by B.B. Pelletier
Today, we’ll look at performance. I filled the 20-oz. CO2 tank at a local paintball shop and coated the O-ring with silicone diver’s grease before connecting it to the gun. The fill was $5, by the way, for well over 1,000 shots.
What scope?
The S-16s has no open sights, so a scope or red dot sight is required. To get the full accuracy potential, a scope is the wiser choice. Since the rifle has no recoil and a long, unbroken dovetail base, you can choose just about any scope you want, because it’s easy to get the correct eye relief.
What it’s NOT easy to do is get the correct scope height! The straight line of the tank/stock, coupled with Logun’s rather low scope rail, means a high mount is needed – an ultra-high mount is even better! The scope I chose has a 30mm tube, so I mounted it with a B-Square one-piece AA adjustable mount with ultra-high risers. That combination brings the eyepiece to the correct height for me if I hold the butt/tank high on my shoulder. Shooters who own AirForce rifles will not find this strange, but shooters who have no experience with a straight stock may need to get used to it.
Loading
The S-16s magazine has two captive 8-shot clips. Like many PCP circular clips, each has an O-ring around its circumference that also intrudes on the individual pellet chambers. It’s supposed to hold the pellets in their chambers by fitting into the waist of each pellet; of course, all pellets are not made the same. I found that it held .22 Crosman Premiers and JSB Exacts a little loose. Unless I was careful, they would fall out of the magazine until it was loaded into the rifle. Then, the tolerances of the rifle held them in check. Since every pellet is different, this is something you have to experiment with.
Here’s a closeup of the S-16s magazine. Looking through the chamber, you see the O-ring that holds each pellet’s skirt. That’s a Crosman Premier pellet in the loaded chamber.
The rifle is cocked by pulling straight back on the bolt handle, then pushing it forward until it locks with a click. When the bolt is pushed forward, the bolt probe pushes the pellet out of the chamber and into the breech. For that reason, the bolt must be cocked to remove the magazine, or the bolt probe passing through a chamber will hold it in place.
Velocity
The first test was velocity. I used 14.3-grain Crosman Premiers. At 70 degrees F, the test rifle ranged from 593 to 609 f.p.s., averaging 601 f.p.s. That works out to 11.47 foot-pounds, on average. The rifle is rated to 30 foot-pounds with air, so I’m guessing it gets about 25 foot-pounds with Premiers (887 f.p.s.). So there is the comparison between CO2 and air. CO2 obviously changes the nature of the airgun, which is a pretty good deal when you just want to shoot targets indoors.
Sight-in
I started at 10 feet, and on the first shot the pellet was lined up with the center of the bull and about three inches low. Since that was the approximate height of the scope over the bore, I was finished at that range and could move the target out. At 15 yards, I shot several groups, making fine scope adjustments to hit the aim point. The groups I got, however, ranged from 1/4″ to 1/2″, which is far larger than expected. Having noticed the very small exit hole in the muzzle cap of the barrel shroud, I held it up to the light to see if there were any silver streaks on the side of the hole; and, of course, there were.
Some of the pellets were brushing the side of the muzzle cap and destabilizing. To get better accuracy, I needed to drill out the hole in the cap. This gun is on loan from Pyramyd AIR, so there won’t be any drilling. Instead, I removed the shroud, and the groups tightened right up! I knew what to look for because I’ve had this problem with other British PCPs that used a shroud. They drill the exit hole a little too small and sometimes the pellets nick the edge on their way out. Enlarging the hole just a little makes all the difference.
Trigger
I’m still getting used to the 10-lb. trigger. Shooting from a bench, I can keep the gun steady, but it feels strange to have to pull that hard to make it go.
I will test this rifle at long range for you next. The 3-12x Leapers scope I’m using is a good compliment to the accuracy potential of the rifle, so we will see just how good it can be!
sorry to bother you but im still wondering about career vs sumatra both in .25
thanx for any advice ,zach
Zach,
These two rifles are equivalent in power and accuracy. Any given Career might be better or worse than any given Sumatra. I like the Career because it seems to be smoother, but that’s about it. If I were buying, I’d get a Career.
B.B.
