by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
Black Ops Junior Sniper combo
This report covers:
- Informative
- Scope
- Sight-in
- Premier lite pellets first
- Pumping is easy
- Pellets difficult to load
- H&N Baracuda Match pellets with 4.53mm heads
- Final thoughts
Informative
This will be our final look at the Black Ops Junior Sniper air rifle combo. Today, I’ll mount the scope and shoot the rifle from 25 yards. I thought this report would just be about the rifle and scope; but, in fact, I learned 2 other very important lessons. So, today’s blog will be informative. There are also two short instructional videos.
Scope
The scope that comes with this combo is the cheapest kind of optical sight you can buy. It’s a 4x scope with a very skinny tube — less than .75 inches. The rings come already attached, so all I had to do was clamp them to the top of the rifle, and the job was done. That said, I had no idea if the scope would even be on the paper at 25 yards.
I couldn’t adjust the eyepiece to the point that the reticle lines were in focus. So, everything you’re about to see was from me guessing where the horizontal crosshair was located. The vertical line was sharper, and I think that will show up as we go.
Sight-in
I always sight in a smallbore airgun at 12 feet to make sure I’m on the paper back to 25 yards. Holding on the center of the bull, the pellet stuck the same bull I was aiming at on its 9 o’clock edge. That means the pellet is shooting slightly to the left and way too high when I back up to 25 yards. At 12 feet, I want the pellet to strike the paper as far below the aim point as the scope is above the bore. I had no idea how much or little the scope’s adjustments would move things, so I cranked the vertical adjustment knob down about 3 complete turns. I also adjusted the scope to the right about half a turn.
At 25 yards, the first shot hit the target 3 inches above the point of aim and well-centered on the bull, so I cranked the vertical adjustment down some more. In all, it took 4 additional shots before I was sighted in.
Premier lite pellets first
When I tested the rifle with pellets at 10 meters, 2 pellets stood out. The first of them were Crosman Premier lites; and since I’d already sorted them by head size, I shot those that have a 4.54mm head. I used 6 pump stroke per shot. Ten pellets went into 1.254 inches. Given how blurry the crosshairs were, I felt that was pretty good. I was glad they all went into the pellet trap!
Ten Crosman Premier lite pellets (yes, there really are 10 pellets in this group) are in this 1.254-inch group. Given how blurry the scope reticle was, I think this is great! This was the best 25-yard group of the day.
Pumping is easy
When a scope is mounted on a multi-pump, it sometimes becomes difficult to pump because you can’t grab the rifle where you need to. That isn’t the case with the Black Ops. I could hold it on the stock just behind the pistol grip and pump the rifle as easily as before the scope was mounted.
Pellets difficult to load
As I was shooting the first target and struggling with loading the pellets, I remembered a gift that blog reader Jerry gave me at the Findlay airgun show this year. It was a pair of tweezers with an angled tip. I went to my office and got them for the next target. At first, I had to learn how best to use them, but that took only about 5 shots. After that, I was loading pellets with tweezers as fast as I could load them in a regular breech with my hands.
H&N Baracuda Match pellets with 4.53mm heads
The next pellet I shot was the other one that did well at 10 meters — the H&N Baracuda Match with 4.53mm heads. H&N no longer makes this pellet with this head size, so I linked you to the same pellets with 4.52mm heads. That’s as close as I can get. And, because these pellets are much heavier, I did shoot them with 7 pump strokes instead of 6.
This string was where I learned another important thing, and it slapped me right in the face like a clown with a wet codfish. I was shooting a good group with this pellet — very close to the same size as the Premier group until shot 9. The rifle sounded weaker on that shot, and the pellet took noticeably longer to get to the target. And, I could see the hole in the target paper below the bull I’d been hitting. The pellet had dropped lower on the target.
I thought I must have miscounted the pump strokes, so I was careful to put in 7 strokes for the next shot. But that one sounded even weaker, took longer to get downrange and hit the paper about 3 inches below the last shot! Was the rifle broken?
Then, I remembered that this is a multi-pump, and multi-pumps need to be oiled. I never had one quit so suddenly, but I got the Crosman Pellgunoil and oiled the pump head. And, guess what? The next 2 shots came back up on the paper like shot 9 and were clearly going faster again. The first 8 shots went into 0.993 inches.
The first 8 H&N Baracuda Match pellets landed on the bull, but shot 9 took a dive and shot 10 was really low. I oiled the pump head and look where shots 11 and 12 hit. The first 8 shots measure 0.993 inches between centers.
I had to know if oiling the gun brought it fully back, so I shot another 10 Baracuda Match pellets at a second target. The first 6 pellets hit below the bull, then the shots climbed back into the center of the bull. Oil was all that was needed. No sense measuring this group because the point on impact was constantly changing.
A second target shot with the same Baracuda Match pellets. The group started out low and gradually climbed back into the bull.
I feel that oiling the pump head is important enough that I made a short video to show you where and how to oil it. All multi-pumps are pretty much the same when it comes to this, so the video has a broad application.
Final thoughts
The Black Ops Junior Sniper combo turned out to be a surprise. The rifle was accurate, and the power was okay. I don’t care for the trigger, which is too heavy, and I really dislike the pump handle that tries to look like an M16 magazine. The scope is useless, but the open sights work fine.
The rifle is easy to pump and cock; but when loading pellets one at a time, the large BB hole in the rear of the loading trough is a danger. Pellets can drop in. By using tweezers, you can precisely control where the pellet goes.
All things considered, I believe the Black Ops Junior Sniper is a worthwhile multi-pump that sells at a nice price.
I could have sworn that you had already had to lube this gun and commented on it, but I can’t find that in the older blogs… wonder which gun that was.
Tim,
It may have been this one, or another very much like it. But these things thrive on oil and need a lot of it.
B.B.
Wait a second here. You say that this thing has a heavy trigger, is hard to load, the scope is trash, is no more accurate than a cheap sproinger and is so ugly that only an eight year old wannabe commando would play with it and you say it is worth buying?
Yes, I have to agree that it looks odd to note so many negatives and then conclude that it’s a worthwhile purchase.
It is functional and for 60 bucks…as long as you don’t expect too much except a visit from a SWAT team…
RR,
You didn’t read that carefully. The scope is garbage, but with the sights, the gun is accurate. Go back and look at Part 3. The gun is easy to pump. A lot of them aren’t.
The trigger is bad, but most of them are.
You have to pick through the good points and the bad to make your decision.
B.B.
Easier to pump than cheap springer? Check.
Less expensive than a cheap springer? Check.
No funny recoil to make shooting more difficult? Check.
Variable velocity to give you more options for pest control? Check.
Really quiet on lower pump numbers so that it is backyard friendly where even cheap springers aren’t? Check.
Ability to use bbs if you want? Check.
So it shoots slower than a cheap springer, and it takes more work to pump it up to full power. It’s a basic multi pump pneumatic, this is how they are. Seems like reasonably good accuracy. Too bad it’s so ugly. Might get one anyway at some point.
Tim,
I certainly wouldn’t use this for pest control. It doesn’t have enough power.
Edith
Guess that depends on what you mean by pest control. 7 fpe is more than enough for rats and mice, and within a reasonable distance, is plenty for rabbits and squirrels with a head shot. Various birds would be well within the bounds of what this rifle can handle as well, provided you can hit what you are aiming at.
Some people might disagree, but I use a daisy 880 (virtually the same power) to dispatch rabbits when I butcher them, and a pellet or bb to the head never fails to dispatch them properly.
Tim,
You’re probably remembering the APX that required frequent oiling, it’s another one that looks like a reskinned 880
I got tired of waiting for this comment to post and moved on and when I hit the reply button for this comment it’s still here!
🙂
Rwb
I watched a buddy dispatch a chicken with a 760;the mpuzzle was resting at the base ofIt’s skull so I expected it to go well but Whatta mess! 2 of his daughters went in to wash off blood that thing squirted all over the backyard while running around like a Zombie chicken.
Yeah, but chickens have been known to do that with their heads removed… if he had it aimed properly and pumped up enough the brain was destroyed instantly.
I read about one that lasted 2 years by being fed via eyedropper!
But my point was that guns of this power range are more limited than the numbers make them appear.
B.B.,
Threre is a similar tweezer made, but,…the tips cross. They open when you squeeze and clamp when you let go,…giving you much better control. I picked them up a craft/hobby store. Silicone finger tip grips and finely pointed and curved tips. 4 5/8″ long. Very nice.
Chris
Thank you BB for this test of a inexpensive bb/pellet rifle. A lot of your younger reader’s finances are such that guns like this are all they can afford. Even some of us oldsters are on limited budgets. So again thanks.
Now, to ask a embarrassing question. As a newbie airgunner what does “Minute of Pop Can” accuracy mean? I would take it that I would have to fire a minute at that @#$%^ pop can before I ever hit it Thank you and your readers again for a great blog. Harvey
Harvey,
That term is a colloquial slang takeoff on the term minute of angle — which shooters use to mean one-inch at 100 yards. Angles are measured in degrees, which are then divided into smaller increments called minutes. A minute is 1/60 of a degree, or very close to one inch at 100 yards.
Minute of pop can means it’s good enough to roll a pop can.
B.B.
Thank you very much BB. Another thing I have learned here !
You’ll see minute of “whatever” used a lot in the shooting community, like, minute of pop can at 20 yards, minute of squirrel head at 35 yards, etc, just means you can hit that at that given distance. BB gives a good explanation of where that comes from.
Ahh, the ol’ 4×15 scope. I remember when that was the air rifle standard, with very few other rings or scopes even available. Better pellets and better glass are the two most dramatic changes I’ve seen since those early airgun days. The quality of modern scopes, even at the lower price points, is just amazing compared to those of yore.
Reminiscent of peering through a dirty soda straw!
B.B.,
Glad to see you found a use for those tweezers. That simple tool can significantly reduce the “frustration factor” when loading many types of airguns.
Take care,
Jerry
Jerry,
I told you I would use them. This was the first opportunity. Thanks again,
B.B.
Given this kind of performance, I’d either pay the about the same price for a 1077 or spend another hundred dollars and get a 397 Benjamin.
Me too but as a kid I was unable to buy pellets fo ammo, let alone co2!
Reb,
How does your modified Crosman 2100 shoot at 25 yards? I tried putting more barrel shims inside the shroud of my 664 but it really didn’t improve the accuracy. Still getting random flyers.
I have a Crosman model 664, which is the same as a model 66. It came with a similiar scope to this air rifle…..meaning a pretty terrible one. When someone suggests that a break barrel spring piston air gun would be “better” than a multi pump, that may be true for them. But, for those of us that can’t get a springer to group worth a darn, a multi pump may be best. My 664, due to the accuracy it showed me with its good open sights, was rewarded with a good 3×9 AO air gun scope. Pretty good trigger, easy to pump, capable of tiny one hole 10 yard groups, and does it with a good selection of cheap pellets. As in it shoots great with Crosman Premier hollow points, but, its favorite looks like Winchester round nose. We have a chicken coop and the rats like to come in at night and have a rat party. I can’t afford a good night vision scope, so I picked up a cheap red led flashlight. One of those small ones that they like to call a “tactical” flashlight. I used two straps that came with a guitar cord I bought to velco it to the barrel. I had read that, with a red light, you won’t spook the little buggers. I set up a lawn chair 7 yards from the feeder in the coop. I went out at about 8:00. Can’t see real well with this setup, but my eye will acclimate to the available light, and I can see the crosshairs. The red light makes the rat eyes glow, so its real obvious when one comes into view. Don’t know what the velocity is, but I used 8 pumps, and put a Winchester round nose close to the rats left eye. It killed him real dead and he never left the feeder.
The Model 664 is WAY more quiet than any springer. And, though we have an acre, shooting, say, my Crosman Phantom at night may well bring out the gendarmes. The rats here, on Hawaii’s big island, can often have a disease called rat lungworm. This can be passed on to humans, and has. It can be fatal. And while I have no remorse in shooting rats, I want it to be a quick kill. The 664 does the job, and with my $9.00 red flashlight, I can take them in the dark. I would like to have a Benjamin 397 or even 392, but the 664 does a good job.
Jon,
Great story! My Remington Airmaster77 is my most reliable gun and also loves the Winchester roundnose and they do a fine job together for just about anything shy of a squirrel
Reb, I have a Remington Airmaster 77 also. It is a very solid air rifle, and it is a great shooter! If it was stolen, I’d grab a new Crosman 2100B in a heartbeat. The Remington was dropped years ago. Glad I got mine first. I am a multi pump fan. The 664 is all plastic, while the Remington has a metal receiver.
Sounds like a case of getting what you pay for. That’s some admirable problem-solving. I hope I do the same on my next range trip. I am jealous of the four yard range for sighting in. The best I will have is 7 yards but hopefully that is close enough to track down the errant red dot sight.
Speaking of which, a Delta Force veteran writes that most red dots are useless at 100 yards and greater. I know that they are designed for close quarters, but I didn’t think they were this limited. I always thought that they were a better alternative to iron sights but clearly not since good iron sights can reach out hundreds of yards.
Also, does anyone actually shoot bugs with airguns?
Matt61
I love breaking out the RedRyder on wasps collecting mud for their nests!
The thing about dot sights is they’re designed to cover the point of aim and although some are more adjustable than others,the dot takes up space obscuring actual aimpoint.
Reb:
I have my red dot on my 1377 adjusted for a six o’clock hold at 10 yards so as to not obscure the aim point. At 10 yards, the pellet will hit just above the red dot. I find a red dot (or green dot in my case) to be not as precise as a good open sight but with my old eyes seeing the rear sight is somewhat problematic.
Jim
That’s the way I had mine set on my 953 before I pulled and lost it somewhere.I had planned. Putting it on my 2400KT but can’t find it anywhere.
Reb:
I’m always putting stuff up in safe places – the kind that is so safe that it is never seen again.
I mounted a bugbuster on my 2400 and love it. The only problem with the bugbuster is that it only comes with weaver rings so I ordered the 11mm high rings to go with it. I wish they would offer the bugbuster with an option for choice of rings. Take a look at Hive Seeker’s series on the 2400 – mine is set up very similar to his 2400 and was inspired by his gun.
BTW, Hive Seeker, thanks for the great series on the 2400. I ordered mine after reading your series and love it. My 2400 is in .177 with the 18″ barrel.
Jim
Jim,
Part 7 of that series is coming next week.
B.B.
Great! I’ll be looking for that one for sure!
B.B.,
That is great to hear. Part 6 left me wanting more!
Thanks,
Jim
Great! I’ll be looking for that one for sure!
Bugs ???? YES !!!!
I could not even guess how many grasshoppers, wasps , bumblebees , horseflies, and house flies I have wacked . A few spiders too . Can’t forget the tomato hornworms either .
Twotalon
As a family we spent many a night in the garden shooting slugs with our break barrel Pioneer .177 rifles and pistols. Then we graduated to shooting mole crickets in the basement with felt cleaning pellets. Lots of fun.
Bruce
Bruce
Never used cleaning pellets . Have never bought any. Always used metal or air . A muzzle blast from a pumper at close range works good on flies in the house . I have used pellets in the house too .
Then there is the bug-a-salt .
I did take out a cockroach one time with a shock absorber. Got a good swing on him too. Would probably have killed a wild pig.
twotalon
🙂
Twotalon,
“bug-a-salt” ???? What’s that ?
Assuming the shock was a “gas piston”. 😉
Chris
Chris
Bug-a-salt is a salt shooting airgun .
The shock absorber was a front end shock for a of a ’63 chevy.
twotalon
Twotalon,
Well,….All I can say is ,….interesting choice of “loads” and bug control up your way !
Not sure I want to ask,….but how does one shoot salt from an airgun ? Felt cleaner(s), with salt in-between ?
Chris
Chris
It’s made to shoot a pinch of table salt from a reservoir on top with each shot. Just cock, aim, and fire . Great for flies that land in places where a swatter don’t work too well.
twotalon
Twotalon:
I had never heard of the Bug-a-salt gun until your comment. I looked it up on the internet and found the Bug-a-salt 2.0 listed. May I suggest a guest blog on it, B.B. willing.
It looks like fun.
Jim
Jim
A blog would be too much like work .
twotalon
Jim,
I might do one of my own.
We have flies.
B.B.
Twotalon,
If you want to get more spiders go spider sniffing. Just hold a flashlight at the end of your nose at twilight or dark and spot them by the green reflection of their eyes.
G&G
Well guys,….that’s about all I can handle.
So far today I have learned about:
– You can keep headless chicken alive for 2 years with an eye dropper
– Cockroaches can be taken with a ’63 front shock absorber
– Fly’s are better when “salted”
– Spiders have green eyes and can be seen by tapeing a flash light to the end of your nose
I don’t even want to think about what kind of dreams I am going to have tonight !
Love ya all,…outa here,…Chris
Try not to think about the chicken snake I rode past yesterday as it was expiring from vehicular contact. You start looking at them very closely @about 10′ and closing.
🙂
I wouldn’t say that Red Dot Sights are useless at 100 yard. My Romanian AKM is at least as good with them as it is with the iron sights at that distance. They are faster for sure.
Mike
BB–Chris– The use of forceps (tweezers) to load pellets reminds me of a bit of firearms history. 1918-9, the US army is developing .22 cal trainers (at Springfield armory), as are other countries. Winchester joins them with there no legendary model 52. Savage also creates the almost forgotten model 1919. The intent is to fire timed and rapid fire stages as well as slow fire. Up till now, all .22 target matches were slow fire (single shot rifles used). Most matches were offhand (“stand on your legs and shoot like a man” Harry Pope ?). The Savage 1919 is designed to to be shot from a magazine only.The problem was that the best target ammo had un or slightly crimped bullets. This was fine for single shot rifles. Shooters now used this king of ammo for the slow fire stage because of its greater accuracy. This ammo jammed when shooters tried to use it in magazines. The most important complaint of the Savage was that you had to use tweezers to load it single shot. Savage corrected this problem, and there are at least 4 different models of the 1919, until it was phased out in the 1930,s. (I have an example of the 4 types). Then rimfire target shooting took a wrong (in my opinion) turn. Instead of slow, timed, rapid fire, (like pistol shooting) It became all slow fire. The public perception of a target rifle is a heavy , clumsy, single shot International rifle. If .22 target rifles were semi-auto, the concept of the bad gun ” assault ” rifle might not exist in the public (so called) mind today. All because .22 cal match shooters were allowed to load single rounds instead of using a magazine.
Ed,
There’s a bit of history I never knew. My shooting buddy, Otho, has a beautiful 1919 NRA Savage that I have been thinking about getting for several years. But I already own a Remington model 37. Wouldn’t that be going backwards?
Oh, well!
Four variations of the 1919, you say?
B.B.
PS–Please ignore the word NO, before legendary. Ed
I like multipumps, at 5 pumps they don’t take very long or are much work. 392’s are hard to pump though and I imagine 397 are too.
My Remington Airmaster can be a workout too!
Jorg is at it again!
Now he’s copied the bug a salt but bigger.
BB –The second model of the 1919 had an enlarged ejection port so that the rifle could be loaded with single rounds, instead of using the detachable box magazine. The third model had an ejector that could be moved and locked out of the way so that it did not rub against the cleaning rod, The forth and final model had cock on opening, the firing pin had a single point (instead of the double points on the original pin). The serial # was relocated so that it was easier to see it. Since the 1919 weighs only 7 lbs, it was more of an entry level or a junior rifle (like the Rem 513 and the Win 75). It cost about half of what a Win 52 or a Springfield cost. However, many shooters were able to shoot good scores with it. The 1919 is an important part of smallbore history . There is also the challenge to see how well you can shoot with this antiquated rifle. I have a collection of target rifles (including Rem 37,s and Win 52,s) but I enjoy shooting my 1919,s and other training rifles more than the more sophisticated rifles. If you can try out Othos 1919, I am sure that you will want to own it. Ed
Ed,
I might have to do that. It sounds fascinating.
Where did you get so much information on this rifle?
B.B.
BB–My information for the Savage 1919 comes from–“The Rifle in America ” by Phil Sharpe, “Small Bore Rifle shooting” by Captain Crossman (1927,this book is a gold mine re .22 cal target rifles circa 1920,s) Shooting a few 1919,s over the past 60 years, Owning and shooting 4 1919,s ( one of each model), starting my shooting career at the Manhattan School for Firearms in 1956-7. I met many old time shooters whose stories and information went back as far as 1919-20. This is a partial list, off the top of my head. I hope that you can get a copy of Crossmans book, as well as the one he wrote about the 1903 and other military, target and sporting rifles . Ed
Ed,
I will look for Crossman’s book.
Thank you.
B.B.