by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier
The Cometa Indian spring-powered air pistol is a powerful, big airgun.
Lots of interest in this Cometa Indian air pistol! Some of you know it already, and many more are interested in the light cocking effort. How can “they” make a gun that shoots 500 f.p.s., yet cocks with just 7 lbs. of effort? Well, today we will find out if it really does shoot that fast.
The cocking lever
Blog reader Wulfraed was puzzled by what appear to be a lopsided cocking lever. I told him that it’s really two-sided and I would show a picture of that in this report, so here you go.
The cocking lever does have two sides, as you can see. Only the right side extends back a little farther to provide a place to grasp the lever at the beginning of the cocking stroke.
On to the test
Okay, let’s get to the velocity. The first pellet I tested was the RWS Hobby. I used it both because it is a very light pure-lead pellet, and also because it’s an accurate pellet in many airguns.
Hobbys averaged 538 f.p.s. in the test pistol, so the claim of 500 f.p.s. has been vindicated. In fact, it’s conservative. The spread was from 533 to 542, so a 9 f.p.s. range. At the average velocity, Hobbys generated 4.5 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.
I found that seating the pellets was difficult unless I struck the back of the breech with the heel of my hand to close it after loading. Then, every pellet seated fine.
Next up was the RWS Superdome. This is a medium-weight, .177-caliber pellet that I expected to go slower. But it didn’t go that much slower! The average was 491 f.p.s. with a spread from 488 to 493 f.p.s. That’s a spread of only 5 f.p.s. At the average velocity, this pellet generated 4.44 foot-pounds of energy.
I did have a little excursion with this pellet, however. If you refer to Part 1, I showed you a picture of the open breech, in which a small o-ring is seen around the bolt probe. I lubricated this with one drop of silicone chamber oil and immediately got an increase in velocity. Then I got three detonations! The fastest went 673 f.p.s. I then had to dry off the probe and shoot off the oil until the pistol settled back down, again.
So, I advise against oiling the bolt probe of this pistol. Maybe put some silicone grease on the o-ring — but keep it light!
The last pellet I tested was our new friend, the H&N Baracuda Green. We know this is a very accurate pellet, and I wanted to see what a lightweight pellet would do in the pistol. Actually this pellet weighs 6.48 grains and the Hobby weighs 7 grains, so it shouldn’t be that much faster. The average was 568 f.p.s. with a low of 564 and a high of 575. The spread was 11 f.p.s. The muzzle energy averaged 4.64 foot-pounds. Of the pellets tested, this is the power champ by a slim margin.
Trigger-pull
The single-stage trigger breaks at 4 lbs., 13 oz. on my electronic gauge. It’s still creepy and may be a factor in the accuracy test.
From the comments that have been made, I’m anticipating a good accuracy test for the Indian. Someone said that his out-shot an Umarex Colt M1911A1. If that’s the case, this could turn out to be a wonderful air pistol. Accuracy test is coming soon!
Great stuff BB, it can indeed shoot fast. It would be interesting to see the internals of one of these, there was a strip down done in one of the UK shooting magazines some time ago, I’ll see if I can find the reference.
Oliver,
I’d be interested in reading that write up if you can find the link. So far, about all I can imagine is some short of gear or ratchet arrangement that lets you get that big of a throw on the cocking lever. It would be nice to see some closeup pics of the parts.
/Dave
Right the reference is to Air Gun World August 2005 issue. This is the publishers web site http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk/expert-advice/subscribe_to_airgun_world_magazine_1_1112990 but I suspect that this issue pre-dates the advent of digital copies. You could try emailing them. I’ll see if I can find a back issue over here.
Right I have a pdf I could send you which would help. Am happy to email it you if provide me with an address, I suggest opening a non-personal account for me to send it to and post it here (if that’s allowed by the management!). Bit disappointing, it seems it is quite difficult to actually get into the innards.
I have had this gun in silver that I bought from Air Gun Express several years ago
I liked the power and ease of cocking the gun is mostly metal,very well made and
after the artical,I dusted mine it off and rediscovered what a fine gun this is.
I think that this gun will sell big once people start using it and find the power level is in the
Beeman P1 range.This is truly a nice weapon,,much better made and with less plastic and
short cuts,It reminds me of the late Fiftie’s and sixtie era” A rugged gun that finally will
get more well known now that Pyramid has it in their line up.I can’t praise it enough and
since the review rediscoved it.
Chuck, BB, Edith
Thanks for your input from yesterday’s topic.
