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New Gun Days are always a hoot, and it really doesn't matter to me what airgun it is. Major purchase? Yard sale gem? Doesn't matter - either way, New Gun Day is always FUN!
Today I came home with a like new Cometa 220 Compact in .177. I've been interested in a 220 and a 300 since I found out that my fine RWS 94 is really a Cometa 400.
That was my first exposure to Cometa, and I learned more about the line. Cometa makes good stuff, and are now being imported by Keystone Airguns in PA (free plug
). This one originally came from Keystone, by the way.
The 220 falls into the "poor man's HW30" category - a handy & well made, easy cocking 8 to 9fpe rifle. The clasic recipe of "fun for the whole family".
The basics - its short-ish (41.5") and pretty light (6.2 lbs) with a Diana-style ball lockup and an uncheckered wood stock. The stock has sufficient length for an adult and ends in a rubber buttpad
. I especially like the thin wrist. It has a subtle cheekpiece for right handed shooters, but looks to be equally suitable for lefties even without a symetrical cheekpiece. It feels very well made. Wood and steel finishes are good. The safety is automatic but silent, resettable and easily accessible from the rear of the compression tube even with a scope mounted. The squared off steel trigger guard may not look sleek but reminds me of the Diana 45, which is a good thing.
A moderator and back up fiber optic sights are included. The rear sight is not at all sloppy which is great, but the orange plastic front sight blade is proud and unprotected. I will remove it before I damage it, or it damages me.
It's a pretty unassuming rifle - until you use it. The lock up is excellent, the cocking stroke is easy & smooth and ends in a perfect "click" of mechanical engagement as the piston latches. The barrel returns neatly into battery without any need for a heavy hand. Even so the ball lockup inspires confidence - it does a great job of drawing the action securely into batterey as it closes.
Stock proportions are good for adults (I'm 6' tall) yet the rifle is small and light, and could be used as a youth gun.
The little rifle fires very pleasantly with a nice shot cycle, and it is quiet. No buzz, honk, or creaky screen door noises to disturb your Zen.
The bad news? The trigger does not approach the Rekord, which is where (like many) it falls short of the HW30. There is a pull weight screw, but I gave up trying to adjust it after many full turns with no change of any sort. (maybe I just didn't go far enough...?)
The pull is smooth and it breaks cleanly, but with a long-ish second stage. Its not all bad but there is definitely some extra pull weight to this rifle. I'm guessing it's in the 2-3 pound range which doesn't sound so bad but it definitely pulls you off target. I don't know if it can safely be improved but I'd like to find out. I'm not interested in trying to make it act like a Rekord or T06, but I would like to know why the adjustment screw doesn't work, and get that fixed.
The bore is tight too, I may need some 4.49's for it.
I shot GECO 7.0's and Hobby's for group, and it seemed to have a real preference for the Hobby's. To be fair, I may have "warmed up" into shooting them better than the GECOs I started with. I am terribly rusty, and the trigger makes the rifle challenging to shoot well. In the pic below there are 5 shots @ 9 yards. I do have a pipe to rest my off hand on but its hardly a "rest".....
The obvious flyer was shot #1 and I thought I was just staging the trigger when I fired it. See what I mean?
The other high shot was #5 and I knew that I was a little off as soon as I fired, and I got what I expected from that shot. There are 3 more in the little cluster below #5 which I felt were good shots when i took them. If that's what this rifle is truly capable of I will be ecstatic! Like I said, the trigger is really for plinking, not for "serious" shooting.
Some velocities:
8.4fpe. 736fps GECO 7.0. Tight fit
(one pellet fit great and produced 9.17fpe 768.3fps!)
8.6fpe. 744fps Hobby 7.0. Tight fit
8.4fpe. 715fps Crosman 7.4. Tight fit
8.2 fpe. 639fps Norma 9.1 domed. Better fit but still fairly tight.
Final thoughts?
It's a good gun despite the not-so-good trigger, and if it wasn't for my shooting I think that it would have shown very consistent accuracy. Part of the struggle for accuracy was "shooter variable". I shot groups at 3X by the way.
I really like the build quality, in the same way that I like Diana build quality. These are not box store guns.
I would be intrigued by one of these in .22 caliber also. I think it has the chops to handle the increased pellet weight, and if anything it would be an even smoother shooting rifle.
My trigger woes are fairly modest (I have been spoiled by great triggers) and may disappear once I solve the adjustment screw mystery. Wish me luck!
Also, I've read that the 220 is essentially a 400 shortened by 15mm (65mm vs 80mm stroke), and with a simpler trigger.
If so:
1. It will probably make more power as it breaks in (my OEM Cometa 400 has climbed 2-3 fpe during break in)
2. The trigger unit from a 400 may drop right in. Now, wouldn't that be sweet?
3. The spring should be of small coil diameter and wire thickness. A little help there, and/or a Vortek seal plus smaller pellets might make a big difference to this rifle. Enough to make it legal for small game hunting in my home state, I hope.
