by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 8
Today’s report is the continuation of a guest blog from blog reader HiveSeeker about his Crosman 2400KT.
If you’d like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.
Over to you, HiveSeeker.
The 2400KT CO2 carbine is available exclusively from the Crosman Custom Shop.
This report covers:
- Gremlins!
- .177 accuracy — Wow!
- Air Arms Falcon pellets
- Crosman Premier light pellets (boxed)
- Gamo Tomahawk pellets
- H&N Field Target Trophy pellets
- H&N Finale Match Pistol pellets
- RWS Hobby pellets
- RWS Superdome pellets
- Scope swap
- .177 conclusion
In my earliest airgunning days, despite being a novice shooter of only 14, I had a remarkable revelation one day. After spending countless hours with my beloved Crosman 760, it hit me: I could actually shoot better than my gun! I’d reached the point where no amount of practice would improve my groups with the equipment I had. Today, I’m pleased that I’ve graduated to owning a few guns that put me on the better side of those tracks, and the Crosman 2400KT is one of them.
When I wrote the blog on the Winchester MP4, I shot at least three groups with every pellet tested. This turned out to be a lot of work and also resulted in charges (never proven) that I was turning my wife into something she called a “blog widow”! With two guns to test in this report, time limitations didn’t make a repeat performance possible. I tested each pellet at least once from a bench rest using10-shot groups at 10 yards. Pellets that showed promise received further testing, with the best promoted to the 20-yard test.
Gremlins!
Did you know that at the beginning of World War II, the United States Air Force had only 800 airplanes? And as the specter of world domination, and finally Pearl Harbor, thrust our nation into an era of unprecedented industrialism and engineering, something odd cropped up in that burgeoning Air Force: Gremlins! These gremlins were intermittent mechanical problems in aircraft that the engineers just couldn’t pin down, and they became legend among the pilots and crews of that era. Why am I telling you this? Because great-great-grand-gremlins have taken up residence in my pellet bin. My two Crosman 2400KTs shoot very well most of the time. But a frustrating number of my groups have a single renegade pellet that insists on thinking outside the box, really opening up its group. Much like their World War II ancestors, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when one of my pellet gremlins will show up. Sit back and observe!
.177 accuracy — Wow!
My eyesight’s still pretty good; but as I started measuring my group sizes, I found it helpful to lay the target over a colored sheet of paper that contrasted sharply with both the white target background and the black bulls-eye. This proved especially helpful with those Raggedy Ann domed pellet groups. As unmanly as it may sound, hot pink worked best! I decided to take my accuracy photos the same way to show you what I’m talking about.
There were several different ways I could have arranged my results for accuracy testing the wife’s .177 Sassy Sandy 2400KT with a 10.1-inch Lothar Walther barrel. Ultimately, an alphabetical arrangement of the pellets seemed the most organized — even though you’ll get the happy ending of this story right at the very beginning. With so many different pellets tested, we’ll concentrate on only the best performers.
Air Arms Falcon pellets
The Air Arms Falcon will get us off to a fine start with the .177 2400KT but will also spill the beans on accuracy in this gun. This pellet is one of B.B.’s standbys because it performs well in a variety of guns, and the Falcon does not disappoint here: 10 pellets went into 0.254 inches center-to-center. A pencil eraser’s width at 10 yards — very, very nice!
Ten Air Arms Falcons all squeezed into 0.254 inches center-to-center at 10 yards. We’re just getting started, and the cat’s already out of the bag: The Crosman 2400KT with the .177 Lothar Walther barrel can shoot! Here you also see how a contrasting color background made the groups pop.
Crosman Premier light pellets (boxed)
If B.B. has a standard .177 pellet, the boxed Crosman Premier Light is it. Ten went into 0.302 inches thanks to a single gremlin pellet at the top left of this group, but look closer: 9 went into 0.162 inches center-to-center. Wow! That’s less than a single pellet diameter and as good as we’ll see from this gun! This is one pellet that definitely makes this pistol shoot better than I can.
Wow! I think I just discovered why B.B. is so fond of these: 10 Crosman Premier Lights in .302 inches, which is not bad, but 9 went into 0.162 inches. That’s really, really tight!
Gamo Tomahawk pellets
The economy-class Gamo Tomahawk really surprised me! A single gremlin made this group 0.530 inches big, but the other 9 pellets went into an itty-bitty 0.277-inch hole.
Yet another gremlin spoils an otherwise excellent group. Overall size is 0.530 inches, but 9 well-behaved pellets stayed inside 0.277 inches! Sweet!
