Cricket falls short

[wolfman22cal]

After all the hype before it came out, I was really looking forward to dialing up my buddy's new PCP before next season creeps up. Yep its the Cricket .22 rifle. You know the one. But what you may not know if you never shot one is that it has it faults. Major ones in my opinion, especially if you want to hunt with it. It takes some time to learn the "trick" to getting the mag in. Let's see now, cock the sidelever, make sure the tiny pin probe on the bolt is not in the way, insert the mag, line up mag with another probe in the receiver, slide the mag in and close the probe. That was easy but wait, its not over, now move the little side pin on the receiver forward-but not down. Seems like there is there are three positions for this little part and you want it in the forward position and locked in. The middle slot is what I would call neutral, and rearward is for loading the mag. But wait, this baby will cock and NOT index the next shot if you don't do that right. And I have. My buddy in Cleveland (who owns 4 now) tells me once you practice and get used to it you can do it with your eyes closed, but Id rather using all that time it takes to learn this skill doing something else.  Another hunting buddy said its a learning curve but why does loading a mag in a gun require a learning curve?  Were not taking golf lessons here. It should be simple and easy like most other guns. Like all of them. I wonder what its like to do all this in the woods. Moving on, next is the safety or lack of one. He has the newer gun which actually comes with one. Anyway, the design on this gun is not in the running for any engineering awards. Quite simply put it doesn't work. At least not on this gun. It falls out when its in the gun and when its in the gun I doesn't work. Nice job.  Its almost like a car company forgetting to build a car without a seatbelt then designing one that doesn't work when they finally do put it in. And finally the fill probe. Not a foster like most other guns. Like the one on the HW100 you need a probe that inserts in the front of the tank which on this gun seemed to leak so I'm guessing I just wasn't doing it right. I know it works, I just don't have it down yet. No manual came with the gun so I had nothing to use as a guide. On the plus side I like the accuracy, the gun is light and quiet, easy to shoulder, regulated and unlike some people I actually like the trigger. Nothing wrong with it.  But I keep asking myself why. Why design something from the ground floor without an easy to load mag, safety, foster fill and fill gauge with actual numbers? With so many good designs out there why not copy, innovate, and follow what already works and even improve on it? I want to like this gun. But its so aggravating to load and fill as a new user I don't see myself getting one. Ill opt for a FX 400,500 to go with the Wolf. Until they fix these simple but important characteristics Ill just have to keep reading about how terrific they are.

[Nomadic Pirate]

LOL, when I was testing a Cricket .25 BullPup I got tired of shooting it because of the Mag loading procedure

[grobe1458]

thanks for that hands on review, I went with my gut instincts and decided to leave it alone for now due to all the hype.

[William]

First time I heard anyone complain or should I say give a true review of the Cricket about the mag. I knew it didn't have a safety. I ordered one and it will be here tomorrow, its the new .35/9mm with the new safety. Hope I didn't jump too soon!

William

[Nomadic Pirate]

First time I heard anyone complain or should I say give a true review of the Cricket about the mag. I knew it didn't have a safety. I ordered one and it will be here tomorrow, its the new .35/9mm with the new safety. Hope I didn't jump too soon!

William

Looking forward to hear you accuracy report,...so far the few I've heard off where less than decent,.....hope yours is a shooter

[William]

First time I heard anyone complain or should I say give a true review of the Cricket about the mag. I knew it didn't have a safety. I ordered one and it will be here tomorrow, its the new .35/9mm with the new safety. Hope I didn't jump too soon!

William

Looking forward to hear you accuracy report,...so far the few I've heard off where less than decent,.....hope yours is a shooter

Me too! Always wanted a Cricket, just hope I made the right Cal. Choice! If the new modifications on safety and loaded pellet indicator work out that will be a plus. Now if it will get 115 FPE and some say about 140 FPE after adjusting I will be happy as long as it also groups good! If not back it will go and I will get a .25 inplace of it! $1700 sure could buy something else thats for sure!

William

[Tofazfou]

I too am looking forward the you getting the 357/9mm Cricket.  Lotsa talks about all the new guns and calibers but it hard getting info besides how small, light and good looking they are.  Yeah, we got that.......lol!

[William]

I too am looking forward the you getting the 357/9mm Cricket.  Lotsa talks about all the new guns and calibers but it hard getting info besides how small, light and good looking they are.  Yeah, we got that.......lol!

Ive got almost 1000 rounds of .357 bullets, pellets and bullets and more bullets to try, or whatever I can get to fit that isn't too long, 67 grain up to 127 grain so we will see, have a feeling I am going to need air and a lot of it!

William

[mattymatt90]

Missing out lol, amazing rifles.

[Tonycalves]

I felt he same way about the mag and loading. The gun shouldered well, was dead accurate and I liked the trigger too. But I kept feeling stupid with all the buttons levers and pins when reloading. That being said I'd still like to have 1 in compact .22

[William]

Loading the Magazine on a Cricket Demonstration...



William

[chiro972b]

The reason there is a lot of hype is that the Cricket rifle is an amazing shooter. Yes the mag loading is a bit fiddly, but there are lots of guns that require you to pull the bolt and then pull another lever to release the mag. It's not like it takes a degree in engineering. If you own the gun you learn it quickly without any real difficulty and then you can load it with one hand. The fill probe? