My New Kalibrgun Cricket Standard .35 Hands on Info & Thoughts Review

[William]

The new Cricket in .35 cal. Looks interesting, can anyone give feed back on one or some place I can get info! Just interesting to see how well it performs and what shot count, if its regulated and whether it can be tuned for more FPS depending on how it shoots out of the box.

Yes I want one, but dont know as of yet if it is available. Anyone know where I can get one or someone who has one!

Edit,,, Scroll down to Reply #11 to see the review and specs.
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=78975.msg759832#msg759832

William

[William]

John,
I guess sometime next week I will find out the truth on the FPS, FPE and shot count, found some info and talked to Dealers, so took a chance and ordered one. It should ship tomorrow or Thursday, they are testing it to make sure everything is ok and hold pressure and grouping. Not sure what is going to come out, but if it shoots good at 115 FPE or a little more I will keep it, if not for $1700.00 Dollars I will send it back and get the .25 standard cricket. Just hope I didn't jump too fast. I do believe it has a power adjuster of some sort and now has a safety on it. I do have a Sam Yang .357 Recluse I just purchased  which gives me low to mid 900 FPS with round ball. I havent done enough testing with it yet and it could use a tune. The Recluse gives me decent groups with JSB 81.2 Grain at 65 yards as well as the H&N Grizzly's (1-1/2" and lower groups at 65 yrds), and I get 5 nice shots with a few follow ups as far as group and power. But that thing is loud, I do have a LDC for it but that thing is kinda big and kind of scary looking at it, makes people wonder what the heck you got on the end!

I hoping for a good shooting, quiet (at least bearable) .35 pellet AG that will lay the hammer down on med game and smaller out to med and short range! I wish they had a .30 cal. instead! I would imagine if I wanted it could be tuned to more power, I do believe it is regulated at around 1800 to 2000 PSI, which I am not sure if that is enough PSI or not!

Here is some info on it you may have to translate it to english.. http://www.alexxxus.cz/KalibrGun-KBG-Cricket-cvrcek-9mm
I have seen some good info but most is like you mentioned it is in foreign language and translation does not do to well on some pages.
 
Well Thanks for the reply and when I get it I will try my best to let everyone know how it does. The Chrony will tell us thats for sure!

William

[ancient1one]

Check out Mark Millers you-tube channel and post your Cricket 9mm question under one of his videos. He had a Cricket 9mm..

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQDG3aAQKOv4xqQZm-69WXg

EDIT: Links are graphic..

[William]

Got my Cricket .35 today, opened the box and WoW, sweet as a rose. They added a few features such as a Safety, Cocked Identifier pin in the back were the hammer spring goes. And also noticed that when you insert the magazine it only has auto rotate upon cocking instead of manual/auto position, I think this change is due to the addition of a safety. It is Regulated too and fill can be up too 300 Bar max.

Cocking lever is smooth and easy, pellets feed ok (JSB's) don't think anything longer will fit! Will try tomorrow fitting other bullets in mag.
It is a little bit heavier than I thought but not bad at all, it is heavy now due to my scope UTG 6x24-56mm is heavy and long (17" long) weight of scope is 32oz. I need a lighter weight scope for sure, the gun is a bit back heavy or different maybe than what i am used too, but when you put the scope on it is nicely balanced.

I fire a few shots without the scope and it is not going to be very backyard friendly in my opinion, I am ok where I live due to neighbors are over 400 feet away.
I will have more info sometime this week and picks, below is a pick of the shot string AOA shot over the chrono and 20 yard group which is 5 in one hole!

Almost forgot, the trigger is really sweet, maybe too sweet. First stage is really soft and second stage is pretty smooth as well as it takes very little pressure to fire, I mean its low ounces to pull no pounds at all, I will have to make it a little heavier I think. I accidently fired it once and scared the &^^& out of me!

Oh, tell me something Does that Scope look to big for the gun? The reason I ask it I think i need a smaller lighter one!

Thanks,
William

[farmerjoe99]

Very Nice!
Joseph

[ancient1one]

The scope looks awesome on the Cricket 9mm.. That is one bad looking bullpup! I cannot wait to hear how it shoots, groups and how many shots per fill it gets. What pellets are you using?

Your the 1st guy on GTA that posted he has one 9mm Cricket. I love the stock. In fact your scope/Cricket setup looks sweet. Good luck with that Bad boy.

[William]

Thanks for the replies, it is sweet and solid! It is a little heavier than I expected but not to bad. I cant wait to chrony and get some group shots in.
The pellets are the 81.2 grain JSB's, They should shoot at just over 800 FPS giving me about 117 ft lbs of energy, I think i can adjust it up a little more but we need to see what it is like stock out of the box first. I will try to get some numbers up this week if i get enough daylight when I get home from work.

