Mendoza Black Scorpion initial review (F-23, new to me)

[mikeyb]

Received a Mendoza Black Scorpion 22 from "Trade My Gun" late today.

Mendoza Links...
(https://riflesmendoza.com.mx/productos/f-23-scorpion/)
(https://riflesmendoza.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/rifles_mendoza_diagrama_refacciones.jpg)

Looks new, but retail box was really beat up. THAT'S what it was shipped in! Only a little opaque plastic wrap around the retail box to keep it from completely falling apart in transit.

Some minor shipping/impact damage to stock at the safety, but painted wood is easy to touch-up.

Grrr!   RANT-ON
Expanded polystyrene foam bead blocks should NEVER be used to package ANY air rifles...PERIOD! Any air rifle manufacturers out there reading this? STOP using this useless material NOW!
My crude scrap cardboard padding offers better protection.
RANT-OFF

Pulled stock screws, 2 up front and one rear just in front of trigger guard,  to remove action and inspect if safety was damaged. Safety looked good.
Front right stock screw had some badly smeared threads. Other two screws were good. Threads in compression tube were dirty, but looked good after cleaning. Replaced soft screws with some new harder ones. Already had a bag of 5mm socket head cap screws so that was easy.

****
(EDIT: I matched up & replaced the screws but misread my parts bin. ***NOT*** 5mm hardware! This F-23 has 1/4" -28 screws holding the stock to the action! First time I've seen non-metric hardware in this location)
****

Dirtiest barrel I've ever seen. Seven (7) wet patches followed by three (3) dry.

Lots of oil in FRONT of the piston and almost NOTHING on the spring or guide. Very crunchy cocking action.

Really twangy shot cycle, but not the worst buzzy springer I've fired.

Dual trigger seems NICE, but NEEDS some oil... blades are sticking.

Thumb-hole through stock is too small and badly positioned for my hand, but thumb positioned up the back of the air tube feels just right.

Front sight mounted/rotated off center-line to the right so rear sight almost at right limit to compensate.

Included pellets look like a rat ate some lead and excreted it in a crude "pellet" shape. Dirty too! I don't have any air rifles I dislike enough to shoot these pellets. Will archive them for later amusement. Same with the included oil.

Shooting decent <1" groups at 30' with CPHP.  Chronograph says ~750 fps at the muzzle, but that may drop as the diesel fuel runs out.

Overall first impression? Many other better rifles out there in this price range. This one is in pretty rough shape as received. My one and maybe only Mendoza, so I plan to keep it.

Going to shoot another hundred pellets through this rifle and then go inside for a tune-up.

I'm pretty confident this rifle will shoot a LOT SMOOTHER and more accurately after a little TLC.

Actually that should be CTL (Cleaning, Tuneup, Lubrication) ;-)

[AGEnthused2]

Nice review, mine came pretty beat up in the retail box, not much information out there in English about these Black Scorpions, I already had a mendoza magnum, they are just so similar. To my eyes they look similar and not exactly the same rifle.
I've only had mine apart as far as taking off the stock and using a small brush to apply some moly to whatever I could reach. I'll have to do a further disassembly when I have a good day so I can fix an issue that came up. For some reason the rifle doesn't cock, it feels like something on the trigger is out of proper position and blocking it from engaging.
Overall though it wasn't a bad purchase, I prefer my Norica airguns to the Mendoza ones.

[mikeyb]

...I prefer my Norica airguns to the Mendoza ones.

I do like my Norica rifles (Dragon/Spider/Atlantic), but it feels like the Mendoza dual trigger has the potential to be much better than the Noricas hard, but predictable, direct sear trigger.

I'll be going inside the Mendoza in a few days. Want to send a few more pellets through it for documentation and also need to finish upgrading my spring compressor.  I do expect it will be long winded with many photos so I will likely upload my journey into the unknown (Mendoza-land) on WordPress and post a link here.

I'll attempt to learn exactly how this trigger works and maybe make it perform a little better. I'll also try to find out what may be jamming your trigger. My first guess would be a broken main-spring fragment, but you may solve that problem before I do.

Would like to know what you find. If you can, please post your solution here or start your own separate post. The latter may be easier for others to find if they have the same problem.

My list of this particular rifles issues will make some people laugh and wonder why I didn't return it immediately. I place a fairly high value on the learning experience with a new air rifle and honestly enjoy refurbishing them almost as much as shooting them. This Mendoza, with some of its unique features, scores pretty high in my "project rifle" category.

The F-23 I received is NOT a $100 air rifle IMO. Maybe $50-$60 ? However, if it responds well to a typical clean-tune-lube ritual, I would likely upgrade the rating to a "good $100 springer". Above that price point there are better options out there. For people who don't want to ever have to open up their air rifles for any kind of service or repair,  I would NOT recommend this air rifle.