BB,
Speaking of scopes, I followed your advice and bought a shoulder stock, scope clamps and scope for my 1377c, all Crosman. You are right, it makes a great carbine. Everything worked well until recently. Now I can no longer get the scope to center on the bullseye. I keep raising the scope elevation until the turret screw is maxed out. It shoots 2 inches low. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Marc
Marc,
Three possibilities. First, your scope may adjust backwartds. To raise the strike of the round, adjust down. Some Chinese scopes and all German target sights work that way.
The second possibility is that the scope has shifted in its mount.
A final possibility is that the scope is broken.
B.B.
B.B.
Is this mean that an airgun cannot shoot as hard with Co2 verses compressed air?
If this is NOT true, what one must do (to an airgun like this Logun) to get it to shoot as hard as compressed air?
Thankx
BB-
Since this is a post about a Logun product I thought I’d ask a general question about the Logun line. It doesn’t seem like many dealers carry Logun (at least not on the web) but the ones that do sell Logun don’t carry the Axsor. Do you have any idea why? Logun’s website says that there is a FAC version of the gun so it shouldn’t be a power issue. I actually queried Logun about this but never heard back. Pyramyd only sells the Solo (in a non-assault rifle configuration or traditional stock, however you want to put it) and a couple of other places sell the MkII but no one sells the Axsor. I was wondering if you knew why? Thanks!
hi bb
im doing a school presentation about the samurai. in the 1600s they had matchlock guns. i was hoping you could tell me or speculate into caliber, velocity and rifling or no rifling of these weapons. thanks
Compressed air will generally be stronger with a given valve than CO2. There is no way to make up the difference, but since the Logun also runs on air you don’t have to.
A longer barrel will increase the speed for both air and CO2.
B.B.
The Axsor was popular several years ago, and of course Webley sold them with their name on the gun, so they’ve been around.
I’d say whoever is in charge of Axsor isn’t marketing them well in the U.S.
B.B.
BB-
Thanks for the info on the Axsor. It leads me to another question. When you go to the Pyramyd site they list Falcon but when you query their line they only carry one model. It made me wonder why they would only carry one model when the new Prairie Falcon with the ATF acceptable suppressor looks like a great hunting gun. That’s why I was asking about the Axsor and why I was looking at the Logun Solo. I was interested in making the jump to a nice accurate PCP for hunting. It just eems like some sites that sell Logun like to sell the models that look like something “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” would carry in his attache case. I’m a traditionalist I guess. Thanks again!
School presentation,
A matchlock is a firearm, which is outside the scope of what were do here, but why don’t you get it straight from the horse’s mouth?
Dr. Bobert Beeman.
http://www.beemans.net/
Pay particular attention to the drawing on his home page!
B.B.
BB Check this out http://www.qsa-trading.nl/index.htm
click on ‘Air Rifles’ than
click on ‘Beaumont’ than
click on ‘specifications’ of the first rifle
41.5 grain .22 pellets!!! I need some of them bad boys! I’ve got an email in but on the price sheet they are listed for 17 BP so that’s $34 (hope there are a lot)!
Jay
I’ll answer my own question. I wish these things existed though…
This is from Steve at PAG. Apparently these are .22 rifle bullets and not pellets. They are for the Daystate Air Ranger 80 ft/lb .22 Rifle bore barrel and will not fit in a .22 Air Rifle.
B.B.
Would repainting a vintage air gun (to eliminate surface blemishes) increases or decreases the intrinsic value of the air gun (assuming the job is done properly). Sorry for the off topic question but I didn’t know if you still look at old threads or not.
Best regards
DKY,
When the finish is paint and not bluing, the valve generally increases with refinishing. The exceptions are just a few ultra-rare guns that are unlikely to be in anyone’s collection.
B.B.
Jay,
Those “pellets” are just .22 bullets. You can buy them from any U.S. supplier and they will ruin any air rifle unless it has a properly hardened barrel.
B.B.
Hello,
When comes the long distance follow up on the CO2 s16 story. I am thinking about buying the set.
regards,
Peter
Peter,
It was in Part 3
/blog/2007/2/loguns-sweet-16-on-co2-part-3the-other-s-16s/
The day was windy so I didn’t get past 25 yards, but you can extrapolate.
B.B.
Thanks, couldnt find that one.