Cricket II review - chrony and shot strings

Thanks! @Ranchibi I do have some 23 grain NSAs which I will be testing. I have not tried any in this gun yet. Thanks for the heads-up regarding the 17.5 grainers.

And @mwils111, you know what's interesting? I think your 100% right about the tune, but to my ear (behind the gun), it actually does not sound bad. Usually you can hear wasted air, but this one does not give that signature. Maybe I will hear a difference when I balance it better, but for now the sound didn't give this way. I guess that's a credit to their shroud and baffle system!

Today's playtime with the Cricket II was spent testing a BUNCH of things including:

• How does temperature affect velocity?
• How many shots can I get from an (almost) 300 bar fill?
• Let's run a bunch of different pellets over the chrony and see how fast they fly and what energy they produce.
• Does the Cricket II have any issues loading any pellets (or the one slug I have)?
• Will the single shot tray I found on Thingverse work with the Cricket II?
• Let's see how the gun shoots a variety of pellets and one type of slug.

So with this many things floating in my head I know that there has to be some sort of baseline or constant. Right now this baseline is how the good-old JSB 18.1 grain pellets perform. Here's my baseline velocities for JSB 18s at different temperatures. (Again, I have NOT change any hammer spring or regulator settings. These are both exactly as I received them.) My Prochono Digital is positioned about 6-feet away from the gun.

59f = 951 fps
40f = 940 fps
26f = 860 fps

So for today's shooting and chrony work, I would say the gun is running 10 fps slower than "normal".



In my previous post I got 50 good velocity shots from a fill of about 265 bar. Today I topped off the gun to as close to 300 bar as I could. I did my fill inside and then brought the rifle outside for about one hour to stabilize in the 40 degree outside temperatures. After the hour outside, the pressure dropped about 20 bar and I topped it off one more time. I'd estimate the starting pressure was a legit 295 bar. As you will see below, these were with a bunch of different pellets ranging in weight from 15.9 to 25.4 grains.

From this fill I got 65 shots before the gun fell off the regulator. 



Here are the pellets I ran over the chrony today. I started with JSB 18.1s, did a string of them in the middle and then made sure to end with these same pellets to see if there was any notable changes from the beginning to end. In most cases I only shot short 5-shot strings. Here are the numbers in the order in which I shot them. Given I was only shooting short strings, I bounced back and forth between using a magazine and a single shot tray. I found it to be a pain to partially load a magazine and load it into the gun so it starts at the first pellet. The couple of mag fed strings are noted. The rest were shot from the tray.







Since my phone won't show the full width and data columns in the table above, here are the numbers:

Pellet Velocity Energy
JSB 18.1 945 fps 35.9 fpe
JSB 18.1 (magazine) 945 fps 35.9 fpe
NSA 23 .217 (magazine) 873 fps 38.9 fpe
JSB Monsters 820 fps 37.9 fpe
JSB Monsters 817 fps 37.7 fpe
JSB Monsters Redesigned 810 fps 37.0 fpe
JSB 18.1 938 fps 35.4 fpe
Polymags 978 fps 34.0 fpe
JSB 15.9 (5.53mm) 983 fps 34.1 fpe
H&N Baracuda Match (5.51) 884 fps 36.7 fpe
H&N Baracuda Match (5.52) 878 fps 36.2 fpe
H&N Baracuda Match (5.53) 887 fps 36.9 fpe
JSB 18.1 936 fps 35.2 fpe






The NSA slugs came out as the energy winners delivering just under 39 fpe.



Like I mentioned above, loading partial magazines was a pain and I was VERY happy the single shot tray worked. It felt a little stiff to swing out at first but it loosed up. The H&N Baracudas were the only ones that caught a little bit when loading. I did check the Polymags and they are just a little too long for the magazine. When you seat the skirt of the pellet flush with the rear of the magazine, the tips do stick out. In all fairness, I did not try to shoot any. I may go back again in the future and see if they will cycle. 







And with the nose down and flush, the skirts do sit back just a little bit:





Here's the single shot tray:





And with it tipped out for loading:





With a loaded pellet ready to be tipped back into position:





And in case you missed it, the small inner part of the hammer spring adjuster shows you when the gun is cocked. It will be flush when cocked and set back inside when not cocked:





Loading is fine. I have not had any problems chambering a pellets or NSA slug. It's worth noting that I still need to try to cycle the Polymags and see if the protruding tip causes any problem. And the NSA slugs WILL fall out of the magazine! The o-ring has nothing to grab onto with this shaped projectile.



I'm not ready to call this accuracy testing (yet). I guess it's kind of like the "pellet culling" that Steve on AEAC does. These are all of the groups from the chrony work I did today. Each group is 5-shots taken at 50 yards. Winds were variable - almost calm and then would pick up to 8-10 mph coming from behind and to my left. 