H&N Field Target Trophy pellets
The 2400KT liked the H&N Field Target Trophy pellets better than the H&N Barracuda Match, which I won’t show you here). Both pellets came from the same H&N Field Target Sampler pack. My group was 0.329 inches for the 4.50mm head size, and 0.246 inches for the 4.51mm head size — both very nice! The 4.52mm pellets shot widest at 0.368 inches. From my testing of all head sizes for both the FTT and Barracuda Match, I’d say that, overall, the 2400KT seems to prefer the smaller heads — perhaps, due to that choked barrel.
The best of the H&N Field Target Trophy — 0.246 inches for the 4.51mm head size. The 2400KT likes the FTT!
H&N Finale Match Pistol pellets
I shot two groups with the H&N Finale Match Pistol, with the first measuring 0.351 inches overall; and the second measuring larger at 0.426 inches, but with 9 shots landing inside of 0.278 inches. A group that small 90% of the time isn’t bad!
This group of H&N Finale Match Pistol measures 0.426 inches, but 9 pellets fit into 0.278 inches. Curse you, gremlin!
RWS Hobby pellets
Gremlins get into another one of B.B.’s favorites! Ten RWS Hobbys went into a respectable 0.347 inches, but 9 are in one itty-bitty 0.173-inch hole! This one’s a keeper!
The RWS Hobby shoots better than I can! Ten pellets make a decently small group at 0.347 inches; but if you ignore that gremlin to the lower right, and you can see that 9 fit into 0.173 inches center-to-center! That’s less than a single pellet diameter . . . I’m duly impressed!
RWS Superdome pellets
A popular field target pellet, the RWS Superdome, does very well here at 0.300 inches even.
This group measures exactly 0.300 inches wide. Wrap it up — I’ll take it!
Below is a summary table of all my accuracy results with the .177 Sassy Sandy. While most pellets shot well, space limited today’s discussion to only the cream of the crop.
Accuracy results from 24 different pellets tested in the .177 2400KT with 10.1-inch Lothar Walther match barrel. Eighteen (75%) grouped under half an inch. There were a number of gremlins in these groups, so where applicable I listed the best 9-in-10.
*Best 8-in-10.
Scope swap
You’ll remember from part 1 that I was using a CV Life 3-9×40 economy scope that had already served me well on a couple other airguns. This was just a temporary measure until I could finance some better glass — specifically something with a parallax-reducing adjustable objective. I was looking for something close to the same weight to keep this gun as light as possible for my wife (the Sassy Sandy’s namesake). The lightest scope whose reviews I liked turned out to be the Hawke Sport HD 3-9×40 AO at 16 oz.
Here’s the Sassy Sandy sporting her new Hawke Sport HD 3-9×40 AO scope!
I hoped for a significant improvement in group size. However, for 15 different pellets, the CV Life groups averaged 0.578 inches, while the Hawke groups averaged 0.429 inches — an improvement of only 0.149 inches (26%) at 10 yards. Apparently, parallax was not as much of an issue with the CV Life scope as I’d feared. Note that out of those 15 pellets, however, the Hawke generated the smallest group for 12 of them — so it definitely makes a difference. Another big bonus with the Hawke was having my target in sharp focus instead of blurry, as it was with the CV Life — even at a low 3x.
Remember — smaller numbers are better! The Hawke Sport HD 3-9×40 AO shot smaller groups than the CV Life 3-9×40 for all but 3 of the 15 pellets tested (marked by arrows). Average group size was 0.429 inches for the Hawke and 0.578 inches for the CV Life.
.177 conclusion
As you can see, the Crosman 2400KT liked nearly every pellet I fed it. The choked Lothar Walther barrel does seem to help keep those groups nice and tight! Performance here was as good as what B.B. found when he tested the very similar Crosman 2300T and 2300S CO2 match pistols at 15 yards. My concluding statement for the 2400KT .177 accuracy test is: “Wow!” In addition to the power of this CO2 pistol in .22, the accuracy of this fine little carbine in .177 is the other most significant thing I have to report about the Crosman 2400KT.
Editor’s note: HiveSeeker’s report goes on to report his findings for his .22-caliber 2400KT, but the report is so long that I’m saving that part for another day. That one will end this series.
Regarding the gremlins, you should try the pellet sizer BB has been reviewing.
I’ve been eyeing that pellet sizer! I’ve got some higher priority purchases on my shopping list, but there may be one in my future.
Have you ever tried a RWS Diana LP8 or a Daisy Avanti 747? Also looks like a Hatsan Model 25 SuperTact Vortex is right up your ally. …. Are PCP’s next for you?
