M4-177

Bought one of these a little while back, and finally have time for a write-up.

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Out of the box with the sights mounted.

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Rear flip over peep sight. It's made of plastic, and one hole is supposed to be bigger than the other. Both holes on this sight are the same diameter. It adjusts for windage via a slotted screw on the side of the sight.

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Front pin sight. It is adjustable for elevation via threads on the inside of the pin. Pin is all metal and adjusts with the small socket wrench included with the gun.

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Pump arm partially opened. It pumps fairly well, and pressure runs up rapidly- best I've seen out of a stock cup piston. The pump arm handle must be removed by taking out it's 2 roll pins before the pump arm pivot pin can be accessed. There is a bleed hole on the rear of the valve. I could find no restrictor plate washer in the transfer port path.

Gun averages 352.4 fps with the 8.2 gr. meisters at ten pumps out of the box, with an extreme spread of 63 fps. It sprayed oil all over my chrony screens. I assume the oil came from the valve, since I had cleaned the bbl prior to shooting. I do note steadily climbing velocities- the gun will probably level off and settle down in the near future, when all the lube is shot out of the valve. I'll have more on pumping up the gun in a bit...

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Bolt and bb magnet. I doubt I'll ever run BB's through that rifled bore. The little plastic 5 shot fir'power magazines work well. The semi-tactile stops for each pellet holder are easy to get used to. For some reason, I kept forgetting to close the bolt after advancing the magazine.

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3 of the meisters went in here- the 2 flyers went out of range of the camera :crazy: Off-hand kneeling at 12 meters with the supplied sights. I held the front pin to a 6 o'clock hold...

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5 of the 7.2 gr JSB Exact diablos, ten pumps at 12 meters, with the Stoeger scope set to 6X, from rest.

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5 of the 8.2 gr Meisters, ten pumps at 12 meters with the Stoeger scope set to 6X, from rest.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps5801ba7f.jpg

Crappy pic of the gun with the Stoeger 3-9X 40 A/O scope aboard.

The gun is very awkward to pump with a scope aboard. I had to settle for supporting the gun with my right hand over the rear scope ring, and pumping with my left. I could feel the plastic flexing under the scope ring with each and every pump. Care must be taken not to put a load on the butt-stock while pumping, lest it breaks. Others on other boards have all ready much alluded to this, so I won't repeat it here.

The trigger has a very long and mushy take up, with a surprisingly clean break. It takes a LOT of getting used to. Those groups show that the gun suffers from a common crosman pumper problem with bbl. retention. A target rifle, it definitely ain't. The plastic picatinny rail leaves much to be desired as a scope mount.

Where this little gun shines is with the supplied peep sights, as crude as they are. I'd peg this one a can plinker, and leave it at that. I haven't decided if I'm going to FTP it, or not. Not all that sure it would be worth the effort, but I suppose anything that reduces pumping is desirable...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail