Ghost BRK Ghost Review

[Franklink]

You are correct unfortunately for us they probably won’t since they can do basically the same with 177 and 16 grainers. Too bad

I've tested the .177/16 grainers and unfortunately, they can't do what the .20/15.89s can. The .177/16gr option hovers around a BC of 0.04. The .20/16gr (15.89) has a BC of more like 0.05. The average of the BC measuring sessions that I've done with the .20/15.89 is 0.048-0.049 That's a substantial difference in the downrange effects on accuracy and energy retention. The most recent measuring of the .20/15.89 was either 0.052 or 0.054 (I'd have to check my notes), and was the highest I've ever measured them in a session.

On the pdog pest event with Tony I was hitting and killing pdogs past 125yards with the .20/15.89. That kind of accuracy wasn't possible from the .177/16 grain pellet combination that I tested. The .177 falls apart much closer. The .177/16 also prefers a higher speed than the .20/15.89, which means higher reg pressure for the .177.

As for slugs, the 20gr .177 from NSA might be as good as or even better than the .20/18.9. I've been told the .177/20grain have a pretty serious fouling problem that needs worked through though, and the fouling appears with low shot counts. As reported by the same reputable source, the fouling problem with the .177/20geaim isn't lead, but something else.

In short, the .177 is not a comparable substitute for the .20, when long range performance is the metric, despite similar weight pellets being available.

 

[Solo1]

I've tested the .177/16 grainers and unfortunately, they can't do what the .20/15.89s can. The .177/16gr option hovers around a BC of 0.04. The .20/16gr (15.89) has a BC of more like 0.05. The average of the BC measuring sessions that I've done with the .20/15.89 is 0.048-0.049 That's a substantial difference in the downrange effects on accuracy and energy retention. The most recent measuring of the .20/15.89 was either 0.052 or 0.054 (I'd have to check my notes), and was the highest I've ever measured them in a session.

On the pdog pest event with Tony I was hitting and killing pdogs past 125yards with the .20/15.89. That kind of accuracy wasn't possible from the .177/16 grain pellet combination that I tested. The .177 falls apart much closer. The .177/16 also prefers a higher speed than the .20/15.89, which means higher reg pressure for the .177.

As for slugs, the 20gr .177 from NSA might be as good as or even better than the .20/18.9. I've been told the .177/20grain have a pretty serious fouling problem that needs worked through though, and the fouling appears with low shot counts. As reported by the same reputable source, the fouling problem with the .177/20geaim isn't lead, but something else.

In short, the .177 is not a comparable substitute for the .20, when long range performance is the metric, despite similar weight pellets being available.

Well guess we have to hope and pray that they are listening and can realize that its just another barrel to sell to us! Cole did you test any 16 gr h&n slugs? They have a listed bc near .09. I would think they might do well at least im hoping

 

[Franklink]

Well guess we have to hope and pray that they are listening and can realize that its just another barrel to sell to us! Cole did you test any 16 gr h&n slugs? They have a listed bc near .09. I would think they might do well at least im hoping

You're talking about the .177/16gr slug from H&N I presume?

No I did not test them. The .177 barrel that came in the review Ghost is only 17 inches long and has a pretty small transfer port. The highest fpe I could get out of it was 22-23. Extrapolating a bit, that energy ouput would only get the .177/16gr H&N slug going 780-800, and more realistically, probably more like 730-750 since slugs don't make power as well as pellets (I assume it's all the friction from greater bearing surface). So, no, the .177 barrel that came in the Ghost Carbine just isn't a great option for heavy .177 slugs.

BUT, the longer barreled Ghost HP in .177 might be a viable option for the 16gr H&N slug.

 

[Solo1]

I’ve only shot the 13 & 16 gr h&n slugs briefly and at short range once i got the 13.4 pellets dialed and saw how well they shot I didn’t want to chance screwing something up. Am planning to do more testing with them after aafta nats. The testing i did do at short range (11yds) showed real promise though.