Not sure what other bullets or pellets will be short enough to fit in the Cricket, soon to find out though.

William

[ToRmEnToR]

Ohhh Mama! That thing is sweet! Have fun!

[William]

Got home in time today to do a quick sight in on the .35 Cricket, started rite off at 35 yards, it was about 6" low so I adjusted it up and took a shot or 2 and it was hitting to the right 1" and 1" high, so I move the POI over and it hit dead center 1" High with 5 shots inside of a dime. I then got me another target and some more air and put the target at 65 yards and shot a few rounds. I could only shoot a good 3 shot group due to I am almost out of air and the regulator on this cricket is set at around 125 bar, so a 4th or 5th shot would drop off due to falling off the regulator. I can say one thing, she sure shoots good. But that trigger is way too light, the first stage is so lite you cant tell your pulling on it and the second stage is almost as easy and if I dare even breath on it it goes off, need to adjust it thats for sure.

Also after shooting the 3 shot group i tried the Grizzly 82 grain bullets from H&N and when i fired it it clipped one of my baffles, you can look down in the muzzle and see where it clipped it, so now I have to figure out how to get the baffles out. If the hole seems tight on the baffles I may drill them out a little bigger!

Here is a pic of the 3 shot group at 65 yards with the 81.02 grain JSB's.

William

[William]

Here is a lot of info on my New Cricket .35 Cal.
I do have some posts with some of this info elsewhare on the GTA but, I would rather keep it in one place!

     This is an excellent shooting .35 cal. bull pup; it will shoot ½” groups at 65 yards and 1 hole-group at 25 yards using JSB 81.02 grain pellets. The gun is a little on the heavy side, but balances nicely with your scope attached. I would advise using a lightweight scope! The wood is excellent and just the right darkness!
     The Trigger is way too touchy, when I got it you could breathe on the trigger and it would go off, the first stage was so soft you couldn’t tell you were pulling the trigger and when you got to the second stage it was about the same, so you couldn’t really tell it was there. I did adjust the second stage until it had a lot more pressure, but it is still light but will work. So be careful if your fingers or anything is near that trigger without the safety on!
     The rotary clips are easy to load with pellets and clips go into the gun easy! The only problem may be, if you are going to shoot bullets any Longer lengths over 0.44” will more than likely have to be single loaded. Some small diameter nosed bullets may have a tendency to fall out of the rotary clip!

     I also shot the H&N Grizzly bullets which do not seat past the transfer port. This deforms the skirt of the bullet and causes baffle clipping which I found out the hard way, so make sure you check to see if the pellets or bullets chamber fully before shooting!

Overall Specs & Dimensions
     Length: 33”
     Barrel Length: 23.5"
     Shrouded Barrel
     Weight:  8.82 Pounds w/out scope
     Noise:  Med (Not Backyard Friendly in crowded neighbor hoods)
     Velocity:  805 FPS w/JSB 81.02 grain pellets
     115 FPE
     300 Bar Fill max- 4350 PSI
     Regulated at approx. 125 bar
     9 round Rotary Clip w/ auto indexing
     Air Volume tube 350cc
     18 to 20 shots per fill (tested) 300 bar down to approx. 120 bar.

New
     Added Safety
     Rear cocked/loaded-indicator Pin with red mark
     No Manual mag rotation setting (due to adding a Safety) auto rotate only

Hammer Spring Specs.
     Length-           1.85”
     Outside Dia. - .474”
     Inside Dia. -     .350
     Wire Dia. -       .062
     Also Hammer Spring is very easily accessed from the rear if you should need to change it out.

Chamber Dimensions tested by chambering several projectiles then pushing back out.
     Grove is .354
     Landing .351
All Pellets drop fully into chamber until they hit the opposite side of the transfer port where the rifling’s begin.

Projectile Seating
     JSB .35 81.02 grn (L .430 Head .356 Skirt .360) seats fully past the transfer port and head and skirt both engage rifling’s.

     H&N Grizzly’s 82 grn HP (L .462 Head .356) will not fully seat past the transfer port (covers 25%) and is probably bending the skirt inward deforming the bullet and will cause baffle clipping, the Bolt Probe is not long enough and these bullets are tight fitting. Hollow base is too deep.  Also has Excessive smearing due to large diameter.

     Air Venturi 105 grn FP (L .438 Head .358) Loads fairly easy grooves look good and no excessive smearing due to being more correct in size.

Later maybe next weekend after my new Omega Compressor gets here I can do some real testing of different bullets and pellets! So keep an eye out for updates on FPS, FPE and groups with 81.02 pellets as well as 105-127 grain bullets!

