Barra 1866 Junior (or Rosie) review.

[lillysdad621]

So last weekend i was at TSC getting Chicken feed, and the clearance section had some juniors and rosies kits for 40 bucks. I have been eyeing it for a while as i am a RR fan, and this looked like it wanted to replace my beloved daisies... I scornfully picked up the box and remember saying: " what is so special about you, uh? single pump pneumatic, uh?... 350 fps...ok, shoots BBs AND pellets... WHAT?. The wife with me, i returned home empty handed (besides all the stuff she needed, of course...), and went online looking for info.
Smoothbore... Ok. Really one pumper? Ok. Pellets? check, looking like a Henry, check. So i said, what the Heck, its 40 bones... How bad can it be? If i dont like it i can give it to the kid next door... or anyone else, or hang it as decor. So I overfed the poultry for 2 weeks (and the starlings, and the rats, and the chipmunks) and finally, as the man in charge i am, informed the better half that we needed more chicken feed, and that I was going to get it on my way back from work, so she didn't have to worry about anything... (see the depth of the masterplan, uh?... genius.).
On my way home i stopped at... 3 different TSCs (they were out of Juniors!) and i finally found one. So i grabbed it and went straight to the registered where the nice lady asked if i needed anything else (thank God i did not return feedless), and was on my way home. Yes, my plan had worked perfectly...
Next day i opened it up (in the garage, of course) and was surprised as to how well it was packaged... Barra goes out of their way with presentation. It is also, very shiny... (i now recommend the Rosie instead). The little targets that come with it, really nice (hung them in the garage around the lever gun display) and Barra even sent me some really nice BBs... Instructions are generally tossed, but i actually read them. I have to tell you, they are very well written and illustrated. It condensed 30 years of BB gun knowledge in a little pamphlet. And show more importantly that the people who had sent this to me were definitely like me. Or knew what i was looking for.

(end of part 1)

[Back_Roads]

 Following, been having fun with mine, debating if  I want to try my now unused .177 1866 CO2 rifled barrel in one, if it fits. My TS was running low on them also when I picked it up. I forgot chicken feed, but have no chickens

[EdinGa]

My local TS isn't showing them in stock. I might be driving around too.

[lillysdad621]

sorry that this had to be broken off in bits... i write this in between chores, work and taking care of every member of the family, who happen to be sick all together... (the family that suffers together, stays... whatever.), back to the Jr...

So first thing was inspecting it... its nice, but very plasticky. the stocks are ok and the receiver seems solid enough, but the barrel shroud (OCTAGONAL!!!) is a think of beauty. The front sight on mine is a bit bent, and like the RR is centering the straw barrel. And well supported it is... (dreams of infallible accuracy race through my head. oh wait... still a kids smoothbore single pump...lol). The pump handle is flexible as it is made out of plastic but as we are only pumping it once, i can forgive that. Oh yeah. and pumping...for all of you who want a plinker that takes 0 (zero) effort to pump, this is it. the pump closes under 7 pounds of pressure. not 27, or 17... 7. Update: after 400 shots, pumping is down to 5 lbs. Like, nothing... so easy you can work on enjoying the suction sound and mellow compression of the air that is about to eject your  BB out of this sweet little carbine.
So as with any new gun, i go through all the screws (little snugs) and lube joints and such. The pump arm opens all the way revealing the piston and the oil felt (like 880) but the whole assembly is plastic. And the felt looks dry... (its not). But as a good 880 noodle i know that all this things need a bit of oil to seal perfectly... so i drop 5 drops, work them in. they dissapear, so i add another 5 of 30 wt ND... (TOO much oil, as you will see later on). Now im ready to test fire this beauty and run it through a chrony: First shot, and second, and third, were pellets. only because it can... once it proved to me that it can zing them (and zinging it does), I shot 5 geco wadcutters (RWS hobby) 7.0 gr pellets. avg velocity was 331.6 fps. WOW! a RR will shoot BBs (5.1 gr) at 275 if you got a healthy one. and this is throwing pellets at 330+!. Next i try the "standard" that we can all find, the crosman Hollowpoint 7.9 gr. group of 5 shot Avg: 299.7 fps. Wowzer!!!. OK, OK, it can do some damage, but we all know it will only matter if it can group them, and as a smoothbore. that is a tall order. So, yes, a smoothbore... this thing is made for BBs! (and God knows that with the look and Octagonal barrel, if i had this as a kid i would have been Daniel Boone reincarnated...
I go to find my jar of trusty daisy precision max (5.1 gr), and load 10 into the magazine. Avg of 10 shots: 336.1 fps. Ok, Ok, as fast as light pellets, maybe this are too small for this bore. So i remember doing some testing with Marksman BBS, and finding them to be oversized and heavier (5.63gr). Not wanting to jam the barrel, i load them through the muzzle, on at the time. 10 shots avg an unbelievable 361.5 fps. i also noticed that they took forever to seat on the magnet (like a daisy 499). So there you have it. It states that it will do 350 fps, and it will, or really close to it. Update # 2: after 500 shots, now that the pump is broken in nicely, and that the bore has been cleaned as needed (more on that later), it shoots its favorite ammo (or more like  my favorite ammo). the daisy precision max BB at a new avg of 355.9 fps. So there. it got faster after a little use.

(end of part 2)

[EdinGa]

So I'm going to have to have one now. Gotta figure out how to get it home and get some black paint on it so swmbo won't realize it doesn't belong here.

[splitbeing]

Could go up against my dragonfly .177 in one-pump-to-rule-them-all matchup. My money'd be on the dragonfly. Gonna check junior prices now.

[lillysdad621]

40$ if you find them in clearance at TSC. if not the rifle only is 45 i think.

[Back_Roads]

40$ if you find them in clearance at TSC. if not the rifle only is 45 i think.

Funny but yes the kit is selling cheaper than the solo gun package.

[lillysdad621]

i apologize about the delay to finish this, but here we are. the last bit i will comment on is accuracy, and that is simple, as it seemed to be consistent with all ammo, including pellets. The target was placed at a measured 10 yards (30 ft), which is generally a decent distance for plinking. Again, the yard stick is the RR, which is the obvious nemesis to the Jr. The average RR shoots in the 270 fps range, so 10 yards is generally what we shoot them at (Some crazies i have heard about shoot theirs at 20 and evn 30 (GASP) yards, but those are generally fun artillery shots...).
Starting with the pellets (i am obviously quite interested in the pellet capabilities of this little gun, if you can't tell), i shot a group at a quarter sized dot that measure 1 1/4 in with the Geco wad cutters 7.0 gr. Then another with the Crosman Premiers HP at 1 1/2 in. and finally i used also the RWS superpoint 6.9 and those also went into a nice cluster measuring 1 1/2 in across. Now i must say that the trigger is spongy and being plastic, somewhat flexible. But the weight at the breaking point seems consistent and all of these groups where more vertically oval than horizontally. I shot another 4 groups with the waddies and got one great 1 incher. but most were more like 1 1/4 in. So i would call it that.
Next i used BBs, and i only used 2 types. In all the testing i have done i found the daisy precision max to be superior to the crosman copperheads, so that is my go to. with those, at 10 yards we were shooting 1 1/2 in groups, nicely rounded. i shot 5 and all of them were pretty consistent. I also tried the Marksman (which we know to be oversized and heavier) and i hand loaded those one at the time from the muzzle. Like the 499B, they took a couple of seconds to roll down the bore. at the said distance, it shot groups similar to the daisies. So not more accurate, but absolutely harder hitting.
stretching out to 20 yards with soda cans was very doable with all ammo, but the surprise was that the marksman drilled the can at distances that the pellets could not. In fact, you got better penetration even with the daisy BBs.
Now, the sights are not great (but better than the RR). there is only an elevation adjuster, and the front sight (mine was a bit crooked to the left) is thinner and taller, it does allow for clear sighting. a little Kentucky Windage (as our forefathers taught us) never hurt anyone. Well, Brits aside... I thought about reaching out to barra for a new front sight, but no, this gun does what it was meant to do, and it does it well.
Update: a couple of days later i went to a friends back yard to show him my new beauty in all of its glory (I guess that is the Flick to my Ralphie...) and as my chest puffed up when he was testing it, it dissapointed and embarrased me ("dang" you Murphy, and your law) with incredibly bad grouping. but as we tried to figure out what was going on, i aproached the target and saw that one of his pellets had hit the plastic of the little stand we used to support the target box. And there was the answer to my conundrum... a black, gooey little sun with a clean circle in the middle. Touching it, it became obvious that it was an oil smear... my eyes turned up to the sky slowly, the smell of burnt wood filled the air and the whirring of rusty cogs and chains could be heard from miles... "dude, are you having a stroke?" asked Flick... "The oil" says I... "uh?" says he.
When i was prepping the gun (Part one), i may have been "daisy 880" overzealous with the oil, as it seemed to be dry in there. I guess barra does oil its guns, and i may have used too much of it. some of it worked itself pass the valve and it may have been blown into the shot tube, killing any possibility of consistent accuracy. So after i got home i cleaned the bore very well, cleaned the rear of the breach, shot it multiple times, with ammo, no ammo, while chanting and howling at the moon, and i kept cleaning it til clean patches came out... well now i am happy to inform that it returned to its standard accuracy level, and as a bonus, velocity increased and remains constant.
Closing thought: is it better than a Red Ryder?. performance wise, absolutely, no contest. accuracy is similar and im sure we can explore other ammo (the marksman are to big for comfort... dont want them to Jam the barrel). trigger? i personally like the trigger on the RR better, as it is (after tune) a better feel.) velocity? yes, this shoots harder than a model 25, and that was a magnum compared to a stock RR. now with a Cobalt spring, the RR shines... but the Jr is close, real close, bone stock. Being that is FULLY pneumatic, it has zero recoil, its also very quiet (not that the RR is not, but im just saying...). the pumping effort is a plinkers dream. literally, is only open and close, no effort. kids of all ages can pump their own guns. (my 11 year old is still struggling with the RR, especially the older ones). Looks? come on, the golden boy wannabe look and the octagonal barrel make this a great looker. the stocks are ugly, like 880 plastic ugly, and the angle of the buttplate is weird, but it works (i put a stickon rubber strip on mine and it helped). But is it better than my RRs? would i give them up for the Jr? my answer is a very honest, and pure NO. The feel of a RR in my hand is sometimes all i need to be transported back to a different time, to a place of familiar and safe thoughts, memories and adventures. The RR was there all along and its rounded barrel, warm wood stock, uncannily perfect size was always there, and i could not imagine my world without. But thank God i don't have to choose, and there she is hanging with the RRs, proud on her own merits, ready to take on any challenge, be it a pinecone that gives me a side eye, a band of starlings ravaging my pastures, or a empty old soda can that may have overstayed its welcome. Because as far as i'm concerned, this could very well be the gun many kids can grow to love and look back fondly on, as we do with our daisies.

