There's A Killer Cricket On The Loose In My Shooting Range

Mike, 

Big Thanks for the info and suggestions as always! 
This was perfect to read, since I plan on tuning for the JSB 18s next, and possibly even some H&N 21s..
I was one of the 1st to snag the new Hades pellets, but, have been holding out to shoot them.. 
I think this gun would be the perfect one to test them out in. We'll see..

Hey, thanks for the heads up regarding fills.
Yeah, I usually don't fill to max pressures, but was curious what the difference would be, so gave it a whirl.. 
250 bar is most definitely high enough - especially for what I'm doing right now.
Also, I'm with you on over-stressing the components and o-rings. Great points.

Thanks again man!

 

Sam -

PS: I ordered the scope mount you recommended, so should be seeing it in the next few days!
*Stoked*

Long_Shot,

Hahahaha That's Great! 
All I could see was a giant yellow blur.. I had to drive a few miles away and look again 
to make out that it was a smiley face! Well Played! And yessir, that's exactly what my expression has looked like since I got this gun! 

Hey, thanks for the heads up about pressures! Yup, I usually fill my other high psi cylinders to 50 bar or so less than 'max', 
so 250 with this one should be perfect. Good deal..
I suppose that'll also give my Yong Heng compressor a bit of a break too, since I was using it to fill my cf tank to like 4,700psi 
Poor lil' guy. haha

It's nice to be the newest member of the 'Cricket Crew'. You guys really are great!

Thanks again!

 

Sam -

Nano-Update:

I was chatting with a customer/friend today about airguns, and showed him the arsenal.. 
He was really impressed that I was so big into it that he did something that he's never done before.. 
Invited me to shoot on his property - Which apparently has a bunch of acreage.. Awesome! 
My very first permission in the new town where I live. And he's a really good dude too, 
so Hopefully, not only will I be shooting long-distance again [there], I'll get him into shooting also!

 

Sam -

Mike, 
Yeah man, I can see how nicely that mount works on pic rails. There's all sorts of extra length / positioning adjustment.. Nice! 
No worries about the Med height working with the HHA setup - Last night, I confirmed that even my FX No Limit [Med-High] mounts will work with it!
As a matter of fact, I 'almost' ran into an issue.. With those mounts on the HHA - AND having the Side-Shot on board.. 
The side-shot [being mounted w/ the phone facing UP] the slider-bracket and rails are like 2mm away from the HHA wheel.. Ohhh-Sooo-Close! 
With the Low mounts, it would definitely hit. Hopefully the Med-Mount/Rail will also let things clear. If not, I'll just spin the side-shot bracket 
and have the phone facing the side where it's supposed to. Not a biggie I suppose.. 

OMG dude, you weren't kidding about being like the Borg.. I can feel myself already starting to assimilate! Ahhhhhhh!!

 

 

Sam -

Erlis,

Thanks bro! I am so anxious and excited to be able to get back out and shoot long range.. 
I'm sure I'll be all sorts of rusty, but, it'll come back.. It always does.
My bro in law and buddy have been taking my little sister up to our sportsman's club / range lately, 
and she's been getting subjected to AR15s and Glocks a lot lately.. 
She was always so anti-gun, and we butted heads a lot about it all.. Well, not anymore.. 
She shot me a text about how much she was loving shooting, sent me a pic of her target and groups, 
and is so stoked, she's thinking about applying for her pistol permit and concealed carry.. 
Who would'a thunk it?! haha
Now, I just have to get all of Them into airgunning! Wishful thinking on my part..  

The wooden stock! haha Oh man, as nice as it is and they are - you know me all too well.. 
Yeah bro, I love synthetics, but, what I love the most is just the simplicity of 'all flat/satin black'. 
My P15 and the Cricket are the black-sheeps.. Oh wait.. I can't even use the BLACK-sheep example.. lol 
Doing your shellac finish would probably look pretty awesome on them - I can't lie..
But since I can't lie, I have to fess up.. I've been highly contemplating refinishing them both in black..

As a professional painter also, it'd be cake for me to do an auto-grade finish on them, BUT.. 
I don't think that would be the right thing to do.. Especially to the Cricket..
That said, and to still be able to black them out, I'm thinking about top-coating them with PlastiDip [spray]
That would give them a really nice black finish, a 'soft-feel' texture, better grip, and also added protection. 
Best of all, PlastiDip will peel right off if/when needed, and it doesn't do any damage to the underlying surfaces.. 

I have a good friend who retired from law enforcement, and to keep what's left of his sanity, he started a hydro-graphics dipping business.. 
I even thought about PlastiDip coat as a base, and then maybe letting him hydro-dip over that, but, who knows.. [P15 only]
Still dreaming..

