Due to my generally fickle nature, I bought yet another example of a gun that I owned, sold, and subsequently started pining for. However, this time I did it right - and when I ordered another MP513, I got it in .22.
Now, I had already done a review of the MP513 in .177... and in deference to my laziness and the fact that, let's face it, most of those comments still apply, I am going to avoid rehashing all the details I went through before. Suffice it to say that it is a large, surprisingly light, powerful, hard-cocking and harsh-shooting rifle with a very utilitarian look to it.
A while ago I had decided that if I bought any really powerful guns they would be .22's. I couldn't see having to manhandle something as brutish as the '513 just to send a .177 pellet out at 4-digit speeds (which is probably not best for accuracy anyway)... it just seems like overkill in the smaller caliber. Besides, I wanted my "big guns" to be able to take out serious-sized animals if the need ever arose, and .22 is generally acknowledged to be superior in that regard.
But in doing so, I'm sorta shooting myself in the foot, so to speak, it the accuracy department. Being a cheapskate, I am quite reluctant to spend more for .22 pellets than for .22LR cartridges... but that's what's frequently required in order to get good ammo in that caliber. The boxed Crosman Premiers seem to run between $14 and $15 per box... you get 1250 in .177, but only 625 in .22. That rubs my economic sensibilities the wrong way.
As a side note, I thought I had found the perfect compromise in the .22 Premier HP's, $6.00 for a tin of 500. That brings the price down to around what I pay for my boxed Premiers in .177, and in fact I was very happy with the performance of these pellets.
For a while, anyway. And then I got another batch. I don't know what's up with Crosman, but these things are now scattering all over the place. Obviously they had a bad production run... the pellets aren't obviously flawed, but groupings frequently open up by a factor of 5-10.
So I'm back to the usual budget .22's - Crosman Wadcutters, Gamo Match (and sometimes Hunters) and Ruko Impact. Which means, of course, that the rifles I get are gonna have a tough time of it. I understand that, and so I've lowered my expectations rather considerably (compared to my .177's). In addition, I am convinced that the larger caliber is harder to shoot well simply because the slower pellet spends more time in the barrel after the trigger is pulled, giving the shooter more time to screw up the shot.
But the MP513 doesn't seem to give a hoot about all that. This one loves Crosman Copperhead wadcutters, and ably expressed that affection by nailing a best group of .12" group at 10 yards (5 shots). And that was with me (aka Mr. Wobbles) pulling the trigger. I find it hard to believe that my POA was that consistent even with a scope (let alone my hold technique) - but the holes don't lie. I can't imagine how this thing would be capable of doing any better even with super-expensive pellets, except perhaps at long range (which I didn't test). There was one fly in the ointment here, though - the gun severely needs an adustable mount. As it stands, it shoots a couple inches low at 10 yards with a regular Crosman "C" mount.
Another puzzler is the lack of hold sensitivity. I hadn't done much shooting lately and I tend to "rust up" rather quickly. I did use the normal "artillery hold", but this thing did not demand that hyper-attention be paid to other aspects of hold the way some guns do. Frankly I don't understand it, I always figured that as power-to-weight ratio increases, a gun would get progressively harder to shoot. Ditto for harshness. But certainly not for this thing!
And the gun also acquits itself well in the power department. It's no Webley Patriot (although with 46lbs of cocking force it probably feels like one), but this thing womps the more run-of-the-mill .22's pretty handily. Five shots with Gamo Wadcutters (another pellet it shoots fairly well) showed an average of almost 773fps, which puts this gun close to 19ft-lbs range. Of course, you've got to work for this power - that 46lbs of cocking force ain't nuthin' to sneeze at, and the trigger is no picnic either, not breaking until about 6 1/2 lbs of effort. Shooting my RWS350 is postively relaxing after this thing, with "only" 41lbs of cocking effort and a 3 1/2lb trigger pull for about 15% more energy. My RWS48 is even easier with a 30lb effort, and although I suspect that my example has a weak spring it still outdoes the MP513 in power. The sub-7lb MP513 is certainly the lightest of this bunch, however, and with a buttpad to center of gravity distance of 21", it balances better than the 350.
So the Russians live up to their reputation of finely crafted barrels but less than state-of-the-art engineering. When one considers the cocking effort, the trigger pull, and the jarring discharge cycle... frankly, it's a hard gun to love. But when one sees pellet after pellet going into the same hole, well, it's equally hard to hate! My earlier comparisons to the big Diana guns might seem to be a bit unfair - after all, those things sell for twice (or more) what the MP513 goes for. And the rifle oughta be compared to others similar in price.
So what's out there in the sub-$200 range - in .22 - that compares in power and accuracy?
Frankly, there ain't much. There's a slew of decent guns in .22 that are a couple of notches down in power (Quest, B26, RWS94, RWS34, etc). The Hammeli Storm is closer - accurate and more civilized, but still not quite as strong... but it has a worse trigger than the MP513. About the only breakbarrel that seems to be a serious threat to it is the slightly heavier AR1000 in .22 (also available as the TF89 or Beeman SS1000). If the power and accuracy of THAT gun lives up to it's billing (and by all accounts it does), its easier cocking, superior trigger, and quieter firing cycle would make it a more pleasant rifle overall than the MP513.
About the only other gun I can think of that would challenge it is the sidelever BAM B30, but others will have to comment on that rifle's overall behavior. One can still get a refurbished RWS48 or 350 for not much more than $200, and these rifles are simply in a different league than the other guns we've been discussing. Of course, buying one of these amounts to buying a used rifle (and UmrexUSA doesn't always check them out too well) with no long-term warranty - although if you get one that's bad out of the box they will replace it for you.
That pretty much lays out my impressions of the .22 cal MP513. Would I counsel anyone NOT to buy this rifle? Absolutely not, as long as he or she understood the tradeoffs. Someone once suggested that shooting this rifle requires a sense of humor, and I'd be inclined to agree. Now, the next question - am I keeping this rifle? At this point I honestly don't know - that (at least partly) depends on how well my .22 cal TF89 works out - it should be here within a week!