Finally got a Plinkster

[the fuse]

I say I don't feel up to getting into pcp. But If I was at an estate sale and there was a used gun and hand pump there for $80, I'd be buying it. It's really more about having short arms and long pockets. 

[Ribbonstone]

I still like good 12gr. co2 rifles and use them about as often as a PCP.  Are much better suited to some tasks.  HAve even un-converted a couple from air use back to co2 as I've found that what I was doing with them worked for me better as a calm/quiet lower powered rifle.

Plinkster has been an accurate rifle for me.  I don't hot-rod it for the uses I have, accuracy is quite acceptable, and after a hard day's work, it's relaxing to pick it up (with loaded mags at hand and 3 12gr. resting in the tube) and head out the back door.

My climate (New Orelans) is likely more co2 friendly than NY, but when the weather agrees, one of the 12gr. rifles gets the "work-down-wind" shooting duty MUCH more often than a PCP.


So let me put it this way.....177 to .177....Varminter (.177PCP)  to Plinkster (.177 CO2).




Are certainly some changes, one not easily convertet to the other, but it's the same critter externally, and pretty much the same itenral system inside.  Speed.power is way different, but that only matters when power is an important issue (which it isn't in most 20-25 yard plinking/target shooting/ pest bird shooting/ goofing around).

There is a little bit of accuracy difference...but not much.



Was it co2 vs. PCP?  Speed difference?  "air" somehow being "better" than any other type of gas pressure?

So I  "swapped tops" (taken the breech/barrel assembly off one and swapped it for the other). 

The small accuracy diffeernce followed the barrel/upper not the power plant: the slightly more accurate PCP (varminter)barrel was slightly more accurate on the cow rifle (plinkster).

Either way, for the non-compition use that either of them get,  that 3/100's isn't important...you'd have to bench rest and work hard to find it.


Looking at energy, whent back to the first strings shot (out the box tuning), and found:

The PCP varminter would manage 16-17 shots inside of 4% velocity varation for 20.8 foot pounds per shot (10.3gr. pellets).

The co2 Plinkster, keeping to the same 4% velocity change,  would manage 27 shots at 9.4 foot pounds (10.3gr. pellets)


So I figured, as I have both,  lets play to their strong points.

WHOLE lot of fiddling around, adjusting, chaning stuff...which is what "tuning" is ...and I ended up with the following (for the time being...the thing about "tuning" is that you never really stop).


So the CO2 ended up down tuned/lower energy (but the accuracy didn't seem to change) for 36 shots at 8.3 foot pounds (on one 12gr.).

The PCP ended up being adjusted to manage 20 shots at 20.2 foot pounds. 

There is a reason for that....I like to run out of loaded mags just about the same time I need refilling.


Not that one is really "better" than the other...that depends on what use you have for them.  It would be like claiming that a can opener is "better" than a corkscrew....different tools, different uses.

 Plinking/wandering the woods with nothing in mind but plinking, back yard pesting, shooting paper, and generally goofing off unwinding....the co2 gets used.

When I have something far away that needs to be dead, I take out the PCP.

[cobalt327]

Mark I just checked and Mike still has the Plinksters in stock yet for $109 which is a really good deal but who knows for how much longer, I suspect until they run out I guess, it would be nice if Mike could let us know what's going on with his airgun stuff

Sorry Wayne, earlier I was mixing up Plinkster with Varmint. The Varmint PCP was what I was tempted by, but the Plinkster is also a good deal for a good CO2 gun. WM has had some good sales on 12g cartridges lately so I'm sitting on a lot of 'em. If I get a Plinkster I'd sell my bone stock QB78. It doesn't have but 4 cartridges through it.

[Ribbonstone]

I like the forums for a personal chalenges...I like the "on demand" idea when I have a rifle(s) of the same make/model being discussed.
 If I have them, will tend to get them out or storage, charge them up, and shoot them.

Been somthing like 5-8 weeks for either of these two.  Started them out by recharging them. No prep at all, just charged them (one with co2 and one with air), No scope readjustment...just out the safe and on the short 20 yard range to see both where and how well they shot after being ignored-n-stored for a month or two.

HAs been some LDC swapping  between the last photo of the pair, but they both wear simple 3-9X32mm scopes and (ready to go/ fully charged) weigh in under 6 pounds as shown (the PCP is just a little bit lighter...like 7/10ths an ounce...3 full 12gr. add enough weight to make up for the longer tube PCP version's "extra" parts).

OK...a "cold start" (no prep/no warm up shots) saw the co2 WIN at 20 yards.





Yes...it was like 1/100ths less accurate, but it diden't need any scope djustments to get "on".

So...in back yard 15-30 yard plinking/pesting/target shooting, just how much is  the difference in energy worth (energy difference is considerable).


Have to admit, 941fps  is one "heck" of a lot faster than 610fps...and 20.3 foot pounds is a "carpload" more then 8.5 foot pounds.

But does the power, at this (15-30 yard) range really make it a whole lot bettrer for shooting paper, busting paintballs, flippingh sinners, killing pest birds,  splittig weeds, or all the other happy-whappy-BS we do with airguns for fun?


Stay within the accurcy limits..with  a mind to the energy limits on live critters....and you can live as happy with the 12gr. Plinkster as  the PCP "varmint"/

[cobalt327]

Thanks for the insight. Gives good food for thought. I don't shoot at ranges past 40 yards and don't use airguns for varminting so combined with the nearly year-round mild weather here, the CO2 guns make a lot of sense. And is why I originally opted for the QB78D and the CP-1M. I got the QB before the SPA guns had arrived- if I'd have had the QB and Plinkster to choose from I'd have opted for the Plinkster.