Crosman Storm XT

[Brod_Man]

Short Review: The Crosman Storm XT is an Excellent Small game, or plinking gun. It is fast accurate, and reliable.

Long Review:

Out of the Box:
The Storm came in a full color box. It was wrapped in poly bag, and nestled between two blocks of foam. Along with the gun came A trigger lock, key, scope rings, centerpoint scope, instruction manual, and saftey warnings.

Initial Impression:
The Storm is a very large rifle. It is around 45 inches long, and weighs the better part of 6 pounds. Not including glass. The Guns wood stock is lightly stained. I prefer a dark stain, but this staining job was done well, so it looks great. The blueing is deep and rich. Nice and blue. The way i like it. lol. The open sights are plastic fiberoptic sights. The rear being adjustable for windage, and elevation. The front being stationary.

Initial Troubles:
I grabbed a few pellets, just to test the firing cycle of the gun. So i grabbed the barrel pulled down......Pulled harder. Dang it it wont cock. So i gave it a tap on the muzzle. Tap...TAP....SMACK. It broke open. Then i PULLED DOWN...Finally, man it was a bear to cock the first time. But it wears in steadily. I loaded the pellet in, lined up the sights on paper, flicked the safety forward, pulled the trigger, kept pulling, kept pulling POW! WOW. its like a .22. But i knew it would wear in. So i grabbed a few more pellets, and shot maybe 50 times that night.

Scope:
The scope is a Centerpoint 3-9x32 mil-dot scope. It came with a set of No-Name rings. The rear ring has an angled stop pin. So i mounted it in the stop pin hole, and tightened everthing down. The scope looks really good on the gun. I will shoot it tomorrow.

Next Day:
I grab my tin of pellets, gun, rest, and chair, and head outside. I set up a new target, and started shooting. After i sighted in my scope, i started to have some fun. Shooting an old can, and old bottle. After a while i got tired of, Cock..Load...Shoot..Ping...Cock..load..shoot..ping. You get the idea, so i started hunting for some reactive targets. I found an old can of Root Beer in the fridge. HEHEHEHE. I shook it up real good, loaded, flicked the safety off, aimed fired....PSHHHHHHHHH, the can goes flying. HAHAHA. i put the gun away for a while. I now had about 100 shots through it, it was breaking in nicely.

Trigger:
The trigger is plastic, and so is the trigger guard. The trigger is a two stage adjustable. The first stage is stiff, but managable, and the second stage is really long and creepy. The adjustment screw is located just behind the trigger blade. Turn it clockwise, and it shortens the second stage, turn it counter-clockwise, and it lengthens it. I tuned it clockwise about 2 turns, and now the trigger is a short creepy 4 pound trigger.

Shots 100-200:
At around shot 150, i noticed my accuacy slipping. I kep shooting, and i noticed, i had to move my head further back, to accomidate for eye relief. I soon noticed, that my scope was slipping. I took it off, and examined it, and heres what i found
action=view¤t=HummingBirdOthers006.jpg" target="_blank">
The stop pin had sheared off.

Solution:
I found a screw, that was just slightly too small to fit the hole, so i super glued it in the hole. 400 shots later it is holding up fine.

Conclusion:
The crosman storm XT is an excellent gun for Small game hunting, and plinking. I bought it for $110 at Wal-Mart. If you want a cheap reliable gun for hunting, and plinking the Crosman Storm XT is the way to go.

[longislandhunter]

Enjoyed your review,,, best of luck with the rifle.  I have a couple of those centerpoint scopes,,, pretty decent and have worked well for me.  I'm glad you figured out a way to replace the stop pin but you may want to swap out the rings for a set of Accushot mounts.  I've tried plenty of "no name" rings that came with guns and have found most of them won't do the job for very long...  

Anyway,,,, best of luck with the rifle and I"ll be lookin forward to your future posts with the rifle,,,,, especially the hunting posts  

Jeff

[Brod_Man]

Im looking forward to them too. i posted pics of my stock work on it in the shop section.

[scottinharwood]

I got my Storm XT from KMart this last July for $79.  I just wanted to have some springer fun as a break from PCPs since I hand pump them.

Out of the box, the first time I cocked it, I noticed a lot of oil comming from the transfer port and on the breech.   I figured, 'what ever' and I lodaed a CPH (10.5gn) into it and fired it at a target 11 meters away - CRACK!  SMOKE!, holy cow, it must have detonated.  A couple more shots like that then it seemed to settle.  I ran about 40-pellets through it and put it down.  The Center Point scope does not focus to 11 meters so my eye gets kind of tired, plus I seemed to be doing a lot of adjustments to try to zero the scope.

Next day I pick it up, cock it and notice again, oil from the transfer port.  Same results as above, lots of noise and smoke the first two or three shots thens it seems to settle.  But again, I am continually adjusting the scope after every three-shot string.

I repeated this for a few days.  On about the 7th day, again CRACK, SMOLE and the second shot had a definitely loud spring TWANG.  At this point, I am thinking I snapped the main spring on that last detonation.  I chronied it then and found my shots ranging all over the place 1st one 1135fps, second one 743fps, third one 950fps....... bouncing all over the place; spring is either broken or bent for sure.

I opened it up and found the piston chamber was rough looking, there were areas at the bottom of the piston tube that had metal burrs showing, the piston seal was cooked-looking and had very rough edges with a notch on one side and the spring - well lets just say it would make a good smilely face now and leave it at that.  