All in all, I'm pretty confident that these are rifles worth owning long term.
Today I came home with a like new Cometa 220 Compact in .177. I've been interested in a 220 and a 300 since I found out that my fine RWS 94 is really a Cometa 400.
That was my first exposure to Cometa, and I learned more about the line. Cometa makes good stuff, and are now being imported by Keystone Airguns in PA (free plug
). This one originally came from Keystone, by the way.The 220 falls into the "poor man's HW30" category - a handy & well made, easy cocking 8 to 9fpe rifle. The clasic recipe of "fun for the whole family".
The basics - its short-ish (41.5") and pretty light (6.2 lbs) with a Diana-style ball lockup and an uncheckered wood stock. The stock has sufficient length for an adult and ends in a rubber buttpad
. I especially like the thin wrist. It has a subtle cheekpiece for right handed shooters, but looks to be equally suitable for lefties even without a symetrical cheekpiece. It feels very well made. Wood and steel finishes are good. The safety is automatic but silent, resettable and easily accessible from the rear of the compression tube even with a scope mounted. The squared off steel trigger guard may not look sleek but reminds me of the Diana 45, which is a good thing.A moderator and back up fiber optic sights are included. The rear sight is not at all sloppy which is great, but the orange plastic front sight blade is proud and unprotected. I will remove it before I damage it, or it damages me.
It's a pretty unassuming rifle - until you use it. The lock up is excellent, the cocking stroke is easy & smooth and ends in a perfect "click" of mechanical engagement as the piston latches. The barrel returns neatly into battery without any need for a heavy hand. Even so the ball lockup inspires confidence - it does a great job of drawing the action securely into batterey as it closes.
Stock proportions are good for adults (I'm 6' tall) yet the rifle is small and light, and could be used as a youth gun.
The little rifle fires very pleasantly with a nice shot cycle, and it is quiet. No buzz, honk, or creaky screen door noises to disturb your Zen.
The bad news? The trigger does not approach the Rekord, which is where (like many) it falls short of the HW30. There is a pull weight screw, but I gave up trying to adjust it after many full turns with no change of any sort. (maybe I just didn't go far enough...?)
The pull is smooth and it breaks cleanly, but with a long-ish second stage. Its not all bad but there is definitely some extra pull weight to this rifle. I'm guessing it's in the 2-3 pound range which doesn't sound so bad but it definitely pulls you off target. I don't know if it can safely be improved but I'd like to find out. I'm not interested in trying to make it act like a Rekord or T06, but I would like to know why the adjustment screw doesn't work, and get that fixed.
The bore is tight too, I may need some 4.49's for it.
I shot GECO 7.0's and Hobby's for group, and it seemed to have a real preference for the Hobby's. To be fair, I may have "warmed up" into shooting them better than the GECOs I started with. I am terribly rusty, and the trigger makes the rifle challenging to shoot well. In the pic below there are 5 shots @ 9 yards. I do have a pipe to rest my off hand on but its hardly a "rest".....
The obvious flyer was shot #1 and I thought I was just staging the trigger when I fired it. See what I mean?
The other high shot was #5 and I knew that I was a little off as soon as I fired, and I got what I expected from that shot. There are 3 more in the little cluster below #5 which I felt were good shots when i took them. If that's what this rifle is truly capable of I will be ecstatic! Like I said, the trigger is really for plinking, not for "serious" shooting.
Some velocities:
8.4fpe. 736fps GECO 7.0. Tight fit
(one pellet fit great and produced 9.17fpe 768.3fps!)
8.6fpe. 744fps Hobby 7.0. Tight fit
8.4fpe. 715fps Crosman 7.4. Tight fit
8.2 fpe. 639fps Norma 9.1 domed. Better fit but still fairly tight.
Final thoughts?
It's a good gun despite the not-so-good trigger, and if it wasn't for my shooting I think that it would have shown very consistent accuracy. Part of the struggle for accuracy was "shooter variable". I shot groups at 3X by the way.
I really like the build quality, in the same way that I like Diana build quality. These are not box store guns.
I would be intrigued by one of these in .22 caliber also. I think it has the chops to handle the increased pellet weight, and if anything it would be an even smoother shooting rifle.
My trigger woes are fairly modest (I have been spoiled by great triggers) and may disappear once I solve the adjustment screw mystery. Wish me luck!
Also, I've read that the 220 is essentially a 400 shortened by 15mm (65mm vs 80mm stroke), and with a simpler trigger.
If so:
1. It will probably make more power as it breaks in (my OEM Cometa 400 has climbed 2-3 fpe during break in)
2. The trigger unit from a 400 may drop right in. Now, wouldn't that be sweet?
3. The spring should be of small coil diameter and wire thickness. A little help there, and/or a Vortek seal plus smaller pellets might make a big difference to this rifle. Enough to make it legal for small game hunting in my home state, I hope.
All in all, I'm pretty confident that these are rifles worth owning long term.
