Author Topic: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel  (Read 4084 times)

  • Guest
First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« on: November 11, 2006, 06:57:06 PM »
I'm still looking for my first adult air rifle after buying a Crosman Storm 1000X and returning it. The reson I took it back was that it would shoot great groups with the sights that came on the gun but when I mounted a scope the accuracy really turned bad, no consistency, the pellets were flying all over the place. I made many post on other boards asking for advice but nothing would work. A member of another forum reccomended this one.

The Crosman was a brake barrel and I have read that they shouldn't be much difference in accuracy between a good brake barrel and a fixed barrel gun. Not having any knowledge or experience with air rifles this has really made me turn against brake barrel guns with scopes mounted on them, especially after you have put a lot of pellets through them and worn the parts that secure the barrel to the receiver.

I have been thinking about buying the Gamo CFX rifle, I have read that they are great guns and very accurate right out of the box without having to do too much tuning or adjusting other than the trigger. I really like the Gamo Shadow Sport but because of my problems with the Crosman and the scope I'm really afraid about buying another brake barrel rifle. I plan on using this gun for target, plinking, pest control and hunting. So I want something that is accurate, powerful and that will last for awhile.

I would certainly appreciate any help or advice that you could give me about my situation and the two Gamo rifles I mentioned.

Thanks Bill

Offline longislandhunter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8204
    • http://
RE: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2006, 10:56:24 PM »
Hi Bill and welcome to the forum.

I have no experience with the Crosman storm so I can't comment about that rifle.  I do however, like alot of the guys on this forum, own the GAMO Shadow and the CFX.  They are both great guns, I love em both.  I have used each of them extensively for pest control (starlings, pigeons, etc) and have taken a couple of squirrels with the Shadow.  Neither gun has let me down.  They have both proven to be accurate and dependable, although I will admit that the CFX is more accurate than the Shadow, although the difference is not great enough to make a major difference for hunting purposes.

For pest shooting and hunting I prefer the Shadow as the break barrel design is much easier to load and allows for a quick follow up shot if needed.  The key to having success with a scope on the Shadow is to make sure you use a mount that won't move under the recoil of the gun.  I use only one piece mounts, and there are several to choose from.  The Shadow, as you know has dove tail grooves cut into the receiver while the CFX has a raised scope rail, something I personally find much more conducive to scope mounting.  If you're interested in a good deal on the CFX you can get the "SCI Combo" from the GAMO site. You get  the CFX with a 3x9 variable scope and mount for $209.00 and the shipping is included.  The Shadow of course you can get at Walmart and scope it yourself.

I'm sure some of the other guys on the forum will chime in and give you advice also, but don't be turned off on break barrels because of your one bad experience with that Crosman gun.  Again, welcome to the forum, you'll like it here,,, lotsa nice folks :)

Jeff
\"If it was easy it wouldn\'t be hunting, it would be shopping.\"

Offline Gene_SC

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11378
    • http://www.airguntoys.com
Re: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2006, 01:06:12 AM »
Hi Bill

As Jeff said above, "Welcome Aboard".  Jeff, myself included and many other members here own break barrels in many differnt models. We all either hunt, punch paper or both. The break barrels are very dependable and accurate. Some more than others.

The most important part of Jeff's post is the type of scope mount you use. On the Gamo Shadow's especially, the one piece mount is a must.

Stick with us Bill and we all can answer your questions.

Also you can use your controle panel to set your personal preferences and customize how you want to view this forum.

Best of luck

Gene
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline vinceb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1943
    • http://
Never heard of the "Crosman Storm"...
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2006, 02:45:40 AM »
Right now, Crosman offers 2 basic rifles that I know of - the 795, which is more of a youth gun, and the Quest/Phantom series - which are essentially the same gun with different stocks.

Assuming that your rifle was/is a Quest-based gun, I'm not surprised at your results. In my experience there's 3 things that can booger up scoping one of these... assuming you're starting with a proper airgun scope.

The first - and common - is inadequate mounts. If you're using mounts made for a .22 or mounts that came on something like a Daisy Powerline 3-9x32 scope or its Crosman equivalent, they will tend to creep unless there's a good scope stop used. This will be a significant problem on any strong spring gun, BTW.

With break-barrels, there are also issues with the actual pivoting breach mechanism.

The first is when the lockup is inconsistent... for example, if the pivot has significant sideways play it will never shoot well with a scope. On one shot the barrel will be straight, on the next it'll be pointing left, and so on. It may still shoot well with open sights because the sights move around with the barrel, and therefore are always lined up with it. But the scope is not mounted on the barrel.

The second is when the lockup actually moves while shooting. When you shoot a breakbarrel there is a force exerted to push the breach open... if the lockup spring is a little loose, the barrel will move vertically an unpredictable amount. This results in the shots walking up and down in a straight line.

Both my Quest and my B19 suffered from both problems. Both issues are usually fixable by tightening the pivot bolt and/or shimming the lockup detent spring.

Gamo breakbarrels, in contrast, tend to have much better lockup than some other inexpensive guns. Their pivot bolts come tight and stay tight - in fact, they are a real bear to remove! And their detents are nice and strong. If you're looking to scope a breakbarrel, I don't think you'll have any trouble with a Gamo.



Offline daved

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2093
    • http://
RE: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2006, 03:54:26 AM »
Hi, Bill,

Glad to see you found your way here.  Sent you an email last night, looks like Vince came up with some things I hadn't thought of.  I thought of one other thing, maybe two but related.  First, what kind of range are you shooting at?  For most of us, 40 to 50 yards is about max for useable accuracy.  And second, are you familiar with the hold technique that most springers require?  Check out the Library link at the top of the page, there's a huge amount of info available there, including some very good descriptions of the springer hold.  Good luck, and welcome aboard.

Dave

  • Guest
RE: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2006, 10:49:14 PM »
I'm only a year into airgunning, but a friend who has been into target shooting with both specialist target rifles and also "sport" air rifles for over 25 years, bought a Gamo CFX Royal especially for our 20 yard indoor sport rifle competitions. No mods or tune yet and it is superb! I will have one when I have sold my XS78 CO2. A point concerning ALL full power air rifles: you will need solid one piece scope mounts and also a scope designed for air rifles, that will stand up to the double recoil. Also, air rifle scopes are usually parallaxed for 35 yards, whereas I believe those designed for .22LR  and up are set for 100yards.

Offline daved

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2093
    • http://
RE: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2006, 01:29:07 AM »
Hi, Derek!

On this side of the pond :-) most of us shoot AO (adjustable objective) scopes.  The ones popular with air gunners generally focus down to at least 10 yards, some as low as 7.  Just focus at the range you're shooting at, no parallax to deal with.  Fixed parallax just doesn't work that well for springers, even when you can find one that's fixed at 35 yards.  And the AO's aren't that much more expensive.

Dave

  • Guest
RE: First Air Rifle-Bad Experience With Brake Barrel
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2006, 03:21:13 AM »
Fair comment Dave,
Over here, our "good" lower end scopes (as opposed to the $10  4x20 stuff) tend to be fixed focus objectives (or at least not field adjustable). The cheapest AO scopes are about 60% more. Maybe not many $ but a fair proportion of what we pay for a good lower end gun. My main point was to get a scope which can put up with a springer.