Page 4 - Crosman Vantage Combo Reviews

This is a fine gun for the price. The overall finish is pretty nice and the gun feels natural in my grasp. This is a squirrel-killer for me, replacing a very old multi-pump that has finally been retired to a rack. You really do need to put a hundred rounds or so through before getting serious about sighting it in. But after that, the grouping really narrows up and about an inch at 25 yards is what I get routinely now. The rear site adjust is great. Still getting use to the glowing sights, but all old guys have that trouble with something new.

There were a couple spots on the stock finish where the stain missed. These were around bolt holes, so touching up with a brown magic marker worked out well. The rear scope mount is fine but the front mount is clearly a design problem, not a machining issue. The retaining clip, a different design from the rear mount, pitches the right side of the front mount up and to the left. This causes the scope to line up almost 3 feet to the left and about 18" too high at 25 yards; too far to adjust and very noticeable when just viewing the gun. The scope itself cannot focus well beyond about 20 yards and I believe the focusing lens is positioned wrongly, so may be fixable. Since I did not even expect a scope with the gun, this did not affect my ratings.

Fixing the front scope mount can be done by inserting about a 1/16" spacer above the mounting screw, between the tightening retaining clip and the mount. This will shift the mount back into alignment when tightened. Be sure to use aluminum. I used the aluminum nail from a 1/8" pop-rivet and it was just about dead-on. I left the whole rivet in there just to look cool...

Very quiet comparatively. Easy to cock

The scope rings are just as bad as everyone says, maybe even worse.

Be sure to get a set of rings for the scope or just use the open sights. as they are fine, easy to adjust and they point well.

I agree with the other reviewers. This rifle is quiet and accurate, even with just the open sights. The supplied Center Point 3-9x32mm scope is cheap but adequate. The trigger on mine is fine.

The color of the stock is not exactly as pictured (see my pic). The grain is not as pronounced and dull. The color is more of a chocolate brown. Crossman needs better QC. There are numerous places on the stock that they did not stain (see my pics). I recommend finishing it with a gun stock oil, i.e. Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil, to bring out the grain and help protect it. The ring mounts are poorly machined. I spent an hour trying to get the ring mounts to line up with the barrel and with each other. I gave up, no way were they going to work. (see my pics, one is mislabeled, the badly misaligned rings are the originals). It would make more sense to sell the gun cheaper without the scope and rings. Contacted Crossman about the rings. They sent me an entirely different set of scope rings (see my pics). These work perfectly. The new ones have 2 allen head screws instead of 1 thumb screw to secure the ring to the barrel. Hopefully Crossman includes these rings in future stock. If not for the included junk scope rings I would have given it a 5 overall rating.

So far I have tried Crossman Premier Ultra Magnum Round Nose 10.5gr and RWS Super Dome 8.3gr pellets. For accuracy, I prefer the RWS pellets.

Agree with other reviewers, this gun is quiet and very accurate with only open sights. The scope is just adequate. I found the trigger to be fine.

Leave out the scope and drop the price a few bucks. The rings that come with the rifle are garbage. They would not align properly. Be very aware that the stock color is not as pictured (see my pics). The color is duller and the grain is not pronounced. Crossman needs to improve their QC. There are numerous places on the stock that were left unstained.

Pyramyd Air does not stock extra rings, so it's best to contact Crossman directly at 800-724-7486 for replacement rings. I had a new set within 1 week after speaking to them. The new set was entirely different than the set that came with the rifle and worked perfectly. (see my pics). They look exactly like Centerpoint 1" rings, med, 3/8" dovetail CPM2PA-25M. So far I have tried Crossman Premier Ultra Magnum Dome 10.5 gr and RWS Superdome 8.3 gr pellets. The RWS were slightly more accurate.

The overall appearance is great, The stocks shape and color is great as well as the fit to all the metal parts. The sights are plastic but are of great quality, I'm not one for fiber optic sights but they are sufficent the red fiber optic on the rear could be a little brighter but it is ok. The buttpad is rubber and is ventilated but is thick and held on with two screws which is nice when you want to refinish the stock or want to replace the buttpad. The bluing is very nice and well done, pyramyd air and a lot of customers recommend checking all the screws to make sure they are tight so when I checked the screws all but one stock screw was loose so I locked it down, all good now. The scope may not be the best on the market but being that it's included in the package I can't complain, The clarity is awsomely clear and the focus is adjustable to sharpen the image at different ranges.The scope mounts are of good quality the only thing you want to watch out for is that you don't set the stop screw to deep because if you do the rear base won't lock into the groove properly. This is my first nitro piston and I am impressed with it. The accuracy of this rifle is outstanding got a 3/8 5 shot group with the scope after a minor adjustment and got a 1/4" group with the open sights and didn't even have to adjust them at all I shot both groups at 50 feet at an indoor range and didn't even use a rest of any kind. The pellets I used were the beeman coated 7.2 grain hollowpoint.

Nothing.

This is a great gun as far as looks and quality and I would recommend it to anyone that wants a nitro piston and at 130 bucks it's worth it. This is the cheapest priced nitro piston that I have found and it's supposed to be a limited run so I would buy one now while you can. Make sure that you try different types and weight pellets to find out which one's are going to be the most accurate as different rifles like certain ammo. The barrel is really dirty so you might want to buy a cleaning kit and give it a real good cleaning before you shoot it as all the grease and junk in the barrel will effect the accuracy. The rifling inside the barrel is pretty good and looks to be between 5 and 10 thousand's deep I'm not to sure of which but it is good enough to put a spin on the pellet. With the front sight being designed the way it is with the little extension at the muzzle it will protect the crown from getting damaged and as far as cleaning the barrel it would be best to clean it from the breech as cleaning from the muzzle will in time start to wear the crown and then it will be inaccurate the same goes for firearms. I would suggest laying a rag over the compression chamber area so that no foreign matter can get in it while cleaning. The weight is not 6.2 pounds the manual has it at 7.79 pounds so it's a little heavy but not really that bad, with the balance you don't really notice the weight. With all spring piston and nitro piston airguns give it time to get broke in and check the screws often to make sure they are tight and oil them as stated in the owners manual and they will last you a very long time, Most of all if you are a new shooter practice makes perfect. Be safe and happy shooting.

Note loudness rating is a typo,it's at a 3. The nitro piston helps with recoil and noise. For the price, pulled the trigger

The trigger creeps and requires trigger time to adjust. Wish the trigger was more smoother and lighter on pull

Grt111 is a good upgrade trigger but requires a bit of shaving down to get the safety to engaged and to not have a fire even with safety engaged. Adjust incremently and test trigger and pull trigger on safety if will still fire(note be safe first),adjustment are to high or not enough material removed.

a good rifle for the money

better trigger

I was given an air rifle when I was a kid. It was a great way for my father to teach me firearms safety. Between college and several cross country moves I lost track of that air rifle. I can remember how much fun I had with it and decided after a lot of research to purchase another one. This is a great rifle. I have shot about 200 rounds and its accuracy keeps improving. I have gone from shooting soda cans to shooting pennies taped to the cans at 20 yards. The consistency of accuracy of a rifle in this price range was a very pleasant surprise. After 50 rounds the rifle has become very quiet. It has the look and feel of a quality rifle. I am going to keep track of this one.

The scope that came with the rifle took a bit more adjustment time to settle in than I am used to. The erector tube does not respond immediately to adjustments. This simply means that during the sighting process it takes 3 to 4 shots before any adjustment that has been made is finalized. Not a big problem - it does mean that one needs to take their time. For the price this scope, once settled in, gets the job done and is getting the job done reliably.

Don't bother putting the scope until the 100 rounds have been shot. It takes a while for the rifle to settle in. Afterwards mount the scope. Decide on the type of pellet you want to shoot and keep using that same brand and weight. I am shooting RWS Superdome 8.3gr. There is noticeable difference when I have switched to another brand and pellet weight. Why bother? RWS makes a great pellet with a lot of consistency.

The rifle has a nice look and feel. It is quiet, powerful and accurate. I got best accuracy with RWS Superpoint Extra pellets (8.2gr), with 1/2" penetration into 3/4" pine plywood at 23 yards. Love the nitro piston.