Is it worth the 40 or even 45 dollars asked for? every last cent of it. Even if its decor after a bit. But yes, now that i know better, i would get the Rosie... if you made it this far, thank you for your patience.

[Back_Roads]

 Well done !

[lillysdad621]

update: mileage: 750 BBs through the barrel. So i had some time and the weather seems to have given us a break, so i spent some time outside with the Jr. I had been thinking about the practical use of the BB guns as opposed to the technical side of shooting pellet rifles. So the power is low and hunting is out of the question (unless its starlings and such at ranges under 10 yards, and even so its iffy...) and settled with the purpose of this gun and that is strictly entertaining plinking. It is quiet enough and innocent enough to probably be a fun activity during a BBQ with the family, or camping. The joy of the RR and the Jr is that they are look a likes and can be seen as "toys", and that they take so little space and generally have such large capacity that taking them along is almost unnoticeable. But being that we are generally shooting enthusiast, i can see how "stretching the envelope" could be something that we as airgun fans may likely do. So i thought: "well, i see some adults plink at beers cans at ranges out to 25 yards (lets be honest. the average shooter may be , and that is a huge may be, able to shoot beer or soda cans at that distance with open sights, and that is with a .22 LR...), so i wondered why not try to see if doing it with the Jr would be a &^^& shoot or could it be done somewhat "seriously".
So today i went outside and strictly shot 25 yard cans, like a lot. I am very pleased to say that even at that range, with BBs, the Jr was able to drill the cans (at least one side) at 25 yards on the 5th click of elevation. The rate of hits was an avg of 8 cans out of the shots, with open sights (i did dab the front sight on white nail polish and that helped a ton). Yes, you can see the BBs in flight, but you can deliberately hit and aim, standing or seating at most of the targets you shoot at, even if they are can sized. So as a plinker i give the Barra 1866 Jr. a 9 out 10 score. why not a 10? Let me go in the only anoying point on this little carbine.
So as you noticed, the fact that it shot pellets attracted me and was a decisive factor on buying this gun. But as you have read, pellets are playing a little part of the ownership experience now, even though they do shoot "hard" and are also acceptably accurate. So what is the problem? well, it is a mixture of the two worst loading systems ever devised in airgundom. This makes an eternity of loading a crosman 2100 with pellets and dropping them in the "hole" of the daisy 880 loading system. what i mean is this: the loading port for BBs is exactly behind the loading gate where we got to drop the pellets into the Jr. The probe slides back, and the gravity fed BBs slide into the magnetized tip and hold the other BBs back in the magazine. the hole has to be cleared by the probe so the bbs can get sucked out by the magnet. But if you are loading pellets, and the probe is open ALL THE WAY, the pellet can fall through the hole, and into the encased BB magazine compartment. Now, is not impossible to shake them out again, but is truly aggravating. So much so that this is strictly a BB gun now as to dot have to deal with that. pushing the probe forward to cover the hole eliminates the problem, but leaves very little room to load the pellet comfortably, which is a P. I. the A. So, thank you Barra, we appreciate the effort, but this to me is going to be a dedicated BB gun. Now, if they decide to make us a single stroke pneumatic pellet gun, with a LW barrel, and some nice sights, like their version of the X53 Daisy rifles, we would be pleasantly surprised...

[splitbeing]

Saw this today...

[lillysdad621]

Update: well, this little gun hasn't ceased to amaze me. I discovered a feature that i don't even think Barra knows about, and it does it so well it may be its new only use. I was discussing low power spring pistols with a friend when he mentioned that he wanted to get a 1010 style pistol for dart shooting... he told me his slavia 618 was too powerful and he wanted something smaller. While thinking about what could i use to shoot darts with, the little carbine that could came to mind. "is it possible?" i thought. "let's try!"
So i grabbed the 1866 jr and a dart, and it loaded easily in the through. I used a tooth pick to push it in the barrel (slid easily in) and then closed the bolt. one pump, voila!. grabbed a box, took aim and pull the trigger. A little round hole was in the box where there was none before. Ooops... maybe i need a stronger target. But i was happy that the shot was fast and sounded healthy. So i grabbed a piece of a 2x8 cut off, placed against the wall and did the loading again... Took aim at a little dark swirl in the wood at 10 yards. Bingo! hit just about 1/2 in low. the Dart buried itself until the point was completely inside the wood. It took a pair of pliers to remove it (gently as to not damaging the dart), but i consider this a success. With the power and velocity demonstrated, as well as the accuracy, i dont doubt this can be a dart shooter at 15 to 20 yards... perfect summertime BBQ game:).
So there you have it folks, if you want a do it all plinker for the family, you could do a lot worse than the little Jr. (or Rosie).

[Hatchetjack]

Thank you for the review on the Rosie! I’ve spent the last week or so reading different posts to get some guidance on my first BB gun as an adult. My local TSC had one Rosie left and I figured what the heck….. I am more than pleased with this selection for my jump in to the pool!! The accuracy of this little gun at 7-13 yards, shooting offhand, is impressive. The trigger pull is much harder than expected, but I hope that improves with some time destroying cans and punching holes in paper. It’s nice to be able to sit on my deck and just plink away. Now to decide on a pistol…….

[lillysdad621]

I haven't reviewed one yet... but under the rosie's shelf, at TSC, you might find its revolver sibling (not a real revolver...sigh), the 1858... for what i have read, it is also very impressive. But if you want a great pellet pistol, look no further than the Umarex Brodax revolver. It is a hefty, well built BB shooter that is powerful, accurate and gets a ton of shots per powerlet. Is a SA and DA and you can get them also at TSC for about 40$, or if you have a sports academy near you, 35 bones. Its modern looking, but a very purposeful looking BB gun. That one i have also shot extensively, and i could not recommend it enough... a true A++ for umarex.

[EdinGa]

We stopped by our local TSC tonight. They didn't have a Rosie but there were several Juniors for $60.

[Back_Roads]

 Fun to shoot fun to tinker with

[splitbeing]

No rosie or junior at the TS on my route.

[SpringerGuy]

Hey Guys

These posts make me realize what is missing in my life.  Without filling my need (Very Soon) to buy a Rosie and a Jr too, I may perish.  Barra Buying = One for nephew, one for the niece, and definitely one for my wife and one for me too!  Better get to 2 extra for my neighbor's kids as well.  Anybody else I can think of. LOL.

After reading Lillys'Dad posts about Barra Rosie and Jr; It is a MUST HAVE ITEM!  I keep finding out what is missing in my life when I read the posts in this section. Discussion with the wife went like this: Honey but but . . . but you don t understand Honey it is different this time it is a Barra.   Thanks for helping me --  rationalize spending more money on airguns --- I really need them badly.  I need help! My wife says so.  Sometimes I need help rationalizing spending more money I dont have on airguns that I really dont need. This post really helped me with that particular issue.  After reading this post I know it is time for a cold Barra.  Please understand I really don t need your help.   I don t your help or anybody else's either. 

You know if I hung out over with those Airgun Nation Guys, my wife would start to worry.  We all know that is where the Airgun Junkies hang around  trying to get their fix. I heard all of them have a bad daily Airgun Habit and the addiction is pervasive so be careful over there, Don t get hook on airguns.  We have to save our young people from airguns.   

Please pass me the need any help, trust me. 

Bought a Daisy model 188 in BB/.177 and a Crosman 38 T in .177 that was rebuilt by Mike Baker.  Been reading his Airgun Classified ads for a long time so glad to buy an airgun not just a seal kit.  He fixes a lot of vintage airguns and sell them for fair prices.

Since I collect spring air pistol I was so glad I bought a Daisy 188, it's strong springs means unbeleivable speeds.  AThe Crosman 38 T  is a bit slower as it depends on co2.

We need more asap, you know it , I know it, we all know it,  the whole world knows it.  I just buy this one more airgun then I will stop, I can stop anytime I want. I just have not wanted to stop.  I can quit buying airguns any time I want but  I just don t want.

Randy 

 

[Duckfish]

 Nice report on the Barra.  Thanks