 

[Soren Drost]

I have been testing quite a lot with the BRK Ghost .177 HP with the longer prototype barrel for the last 3 months and results are looking very good with both pellets and slugs

This barrel is not very fuzzy at all !

Been concentrating on the slugs lately and shot anything from 10 gn up to 20 gn and in general the velocity and thereby muzzle energy is higher than shooting the original barrel. In my 23” original barrel, I usually shoot slugs well around 920-930 FPS and in the longer prototype barrel between 970-1020 FPS with the same accuracy

The 20 gn ZAN slugs I tuned down a little to get better results



Looking very much forward to be testing a lot more with this setup

 

[Franklink]

Shot the Ghost last night after dinner/before dark. Didn't even put out paper, just shot my semi-permanent steel, although it was freshly painted.

Chose to use the JSB .20/15.89.

There was enough wind that the shrubbery past the targets were waving back and forth pretty good. For further context, the squash and pumpkin plants in the garden I was shooting over the top of were also waving around. They're at about 25 yards. I'd guess that sustained winds were around 15mph with gusts up around 18-20.

I was just shooting for fun and wasn't going to post anything here, but then was texting a buddy and decided to share. So the photos were taken after dark when I'd changed my mind and hiked back there to get some photos to share.

Here are the paddles at about 94-95 yards. The bigger ones weren't much of a challenge so I mostly shot at the little guy, thumbnail in photo for reference. Best streak on that middle paddle was 7 in a row.

And here's a five shot group at old bushhog blade hanging at 125yards.

And finally, three groups of various shot counts at 135 yards. Groups were just hunting for clean spots on the steel so there's a group above the top hole, another group in the middle of the holes, and then one below the bottom hole.

Hold offs for the wind on the 135 yard shots were between 0.6 and 1.2 mils.

Fun stuff, meant to be just a chill session so nothing very scientific. But man o man I love these JSB. 20 Heavies!!! So predictable and no what-the-hecks?!?!

 

[Soren Drost]

Very nice shooting at long distance

 

[Franklink]

Thanks Soren.

I really should have done some comparisons between the .20/15.89 pellets and the NSA .20/18.9 slugs. As good as these particular pellets are, I'm pretty sure the .20 slugs will do better, at least from the barrel in the Ghost (reference to slugs being so picky about the barrel they're being shot from).

 

[Lee unsworth]

That’s very impressive shooting

 

[Franklink]

That’s very impressive shooting

Thanks Lee. Some of this is the beauty of shooting steel. The pellets that miss don't show up as holes out in the nether regions like they do on paper! Lol. There were a couple shots that missed the steel completely, as I was figuring out the hold off for the wind.

 

[Franklink]

Another Game of Versus
This time:
.20/15.89 pellets @ 915 for 29 fpe with a BC of 0.048
.20/18.9grain slugs @ 870-880 for 32fpe with a BC of 0.093 (ish)
.22/25.4grain pellets @ 890 for 44fpe with a BC of 0.052

And the two contestants shooting the three projectiles listed above.... (the Veteran is the .22 and the Ghost is the .20, for those just joining in)

(apparently I like bullpups about this length, as they're quite similar in that regard)

It's always fun to quantify whatever guns/barrels are currently part of the stable as the best long range option. And that's what this fun shooting session was all about: answering that question.

Paper at 98 yards.

Left ended up being the .20/15.89, middle was the .20/18.9, and the right was the .22/25.4grain.

And here is how they scored.

And of course the best BC was the best long range performer. Both pellets were quite close in score, and that first upper left group with the .22/25.4 really hurt the score for that projectile. I should have shot more sighters before rattling the 25 shots off with that gun.

I don't consider myself a benchrest shooter. I use a plastic fold out table, a $25 dollar chinese clone bipod, my fist under the rear of the gun, no wind flags, and I don't shoot more sighters than scoring shots. I typically get an idea of what the prevalent wind is doing with a few sighters in the beginning, and then rattle off the 25 shots that are scored. Also, I only performed the above described shooting once, this isn't a best of 20 cherry-picking situation. In short, a benchrest purist would score better with all three of these rigs. Any of the three are hunting/field target accurate, and that's what trips my trigger.

Fun stuff.

 

[Franklink]

Here's some more of the slugs outa the Ghost, but at 135 yards.

Did a bit more testing (shooting) with the .20/18.9gr slugs yesterday evening, and then again just now.
Shot on paper a 135 yards both yesterday and today, and then at 98yards also this morning.
Here's the 135 yard scenario... (circles/aim points measure just under 1.5" across)

And from the "bench" up on my porch....

and with a bit of zoom.....

Left two target traps last night were used for pellets, but the right one was the .20 slugs.

And here is the right paper in the photo above, WITH another 4, 5 shot groups that I just shot. And some measurements.

So, that's 9, 5 shot groups, shot in two different sessions, both at 135 yards. I threw the top right group out last night as it was the first group and was used to find the hold point (sighter).

Two of the 5 shot groups at 98 yards in the previous post are just at moa. The slugs kicked the pellets arses in the comparison from the last post. And I don't say that lightly as I've tested a lot of slugs and in my experience, it's been rare to find a slug that'll shoot better than a high BC pellet at under 100 yards.

I think I can conclude that the .20/18.9grain slugs are averaging 5 shots groups a hair better than 1.35MOA at 135 yards, at least from this particular barrel and gun. This is all with them in the 870-880fps range, for about 32fpe. To be able to shoot five shot groups that are averaging under 2 inches at 135 yards with only 32 fpe is AWESOME!

Suffice it to say that I ordered another batch of them from NSA. I don't want to run out of this sweetness.

 

[Pesty3782]

P Dogs better start hiding in the tall grass better

Tony P.

 

[Franklink]

Not sure where to put this as it's showcasing the .20/18.9 gr NSA slug just as much as the Ghost that shot it, BUT, since the Ghost was the airgun launching them....I'll share it here.

Shot this "group" about an hr ago.

4 or 5 in a line, and then one maybe 1.5" high and another maybe 0.75" low. And those are .20 holes @ 24x, through a phone held behind a scope (sorry about the graininess).

Was aiming for this bleached spot on an old dead cottonwood.

Strelok was telling me 74 clicks but I determined 70 was what I needed on a spot further down the trunk before I shot the group (sighters not shown in photo). And I'm still using 0.09 as the BC in Strelok.

I'm REALLY excited about these for Xtreme Field Target. I'm hopefully not too optimistic at how it'll do, considering the power limit is 100fpe and we'll have some contestants in the 90+ fpe area.

The Ghost is sooooo chill to shoot these at only 32fpe, only a little more perceived "equal and opposite reaction" than shooting it at under 20fpe for regular field target.

Very enjoyable.

 

[AtlasAirguns]

Not sure where to put this as it's showcasing the .20/18.9 gr NSA slug just as much as the Ghost that shot it, BUT, since the Ghost was the airgun launching them....I'll share it here.

Shot this "group" about an hr ago.

4 or 5 in a line, and then one maybe 1.5" high and another maybe 0.75" low. And those are .20 holes @ 24x, through a phone held behind a scope (sorry about the graininess).

Was aiming for this bleached spot on an old dead cottonwood.

Strelok was telling me 74 clicks but I determined 70 was what I needed on a spot further down the trunk before I shot the group (sighters not shown in photo). And I'm still using 0.09 as the BC in Strelok.

I'm REALLY excited about these for Xtreme Field Target. I'm hopefully not too optimistic at how it'll do, considering the power limit is 100fpe and we'll have some contestants in the 90+ fpe area.

The Ghost is sooooo chill to shoot these at only 32fpe, only a little more perceived "equal and opposite reaction" than shooting it at under 20fpe for regular field target.

Very enjoyable.

