So I did a post a few weeks back on my leaking gauge on my Cricket. I bought the gun 8 years ago as a retirement gift to myself when I retired from the Marine Corps...my first (hi-end) airgun. Until then I had my first airgun, a BSA Hornet (which I still have, which still shoots like a laser), and I'd customized several Marauders which were new on the market back in 2009/10. The only thing I did with the Cricket out of the box was clean the bore, and put it across a chrony...had to pull almost 2 turns out of the hammer spring as it was launching JSB Kings Supersonic! I turned it down to an average of 953fps for over 90 shots per fill.
Fast forward across nearly 8 years, carried in over 20 states and thousands of game animals taken with it, and a whole stack of predators, it developed a leak under the gauge. After some consulting here and other forums, I decided it was time for a reseal. I was going to send it to someone due to time constraints with work travel, but everyone was pretty well booked for weeks, and I've got my annual trip home to Missouri the first week in August. I took a day off work to fire up my lathe and turn the tool to remove the gauge down from a 27mm socket, and ordered a reseal kit.
After watching all of Ernest's videos from back in the day when the Cricket was "the" gun to have, I found it surprisingly easy to work on...and the first regulator I'd personally worked on. In my research I discovered an aftermarket HSA, as well as a power plenum. Finding them now was another matter, but PCPTunes (from India I think?) had them, so I ordered them and installed them. After a complete disassembly, deburring, lube and reassembly, I had a leak at the front leak detection hole....disassembled the end, checked everything, replaced O-Ring and reinstalled....I wound up having to machine one of the flats on the fill probe down to get the probe in all the way, as it would leak unless I did....the end cap wasn't screwing down far enough I guess (two O-rings later) to get far enough past the O-ring.
Finally yesterday I had an afternoon without rain, and sacrificed the time to tune the gun....now for some anomalies.....I primarily hunt with the gun....I shoot predator pellets...won't own a gun that won't shoot them well. First, the power plenum increased efficiency quite a bit...I dug my old tune sheet out of my records....originally I tuned to an average of 953fps with a maximum spread of 22fps and SD of 11...with the plenum, I tuned to an average of 952 with a spread of 9 and an SD of 3 for at least 90 shots before it drops off the reg....I say at least, because that's where I quit counting....all I was doing was consuming air and lead....that's MORE than enough for my purposes!
The gun has always shot extremely well...I won two local 50 yard bench rest matches against $5K Anschutz's and Remington 40x's as well as new Savage Targets....amid a LOT of protesting from said gun's owners! I've settled for the fact that I can only shoot for score. The gun still shoots amazingly well.....Predators and JSB Kings into 1/2 inch groups all the way to 50 yards.....then I tried some Nielsen hollow points....I bought some in 26.8 grains and some in 29.5 grains...it shot both extraordinarily well! But....it shot the lighter slugs 4 clicks low at 35 yards....it shot the heavier slugs at POI with the Predators and Kings. I thought maybe they'd gotten the boxes mixed....so I went and weighed 5 each....nope, they were boxed right....the slugs look identical to me.....but the heavier slugs were averaging 960fps....the lighter 970fps...but shooting lower?
I wish the Cricket mags had better retention, or the Nielsen's had a line around the waist of the slug for retention with an O-ring...either way, I'm going to shoot some squirrels with them and see how they perform.....I'm definitely impressed with their accuracy....one-hole groups at 50 yards with both slugs....I didn't think it could get better than the Kings....but WOW! If they'll perform as well as the Predators....game is in trouble!
v/r
Jamie
Fast forward across nearly 8 years, carried in over 20 states and thousands of game animals taken with it, and a whole stack of predators, it developed a leak under the gauge. After some consulting here and other forums, I decided it was time for a reseal. I was going to send it to someone due to time constraints with work travel, but everyone was pretty well booked for weeks, and I've got my annual trip home to Missouri the first week in August. I took a day off work to fire up my lathe and turn the tool to remove the gauge down from a 27mm socket, and ordered a reseal kit.
After watching all of Ernest's videos from back in the day when the Cricket was "the" gun to have, I found it surprisingly easy to work on...and the first regulator I'd personally worked on. In my research I discovered an aftermarket HSA, as well as a power plenum. Finding them now was another matter, but PCPTunes (from India I think?) had them, so I ordered them and installed them. After a complete disassembly, deburring, lube and reassembly, I had a leak at the front leak detection hole....disassembled the end, checked everything, replaced O-Ring and reinstalled....I wound up having to machine one of the flats on the fill probe down to get the probe in all the way, as it would leak unless I did....the end cap wasn't screwing down far enough I guess (two O-rings later) to get far enough past the O-ring.
Finally yesterday I had an afternoon without rain, and sacrificed the time to tune the gun....now for some anomalies.....I primarily hunt with the gun....I shoot predator pellets...won't own a gun that won't shoot them well. First, the power plenum increased efficiency quite a bit...I dug my old tune sheet out of my records....originally I tuned to an average of 953fps with a maximum spread of 22fps and SD of 11...with the plenum, I tuned to an average of 952 with a spread of 9 and an SD of 3 for at least 90 shots before it drops off the reg....I say at least, because that's where I quit counting....all I was doing was consuming air and lead....that's MORE than enough for my purposes!
The gun has always shot extremely well...I won two local 50 yard bench rest matches against $5K Anschutz's and Remington 40x's as well as new Savage Targets....amid a LOT of protesting from said gun's owners! I've settled for the fact that I can only shoot for score. The gun still shoots amazingly well.....Predators and JSB Kings into 1/2 inch groups all the way to 50 yards.....then I tried some Nielsen hollow points....I bought some in 26.8 grains and some in 29.5 grains...it shot both extraordinarily well! But....it shot the lighter slugs 4 clicks low at 35 yards....it shot the heavier slugs at POI with the Predators and Kings. I thought maybe they'd gotten the boxes mixed....so I went and weighed 5 each....nope, they were boxed right....the slugs look identical to me.....but the heavier slugs were averaging 960fps....the lighter 970fps...but shooting lower?
I wish the Cricket mags had better retention, or the Nielsen's had a line around the waist of the slug for retention with an O-ring...either way, I'm going to shoot some squirrels with them and see how they perform.....I'm definitely impressed with their accuracy....one-hole groups at 50 yards with both slugs....I didn't think it could get better than the Kings....but WOW! If they'll perform as well as the Predators....game is in trouble!
v/r
Jamie