 

Sam -

Well pisser.. 
I filmed a nice little target session for you guys, threw a few cool pics and the vid into Sony Vegas... 
Just to find out that the damn phone must have shifted in the Side-Shot, and blurred out 3/4 of the image.. *face palm* 

Well, I guess we'll just have to do with a few photos now:

This was the setup [current] setup used:
 

And using JSB Exact Jumbo Diabolo 15.89's, I managed to pop every single target w/ 2 full mags, and No Flyers!
Niiice! Sorry it to say it Crosman Premiers, but.. [in my best Donald Trump voice] "Youuure Firrred!"  
 

Last year, I was having terrible luck with just about every tins of JSBs that I went through.. 
I ended up switching over to H&Ns for the longest time, but.. Maybe my luck has changed.. 
If this is how they're going to shoot, and so far, all of the pellets look pretty good / uniform, 
I might just have to switch back.. So far - So good.

 

Sam -

**My BAD-Luck Strikes Again**

I ordered a set of ultra-low rings for the Optimizer setup, as that's what was recommended by a few other's who use it.. 
Amazon PRIME 2-day shipping.. Annnd.. FOUR Days Later, I finally receive an e-mail that they'd be shipped.. *sigh* 

I also ordered, and just received the UTG mount that Mike [And now Erlis] recommend.. It's pretty killer lookin', but.. 
Unfortunately, the one that I ended up with doesn't fit the pic rail on the Optimizer.. At all.. 
The male/female splines/notches just won't line up, so, it is unmountable. <--- That's a word? Right?!  

BIG Photos - Just in case anyone else needs to see how the combo fits - Or more to the point - Doesn't fit. *Buzz-Kill* 
I even broke out the F.H. Maybe a B.F.H. is needed?!

Here are a few close-ups showing fitment, and, how the m/f splines/grooves won't mate up:

 
 

The MacGyver side of me wanted to break out the Epoxy & Duct Tape, 
but the rational side took over, and had a return initiated..

There goes another week and more tied up funds.. *sigh* 

 

Sam -

PS: I'm not sure if I mentioned it on this thread yet, but, this stuff just adds insult to injury.. 
Over the years, I'd been using Nikon optics on all of my rifles.. 
I was constantly searching for an optic that I liked better, and ran across Discovery.. 
The VT-T series worked so much better for me that I gold off almost all of my Nikons, 
and grabbed 2 Disco scopes to start with.. Constantly having to swap them from rifle to rifle, 
I decided to grab another 1 or 2, annnd... Nope... Amazon is now out of them, 
and so are all of the other dealers that were selling them at the low/normal price.
I even e-mailed Discovery - Not that it helped much, as they never bothered to respond.. 
Sooo, now I'm also forced to try to find yet another Brand / Model of scope that'll work, 
Relatively cheap [because I'm poor] first focal plane, High power mag [because my eyes suck] 
and most importantly, a line that will actually be and stay in stock if/when I need ore of them..

It's a good thing no holidays are coming up this Monday - My only day off to do any running around.. 
Oh wait.. *Face Palm* lol

Nano-Update..

The ultra-low rings showed up, so, I broke for lunch for a few minutes, and with fingers crossed, I gave em' a whirl.. 
Wow! Talk about an ultra tight fit, and next to no clearance.. But, I was able to get them on, rifle scoped, etc. 
The scope sits sooo low that the mag adjustment ring towards the eyepiece 'almost' hits.. 
The Side-Shot mount-ring had to be slipped so I'd have access to the knobs, and nothing would hit the Optimizer where it pivots.. 
There was something else, but, lack of sleep and excess brain static cause me to forget..

I 'think' that thing might just be back in biz.. Nothing is torqued down yet, just snugged in place for a final inspection / mount later on. 
I'll know more when I'm back home and can tinker on it all again. I'll be sure to update with info, pics, and progress.


 

Sam -

Double Thanks Mr. Mike! 

Yeah, my only guess was that the Optimizer must have had the distance or tolerance off with their rail/mounts.. 
I can put any 2-piece pic or weaver ring setup on there, but, apparently not a 1-piece.. 
Actually, I did have a 1-piece mount on it [on the el' cheapo CVLife optic that was initially installed] but, 
with that base, there are only 2 very closely spaced cross shafts / bolts vs. them being spaced out farther.. 
Very strange.. And Very annoying.

The UTG mount was Awesome too! I really wish that I could have made that setup work. 
Grinding/sanding the Optimizer mount probably would have worked, but, since I'm limited to only hand-tools here, 
I wouldn't want to take the chance of ending up with anything not being 100% true/square..

A.O.P. for Disco scopes: Yessir, I checked there, and while they're listed as in stock, 
the price per scope is $40.00 more than what I've been paying for them, and shipping was listed as like a week or two vs. 2 days.
I mentioned in another thread - If I only needed One scope, the higher price wouldn't be a big deal at all.. My issue though..
I need to grab a handful of them to outfit my other rifles, so, we're talking 5 or 6 more scopes total, 
and 6 x $40.00 = $240.00 The extra cash spent there would be the equivalent of getting a whole new scope at my usual place/price. 