The scope rings are a problem. The little "pawl" that holds the rings to the groove don't match, front and rear. That makes the front twist about 1/4" to the left of where the the rear lines up. I machined a front pawl to match the rear, and they lined up nicely. After that, the problem was parallax error with the scope itself. It is adjusted for parallax at 15 yards, and I'm shooting at 23 yards and 32 yards, so there was a lot of error.

I was able to get decent groups at lower magnifications by using the "ghost" of the front sight to get the same eye to scope alignment each shot, but I shouldn't have to do that. After two weeks of frustration, I replaced the scope with a Bushnell 4-12x40 scope, on clearance at Wally World for $28. It has an adjustable objective lens, to eliminate parallax error.

The overall appearance is great, The stocks shape and color is great as well as the fit to all the metal parts. The sights are plastic but are of great quality, I'm not one for fiber optic sights but they are sufficent the red fiber optic on the rear could be a little brighter but it is ok. The buttpad is rubber and is ventilated but is thick and held on with two screws which is nice when you want to refinish the stock or want to replace the buttpad. The bluing is very nice and well done, pyramyd air and a lot of customers recommend checking all the screws to make sure they are tight so when I checked the screws all but one stock screw was loose so I locked it down, all good now. The scope may not be the best on the market but being that it's included in the package I can't complain, The clarity is awsomely clear and the focus is adjustable to sharpen the image at different ranges.The scope mounts are of good quality the only thing you want to watch out for is that you don't set the stop screw to deep because if you do the rear base won't lock into the groove properly. This is my first nitro piston and I am impressed with it. The accuracy of this rifle is outstanding got a 3/8 5 shot group with the scope after a minor adjustment and got a 1/4" group with the open sights and didn't even have to adjust them at all I shot both groups at 50 feet at an indoor range and didn't even use a rest of any kind. The pellets I used were the beeman coated 7.2 gr

Nothing.

This is a great gun as far as looks and quality and I would recommend it to anyone that wants a nitro piston and at 130 bucks it's worth it. This is the cheapest priced nitro piston that I have found and it's supposed to be a limited run so I would buy one now while you can. Make sure that you try different types and weight pellets to find out which one's are going to be the most accurate as different rifles like certain ammo. The barrel is really dirty so you might want to buy a cleaning kit and give it a real good cleaning before you shoot it as all the grease and junk in the barrel will effect the accuracy. The rifling inside the barrel is pretty good and looks to be between 5 and 10 thousand's deep I'm not to sure of which but it is good enough to put a spin on the pellet. With the front sight being designed the way it is with the little extension at the muzzle it will protect the crown from getting damaged and as far as cleaning the barrel it would be best to clean it from the breech as cleaning from the muzzle will in time start to wear the crown and then it will be inaccurate the same goes for firearms. I would suggest laying a rag over the compression chamber area so that no foreign matter can get in it while cleaning. The weight is not 6.2 pounds the manual has it at 7.79 pounds so it's a little heavy but not really that bad, with the balance you don't really notice the weight. With all spring piston and nitro piston airguns give it time to get broke in and check the screws often to make sure they are tight and oil them as stated in the owners manual and they will last you a very long time, Most of all if you are a new shooter practice makes perfect. Be safe and happy shooting.

I like the wood stock, it is much better than the complainers say it is. The neon sight inserts are GREAT! The great service from Pyramid Air. Love the gun,however,I have not used it yet as the supplied scope rings were unusable and the scope is not mounted. I know I could use open sights but I will wait for the replacements if they ever come. The Nitro Vantage deserves 5 stars but the scope ring issue makes me mad!

Put scope rings in the kit that will work and can be mounted on this rifle. I Have lost a months worth of warranty, I hope I don't need it.