Nice report!
-Y
Yogi,
Thank you! Never had a chance to try those other guns, and the Hatsan 25 SuperTact velocity was lower than I wanted (and lower than was advertised). I did just get a Marauder that I’m pretty excited about!
Hiveseeker
What caliber Marauder did you get?
And the comment about have to be able to see your target to hit it was directed towards your CV scope. I should of been more direct. But yes a clear sharp focus from your scope makes a big difference in your groups.
Is that table for the .177 or .22, or a mix?
Yes, that’s the .22 table — I’ve asked B.B. to swap it out.
HS,
Done.
B.B.
Glad they’re working well for you Hiveseeker!
I gotta HIpac in mine now and considering going up to .25.
Thanks for this series!
I haven’t been able to chrony it yet, but I did get my .25cal working correctly. The trigger stop screw just needed to be backed off a few turns…It wasn’t allowing the sear to completely disengage. I had to tear thw whole thing apart to figure this out. With a 2kpsi fill and a 6 inch shroud, this this is quiet! At 50 yards it makes a can filled with water explode. The slap of these heavy pellets hitting the target is twice as loud as the report…
Great review, thanks!
Just a point or so.
The Air Force didn’t become a separate branch until 1947.
Before then, I believe it was the Army Air Corps.
But I may be wrong.
45Bravo
I do believe you are wrong about the Air Force as my father was a B-26 bomber copilot in WWII and was an Air Force lieutenant so it would be difficult for the Air Force not to be a separate branch and him be a lieutenant in the Air Force during WWII.
Great review Hiveseeker but just wondering why only ten yards as a accuracy distance especially with the non adjustable parallax scope as it would have been a clearer sight picture out at 20 or 25 yards.
BD
Buldawg
My wife’s dad was a bomber copilot in World War ll.
He gave me his flight jacket back in 1980 when I started dating my wife. I still have it to this day. And its in excellent shape. Another one of those things I will never get rid of.
And I wondered also why Hiveseeker was shooting at 10 yards for more than one reason.
Gunfun1
I still have my dads bomber jacket as well and like you it is in as new well worn in condition and will never be out of the family as it will handed down to my kids.
There is so much we have in common that its a wonder its a wonder that are Dads were mot stationed at the same base at one time or another and yet we have never met. Its is a small world sometimes isn’t it.
BD
Buldawg
It was my wife’s dad. But still. You never know. They could of ran across each other while they were serving.
Gunfun1
yea I let my fingers get ahead of my brain again as I realized it after I hit the post button, but you are they may have ran across each other at some point as my dad was a lifer and retired in 1967 after 27 years as a Lieutenant Coronel from the Air force and then went into civil service for another 17 years,
BD
Buldawg
I don’t have much detail on what my wifes dad service was. He didn’t talk much about it at all. And he was retired from the Airforce when I met him. He worked part time as a grade school custodian for many years.
Gunfun1
My dad did not like to talk about it much either and what info I got was at my persistent questions as I wanted to know what my dad went thru in the WWII and the Korean war as he was a Copilot in both wars. He would never say how many of his men were killed on any missions but only mainly that there were more times than he cared to remember that they barley got the plane back to the base with it still in one piece.
He did say that there was many occasions were they only had one or two engines still running and could barley keep it in the air but somehow always managed to get it home when many other did not make it. he had a very good friend that was shot down and was a prisoner of war for many years until they got them all freed and luckily his good friend managed to survive the prison camps as the Germans would routinely move prisoners from one camp to another in order to keep us from being able to keep track of the camps and who was actually in them.
BD
Buldawg
My dad was in the Korean war. He did talk about some of the things that went on. I will just say here that he was a very good shot with his gun. Part of his job was to secure a area and then survey it. Like for MASH units and such. So I was lucky enough to be taught a thing or two about the shooting part of his job.
Gunfun1
its sound like you got taught a good bit actually by your dad and he was one of the first ones in which made a very big difference in the rest of the efforts that would be setup and carried out from his giving the green light to move the troops in and setup base.
BD
Buldawg
Was lucky that my dad taught me. We had the farm so that took up some time but had plenty of room to shoot.
So any chance we got to shoot together I was happy. I just wish I would of took the time to listen better.
But I do think I caught some of the things he was teaching me. Just some. 🙂
Gunfun1
Some is better than none as we always look back and wish things had been different or we had made different choices.
BD
Buldawg
Had some fun little shooting completion between him and my brother.
He always got to make the rule of the game. It wasn’t till years later that I realized that he was actually teaching us about shooting.