[AGEnthused2]

So I recently lubed the trigger on my Norica dragon, it's the grs evo max. Anyway I lubed the part of the trigger that engages the piston, I used moly on it. The next thing that I did was remove all the moly, as impossible as that is. The trigger became so light that it was unsafe, it also wouldn't cock.
So after removing as much moly as possible I was still left with a 2 lb trigger. I like my Norica dragon even more now.
Now back to the mendoza air rifles.
I think they have potential to be good airguns, I have seen some for sale on the classifieds here that have diopter sights, and I kind of like the way they look.
Most of my collection is made up of cheaper sub $200 airguns, even the horrible retay brand. But I like my collection.

[mikeyb]

Review update 2019-04-14:

I opened up the Mendoza F-23 last night for a quick inspection, cleaning, and re-lube. Did NOT do any work other than a light oiling on the trigger group because it is NEW to me and I will need more free time to document the disassembly so I can get it back together successfully. Trigger is actually REALLY NICE as-is with just a little light oil to keep the dual trigger blades from sticking.

Suggestion: If you want to disassemble the rifle and NOT have trigger parts dropping out, cut a 3/4" long piece of 1/4" drill rod or the shank off an old broken 1/4" drill bit. Taper the ends just a little. When you push out the large trigger group retaining pin, use the 3/4" piece of drill rod pin you just made and LEAVE it centered in the trigger group assembly. It will hold the internal trigger parts in place. During reassembly you just push the short pin out with the long stock one and you are done.

This rifle has the center latching piston rod & trigger assembly. My first time digging into this style break barrel. The internal parts have a really nice fit and finish. This rifle is an interesting mix of high quality parts and sloppy factory assembly.

Compression tube was already silky-smooth and no de-burring was necessary. Slot on the piston was sharper than a razor so I made that a little less lethal. Cleaned the black tar-like goo from everything. Applied a skim-coat of moly paste to piston and compression tube, sticky grease to spring and guide, and a few drops of standard 30W (non-detergent) oil to the cleaned felt wiper behind the piston head.

Spring notes: 13" long, 0.795" od, 0.128" wire, 43 turns (41 active)

Spring preload was about 4" so this was a good test of my updated spring compressor, which will need a little further tweaking.

Reassembled the rifle and fired off about 10 rounds to get the "smoke" out.

The rifle is averaging 750 fps AT 30' with CPHP 14.3 grain pellets. Dime size 10 shot groups are easy once the open sights are dialed in. Cocking effort is pretty high, but very smooth. The firing cycle has improved a little, probably due to the spring tar.

I'm still not happy with that CRUNCHY return of the barrel. I believe it is the cocking shoe rippling across the compressed spring coils as the barrel returns to lockup. A piston sleeve should fix this issue and is one option I'm considering.

Another option might be to add a simple polymer bushing on the cocking arm which would slightly float the cocking shoe to keep it from digging into the spring during its return. That would be an easier fix with no major disassembly required. Not certain that would work, but will test next time I have the stock off the action.

Based on the workmanship and quality of the parts, I now think this is a good value $100 break barrel. Too bad that weak retail packaging and sloppy factory assembly mar some of the nicer elements of this air rifle.

[mikeyb]

I know this is an old thread, but I'm updating here instead of jacking other posters more recent Mendoza threads.

Those recent threads reminded me about this Mendoza 22 cal Black Grey Scorpion (F23) ordered from Trade My Gun.
I dusted off my one and only Mendoza to check chronograph data and accuracy.

It shoots well and is an interesting mix of some very nicely made parts and some not so nice.

That double trigger is different, but pull weight is light and release point is consistent.

Overall I like the rifle but the thumbhole stock on mine could not have been designed by humans for other humans. The dimensions and shape of the thumbhole are just all wrong. That's ok because the stock is actually quite comfortable for me when I IGNORE the thumbhole and place my thumb over the stock. The ones selling on ebay NOW (Trade My Gun) look like they have a different muzzle-break/front-sight and a newer better thumbhole stock.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Mendoza-Grey-Scorpion-Air-Rifle-Pellet-Gun-22-Cal-Oil-Pellets/383431399720

First 10 pellets were just used to "wake up" the rifle and burn off any lube that had crept into the compression chamber. A couple of those first shots were over 900 fps which is NOT what this rifle should be shooting. Shot cycle settled to a solid thump with only a tiny hint of spring twang. IMO right where it should be for this rifle. Still has a little burnt oil smell, but it doesn't seem to be hurting the ES.

CPHP (14.3 grain) over the chronograph weren't bad for consistency or accuracy. Note that my data is not at the muzzle, but just in front of the target at 30'. Also tried some Daisy HP, the made in China version measured to be 13.6 grain. POI shifted slightly but overall accuracy was the about the same.

Group sizes were 0.7" for 20 CPHP and 0.6" for 10 Daisy HP. Both groups had 1 flier and were under 0.5" without it. Both fliers were my fault for "blinking" (no follow through) so I'm certain this rifle is MORE accurate than I am.

[lefteyeshot]

Thanks, good info, old and update. I like my Mendozas. I have eight of them, different types.

It's interesting the different approaches people around the world take to building air rifles.

Like you I don't stick my thumb in the hole either. Lay it along side on on top.