I thought for Extreme Field Target you cannot use slugs!?

 

[Franklink]

Two entities at play here. Xtreme Field Target was started by Ben Spencer here in Arizona back in maybe 2019? He wanted to turn the up-to-then-only-yearly American Field Target event at Extreme Benchrest into monthly matches, and he envisioned that becoming an event held across the country at many venues. And it has, just without Ben, and with the name change to Extreme Field Target. Ben and Phoenix Rod and Gun Club have alowed slugs and pellets at the XFT matches since the beginning, and eventually a subsonic rimfire class was even added to the XFT matches. That's the most succinct and factual summary I can come up with, considering all the water under the bridge and politics of the matter. I shared that only as an explanation that slugs are indeed allowed for the XFT matches in Phoenix that we've been holding monthly (cooler months) for a couple years now.

I've been writing the match reports for XFT since the beginning and I'm a bit of a stats nerd so I've analyzed about every aspect of the matches. I also reached out to Brad Troyer about extrapolating his difficulty factors for regular field target for the long range /high power flavor of of field target. We've been using an Xtreme Troyer Factor to rate the difficulty of targets and course XTF averages. The pellets versus slugs thing has been fun to watch-lots of discussion about that, as well as much of the above has occurred elsewhere. It's also been interesting to see the successes and misadventures guys have had with various guns. So I'm super interested to see how a low fpe/high BC slug can do. Especially one showing such promise as these .20/18.9s from NSA.

 

[AtlasAirguns]

Two entities at play here. Xtreme Filed Target was started by Ben Spencer here in Arizona back in maybe 2019? He wanted to turn the up-to-then-only-yearly American Field Target event at Extreme Benchrest into monthly matches, and he envisioned that becoming an event held across the country at many venues. And it has, just without Ben, and with the name change to Extreme Field Target. Ben and Phoenix Rod and Gun Club have alowed slugs and pellets at the XFT matches since the beginning, and eventually a subsonic rimfire class was even added to the XFT matches. That's the most succinct and factual summary I can come up with, considering all the water under the bridge and politics of the matter. I shared that only as an explanation that slugs are indeed allowed for the XFT matches in Phoenix that we've been holding monthly (cooler months) for a couple years now.

I've been writing the match reports for XFT since the beginning and I'm a bit of a stats nerd so I've analyzed about every aspect of the matches. I also reached out to Brad Troyer about extrapolating his difficulty factors for regular field target for the long range /high power flavor of of field target. We've been using an Xtreme Troyer Factor to rate the difficulty of targets and course XTF averages. The pellets versus slugs thing has been fun to watch-lots of discussion about that, as well as much of the above has occurred elsewhere. It's also been interesting to see the successes and misadventures guys have had with various guns. So I'm super interested to see how a low fpe/high BC slug can do. Especially one showing such promise as these .20/18.9s from NSA.

I've heard of that offshoot of EFT/American Field Target I just read it too fast. What are you shooting for EFT when it comes to pellets?

 

[Solo1]

Would seem you have the 1 gun for all there cole! Looking today found a barrel - poly unchoked 20 now i have to find a machinest

 

[Franklink]

Would seem you have the 1 gun for all there cole! Looking today found a barrel - poly unchoked 20 now i have to find a machinest

There's a plethora of old match reports on the field target section of Airgun Nation if you'd like to peruse past matches.

The .22/MRD has had probably the most success. But the other high BC pellet usual suspects have also seen success. Like the .30/44gr and the .25/34 grain. I shot the. 20/15.89 once and was near the top that month. Basically, pellets with BCs up around 0.05. The .30 ZAN pellet came out towards the end of this year's season (in the spring) and was only shot at one match. They did well and it'll be interesting to see how they do in the future.

 

[Franklink]

Would seem you have the 1 gun for all there cole! Looking today found a barrel - poly unchoked 20 now i have to find a machinest

Who manufactured the barrel? I've dreamed of a polygonal .20 but I'm unaware of a maker of them.