Very dissatisfied With Crosman for supplying the mismatched scope rings for the rifle. I could not mount the scope as the front ring has the wrong clamp on the bottom of the ring. It has almost been a month and I am still waiting for the replacement part. I hope the replacement ring will come with some pellets for my inconvenience.Ha Ha

I like the power and the fact that it wont lose power by cold weather!Gun is all wood as described BUT is a lot darker than what you see on webssite!!I just had a chance to take gun to the range and give it a try yesterday,it seems too shoot very well and pretty accurate just out of the box. When I read the manual for the gun it said it has a 200 round breakin period, but seemed too shoot good at 33FT with rifle sights.Oh I like them as well great bright fiber optic sights!!!!Gun seem well built and strong, should last a long time ????

If it did'nt take price up much I would make sight adjustment knobs out of METAL !!!1

Like I said before Rifle is darker in Color than on website,so if u plan to order this,picture it darker wood!!! And dont exspect it to be very accurate out of the box if it has 200 round breakin period?? Im going to wait til I shoot at least 200 rounds before I mount SCOPE, may do a quick mount just to see if it fits OK ? Other than Gun being darker in color I have no problem with it,it seems be a good Pellet Rifle for the price. This is my first Break Barrel Pellet Rifle so I must say im very happy with it, some people said they change the trigger ? I have NO Problem with the one on the Rifle!I've been a pretty good customer of P.A. and very happy with their service and shipping !!!!!!!!!!!!

It feels good in the hands. If you're used to smaller and/or synthetic stock air rifles, it will feel heavy in your hands at first, but I think you'll find that once you get a feel for the gun, the weight is the right combination of feeling solid, but not being a burden to heft around or hold. The nitro piston is smooth, quiet, and powerful. Compared to the recoil in a springer Gamo Whisper I've been shooting, this feels much smoother in the hands and against the shoulder. The trigger is adjustable so if you know what you're doing, you can decrease the length of the "2nd" stage. I haven't gotten too carried away with testing the limits of adjustment, so I can't tell you for sure just how far it can go, but it's there and it works. The open-sights with this gun get the job done. First shot out of the box, I hit a cup at about 30 yards. They are easy to adjust and the fiber-optics work nice. I wish they were metal, but it's nothing to lose sleep over.

I would change the stock actually. The pictures here and on the box will make you think it's a rich, solid, beautiful wood stock, but it's actually very soft, prone to dings and I feel the finish on my stock looks cheap (at least cheaper than the photos would have me believe). The finish is also pretty thin, so it will scuff easily if you're rough with it. For me personally, the scope and rings included were not worth packaging with this gun. Even with some tweaking, the scope was blurry past 5x magnification and the rings would not mount squarely on the dovetail to save my life. Granted, I am by no means an optics expert, but something just didn't seem right with that scope and the rings were definitely not right. Some people seem to have been sent a good scope and rings, so who knows what you might get. The open-sights are fine though, so it's certainly not a total loss. This gun seems to be a bit picky in the pellet department. Try every type of pellet you can get your hands on (within reason of course). My standard pellets (Crosman Pointed - 7.9 gr), which flew great through a Gamo Whisper, were shooting poorly through this gun even after the break-in period. Right now, ironically, the best <20 yard pellet I have found for this gun is the super cheap Crosman Destroyer EX - 7.4 gr., but I have several more coming from Pyramyd Air which I hope can give me a better grouping at a longer distance. Once I narrow down the best pellets for this gun, I will update my review.

This is not an air rifle that a small-built person can cock themselves. Unless you have fair arm and upper body strength, you are going to be frustrated with how much effort you will need to exert to cock this break-barrel. While I can get nit-picky about a little of this or that, that I would have liked better, this gun is a really good value, and I think that's what's important here. If you have a budget twice as much as this gun costs, well then maybe you should be looking elsewhere. If you're looking for a powerful, reliable and enjoyable gun in the sub-$150 category, then this is a solid option to consider, and that's just considering the gun by itself. Take care of your gun, stay safe, be patient, and have fun.

The price! This beats every other comparable model, and is every bit as good. I wanted a nitro piston rifle with iron sights, and this does the trick!

Make the iron sights metal, or offer a peep sight option. The sights are a bit bulky and reduce precision. The heavy trigger of course, but that's a cheap and easy fix. Scope is junk, but what would you expect. Honestly, the price negates these complaints, as they are the same complaints found on other rifles, but can be fixed with the money you saved.