Suppose to say shooting competition.
Gunfun1
Learning is always seems to work better when its made to be fun as well as educational that way you don’t actually know you are being taught.
BD
Agreed;
10yd is too close to tell which pellets group the best. 20-25yd seems more appropriate.
Fienwerk
Agree 100% with you.
BD
It seems the name was changed to USAAF in 1941 but it wasn’t split off from the Army as the USAF until 1947. Interesting stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Corps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force
I didn’t know the dates but we learned em back then.My Step dad was in the Army Air Corps at the ripe age of 17(had a bum sign the papers).it was definitely USAF when I joined in’86
Bravo and crew,
Ha, we do have some WWII buffs in the ranks!
Yes, at the start of WWII it was the precursor of the Air Force, the United States Army Air Corps. The Air Force came later, and had a lot more than 800 airplanes when it was established. There wasn’t space in an already-long blog to go into that much historical detail.
Carry on, gentlemen!
I have a friend, near 90 now, that was a Ball Turret Gunner on a B-17. He was wounded, 5 plus fighters to his credit, 30 missions, and another 10 as a B-17 Co-pilot. He flew light aircraft in the states and was trained in country to fly the B-17. They were really short of pilots. It was quite a tour for him.
Mike
Mike
My dad as I said above was a copilot in a B26 and he did not talk a lot about the war but when as a kid I could get him to talk about it some he would mostly tell me of the times that his pilot and him would limp his plane home with so many holes in it that it was a wonder it would even still fly.
Those old planes were built much better than most people realized and for the time they could sustain such major damage and still manage to fly home with part of the tail or rear aileron missing or flapping in the wind and we had some very dedicated and talented men in the Air force.
They gave their lives for the freedoms we are having taken away from us today and I just wonder what it will take to wake the sleeping giant again and reclaim our freedoms they fought and gave their lives for that most have forgotten.
BD
Thanks for sharing some of your friends’ and family’s WWII experiences. My father was in the Air Force, but never saw action and those years were long gone by the time I came along — so no stories. But he never stopped loving airplanes, and passed some of that fascination on to his children.
For an authentic read about what it was like to be in a WWII bomber crew, check out “The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany” by Stephen Ambrose. If you think you might be interested in doing some WWII reading but have never done so, start with “The Greatest Generation” by Tom Brokaw. That book changed the way I view my freedom as an American.
Hiveseeker
I was fortunate enough to be born and grow up in this country while most of the freedoms that my parent knew where still actually unregulated by our ever expanding and controlling govt that we have today.
There were no laws about seat belts or at what age a child could buy ammo or be out hunting by himself with out parental supervision or the need to worry about your kids being snatched up by predators as we have today.
Your parents did not have did not have to worry about disciplining their child and it become a abuse issue with child services like it is today as I got my butt whipped with a military belt many times and deserved it every time but never had any thought of my parent being abusive but quite the contrary as if they had not cared I would have not been disciplined at all.
My dad learned very soon that I would much rather have my butt whipped for doing wrong as I would be right back outside playing with my friends and never really realize what I had done wrong but when he started restricting me to my room while my friends were outside playing you might has well have put me in chains and forced me to do manual labor as it was far more painful than any belt whipping ever was.
So that’s why I sometimes make some of the statement here that I do as the true America died 50 years ago and has been in that never ending downward spiral like those coin funnel at malls and galleries were you put your coin in to slowly watch it spiral downward into the abyss never to be seen again.
That is what this country is in right now and we are very close to the end of that funnel into the abyss. As I have said many time before here UNITED WE STAND AND DIVIDED WE FALL and the current govt is doing a very good lob of dividing this country to the point that we will FALL.
BD
Howdy, Bull Doggie Dawg. AMEN Brother. Shoot/ride safe.
Beaz
Beazer
You got it bro
Shiny side up and rubber side down and your eyes on the target.
BD
Like I have said before.
How can you hit a target if you can’t see it.
The pellet guage, a set of scales and a quick pull through of the barrel after the Crosman pellets and those gremlins will disappear just like that!
Dom
Them gremlins are sneaky little son of a guns.
You never know what their going to do.
Howdy Gunner, “sneaky little son of a guns”? Very punny! Shoot/ride safe.
Beaz
Hey Beaz
I know, I know but I ain’t met a gremlin I have liked yet.
Well I got to take that back because I have. My cousin had a little Gremlin that had a built 304 in it with a 4 spd and a posi traction rear end.
I can say that can’t I on the blog here can’t I.