Below is some picks of the pellets and bullets I chambered and then pushed back out with a dowel rod and checked the dimensions, this is how I got most of the dimensions listed above.

Thanks
William

[pyroboy33]

Sweet gun! Looks like a real good shooter, it would be interesting to see what it will do at 100 yards.

[William]

Going to try maybe if I am lucky to chronograph some shots and do a 100 yard group test. If it is too dark when I get home I will have to wait until the weekend. Daylight savings time is killing me lol
My New compressor will be here Monday so I can have plenty of air to test with!

William

[William]

Thank you for the real world information, and, the pictures! You could have tried to describe the trigger/mag index part to me all day, one picture says it all, thanks.
Compressor, nice!
John

Here is where I learned it from and how it worked, he has some good videos, most are not on the Cricket .35 but all the same principle!

Loading the Magazine on a Cricket Demonstration...Shows the difference if you look at my pic of the indexing part you can see in his video there are 2 notches, mine just has one, its no longer needed now that they have added a safety to the Cricket .35. When using it set in manual indexing it gives you the option of uncocking the gun without auto rotating the clip and chambering 2 pellets. You use the manual indexing as a safety feature, which I wouldn't mind if it was still there really! I guess a person could add the second notch back if you wanted!



William

[ToRmEnToR]

Thanks for the info.. these are very intriguing

[William]

Sweet gun! Looks like a real good shooter, it would be interesting to see what it will do at 100 yards.

100 yards...
Ok I gathered up may tanks and managed to have enough are in one of my pony tanks to do about 30 shots today. I did clean the barrel the other day and only shot about 10 shots after that. I also made sure the shroud was not screwed on super tight or loose, It also seemed I was running out of scope adjustment on height so I shimmed the back of the scope up a few thousands and then tethered my tank with 2600 PSI in it, to my Cricket .35.

I setup a target at 35 yards and sited the 6x-24 56mm UTG in a few inches high. Cool all pellets on two 3 shot groups while adjusting for POI left one hole just a little bigger than the pellet. I then set up with two 9 shot clips of .35 JSB 81.02 grain pellets and set my target at 100 yards, I fired 12 shots continuous until I had to switch clips after shot 9, then shot the last 3 shots.

And yes it was and excellent outcome, 12 shots 1.85 inches center to center. I will never be able to do that again, I was surprised at how good I did! I am sure that this gun can and will be able to shoot under 2" at that distance anytime I do my part. Only thing is that trigger is so soft it's hard for me to get used too, but I am getting there. I actually think I pulled a couple shots a little left by pulling the trigger too soon!

It wasn't easy, I am using the MTM Case-Gard Predator Shooting Rest (plastic) from Pyramyd Air, and it is not as steady as a good lead sled or sand bags.

I shot the first 3 shots and man I was happy! I was scared to try any more, but as greed will have it I shot 2 more and then after seeing them hit so close I couldn't resist, I just had to know, will it do it at 12 shots or not, (thats about all the air I had until my compressore arrives tomorrow) Bammmm she did it. Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah, Cha Ching,,, I bet half the county heard hooping and hollering, glad my wife wasn't home, she might have called out the big men with the funny looking jackets for me  lol

Anyway I am in love!
 William

PS: more to come soon, next I would like to try some .360 round balls....

[microsalmo]

Great review.  Thank you William.

[William]

I got out today and shot a few rounds at 65 yards with some H&N 82 grain Grizzly bullets in the Cricket, after I made a device to get them to seat past the Transfer Port far enough to be shot without messing them up and the results are >>> they not so good, I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn if i was standing inside with the doors closed! Never did get one on paper.

Now on the good side
I shot the JSB's again and they do fine around 1" or so at 65 yards, then I almost forgot about the .360 round balls I grabbed a hand full and loaded 5 in the magazine and fired off the 5 rounds, I was amazed, 5 shots inside 3 holes and a 3/4" group.

Below is the pic, the small holes are me sighting in my .22 cal.

William

[ToRmEnToR]

Sweet.. Does that also have the hammer forged CZ barrel?

[William]

Sweet.. Does that also have the hammer forged CZ barrel?

From my understanding it is a Lothar Walther barrel, but I am not 100% on that! There is no markings on the barrel and trying to find info on the .35 Cricket is not easy, at least not yet.

William

[ancient1one]

A couple of years ago airgunners would have thought you were nuts if you said I have a 115 fpe bullpup, it shoots 1" groups at 65 yards, gets 20 shots per fill, backyard friendly and its a 9mm. Thanks for all the info and updates.

Now... the compressor. Is it a good source for filling? Would you recommend one?