Brocock Bantam & new member

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DHart

Member
Jul 7, 2018
665
54
AZ, United States
Hey and hello. I'm brand new to air guns (not at all new to conventional firearms, though). I needed an air gun to legally dispatch prairie dogs that have been tearing up our landscape in the back yard.



I did a little homework and had sort of settled on getting a Marauder .25 cal. A visit to Airguns of Arizona got me set up, instead, with a Brocock Bantam .25 cal Hi-Lite Beech, Aztec Emerald 5.5-25 x 50 scope, and a Trident "moderator". In the first day, the take has been 4 of the critters. Two were taken at 50 yards. This is a nice, accurate rifle that twacks the critters HARD.

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After contemplating using a pump to recharge the air gun, I made the decision to go with an Omega 100CF Air Cylinder instead. Got some good pricing on all of this, as well. Airguns of Arizona took good care of me!




 
Thanks to you all for the welcome.

Being new to air guns, I have some newbie questions:

1) Is it important to discharge the rifle after it's been cocked (chamber charged)?

In other words, is there any harm in leaving it in a "cocked/charged" state for any period of time?

2) It is quite warm where I live, and the house is air conditioned. Should I keep the rifle outside all during the day to acclimate it to the heat, or take it in and out as I go in and out? Is the rifle likely to lose accuracy when heating up?

3) I haven't noticed any indicator on the rifle to show that it is cocked/charged - I guess the only way to know is to operate the bolt lever/try to remove the magazine?

4) Do those patches that you "shoot" through the gun to clean the bore work reasonably well in place of cleaning the bore manually?

5) Is there another excellent forum for air gunners aside from this one?

I'm sure more questions will arise. Glad that I found this forum! :)


 
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get yourself a $12 patchworm kit for cleaning and some straws to get them started ,,,watch tomcats and AEAC VID on barell cleaning stay away from cleaning patchs ,,leaving things cocked ,not my favorite thing to do for safety always assume the rifle is loaded and cocked and ready to fire ,unless you know other wise follow a routine every time be safe ,,dont leave outside its compressed air and the sun will fade the finish,, it will acclimate quite quickly no need to store outside ,how will u fill the tank dive shop? get the straps to make carrying the tank a breeze,i filled my rests with a black plastic small beeds good luck PAT
 
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A word of warning about the Bantam, you can leave it cocked when you're out shooting but... The cocking lever has very little tension holding in the locked position. Consequently it is very easy to accidentally move it to unlocked. Shooting that way will almost always result in blowing the breech seal. To lessen that possibility, it's a good idea to leave it uncocked until you're ready to take a shot, plus it is safer.

Always store your guns uncocked for safety. If you must leave the magazine in, make certain that you fire it before putting it away, that way you know it's uncocked and on an empty cylinder. Regardless, as Hynzie said, even then always assume that it's cocked and loaded.

I live in Mesa, it only takes a couple minutes for the gun to warm up in this heat. No to the cleaning pellets. AOA sells a pull through cleaner (Napier brand) that I use and it works fine. Get a smaller size plastic straw to put into the moderator otherwise you'll never get the cleaner through.
 
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Hynzie and hawkeye69... thanks guys for the excellent advice. Somehow, in spite of your warnings, I managed to discharge the rifle in such as manner as to blow the O-ring out of the chamber. Urggghhhh. I also made the stupid mistake of walking away from the rifle while it was on the back patio, just long enough for a wind that picked up to knock it over dinging the end of the moderator and necessitating a minor repair. Double urrggghhhh.

One more trip to Airguns of Arizona and, of course, the service and expertise shown to me was nothing less than fantastic. After they replaced the O-ring for me, they were sighting it in again and noted the problem with the moderator due to the fall and will get it fixed right up. I feel so fortunate to have AOA within a 50 minute drive... not really close by to me, but not too far away either. I suspect that if I lived even closer to them, I'd be visiting Robert, Kip, and the crew on a VERY regular basis. The shop and the personnel there are THAT good! It could get costly! But in a very good way.

Another great thing about the shop are the conversations with other air gun shooters there, who have a lot of knowledge and experience to share. It could easily be an air gun "shooters club" down there!

As for the Brocock Bantam Hi-Lite .25 caliber and Emerald 5.5-25 x 50 scope... it has had no problem thumping prairie dogs at 60 yards off my back patio - and hitting them with quite an audible "THWAP". Their recommendation for this air rifle and scope combination has served me quite well indeed.

The prairie dogs have been eating my prickly pear cacti and, no doubt, eating away at the roots of my desert trees. But in a few days, the Brocock Bantam .25 has reduced the prairie dog count by 14! My cacti and trees are feeling significant relief already.
 
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Hi DHart I to have many powder burners and new to air guns just got a FX Streamline in 22 love it so far my ? Is how do you like your Aztec scope how is the eye relieve and aw hell just give me a mini review please and thank you.
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I have an Aztec Emerald on my Wildcat, and frankly, it is not my favorite. I find the eye relief to be very critical, and somewhat difficult IMO to find a proper cheek weld. Overall, I prefer my Athlon and Sidewinder scopes. But everyone is different and others may have opposing views.
 
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