But that darn little Gremlin was the meanest little thing when those 70 big block Super Sport Chevelle’s got beside it. I would have to say they where afraid of that little Gremlin when it worked its magic on them.
Ok enough about the Gremlins. Back to gun stuff.
I have a friend, near 90 now, that was a Ball Turret Gunner on a B-17. He was wounded, 5 plus fighters to his credit, 30 missions, and another 10 as a B-17 Co-pilot. He flew light aircraft in the states and was trained in country to fly the B-17. They were really short of pilots. It was quite a tour for him.
Mike
I have two of the custom shop guns in 22,I added a heavy power spring
and an expanded air vent to both of them.
This report was very well done.In fact the last one prodded me to order
another Custom Shop gun, This time with the 14″ bbl.
My uncle was on a B17 and his plane went down on a low flying raid
The Japanese use to string heavy steel cable’s between two low hills
near their bases his plane tail hit one and went down.
He was MIA two weeks and I could never get enough of his
stories about those two weeks in the jungle until they were found.
I still have photo’s of him training in Florida and a V recording he sent
to my mother.
Thanks, Michael. I ordered a .177 2400KT with Lothar Walther barrel for my brother-in-law, and am thinking of ordering a second shorter-barreled .22 version for myself for offhand target shooting and plinking. They are really fun, easy-shooting guns!
My .177 2400kt has the same barrel, and the Crosman “pointed” pellets from Walmart ($2.79 for 250) are extremely accurate. I can’t seem to get any of the expensive pellets to out shoot them. My best group of 10measures .150″ at 20 yards.
I didn’t try the Crosman pointed pellets. But now I will–that’s some tight grouping!
Hiveseeker
A couple of us questioned why you shot at 10 yards and not farther out.
Well.
Something’s telling me the 20yd testing is in the part of this report where the .22 testing is covered.
Reb
Yea I see where BB said that the last report on this series of reports is comming and its a long one. So your probably right.
But we questioned why waisting the time on 10 yards. I’m thinking if I have a gun that can’t do a one home group at 10 yards I probably won’t have that gun long. As the distance increases the groups will grow. So why not start at 25 yards or more for that fact. It will at least give you a better idea of the true performance of a gun.
Suppose to say one hole group. Not (home).
How was that again?
My kingdom for an edit feature!?
Paragraph two answers the question, I think.
I had a coupleFriends With 760’s while the best I could afford was a RedRyder I would have traded mine for the is but I bet they wouldn’t have.
A lot of comments about the 10-yard testing! I always start at 10 yards, which is close to the 10m competition standard, and is the range at which many other airgun reviews I’ve read test at, if you want some valid comparisons. I then pick the best pellets to move out to 20 yards with (the limit of my small back yard). This is also what B.B. usually does in his testing, with the 10-yard test usually showing up in Part 2 of a blog, and a 25-yard test (if merited) showing up in Part 3 or later. My small suburban back yard also accommodates 10-yard shooting more readily than at 20 yards.
Regarding the CV Life scope, it was blurry at 10 yards, even at a low 3X, but I’ll claim to have shot well enough with it despite! But despite how solid a performer that cheap little scope has been, it was a factor in making me a die-hard parallax-adjustable-scope man today.
I’ll pick Monsters!
Hiveseeker
Yep we know BB does the ten yard tests also.
You would think as full as his plate is with all of his commitments that he would eliminate the 10 yard test also.
I could see it with bb guns or 10 meter guns. But not sport guns. They are ment for other uses usually that require longer distances.
Its just like the bb guns when he test. He doesn’t shoot them out to 50 yards. And for that fact he don’t always shoot the better guns out to a 100 yards. Only a few get that honor.
So thats kind of why I wondered why you did 10 yards.
I also have a Crosman Custom Shop 2400KT carbine. It has been a fine shooter. I didn’t get the Lothar Walther barrel for mine though. I think mine is a 14″? It is an accurate little CO2 shooter, and makes quite good power too. MIne likes the Crosman Hunter pellets in .177 caliber. In fact, when I had to dispatch a wild rooster here a few years ago for trying to entice my free range hens away from my property, that is the gun I chose. Put one of the Hunter pellets in his head at 15 yards. He ran about 10-15 yards and dropped dead. Gave him to my neighbors to eat!
