Last week I received a delivery of several new products to field test here over the next month, they all amazingly arrived at the same time. One of these products was the New Kalibrgun Cricket ii Tactical model in .30 caliber.
Currently I have a ton of things happening at home but would thankfully be able to slip out for a few days into the mountains. This was a gun that I have had my eye on and felt it might be a good candidate for some long range hunting. I really wanted to get the gun out in the field to learn a bit more about it and to familiarize myself with the overall function before giving my final review. Here are the stats to this rifle:
This gun has a good amount of new features and I will show as many of them as possible when I complete my full review in the next several weeks. The quality of the Cricket Tactical is impressive, very well machined components and the wood had a beautiful stout looking finish. I was quick to mount my Hawke Sidewinder 4-16x50 FFP scope paired with a Tactacam 5.0 with FTS mount. The lower rail had plenty of room to mount my Accu-Tac bipod with the extended legs, a great setup for most all of the long range pest control and hunting I do. I mounted a 0dB moderator that fit the gun well as quieted the bark to a more discrete level. Out of the box the gun shoots the 50.15gr JSB's at on average 875 with just about 60 shots, enough for an all day adventure. More testing will be done with some tuning here but it does shoot extremely well as is I received it. The one thing I did like right off the start was the oversized pressure gauge, very easy to read and well configured. One thing that has always bothered me since I lost one is fill probes, I shoot so many guns that it's sometimes hard to keep track of these.
The following morning Marley and I loaded the Jeep and headed several hours North of us into some very remote BLM land. This area sits at just about 5,800 ft and has miles of very large Ponderosa pines. This area completely burned about 15 years ago but has been recovering quite well with a ton of wildlife moving back in thankfully.
I had just got my Jeep back from a complete overhaul and was very pleased with how well it had been performing on some of these extremely rugged trails. The temperature was a bit cooler in the mountains but still above 90 degrees at the peak of the day.
After arriving to our camping spot I quickly sighted the gun in, took a break for a little bit before heading out in search of some Ground Squirrels. I really enjoy hunting these natural areas as they provide much more of a challenge than a typical pesting situation. Man of the large private permissions we visit have a large population and require little footwork to rack up the kills. I packed my large gear pack with plenty of water for Marley and I to spend a few hours out roaming this beautiful wilderness.
The plan was to follow a dry riverbed that ultimately does lead to some small amounts of water further down where it's a bit greener with vegetation. Because of the fire and a problem with bark beetles this area has a ton of fell trees and piles of debris, perfect habitat for these squirrels.
Marley and I hiked about a mile from camp where we came to a nice shady area that overlooked the riverbed and gave some good views to our surroundings.
Within a few minutes I spotted a good size adult Ground Squirrel sunning himself on an old fell tree stump at just 64 yards
I took four of these squirrels throughout this area but unfortunately forgot to format my SD card to capture the action, you would think after doing this for so long I wouldn't have been so careless. This time of year I don't let Marley recover as it's Rattlesnake season, reaching in those holes or around the rocks is never a good idea. Usually when it's extremely hot the Ground Squirrel's tend to not be as active during the middle part of the day so I wasn't surprised to see few.
We sat in this spot for over an hour watching the many birds with even a few Deer making way down the embankment to find water.
By this time it was getting later in the afternoon so we followed the dry riverbed for a bit more that would take us on a big six mile loop back to camp.
This area has a large abundance of different terrain to hike and explore, to me this is one of the reasons I enjoy this type of work as it gives me the opportunity to really test the gear out. Many things work well from the bench but believe me things can be discovered here that are critical for the development of new and improved products. The Cricket Tactical performs exceptionally well for stationary type hunting but the overall weight can be excessive over miles of hiking. I did bring several other products to work with so spent some time filming and photographing before ultimately taking another water break. Marley and I came across a beautifully preserved Skull that no doubt would be making it's way home with us.
By this time it was evening and I had not encountered any animal activity in hours besides one Jackrabbit that sprinted out in front of us and out of sight. We started making our way back to camp around 7:00pm where I still had lots of setup to do before nightfall.
One of the new additions to the Jeep is an IceCo refrigerator that runs off a large onboard power bank, this is something I have needed for awhile that thus far has been working well. The heat just sucks the life out of you so having something to keep things cold without the need for ice has definitely been helpful on these trips.
I had planned to set things up sooner but was so exhausted I ended up just sitting on my ass for about 20 minutes enjoying the cooler temps.
This area was nice and flat but did have some sharp rocks and pine cones that needed to be raked away, I always forget to bring one but this time I remembered.
As warm as it was you really don't need a tent, I really only set one up to keep the bugs off while sleeping. I set the tent up away from the trees because a few of the branches looked like widowmakers as well as the cones that are about the size of a pineapple.
As it was now later in the evening it was time to pull out the stove a cook something super unhealthy after a long day of hiking through the woods.
Figured a few grilled cheese hotdog sandwiches would hit the spot, haha
After enjoying my dinner and hanging out with Marley the weather had finally cooled down considerably, beautiful quiet night. After dinner I set out a trail camera next to camp where I hoped I could capture some video of the local wildlife that might be passing through our camp.