I contacted Crosman via their 800 number and they sent my a Quest illustrated parts breakdown to order from.  They replaced the spring and piston seal at no-cost (I called the 800 number).

I have a wood lathe and I use it to spin a wooden dowel rod with sandpaper wrapped around it.  I start with 400-grit then move to 600-grit oiled wet-dry sand paper to smooth out the piston chamber.  I pay particular attention to the areas where the hammer weight and cocking pin move to insure no metal edges are left to damage the new piston seal.  I use a piece of sponge on the end of the dowel so the sand paper will deform over the end and polish the botom of the pisiton chamber also.

I then de-burred and polished the trigger assembly pieces and added a CDT GRT III trigger - OMG, these triggers are Great!  I used a light coat of Moly paste on the inside of the piston chamber then wiped most of it out.  I used black tar to coat the new mainspring (from Maccari) and lightly lubed the rear side of the piston seal and piston tube with white lithium grease (after I slid the piston into the tube).  Lubed all other points and re-assembled.  I added three drops of RWS spring chamber oil down the transfer port and set the gun upright overnight.  The next day, I excercised the piston and seal by cocking and uncoking the gun about 20 times.  The first shot over the chrony was at 942fps.  Subsequent shots were within 5fps of that.

Later, I fired it some more and it continues to fire smoothly, cocks easilly, and now chronies at a consistent 935fps +- 5fps using CPHs (10.5gn).  The GRT III trigger is light and smooth with a distinct break.  It fires with low-noise and no dicernable spring twang (I expect that will change over time though).

For me, this gun is a keeper and is a very good air gun to tune.  For non-tuners, I cannot say I would recommend it - these are the folks, like me about 5-years ago, that want a long-lasting accurate air gun straight out of the box requireing little or no maintenance.  I will move the Storm XT to my cabin in Minnesota and bring my RWS 54 back home to tune next - its heavy and has a tendancy to kill scopes but I miss it - it was my first air gun purchase as an adult.

Scott in Harwood, MD

wow Scott your getting 20 fpe out of her, very nice.
i'm getting 15.78 fpe from mine with Gamo Hunters.

[gamo2hammerli]

Strange how Brod_Man`s Storm have a plastic trigger.  Mine have a cheapie metal trigger.  Put about 1200 rounds thru her already....the mount and scope haven`t moved.  Center Point model also.  Got the package at WalMarts.  For the price....I really like the gun.

[dave2288]

in the pics it looks like the stamped sheet metal...

[gamo2hammerli]

Yep, that's what I got...stamped sheet metal.

[dave2288]

thats not what my crosman break barrel has...its this weird trigger...gold looking..;-)

[scottinharwood]

Yeah, its amazing how well it tuned even using a stock replacement spring from Crosman.  No twang, very little roatation vibration.  Now I have to get yet another scope that has an AO and I will really be able to tell how well it shoots.

I do not have a Gamo, but I would say this is every bit as tunable as the Gamo's you read about on this an other forums.

Scott

sounds good Scott,
i shot heavys over the chrony last night and i could only get them to do 790 fps.

[scottinharwood]

Don't know what to say except that pre-tune, when it was not detonating, near as I can figure the XT was shooting around mid-700s on average with CPH's.  Of course, that was from lows in the low 600s to highs in the low 900's.  With the polishing, seal replacement, spring replacement, lube job and GRT III trigger mod and it is still shooting on average of 935fps with a standard deviation of about 8fps and a max spread of less than 20fps.

I just shot it this AM and the first two shots were about 810, then it was up into the 900's again and it stayed there.  not sure what temperature has to do with it but that is the best I can figure for now.  I shot 40 rounds just a few minutes ago, I used the same aim point, sand bag just forward of the trigger guard, fuzzy scope picture because the center point scope that came with the XT it does not focus to that short of a distance  (and it has paralax) and all 40-shots combined grouped within 1/2 inch at 12 yards.  After I did the tune on it, I did put three drops of RWS compression chamber lube into the transfer port to provide fuel - lots of articles about doing that on-line.  I do this on all of my springers every 750 or so pellets.  Once the oil is in, I cock and uncock the rifle about ten times to distribute the oil, then I put the gun up over night muzzle pointed down to let any excess oil drain out.  Next time I shoot, I wipe off excess oil from the transfer port and pellet seat area the start shooting.  

I really like the way this gun is shooting right now and I definitely recommend tuning the XT, it shoots very sweetly after a tune and trigger mod and the parts will cost you less than $50.

Scott

thanks for the imput Scott,
i also like the way the stock storm handles, tuned it should be even better.
when i git er up to 20 fpe i'll post it.

[scottinharwood]

Hey, one more comment.  I just went down stairs and shot some 8.3gn Super Domes (Dynamit Nobel) and some 7.9gn wad cutters.  These averaged about 880fps.  Then I went back to the CPHs and I was back up at 935fps.

I noticed that the CPHs have a thicker skirt and would push fully into the breech and were flush to the breech bore circumference every time.  The other pellets had thin skirts and would not push fully into the breech, wider skirt I guess.  Point is, this gun realy likes CPH's only.  I also noticed the other two pellets types would not group very well.

i have the RWS Super Domes, i like them in most of my guns.