The only troubles I’ve had are, first, if I leave the CO2 cartridge in the gun when I put it away, I can have a heck of a time getting it out. I make sure I don’t do that any more. Then, a few weeks ago, I hadn’t shot it in a while. I was going to try to shoot a rat that goes into the coop and eats the chicken food. It had to be dine at night, and I can’t afford a night vision scope. I bought a small red led flashlight and strapped it to the barrel. I had no Crosman CO2 powerlets, but had some brande JT. I put one in and all the CO2 blew out (and, yes, I always use a drop of Pellgunoil). Put in another, and it seemed to hold.I was shooting the 2400 that day verifying zero with the Hunter pellets. I had taken maybe 25 shots, so I knew I should have another 20 at least left in that cartridge. I had to come back after dark in a few hours, and decided to leave that CO2 powerlet in the gun rather than waste the gas. Anyway, I went out after dark and sat in a lawn chair waiting. The rat came into view and I could see him, and his eyes glowed. Took aim, squeezed trigger, and …..no pop. The remaining CO2 had leaked out. I had prepped another air gun a Crosman Model 66, for the same project. Switched the flashlight to that gun and later bagged the rat.
Since then I bought some Crosman powerlets to try. I’m hoping maybe the JT ones are the cause??
By the way, if anyone needs to shoot rats and can’t jusify buying a $1000 night vision scope, the red led flashlight can do the job. The eyes of the animal glow, and I can see him with the scopes I’ve tried it with. You have to bait the rats so they come to where you want to shoot them. Mine is powered by one AA battery.
I’ll try the Crosman powerlets and hope that they won’t have a leak problem.
I consider this Custom Shop air gun a real bargain. It comes with the steel breech, and you can spec it out as you want. I think they are still selling for about $85 plus freight. I just ordered a Crosman Steel breech for my 1322. By the time I bought the gun, the Crosman shoulder stock, the steel breech plus freight, I’m at about $120.
Jon,
Unfortunately I won’t have space in the final blog installment to address it, but my wife and I each ended up having leaking problems in both of our 2400KTs after about 6 months of heavy use. We would tighten the filler cap as much as we dared, and when we fired the first shot to puncture the CO2 cartridge gas could be heard leaking out. It started out very gradually, and at first quickly tightening the filler cap a bit more would stop it. However, we kept having to tighten the caps more and more, and finally didn’t dare tighten them further and it was not enough to stop the leaking. They went back to Crosman, and three weeks later we had them back with two new valves. So far so good this time. Crosman Customer Service was excellent with prepaid RMA labels emailed promptly–didn’t cost me anything more than a trip to UPS and some waiting time.
For those of you who aren’t on social networks, here’s something posted a few days ago:
A blast from the past! Here’s a glimpse of an upcoming roundtable segment from the 2015 season of the American Airgunner TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf3zfMvYWuQ
Edith
Edith,
Thank you for that. I had both the “strip” caps as well as the plastic “ringed” ones. From the episode,…it sounds as if BB did a bit of load “variations” as a youngin’. 😉
Chris
Edith:
I watched that roundtable last night. It brought back some memories. I will have to admit to using one these cap pistols as a muzzle loader. It made quite a bang – one time only. LOL.
Jim
HiveSeeker wrote: “I had a remarkable revelation…it hit me: I could actually shoot better than my gun!
No gun that does not shoot at least as good as I do attracts me. Even plinking at feral soda pop cans, I want misses to be MY fault, not the guns’ (bb or whatever) fault. I want to be the decider. 🙂
Which brings up my question. How do you folks tell if it’s your or if it’s the gun?
john
I also have a 760 with a worn out barrel from it’s previous owner/donor shooting at squirrel s with BB’s through it, maybe one of these days I’ll get it up to snuff.
It’s not real hard to tell if you’re pulling shots if you start at close range from a rest very methodically.
John,
I have kept all my targets since getting the TX. Recording the group size and pellet type also helps. Of course, you will have “off days”. But,….over time,..trends will appear.
I have seen myself get better groups as time goes on. As a “newer” shooter, how else are you going to tell if you are improving, or,…if your gun prefers one, or several, types of pellets over others? Memory ?,…I think not.
It is not hard,..it does take aditional time,..but really,..how else will a newer shooter ever know how they are doing?
And as Reb mentioned,..you will learn when you “pulled” a shot,..even if it was ever so slight. But,…that also takes time and lots of shooting.
Chris
Chris
John,
I am glad that you enjoy an airgun budget larger than mine! I envy you, though with my 2400KTs and my new Marauder (my major “toy” expense for the next couple years) my shooting skills are really put to the test, as they can shoot better than me!