Target 1 - JSBs loaded single, JSBs loaded mag, NSA 23 .217

 



Target 2 - JSB Monsters
Yeah, these monsters got their own BIG target because they were NOT even on paper when I shot them at the bottom right target above!

Target 3 - JSB Monster Redesigned, JSB 18.1, Polymags 16 g, JSB 15.9 5.53mm
I made a small scope adjustment after the first group here. I went six clicks to the left and 4 clicks up before shooting the top-right group of JSB 18.1s.





Target 4 - H&N Baracuda Match 5.51, 5.52, 5.31, and JSB 18.1





Well, that was some fun!

• Worth noting = JSB 15.9 were 5.53mm and NOT the normal 5.52mm heads. I will be retesting normal ones in the future.
• Biggest loser = JSB Monsters (do these pellets shoot well in ANY GUN?)
• Biggest surprise = H&N Baracuda Match 5.51 (wow, I'm gonna frame that target!)

Here's a closeup of the best group of the day... again, these are 5 shots at 50 yards with the 5.51mm H&N baracudas!







Yeah, I feel kind of guilty not using my "normal" JSB 15.9 pellets, but I'll be doing more testing I figured now is the time to "cull" these 5.53 JSB out. And obviously anything lighter than the 18.1 JSBs are probably flying way too fast for good accuracy. At some point in the future I will start tuning down the velocity and we'll see how some of the lighter pellets do... I'll test the JSB 15.9 5.52mm, Crosmans and I might have some H&N FTT and Superdomes somewhere.


Oh, In case you can't tell... YES, I'm really digging this platform!

Where in the USA can they be bought?

Click to expand...

Hi Addison, Are you asking about the NSA slugs? If so, right here:

https://nielsenspecialtyammo.com/collections/22-caliber

Nope the gun sir

Click to expand...

Gotcha!

https://georgiaairguns.net/contact-us

Thanks for the kind words folks!

Oh, I forgot to post the pic of the pressure gauge right as it was hitting the regulator's set point. According to Kalibrgun the standard setting is 125 BAR and the maximum would be 140 BAR and the plenum is 40cc. 

I wanted to shoot a full string of heavier pellets to see how they would perform with the original tune (no changes to the hammer spring or regulator). Today I shot 4 magazines (56 shots) of H&N Baracuda Match 5.52mm pellets. Winds are still not great. They were coming from my right (south) and gusting to about 15 mph. Yup, I'm saving the 5.51mm Baracudas for a day with lighter winds!

Temperature = 43f

Beginning / Ending pressure:
275 bar / 110 bar (3988 psi / 1813 psi)

Velocities:
High = 914 fps
Low = 884 fps
Avg = 904 fps
ES = 30 fps (3.3%)
SD = 5.6

Now if I take out the 4 shots at the end where it fell off the regulator (125 bar) I get this across 52 shots:

Beginning / Ending pressure:
275 bar / 125 bar (3988 psi / 1595 psi)

Velocities:
High = 914 fps
Low = 897 fps
Avg = 905 fps
ES = 17 fps (1.9%)
SD = 4.1

With the Baracuda 21.14 grain pellets I'm getting about 38.5 fpe (2 fpe more than the JSB 18s).



Full 56-shot string:





52-shot on-regulator string:

Here's today's target from this chony work. I shot them from top-left to bottom-right. The two final targets were full-mag (14-shot) groups while the others were 7-shot groups. I did some click adjustments going to the 2nd target. I compensated for the wind on the bottom center group (and only that group). The gun fell off the reg for the last 4 shots of the bottom right group.

Thoughts so far...

• The heavier Baracuda's help a tiny bit in regards to efficiency. I'm still waiting for a good, calm day to do more testing with heavier pellets (5.51 Baracudas, JSB Monster Redesigned, and NSA 23 .217 slugs). After that I'll start lightening up the hammer spring.
  
• I probably have about 350 pellets through it and I don't get any sense that the barrel needs or wants a cleaning. (YAY!)
  
• I'm officially used to the forward cocking now. Pellet cycling and magazine indexing has been flawless. I still need to do a video showing me going through a few actual cocking cycles when shooting.
  
• For being as compact of a gun as this is (it's just under 27 inches long), it's not bad shooting off the bench. I have been using my bag and not bipod and have been pleased so far. At some point I will be adding a swivel stud and bipod. I just don't feel the need to make this change yet.
  
• The gun feels VERY solid. But it carries well. Check out the front of the stock. It may look like it has a few odd angles to it, but they actually feel really good as you walk with the gun. One hand on the grip and the other hand cradling the front of the stock. It's VERY natural feeling and comfortable. I have never had a sling on any of my air guns. But I'm wondering what it would be like to use a single point sling on this platform...

Congrats @addison! Please keep us posted!

@octavious, I love the look of that model stock. It's the WST, right? How are you mounting the bipod? Do you have a rail or stud there?

And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!