I recently took receipt of the Crosman Quest 800 .22. I got it from PA and it arrived with immaculate packaging. The rifle received no shipment damage. Here are some of my impressions of the rifle after playing around with it for the last 5 days.
It came with a scope for the huge price (tongue in cheek) of $116. It's exactly what I expected for $116, and perhaps even a little more. First, the wood working on the stock isn't anything to call home about. It's a low grade mystery hardwood from China, but it was finished very smoothly and there are no knots or burls in the wood. The finish is a little to be desired as the stain and clear coat have some unevenness to them, and there are a few low spots from uneven sanding. The blueing on the metal is deep and adequate, but there are several light scratches from the manufacturing process and perhaps packaging and shipping. But, this is exactly what I expected for $116 .22 springer. Not bad, and not out of the ordinary. I'd be ticked off if this was how a $300 rifle showed up, but for the price I paid it was exactly within my expectations.
The machining seems to be pretty good. The pellet loading bore is exactly centered in the breech and so is the air transfer port on the other end--the two holes match perfectly. The action closes very tightly, is extremely hard to break before cocking, but seems to close very consistently. There have been some conversations that the breech seal is very hard and causes the action to not close consistently after each cock. I am only using the iron sights, so I can't fully say if the action closes consistently that would be shown from scope shooting, but from my eyes it seems to close very consistently after each cock. I'm sure the chamber has burrs in it because I haven't tuned it at all, but the cocking action seems pretty smooth. It doesn't sound like there is any unnecessary or horrible grinding going on. Of course, there is a copious amount of Chinese oil all throughout the action. This might have something to do with it, but the cocking action seems very smooth to me. I've not yet cocked a supertuned rifle, but I have no complaints of the way the Quest seems to operate.
Speaking of Chinese oil, let's talk about shooting and detonation. The first 5 or 6 shots out of the rifle sounded like a .22 rimfire. There was some serious detonation going on. The first shot went clear through a 3/4" piece of plywood. After 6 shots, the detonation and loud bangs went away, but the dieseling continues, even after about 100 shots. The dieseling seems to be declining with each round fired, but after about 100 rounds that I put through it so far, there are still faint traces of smoke in the barrel after each shot. I'm sure this will get better after each successive round. I haven't taken the rifle apart to inspect the seal or spring, so I can't say if the detonations did any damage, but the rifle seems to be a hard hitter as it drives pellets into plywood to the same depth as my Baikal 513.
The shooting action is quite smooth, and it's certainly a lot smoother than my Baikal IZH 513 .22. It's a lot quieter and has less torque, too. It's very similar to the Gamo firing action (which makes sense because it's a Gamo clone), but there isn't as much twang. Perhaps this is because it's still burning out the copious amounts of oil, so the twang might show up once I put some more rounds through it. All in all, it shoots pretty smoothly without large amounts of torque or harsh recoil. It has recoil, but it seems to be a lot more "under control" than my Baikal rifle. I was surprised that it had no torque when firing. It's very comfortable to shoot off a rest or freehand.
The Quest 800 is very accurate out of the box using iron sights. First off, it seems to have absolutely no hold sensitivity. I'm able to get clover groups with iron sights at 10 yards shooting off a rest. Freehand, I'm able to shoot cockroaches off trees at 10 yards. That's pretty good for my limited talent. The rifle is more accurate than I am, so in my opinion, that's a good thing. Once it breaks in and settles down a little more, I expect the accuracy to be good down range, too.
All in all, it's a good rifle, regardless of the price. It's accurate and fun to shoot, and it's great that it happens to be only $116. Of course the initial quality isn't what you'd expect from a $300+ rifle, or even the $190 Diana Panther 34, but it was never meant to compete with those rifles. It's an inexpensive starter rifle, and it exceeds readily in that category. If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive .22 springer that will be good for target shooting and small game hunting, I highly recommend the Quest 800. I'm 100% certain that it would respond highly favorable to a professional tune, but that begs the question of why you'd want to tune a $116 rifle in the first place (unless you want to do it yourself, which is another story). Don't expect the rifle to look like a $300 rifle out of the box. Don't expect the trigger to be any good. You can, however, expect the rifle to shoot very accurately. It's fun to use and a great value at its price. If the rifle was the same price as the Diana Panther 34, then it would not be a good deal. However, at $116, I can fully recommend this shooter. It far exceeds its price point in shooting ability, but it matches its price point in physical appearance. So, in the end, you're getting more rifle than you'd expect for $116.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (as long as you know what you're getting--an inexpensive starter rifle).