KalibrGun The Cricket, or There and Back Again

[wolfmangreg]

My favorite misfit from the land of bullpups (eastern/central EU) is the Cricket Carbine. Have spilled enough virtual ink here & elsewhere on the net explaining why, so will keep it simple here: more than any other rifle - air or powder - it feels like an extension of me when preparing for the shot. Plenty of experience with the .22 already, but saw a while back that Georia Airguns had some left in .25, at a reduced price. Life got in the way for several months, but finally settled down a bit... figured now was the time, as they probably won't be available much longer. Mr. Frear did the voodoo that he do on one & sent it my way.

Darn near dead calm late this afternoon in my little slice of Kentucky, so a good time to do pellet testing. The test target Charles sent with the gun showed FX/JSB 25.4 & JSB 33.9 shooting very well at 40 yards, with JSB Hades also showing perfectly acceptable hunting accuracy. Tested 5 kinds of pellets (calling the FX & JSB 25.4 the same thing in different wrappers), and apparently this barrel will shoot well with anything pellet shaped & .25 caliber. The biggest group, at a lasered 100 yards, was barely over an inch & a half. Will let the picture tell the full story; as the late, great Paul Harrell would say- you be the judge.




Been doing this long enough to know that one five shot group is only a glimpse. Good, bad, or ugly, it's sure as heck not a guarantee that all subsequent groups/scores will be the same. That said, the photo above is enough for me to declare that she is a shooter! Two manufacturers, two lead alloys, three weights, and four shapes... dang. As a side note, this is my first rifle of ~half dozen that has shot any of the AEA/JTS offerings worth a hoot. 25.4 pellets were moving at ~950 fps, & the 33.9 at ~845. Didn't chrony the AEA 29.5.

For the immediate future, going with JSB King Heavy MKII. Going to shoot her in a UFT match this weekend, & not sure I can get all the dope needed & still have enough of the AEA 33.9 to complete the 60-shot match (only bought one 150 count tin), or that I could get more before then. After this weekend, will do a more thorough shootout among the three heavy pellets before stocking up on the winner.

Obligatory eye candy photo of the rifle below, with SFWA SS 12x scope & Warne medium rings.

 

[Florida_Man]

Loved my Frear Cricket, it was just too much rifle for my needs. They perform amazing with just HS adjustments. The only thing I had to do to it was adjust the magazine indexing mechanism. Well built rifles.

 

[wolfmangreg]

Loved my Frear Cricket, it was just too much rifle for my needs. They perform amazing with just HS adjustments. The only thing I had to do to it was adjust the magazine indexing mechanism. Well built rifles.

Have read a few other accounts of Crickets needing indexing adjustments, though mine have been good to this point. Out of curiosity, was it easy to fix?

Reminds me- all of the shooting done today was with a single shot loader from JB3D. It works well.

 

[BenjeneerJohn]

Those are fantastic rifles. Very accurate and a joy to shoot.

 

[wolfmangreg]

Those are fantastic rifles. Very accurate and a joy to shoot.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Pumacarl]

Another nice shooter Greg! And, good shooting by you too, sub 1 takes all pistons firing. I love shooting .25 34gr pellets and that gun just looks like it has good weight and balance. (The Paradigm is a little portly. I just purchased a tripod to help out with that, we'll see how that goes. I want to get, or change it if I have to, a .25 caliber barrel for it.) That moderator looks pretty long, are you finding the setup to be quieter than others you have shot? I'm always looking to make less noise. And, can't you use 16x for UFT? I have a SWFA 16x that I am not using that I will trade you for one of your 12x scopes if you want, it could even be one of your more used ones, I just like having spares about. PM me if you want.

 

[Franklink]

Have always liked the skeletonized wood stock on those.

 

[wolfmangreg]

@Pumacarl - I've always liked the heavy .25 pellets too, great for both target work & hunting.

Appreciate the kind words. The two best groups above are also two of the best I've ever shot. Had an Edgun R5, bolt action single shot, that would stay at or just under MOA at 100 pretty regular in calm weather. If, & it's a big if, the AEA or JSB MKII results prove reasonably repeatable, this could be the most accurate airgun I've owned.

Total weight of the rig as pictured is 9 lbs 5 oz.

The moderator is Kalibrgun factory, don't think it's available as a standalone item. Pretty sure it has proprietary threading too. It's 8" total, but the barrel crown sits just over an inch in front of the cone piece. Working portion is ~5.5-6". It's the most quiet of the four .25s I've owned (Edgun R5, Ghost with 0DB, Red Wolf with 0DB). In fairness, it also has the longest barrel of the four & is set 50 or so fps slower with the king heavies.

Will pm you regarding the scopes.

 

[wolfmangreg]

Have always liked the skeletonized wood stock on those.

That stock is one of the reasons I dig this model so much. Mostly for the fit & function, but it sure doesn't hurt that it's good looking too.

 

[Florida_Man]

Have read a few other accounts of Crickets needing indexing adjustments, though mine have been good to this point. Out of curiosity, was it easy to fix?

Reminds me- all of the shooting done today was with a single shot loader from JB3D. It works well.

It’s not too difficult. Charlie explained it to me and there is a video on YouTube. I think Ernest Rowe did it. This is 2 plus years ago I did it.

To new cricket owners that may read this thread:
The recommended loading sequence:
1. Insert rotary mag
2. Push probe forward and load pellet.
3. Engage the magazine system

I didn’t know that when i received my cricket and I think that is what led to my issue.

 

[JoeWillie]

My favorite misfit from the land of bullpups (eastern/central EU) is the Cricket Carbine. Have spilled enough virtual ink here & elsewhere on the net explaining why, so will keep it simple here: more than any other rifle - air or powder - it feels like an extension of me when preparing for the shot. Plenty of experience with the .22 already, but saw a while back that Georia Airguns had some left in .25, at a reduced price. Life got in the way for several months, but finally settled down a bit... figured now was the time, as they probably won't be available much longer. Mr. Frear did the voodoo that he do on one & sent it my way.

Darn near dead calm late this afternoon in my little slice of Kentucky, so a good time to do pellet testing. The test target Charles sent with the gun showed FX/JSB 25.4 & JSB 33.9 shooting very well at 40 yards, with JSB Hades also showing perfectly acceptable hunting accuracy. Tested 5 kinds of pellets (calling the FX & JSB 25.4 the same thing in different wrappers), and apparently this barrel will shoot well with anything pellet shaped & .25 caliber. The biggest group, at a lasered 100 yards, was barely over an inch & a half. Will let the picture tell the full story; as the late, great Paul Harrell would say- you be the judge.

View attachment 8373


Been doing this long enough to know that one five shot group is only a glimpse. Good, bad, or ugly, it's sure as heck not a guarantee that all subsequent groups/scores will be the same. That said, the photo above is enough for me to declare that she is a shooter! Two manufacturers, two lead alloys, three weights, and four shapes... dang. As a side note, this is my first rifle of ~half dozen that has shot any of the AEA/JTS offerings worth a hoot. 25.4 pellets were moving at ~950 fps, & the 33.9 at ~845. Didn't chrony the AEA 29.5.

For the immediate future, going with JSB King Heavy MKII. Going to shoot her in a UFT match this weekend, & not sure I can get all the dope needed & still have enough of the AEA 33.9 to complete the 60-shot match (only bought one 150 count tin), or that I could get more before then. After this weekend, will do a more thorough shootout among the three heavy pellets before stocking up on the winner.

Obligatory eye candy photo of the rifle below, with SFWA SS 12x scope & Warne medium rings.

View attachment 8376

You headed to Rodger’s this Sunday?

 

[wolfmangreg]

You headed to Rodger’s this Sunday?

Let's do it!

Will post a photo of the single shot loader below, forgot to add them to the original post. Best I can tell, it's the only one offered for the Cricket action. Clever design that keeps the indexing lever in single shot mode (those familiar with Crickets will understand what I'm talking about). Easy to use, & lines the pellet up perfectly.

 

[bchannell]

I too share your love of all things Cricket Carbine. I bought a used .22 and tuned it up and it is, so far, my best long range rifle. It will, on a calm day, shoot right at 1" at 100 yards with JSB 18.1gr pellets. They have great triggers, and I love the stock. My only minor gripe is the funky magazine auto/manual mag advance lever. I haven't had to do any maintenance or any serious disassembly, so I'm not sure if it can be disabled and go to auto advance all the time. It's a pretty small matter, but somewhat annoying until you get used to it. I still forget to select auto when I load a new mag every once in a while. The way it shoots, and feels, I can't gripe too much. The safety is an afterthought indeed, what a piece of junk. Lucky me, I usually remove the safety on guns I use on the bench if it is annoying, and even then you can simply not use it, but IF you use safeties, this one really sucks. I've tried it, and it will never be a part of my shooting.
I haven't stretched it's legs beyond roughtly 930fps with 18.1gr, but it sure likes that tune.

 

[wolfmangreg]

@bchannell - Charlie mentioned a couple things about the carbine, both of which are borne out in my experience with two of them:
- While Cricket barrels in general are accurate, the "lottery winners" tend to be the the Carbine & .22 Long, a Georgia Airguns exclusive that he requested of Kalibrgun (that uses the same barrelled action as the Carbine).
- They seem less pellet speed sensitive than most, shooting a favored pellet well at a wide range of velocities.

 

[wolfmangreg]

More data now available (geez I spend too much time around engineers), and still looking good! Worked on dope out to 100 & feel pretty confident with it. Actual results match very well with Strelok when using a BC (G1) of 0.060.

Had some air in the tank, so popped some more 100 yard groups with the AEA 33.9 pellets. As expected, they didn't match that 1st group- unlikely that I'm capable of regularly producing 0.69" groups regardless of the rifle & ammo. But still, by my standards, awesome results. Wind was again a non-factor.



Think I might be in love

 

[mike56]

I got one of the very first cricket 22 B/P in the USA, It was sent straight to Earnest for a tune, Its called a never sell gun, Someday I am going to get a carbine, Just got to get through the MORA faze 1st...
Mike

 

[KalibrGun]

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I'll leave it here for information and comparison.

 

[CTAirgunner]

My favorite misfit from the land of bullpups (eastern/central EU) is the Cricket Carbine. Have spilled enough virtual ink here & elsewhere on the net explaining why, so will keep it simple here: more than any other rifle - air or powder - it feels like an extension of me when preparing for the shot. Plenty of experience with the .22 already, but saw a while back that Georia Airguns had some left in .25, at a reduced price. Life got in the way for several months, but finally settled down a bit... figured now was the time, as they probably won't be available much longer. Mr. Frear did the voodoo that he do on one & sent it my way.

Darn near dead calm late this afternoon in my little slice of Kentucky, so a good time to do pellet testing. The test target Charles sent with the gun showed FX/JSB 25.4 & JSB 33.9 shooting very well at 40 yards, with JSB Hades also showing perfectly acceptable hunting accuracy. Tested 5 kinds of pellets (calling the FX & JSB 25.4 the same thing in different wrappers), and apparently this barrel will shoot well with anything pellet shaped & .25 caliber. The biggest group, at a lasered 100 yards, was barely over an inch & a half. Will let the picture tell the full story; as the late, great Paul Harrell would say- you be the judge.

View attachment 8373


Been doing this long enough to know that one five shot group is only a glimpse. Good, bad, or ugly, it's sure as heck not a guarantee that all subsequent groups/scores will be the same. That said, the photo above is enough for me to declare that she is a shooter! Two manufacturers, two lead alloys, three weights, and four shapes... dang. As a side note, this is my first rifle of ~half dozen that has shot any of the AEA/JTS offerings worth a hoot. 25.4 pellets were moving at ~950 fps, & the 33.9 at ~845. Didn't chrony the AEA 29.5.

For the immediate future, going with JSB King Heavy MKII. Going to shoot her in a UFT match this weekend, & not sure I can get all the dope needed & still have enough of the AEA 33.9 to complete the 60-shot match (only bought one 150 count tin), or that I could get more before then. After this weekend, will do a more thorough shootout among the three heavy pellets before stocking up on the winner.

Obligatory eye candy photo of the rifle below, with SFWA SS 12x scope & Warne medium rings.

View attachment 8376

I remember our phone discussion before you purchased my Taipan Long, and how bullpups were not your thing except for these beauties. The stocks still catch my eye!!