I made myself a nice cup of coffee, sat and just enjoyed a few hours of starring at the big open night sky. We got to sleep that night and I slept well after a long day of hunting and exploring.
The following morning I got up early to photograph and film with a few products before heading out on the trail again to find a few more Ground Squirrels.
We hiked a ways from camp and discovered a nice hillside that gave a nice panoramic view of a large open field where I spotted a few barking Ground Squirrels.
The Ground Squirrels were all over with ranges from 120 out to 150, good ranges to hunt with the Cricket. The first Squirrel I spotted was sitting on a branch that I ranged to 134 yards.
I was just about to take the shot and I guess he saw red as he quickly moved down off the branch and ran to the right leaving me with a clear 128 yard shot.
THWACK!!!! with a poof, no doubt the 85 fpe gets out to these ranges with ease and even under some moderate wind I found the 50gr JSB's to be fairly predictable with little adjustment.
We continued to patiently wait and watch the grass for movement with another few showing themselves after a few minutes.
142 yard kill
It was now around 10:30 am and starting to get really warm with the activity quickly dwindling to nothing. Marley and I hiked to a few spots on the way back to camp with a few more closer range kills with our total over the two days at just 9 haha Not much to show for all our hiking but still gave me a great idea of the guns function and performance under extreme field conditions. I still have a ton more work to do as part of my full review but do feel confident this is a really neat gun for certain hunting conditions. I think the Cricket Tactical is a great tool for long range stationary pest control, hunting or benchrest shooting. For long hikes like we used it for I think the weight is simply to much, parking it in one spot or for moderate hiking is the way to go with this rifle. Enclosed are a few things that I really like so far along with the video that documents this adventure. I really want to thank Airguns Of Arizona for providing me this gun and to help Marley and I to get out in the field and make all this possible. Our channel is coming near 10k and I'm so excited, we have worked so hard and very much appreciate all the support from the community. Thank You
PROS
CONS
These are just a few things I have noticed but might change in my final review, I like to use guns for awhile before making final decisions and passing info. I plan to do some more testing and part of that will be done using slugs as I'm sure some will ask.
Cheers,
Dana
https://youtu.be/WhKn3-aWy8E
Currently I have a ton of things happening at home but would thankfully be able to slip out for a few days into the mountains. This was a gun that I have had my eye on and felt it might be a good candidate for some long range hunting. I really wanted to get the gun out in the field to learn a bit more about it and to familiarize myself with the overall function before giving my final review. Here are the stats to this rifle:
- Length 33.1"
- Air capacity 613cc with 300 bar fill
- Up to 90 fpe with external hammer adjustment
- Mid-Cocking Sidelever (can be configured to left side)
- Shrouded 23.6" barrel w 1/2" UNF thread for moderator
- Weight 8.3 lbs
- Two 10 shot .30 magazines
- Probe style fill
- Upper and lower picatinny rail
- Oversized fill gauge
- Large Plenum (have not measured yet)
This gun has a good amount of new features and I will show as many of them as possible when I complete my full review in the next several weeks. The quality of the Cricket Tactical is impressive, very well machined components and the wood had a beautiful stout looking finish. I was quick to mount my Hawke Sidewinder 4-16x50 FFP scope paired with a Tactacam 5.0 with FTS mount. The lower rail had plenty of room to mount my Accu-Tac bipod with the extended legs, a great setup for most all of the long range pest control and hunting I do. I mounted a 0dB moderator that fit the gun well as quieted the bark to a more discrete level. Out of the box the gun shoots the 50.15gr JSB's at on average 875 with just about 60 shots, enough for an all day adventure. More testing will be done with some tuning here but it does shoot extremely well as is I received it. The one thing I did like right off the start was the oversized pressure gauge, very easy to read and well configured. One thing that has always bothered me since I lost one is fill probes, I shoot so many guns that it's sometimes hard to keep track of these.
The following morning Marley and I loaded the Jeep and headed several hours North of us into some very remote BLM land. This area sits at just about 5,800 ft and has miles of very large Ponderosa pines. This area completely burned about 15 years ago but has been recovering quite well with a ton of wildlife moving back in thankfully.
I had just got my Jeep back from a complete overhaul and was very pleased with how well it had been performing on some of these extremely rugged trails. The temperature was a bit cooler in the mountains but still above 90 degrees at the peak of the day.
After arriving to our camping spot I quickly sighted the gun in, took a break for a little bit before heading out in search of some Ground Squirrels. I really enjoy hunting these natural areas as they provide much more of a challenge than a typical pesting situation. Man of the large private permissions we visit have a large population and require little footwork to rack up the kills. I packed my large gear pack with plenty of water for Marley and I to spend a few hours out roaming this beautiful wilderness.
The plan was to follow a dry riverbed that ultimately does lead to some small amounts of water further down where it's a bit greener with vegetation. Because of the fire and a problem with bark beetles this area has a ton of fell trees and piles of debris, perfect habitat for these squirrels.
Marley and I hiked about a mile from camp where we came to a nice shady area that overlooked the riverbed and gave some good views to our surroundings.
