Synergis Elite in.22, my experiences

[splitbeing]

I'll be documenting my experience with the Synergis Elite in .22.

My motivations are threefold.

First, I was intrigued by the underlever repeaters at shot show and had already decided to get one, which I thought would be the stone wolf, but it is not available yet.

Second, I received $200 for participating in a survey. The money came via paypal today.

Third, the off the shelf airguns/RIP backyard plinking review showed me a few things that matter to me.  I like the streamlined, lightweight design for carrying around more easily.  I also like that it is a gas ram, has the metal mags, and appears balanced as well as quiet in the review. 

I expect this gun to be in the 500 to 700 fps range with most pellets and intend to shoot standing as often as benched, mostly at 50 ft.

I intend to disassemble the gun and look inside, shoot the pellets I have for my other rifles, and share my impressions.  I will likely change the scope and rings.

I have only seen this gun available in .22 through Tractor Supply, but only one out of more than 5 Tractor Supplies in my area.  It is pickup only.  I paid $170 for it.  None of the major retailers I checked, including the manufacturer, have the synergis elite available in .22.  The manufacturer does have it in .177.

Thanks and regards,
Rion

[splitbeing]

The stock does not feel hollow. The material reminds me of the gamo arrow or urban stock material. 

In the hands, it is light and feels like handling my 363 in terms of shape.  This is primarily due to the ridge for gripping, which is to say the bottom of the forward grip widens.  It is longer of a stock than my 362 I think.

[splitbeing]

To get inside, it looks like I will have to remove the picrail scope mount base, which is held on by five allen screws.  I think a stop pin is under there.

[splitbeing]

The pic rail adapter is polymer and comes off along with the end cap.  You can see the indentations for the five screws are machined into the tube between the dovetail grooves.  I am not crazy about a polymer rail.  I do think that the five screws resting in the indents is a good design and likely will hold well.  This is an unusual rifle.

[splitbeing]

Well, there are two pins but they don't want to come out with the gun in the compressor.  There is a space the size and depth of a quarter between the end of the trigger unit and the end of the tube.  I tried compressing two ways: by the solid metal trigger block and by filling the space and pressing the metal filler.  Neither approach loosened the pins enough to tap them out.  Neither seemed to do any useful compressing.  I am missing something here.

[splitbeing]

These mags are great on first impression.  While the plates are polymer, the mag itself is metal.  Overall, the magazine is hefty and feels like a solid, rugged metal construction.

Uncocked, the metal trigger has a very clear and definitive second stage.  The trigger is not heavy, more medium light.  Again, this is uncocked.  There do not appear to be any external adjustment screws.

The metal on the gun is finished to good enough standards.  There is bluing, but it's not all that deep.  The tube is smooth enough to the touch, but also has a bit of felt texture left to it.

[splitbeing]

Trouble is afoot. I tried mounting a mantis scope and it shot low.  The turret adjustments maxed out and still the poi is too low.  I then tried the scope that came with it.  Same issue: too low.  Then I removed the pic rail and reinstalled it to be sure the screws were in the grooves.  Still too low.  Then I tried switching the rings just in case the specs are so off that one is higher slightly.  The poi went up a hair, but still too low.

I tried a buckrail holosight, but it is so high up above my eye it will not work without a cheek riser.

My next step is to try the mantis scope with the pic rail removed and a droop compensator mount.

[splitbeing]

The droop compensator with pic rail removed could not even get the poi up to the poa. It was still too low.

I returned the rifle first thing this morning. Thus concludes my experience with the .22 Synergis Elite.

[KnightBird]

Hello, I have been looking for one of these since Shot Show.  I read your article above last night, and about an hour later, my alert from Tractor Supply said it was finally in stock...30 miles away a TS had 1 in stock.. the only other store with one 'in my area' was about 100 miles away.

This morning we took a drive and picked it up.  I returned home and eagerly unpacked it.

I am by far not a new shooter, but I have only recently (3 years now) gotten back into air guns since I was a kid.  I am 56 now.

I have a small collection, this is my 3rd pellet only rifle, and I have to say, I think you may have gotten a bad unit.

Out of the box, I mounted the supplied scope (to see where it is at quality-wise) and after I adjusted the eyepiece, without moving any of the scope's settings, I was on a 6"x6" paper target, shooting quarter sized groups of 3 (at only 40 ft due to my back yard depth) without any adjustments. 

The first few shots (as my then 5yr old grand daughter would have said) 'scared me outta the cr ap' they were so loud!  But using a rest (as I planned on sighting it in) hitting my little targets (a pot, a couple plastic vitamin bottles, and a couple of spinning targets of varying sizes ranging from 1.5" to 4") with very little compensation. I was holding a bit high of my target and yes i missed a few times, maybe 3 out of 10, but it seems pretty accurate to me.

I was having fun plinking with it, oiling and checking all the fasteners were tight after every 30 shots or so. I shot just short of an entire can of Crossman hollow points this afternoon.

Before I knew it, it was dinner time and I had to put it away and go cook.  But I wanted to leave my thoughts and review.
0Pros:  Balance is good, feels good in the hand, underlever give confidence that your site picture won't be changed when you cock it, and the auto reload works well. Trigger is smooth, breaks predictably and has no gritty feel. The included scope (non-illuminated item 'B') seems to work just fine.  I may swap it out for a red dot for resting, I have a Romeo 5 sitting around not doing anything.

Cons:  The underlever cocking handle gave me a bruised pinky due to the sliding of the locking mechanism, but I am sure with experience this will be minimized in the future.  After 220 rounds the 'SilencAir Sound Management' is a quieter, but not "whisper quiet" as some paid reviewers have stated.  The first shot sounded much like my .40 caliber pistol.  after about 100-120 shots, it quieted down, but it still louder than my Kodiak X2 in .22, but quieter than my AR-7 .22 rifle. And lastly, markings on the magazine are very faint and hard to see in ANY light. I may end up using my laser to engrave them deeper into the walls of the cylinder and filling them with white sight paint and maybe a red indicator for the last chamber so you have a visual key to tell you when you are out, in case you lose track of how many rounds you have fired.  It may be the Crossman Pellets, but a few fell straight through the chambers, and I have had 4 or 5 that did not fire and were stuck in the magazine, but this was easily remedied.

Again, you may have gotten a defective unit, so maybe try it again?  I will come back and make my own post about this as a review as well. I did not mean to hijack your thread! 

[splitbeing]

All good, Jeff. Your post and any future posts on the synergis elite in .22 fit well here and are welcome.

[Novagun]

Thank you for those posts . Well actually no non not.
I  ,until now was in a very comfortable position of not wanting   any more airguns.
Now that has changed. I will be looking out for one if they are available here.
Umarex  not perfect but not that bad .