Upgrade the trigger to a GRT III, and get the weaver rail adapter and a UTG red dot sight. Scopes and break barrels = headaches if you ask me. The red dot allows me to quickly acquire and hit a 1" spinner target at 30 yards, which exceeds my expectations for casual shooting.

Nice looking gun the stock is not fancy but i like it, a nice brown color. I like nitro piston and that it has open sight's. The weight of it is good not to heavy not to light. Accuracy is very good with open sight's

Just leave the scope and the rings out of the package they are junk. the scope is blury and the rings were useless they were crooked and would not line up with the barrel.

I put a leapers 4-16x40 on it and GRT 111 trigger and with crosman 10.5 gr. domed it is very accurate. I make targets out of old garden hoses,cut them 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Line them up on a 2x4 at 50 yards. With this gun i can plink them over and over. GREAT GUN I orderd this gun on 6-2-2012 and have already ordered another one. Rick Eutsler from Airgun web. said this gun is a limited run and when it's gone it's gone. So you better grab one while you can if you want one with nitro piston. Pyramyd Air is the best to buy from great service and very fast delivery. Every time I order from them in three days I have it. Mike from Georgia.

The rifle is very quiet, and has great accuracy; I am hitting the same hole at 20 yards. I was pleasantly surprised by the 3-9x32 that came with it, it is not advertised here on the site, or was not when I bought it at least. After zeroing I have pegged a few starlings and squirrels no problem from 20-40 yards. you will not be disappointed with this purchase, I am sure of it.

Trigger and rings, what else is new?

I got a leapers Golden Image 4x32 on mine because I did not know the centerpoint would be 3-9x32, if I could do it again I most likely would have just got the one piece mount and kept the stock scope to save a few bucks. 8.44 rounded is what you want like the reviewer above me said, I found Crow Magnums to be very accurate also.

The stock style is my favorite of the bunch and the main reason I bought this model. The color is better too, it's darker like the Benjamin. The name Remington looks and sounds cooler than Crosman too. The Nitro spring is the coolest part, a must have for most anyone. It's like buying a tuned gun, not only much smoother and much quieter, it's also more powerful :) So ignore the "4" in the Loudness Specs they show here, an obvious misprint. The regular Vantage is a misprint as well, the regular version should be a 3 like all the other coil spring Crosmans, and this Nitro version should be a 2 just like the Benj Titan and Crosman Nitro Venom. Anyone remember the claims of those guns being 70% quieter? Well they are that quiet and this is the exact same power plant and it is just as quiet (I own the Titan too), they're even quieter than the Stoeger X20 Suppressor. Both the plain Vantage and the Nitro version are great looking and performing guns and the best choice possible for the money, especially the Nitro which is a steal at this price.

I wish it came with the steel muzzle brake like the G1 or Titan. The brake makes it easier to cock and feels better in your hand when you do. It also helps balance the gun better and helps steady the barrel for better accuracy. That and it looks sooo much better than the open sight.

The trigger is the same as most all the other Crosman guns, and like the others you can do a trigger job (at your own risk which PA does not condone) to make it much nicer, or if you choose to spend the big $ you can buy an aftermarket trigger... Other things you might need to fix (and this goes for most all airguns) is the scope. This 4x is not a bad scope at all, in fact I love it, it just needs a couple adjustments. First off; check the parallax to be sure it's set for your preferred shooting distance, if not adjust accordingly because if it's off it will ruin accuracy which makes people think the scope is junk when it's not. Second; shim the scope to match the barrel by adding thin sheet metal or layers of paper etc under the scope tube at the rear mount. With the scope body lined true with the barrel this means the internal lens are straight vs adjusting them drastically to compensate. The straighter the lens the better everything else will be and the less distortion you'll have. Like the parallax it's such an easy fix and makes all difference. Third; the rear scope mount has a set screw that fits into a hole in the scope rail, USE IT! And be sure the set screw is set deep and the mounts and all screws are tight! Also be sure the three stock screws holding the gun together are tight and check them periodically. Mine prefers ~8.4gr pellets, heavier and it loses power, lighter it loses accuracy, so the RWS Superdome and JSB 8.4gr are idea choices for this gun.