Within a few minutes I spotted a good size adult Ground Squirrel sunning himself on an old fell tree stump at just 64 yards
I took four of these squirrels throughout this area but unfortunately forgot to format my SD card to capture the action, you would think after doing this for so long I wouldn't have been so careless. This time of year I don't let Marley recover as it's Rattlesnake season, reaching in those holes or around the rocks is never a good idea. Usually when it's extremely hot the Ground Squirrel's tend to not be as active during the middle part of the day so I wasn't surprised to see few.
We sat in this spot for over an hour watching the many birds with even a few Deer making way down the embankment to find water.
By this time it was getting later in the afternoon so we followed the dry riverbed for a bit more that would take us on a big six mile loop back to camp.
This area has a large abundance of different terrain to hike and explore, to me this is one of the reasons I enjoy this type of work as it gives me the opportunity to really test the gear out. Many things work well from the bench but believe me things can be discovered here that are critical for the development of new and improved products. The Cricket Tactical performs exceptionally well for stationary type hunting but the overall weight can be excessive over miles of hiking. I did bring several other products to work with so spent some time filming and photographing before ultimately taking another water break. Marley and I came across a beautifully preserved Skull that no doubt would be making it's way home with us.
By this time it was evening and I had not encountered any animal activity in hours besides one Jackrabbit that sprinted out in front of us and out of sight. We started making our way back to camp around 7:00pm where I still had lots of setup to do before nightfall.
One of the new additions to the Jeep is an IceCo refrigerator that runs off a large onboard power bank, this is something I have needed for awhile that thus far has been working well. The heat just sucks the life out of you so having something to keep things cold without the need for ice has definitely been helpful on these trips.
I had planned to set things up sooner but was so exhausted I ended up just sitting on my ass for about 20 minutes enjoying the cooler temps.
This area was nice and flat but did have some sharp rocks and pine cones that needed to be raked away, I always forget to bring one but this time I remembered.
As warm as it was you really don't need a tent, I really only set one up to keep the bugs off while sleeping. I set the tent up away from the trees because a few of the branches looked like widowmakers as well as the cones that are about the size of a pineapple.
As it was now later in the evening it was time to pull out the stove a cook something super unhealthy after a long day of hiking through the woods.
Figured a few grilled cheese hotdog sandwiches would hit the spot, haha
After enjoying my dinner and hanging out with Marley the weather had finally cooled down considerably, beautiful quiet night. After dinner I set out a trail camera next to camp where I hoped I could capture some video of the local wildlife that might be passing through our camp.
I made myself a nice cup of coffee, sat and just enjoyed a few hours of starring at the big open night sky. We got to sleep that night and I slept well after a long day of hunting and exploring.
The following morning I got up early to photograph and film with a few products before heading out on the trail again to find a few more Ground Squirrels.
We hiked a ways from camp and discovered a nice hillside that gave a nice panoramic view of a large open field where I spotted a few barking Ground Squirrels.
The Ground Squirrels were all over with ranges from 120 out to 150, good ranges to hunt with the Cricket. The first Squirrel I spotted was sitting on a branch that I ranged to 134 yards.
I was just about to take the shot and I guess he saw red as he quickly moved down off the branch and ran to the right leaving me with a clear 128 yard shot.
THWACK!!!! with a poof, no doubt the 85 fpe gets out to these ranges with ease and even under some moderate wind I found the 50gr JSB's to be fairly predictable with little adjustment.
We continued to patiently wait and watch the grass for movement with another few showing themselves after a few minutes.
142 yard kill
It was now around 10:30 am and starting to get really warm with the activity quickly dwindling to nothing. Marley and I hiked to a few spots on the way back to camp with a few more closer range kills with our total over the two days at just 9 haha Not much to show for all our hiking but still gave me a great idea of the guns function and performance under extreme field conditions. I still have a ton more work to do as part of my full review but do feel confident this is a really neat gun for certain hunting conditions. I think the Cricket Tactical is a great tool for long range stationary pest control, hunting or benchrest shooting. For long hikes like we used it for I think the weight is simply to much, parking it in one spot or for moderate hiking is the way to go with this rifle. Enclosed are a few things that I really like so far along with the video that documents this adventure. I really want to thank Airguns Of Arizona for providing me this gun and to help Marley and I to get out in the field and make all this possible. Our channel is coming near 10k and I'm so excited, we have worked so hard and very much appreciate all the support from the community. Thank You
PROS
- Build Quality Excellent
- Externally Adjustable Power
- Excellent Trigger
- Shot Count
- Shroud removes easy for barrel cleaning
- Magazine Storage
- Mid Sidelever makes for quick follow up shots
- Easy to use Safety
- Picatinny Rails
- Large easy to read gauge
- Moderator ready 1/2" UNF
- Accuracy Excellent
CONS
- Weight
- Fill Probe
- Loading Magazine into breech (needs practice to go quickly)
These are just a few things I have noticed but might change in my final review, I like to use guns for awhile before making final decisions and passing info. I plan to do some more testing and part of that will be done using slugs as I'm sure some will ask.
Cheers,
Dana
https://youtu.be/WhKn3-aWy8E