Chuck
I am getting over 2 inches at 10 meters with artillery hold. I have not tried RWS R-10 Match pellets. I will order some with the seal. A couple of months ago I tried to remove the mag to see if it was loaded. It would not pop out so I cycled the mechanism and shot into the ground. I did not notice a shot coming out but I thought I was mistaken so I shot again 1 foot from a paper target before I knew I had a problem. I got the magazine out but a wooden dowel proved that I had a plugged barrel. I unscrewed the barrel after finding out from a Yellow blogger that that was possible and knocked the pellets out with the dowel. I cleaned the barrel Ballistol soaked patches then dry patches and reassembled it. When I cocked the rifle I realized that it was unusually hard to bring home the last inch or so of the cocking arm, but I continued anyway. The group, although I did not measure it, looked bigger than ever and way to the right of POA. I diagnosed that I probably may have damaged the seal during the dry firing and put the rifle aside for a re seal.
Ton,
Yeowch! Yes, 2″ at 10m is way too big. You should be getting no more than .25″ to .5″ with most pellets. Multiple cocking without shooting does stack multiple pellets into the chamber. This is to be avoided, obviously. I don’t know if that can ruin a barrel, though. If all else fails you can send it to Jim Macarri if he’s not swamped with jobs, and he can do his magic.
-Chuckj
You can’t hurt a barrel by packing a bunch of pellets in it. What WILL hurt a barrel is if you try to remove them the wrong way. If you try driving a steel rod down the barrel to remove them, (particularly from the muzzle) you are likely to bugger the crown.
twotalon
chuckj,
Is Jim Macarri working on airguns now?
kevin
No he does not and hasn’t for many years.
Kevin,
Thank you for calling me on that. I don’t think he is anymore. According to his web site dated 8/2/2012 he is not doing tuning and repair anymore. I think Mike Melick will though. He worked on one of my 61s but that was a year ago.
Ton,
If you should decide to have Mike work on your 61 you can try to contact him at:
flyingdragonairrifles@hotmail.com
However, the last time I had correspondence with him, a year ago, he was heading for China. I don’t know where he is now but you could at least try that email address.
-Chuckj
Ton,
The hard cocking you’re having now doesn’t sound like a bad seal to me. I’d suspect a broken spring or a damaged bolt probe. You might want to check that the cocking lever is not binding on the stock if it’s adjusted all the way forward. Although it is possible, I don’t think dry firing a couple times will damage the seal. If you have dry fired a lot it’s more likely. My grandkids have dry fired theirs many times by accident, mainly because it takes experience before you can tell when the last shot is fired, and their 61s are still working fine. I always look at the number of holes visible in the mag AFTER each shot and if I see three holes I know it’s empty.
I usually avoid spring piston powerplants. But the looks of this pistol interests me. How does holding an SP pistol differ from other power sources? I.E. Co2, or HPA.
Is there some form of modified artillary hold?
Jonnie,
You could call the hold for an air pistol a modified artillery hold, I suppose. What really is, is the hold for a 1911 Colt pistol. You don’t fight the recoil but let it bounce in your hand.
B.B.
B.B. …
Off the topic a bit …
I have been having CIFs (Curiosity Induced Fits) at the rate of two per month ever since you went to the Shot Show in January and introduced me to a Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Pistol. I would have bought one in January, right on the spot. PAs website has moved the delivery date once a month, every month since then. Today I went to check again and they have postponed it until February! Crosman doesn’t even reply my email requests any more. I am thinking that you two guys ought to have the scoop on that piece since I know one of you keeps a pretty good ear to the ground and the other one uses more traditional methods, like a computer or the phone. Do you have any idea what the story is?
NRS
John,
Don’t blame Pyramyd AIR. Criosman has moved the shipping date on this and many other imported products many times. Pyramyd AIR is simply trying to keep up with the latest reported information.
B.B.
Oops … I am really sorry if I gave that impression. I know that the hold up is at Crosman, not with PA. A business can’t sell something that they don’t have. That’s why I said that Crosman doesn’t even answer my requests for information at all any more. They have given me several explanations for why the item is being held up but, after all this time, those reasons don’t apply any more. They have actually given me 3 or 4 different dates over the months. So, sorry PA, if I pointed my finger your way on that. You must feel the same way that I do. I only mentioned PA as it was the PA web site (where I go about once a week) where I saw the February date. I want to give one of these as a present. It was a birthday present originally, then it became a End of School Year present, now it could have been a Christmas present. By the time it comes out, our shooter will be a year older, and may be skillful enough to warrant something better, and we’ll miss out on it all together. It is a really great idea, as I see it, and would be perfect at the present time. Sorry PA, it isn’t you.
Hmm……perhaps Crosman should look into building them here? It might (or might not) cost a bit more but you can’t sell what you don’t have. Have you noticed that items that are imported are starting to rise in price? Some of the American made items cost less!
Mike