Whats next for it?Im considering making an even shorter gas tube and shortening the barrel to 5 inches and running it on the shorter 9gr CO2 or nitrous oxide powerlets.
Something that will most certainly be on the project list is a "Stace style" machined full length blued steel breech for it whatever over all length it ends up. I will pick up some steel hex bar next tim im in town to drop in the lathe and mill.