As to how do I tell if it’s the gun or me, that’s a tough one! If I think it’s the gun, I’ll go back to a pellet known to already shoot well in the same gun. You’ll see a pretty dramatic example of this in Part 8 of this blog! Now, is it the scope? That’s an even tougher one. Maintaining a good “spot weld”, even with parallax-adjustable scopes, is critical. It boils down to experience — sometimes more experience than I’ve gotten!
I have only two guns, a break barrel which turns out to be for learning (in progress, long story) about how to make break barrels more accurate and a pcp for when I need to hit what I’m aiming at and . My success with the pcp leads me to believe that the break barrel gremlins are in the break barrel and not in me. Yes, my artillery skills immediately come into question. If the break barrel would perform better in someone else’s hands, then I would know I’m the culprit. Have not had an opportunity to check that out yet. If the break barrel had been as accurate as the pcp, I might never have bothered to buy a pcp at all.
First, I will tell you that I will take a closer look at the Crosman custom shop, B.B. I am amazed.
Secondly, aside from nearly killing myself in the process, I broke down the Titan .22 again.
Taking a close look inside the piston, it seems to me that something is amiss. It appears that the material where the shiny metal rod thingy meets the front of the inside of the piston (ok, I tried to look this up quickly and found one diagram identifying the shiny thingy as the “probe”, so I’ll go with that). It appears that the material that is intended to keep the probe centered just ain’t right. It appears there is less material on the underside of the piston where the piston slot is. It appears the probe may jump into that area. I can’t see this, of course. I’ll probably post in a few places and I’ll get a photo of the inside of the piston. I do believe the probe is not staying a true course.
Anyway, I think the gas spring is doing okay. If it had hit a bit lower it would have hit the joint of my index finger. I read and heard all of the “don’t try this at home” but …
Ken,
We’re here for ya!
Keep us updated and post pics if doable.
Together we’ll make it through this. 🙂
Reb
HiveSeeker:
This series caused me to order a 2400KT from the Custom Shop. I received mine on 04/15/2015 (an easy date to remember, for me at least). My 2400 is in 177 with an 18″ barrel topped with a bugbuster 3X9 scope. It shoots great but I too have gremlins – 8 or 9 strong shots with one or two fliers that I thought was me but now I’m not so sure. I don’t get as tight a group as you do but I can normally cover a 10 yard 10 shot group with a dime. My best 10 yard 10 shot group was with RWS Basic 7 gr pellets at just over .2″. My best 25 yard 10 shop group was with JSB Straton pellets from a JSB pellet sampler at about .55″. Stratons are a pointed pellet. I wish that PA carried these pellets. The JSB RS pellets from the sampler also work well.
My 2400 does not seem to be pellet picky for most medium weight pellets. It does not particularly like pellets over 10 grains, although I have some exceptional (for me) groups with the heavy JSB pellets in the sampler. HiveSeeker, you must have got a good batch of the Gamo Tomahawks. In all three of my 177’s, the best that I have got is tin can accuracy.
HiveSeeker, thank you for this series. I’m looking forward for the next part. I’m trying to talk my wife in letting me order a 2400KT in .22. She can’t understand why I want more.
Jim
Oops! I intended to add how much that I have enjoyed this series, how well written it is, and how much I love my 2400KT.
Jim
JimQwerty,
More than welcome, and I’m just returning the favor for the knowledge and added enjoyment of airgunning that this blog has given me. You have a good scope (I’ve got a couple of BugBusters); are you shooting from a fairly steady rest? Also, are you shooting at a higher power (9X instead of 4X, for example)? Of course, I do think the Lothar Walther barrel may make a difference, though some of the Crosman barrels are also good. But your groups are not far off from what I’ve gotten.
HiveSeeker,
I shoot at 9x, usually off a bag rest. I use an old Caldwell bag that I’ve had for years for the powder burners.
Those were my best groups. Double the size for average groups. I’m happy with them.. I don’t see near as well as I used to.
Jim
HiveSeeker, B.B., et al:
I thought that I would break my post down into segments so as not to make it too long.
I have been considering converting my 2400 to bulk fill CO2. I’ve tried to read everything that I can find about it on the web. I know that I’ve probably missed a previous blog about it. It seems that in the long run it would be more economical and since I usually shoot from the picnic table out back having the gun tied to a bottle would not present a problem since I could always load a powerlet if I was walking around.
So far in my research, it seems that the 12g CO2 powerlet eliminator from GMAC would work best. I would also order an eliminator at the same time for my 1077. I’m hoping that someone on the blog has experience with converting a 2400 from the powerlets to bulk fill can tell their experience and answer some questions for me.
