The Crosman Quest, as many people are aware, is a re-issue of the old Xisico (BAM) B19 break-barrel air rifle, which itself was a copy of the Gamo 220. So, the natural question comes up - is it as good as a Gamo?
The answer to that is both "yes" and "no". "Yes" in that it is quite capable of comparable performance, and "no" in that you are not quite so likely to get that performance right out of the box.
The first Quest I got turned out to be an older production model. It shot fairly hard (low 900's with Gamo Match) and was passably accurate, but had 2 major problems. First was an AWFUL cocking stroke - like ripping sheet metal with a crowbar. The second was a tiny bit of veritcal play in the breach lockup. I didn't mess with it - it went right into the box and back to Crosman.
The next one that came in had neither of these problems, but dieseled badly for the first several shots. After it finally settled down, it was slow - about 80 fps slower than the previous model. But the gun itself seemed OK, so I took to working on it.
It didn't take that much - I tried a couple of different things, but ended up just installing a new spring and seal from Crosman, and did the typical deburring and relubing. As I suspected the original spring had "crunched" from the dieseling, and was significantly shorter as a result. These steps immediately brought the velocity up to the low 900's, and it's been slowly creeping up as the seal breaks in. At last check, it was touching 940 with CPL's - and that's only about 60fps slower than the hard-hitting Daisy Powerline. And in all honesty, that's a bit better than any stock "1000fps" Gamo that I've ever checked.
As for accuracy, the answer is, again, "yes and no". The open sights on the Quest are certainly inferior to those on the Gamo... although Gamo is, strangely enough, discontinuing open sights. They are less rugged and a little harder to use, and there was some side-to-side play in the example I had. The sideways play was fixed with a little shimming from some soda-can stock, and the ineffective fiber-optic inserts for the rear were easily replaced with some filaments from Tru-Glo. If I'm careful, I can shoot about as consistently with the open irons on this rifle as I can on my Shadow or my 440.
Scoping it is another matter. I only tried a scope on it once, and found that the shots tended to walk up and down in a fairly straight line. The Quest seems to suffer from a malady that my .22 B19 also suffers from, the relatively hard breach seal tends to keep the breach from locking up against its metal stop. As a result, the barrel lock-up can vary a tiny bit from shot to shot. Since I'm not a big scope fan and open-iron accuracy doesn't seem to suffer, this really isn't an issue for me. However - and again, just like my B19 - I found it necessary to deepen the stock cut-out for the front sight. On higher elevation settings, the sight would hit the stock when the gun was cocked, and that could knock the sight out of adjustment.
I never had much of a problem with Gamo triggers, but the virtually-identical mechanism on the Quest was somewhat less pleasant as the one on my Shadow. Predictably, a few thousand rounds smoothed it out rather nicely - it's no worse than any other Theoben-triggered gun I've got. What didn't smooth out was the firing cycle "TWANNNNGGGG" (again, very much like a Gamo) - it took a bit of guide work to get rid of that.
Overall, it has turned out as one of my favorite rifles. It inherits many of the good qualities of the Gamo design. It is light, it has easy and smooth cocking, and has a very manageable firing cycle for a gun of its power. However - and this must be said - when I shoot this and my Shadow back-to-back, there seems to be something lacking in the Quest. I'm not sure exactly what gives me this impression - but the Gamo just feels like a more carefully machined rifle, like the tolerances are a little tighter, it works a little smoother, and the parts mate a little better.
But in the final analysis, it really does work about as well once it's sorted out. Granted, this can take a bit more effort than is typical with a Gamo product - which raises the question: frequently found at $85 - is it worth saving the money over a $125 Walmart Shadow? Probably not - but again, the Shadow as we know it is an endangered species. And as the price differential grows between it and the 220 or 440, the Quest becomes more and more viable. I suspect that once all the old Gamo's are gone, and all the new models come with scopes and no sights, the price of the Gamo's will increase enough to make the Quest the better buy hands down.
And I'll end by saying something about Crosman parts support. In a word, it is excellent (at least for this model) - and many Quest seals and springs are also finding their way into Gamo's of various sorts. All parts are available, they are reasonably cheap ($6 springs, $3 seals), and they ship fast. My only wish is that Gamo did the same.