It's a cross-roads that I really wish I wasn't facing..

I might have to look for a different optic now anyways, as I've been really used to shooting inside at 10 meters in a controlled environment 
so visibility has been just fine.. Yesterday, I was wandering around with the gun, and aiming at different distances Outside, 
and the x-hairs are sooo crisp / fine that I was actually having a hard time seeing them.. My peepers are broken. haha 
Colorblind and farsighted w/ an astigmatism . . . yay.

Well, yesterday I did a bit more tinkering with my phone and side-shot, trying to figure out what was going wrong.. 
I'd set everything up, had a few film clips recorded, but, when I imported them into my editor, they were all absolutely useless.. 
The majority of the subject was either dark, blurred out, or looked as if there was a haze or reflections over the image.. 
I sort of lost it - hence me not being on much if at all last night.. 
Later in the evening, I also found out why my phone wasn't focusing on the scope's x-hairs anymore.. 
I use a Galaxy Note 8 to film with.. A few weeks ago, they pushed an update to the phone.. 
Well, instead of just the usual security patch, they actually flashed a completely new operating system onto it, 
and in their infinite wisdom, they decided to Remove the Manual-Focus feature in Pro-Mode for Video! 
Scamsung has done some moronic things in the past, but damn.. This was just uncalled for.. 
Slow mow, ultra slow mo, and hyper-lapse don't work at all now either.. All that cash for a paperweight now.. *sigh* 

Needless to say, Now I know why the image quality of my through-scope-vids is complete garbage now..
I've spent way more time than I care to admit on and off of chats with Samsung techs, etc. and others are doing the same.. 
It's that Bad-Luck again.. Like a personal thundercloud that like to constantly follow and hover over me.

Anyways, I was able to get at least one crappy video clip thrown together and uploaded onto SpewTube.. 
It only took about 20 attempts at editing, and 2-3 hours.. Yup.. My Sony Vegas Pro 13 is constantly crashing now too..

*Face Palm* 

Crappy Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tJOP_PF8mc 

In the vid, my annoying voice says that I think I got the scope cam setup figured out, but nope.. 
You'll still see a dark blurry section in the lower portion of the circular image..

On a good note, the Cricket is till firing amazingly, and I haven't slept much if at all, so can't remember if I already said this.. 
If yes - sorry.. If no - here it goes..

Ultra-low rings are on, the scope is ridiculously low to the Optimizer now, with just enough space to spare. 
Everything is adjustable and functions! Cam mount had to be moved from the top to the left side..

I had to move the side-shot's optic flush up against the scope eyepiece - usually I have it scooched back a bit.. 
This is causing me to 'lose my x-hairs' - My far-sighted eyes can't focus on them / see them, so that's a bit of a pain now.. 
Other than that.. I'm still pretty stoked..

Then Today before work, I figured I'd give it all another go.. Messed with the side-shot some more, 
and with some tweaks here and there, was Finally able to get a really good vid clip through the scope. *Knocks On Wood* 

Of course, I can't edit anything on my computer now, so, I'm trying out a mobile version of PowerDirector in between customers.. 
Yeeaah.. I'm not so impressed, and miss Vegas like crazy already. Even though I suck at editing videos.. 

I just found my copy of Sony Vegas Pro 14, so hopefully a clean install of that will fix the bugs that Vegas Pro 13 is having.. 
*Fingers Crossed* 

Never a dull / stressful moment, I swear..

 

Sam -

Here's the latest setup: 
With the scope cam mount on the side, and everything sitting lower, 
the rifle way less 'top-heavy' now. I like that, and definitely notice the difference.

 


From this morning - JSB 15.89s

Update: 
I Finally Broke Out My JSB HADES, & All I Have To Say Is WOW! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVEwu3DKI9w&feature=youtu.be 

 

Sam -

Hey brutha! Welcome back to the chaos!

I hear ya when it comes to priorities.. Since I moved, mine are all sorts of messed up right now.. 
Work [downstairs], The new apartment [upstairs], Utility bills, & Eating.. 
Since I'm like 20 feet from work, I don't have to worry about driving, truck maintenance, gas, etc. 
And since I forced myself to only eat 1 cheap frozen food or Ramen noodle pack 1 time per day, 
I could save up and score this bad boy! hahaha

Glad that you got caught up, and find this thread! It'll be constantly updated for sure.. 
And thanks! I'm really digging this rifle, and now I know why all of you guys love em' so much!

Hades - Right on man! That's awesome! It sounds like you've been cleaning house! 
Those pesky critters don't stand a chance! 

Thanks again, and glad to catch back up with ya!

 

Sam -

PS: "bearded one" - Haha Nice!
Some people call me OB1 [Old-Bearded-One] Old.. I'm only 38.. Sheesh..
Damn all that gray hair!