1. What parts did you use for the conversion? GMAC or another source?
2. Do all matching parts need to be ordered through GMAC (eliminator, remote line, nipples) or can I order just the eliminators from GMAC and use USA parts for the remote line and nipples?
3. Would the Air Venturi 30″ CO2 Coiled Remote Line, Male & Female Foster Quick-Disconnect Fittings (PY-A-4638) [I would link this if I knew how] work with the GMAC eliminator?
4. Anything else I need to know or should watch out for?
And, before I get recommendations to convert to HPA instead of bulk fill CO2, I don’t want to convert this 2400 to HPA. It shoots too good the way it is. However, if I can talk my wife into it, I would like to order a 2400 in 22. The long range plan for that one would be an HPA conversion. The other long range plan would be to order a Discovery with the K-valve fill kit instead of doing a HPA conversion. I have several scuba tanks setting in the garage.
Thanks, ever one, for any assistance that you can provide.
B.B., how about talking PA into carrying a complete conversion kit to convert the 22xx line to CO2 bulk fill. It looks like they have one for the Discovery.
Thanks all,
Jim
JimQwerty,
I haven’t modded, though going down that road has started to look really interesting from comments that some of my more knowledgeable colleagues have been posting to this blog! I’ll leave it to B.B. and them to address some of your questions. And of course B.B. has an excellent blog series on converting a 2240, which is an almost identical gun frame:
/blog/2014/08/crosman-2240-conversion-to-air-part-4/
It was when I realized it would cost the same either way to get the gun setup for BF as it would HPA that I decided to get a pump and use free air.
Now if I could just get my Monsters in I’m set and very happy with my choices, and probably build a .25 model out of one of those 2240’s next(gotta source a breech&barrel but the gun’s less expensive & so is the HIpac and I I’ll have even more flexibility
Jim,
There is no money in these kits. The moment you put one together, someone identifies all the components and gives their sources.
This is best left to the hobby guys.
B.B.
BB:
Thank you for your response. The only advantages that I can see to the kit would be knowing that all of the components work together and the ease of one stop shopping. That would make the kit retail at a premium over the cost of the individual componets.
Jim
BB—-My new Sheridan 2260 mb has a bent stock. It is perfect for me, as it is cast off and fits my chubby cheeks better than a straight stock. Did Crosman make this stock on purpose , or did this stock warp after it was made?
I have to ask about the trigger and sights on that gun, just looks a lot like my 392 🙂 .
I’d probably opt for the Discovery anyway but just curious.
Ed,
I have to think the stock bent or was bent after manufacture. Heat is what bends these.
B.B.
Thank you Hiveseeker. This series of articles along with BB’s bit on the HPA Crosman conversions are directly responsible for three new pellet guns in our house–no small feat given today’s tight fiscal situation. We used the pump platform rather than CO2, but that is because we are more hunter/plinkers than paper punchers. My oldest boy, with a good job and no rent to pay bought Tim’s (Mac1) conversion ready to go., but my youngest and I were inspired to build ours up from Pyramid guns and various vendor aftermarket parts.
The Mac1 is art, but our home built versions are $100 cheaper and still minute of squirrel at 2O yards. We even got mom to shoot (first time in 20 years) if we did the pumping for her. Soooooo. Hpa is on the horizon for her. The other cool fact is that these tiny carbines are a natural fit for my petite 5 foot 100lb wife.
Good day folks, The breechblock on a Crosman 100 ~ 104 multi pump seeems to be a very high quality type of aluminium. Does anyone happen to know what alloy this may be and if anyone knows if a breechblock has ever had a TIG welding repair done to one. I live in Canada and I am finding it to be a real hassle doing across the border type dealings even for an air rifle. I have not really found an air rifle smith here in Canada so am making the inquirys that I have been. I am an accomplished instrument machinist and been a gunsmith for many years. I am trying to make this Crosman 100 shoot again more as a challenge than anything else even tho you said it was just a parts gun. The barrel is fine now and the pump is fine, just that the 1/4-20 NC port at the top of the breechbloock got buggered up at one time. I believe a fine weld could restore. Does the 1/4-29 NC screw have a .1875 diameter section protrude into the barrel at that point. I believe it does. I am moving into air rifles as a way of staying in good shooting form economically and am really enjoying it and am looking into Sam Yang.
Kit,
I believe the receiver could be welded by a skilled person. And then machined to accept a barrel again. It’s just that these guns sell for $100 in working condition here in the States that I said you have a parts gun. With skill and perserverence, I think you can fix it.
As far as the aluminum alloy is concerned, think 1940s technology and eas of casting. So it probably has a low melting point.
Good luck!
B.B.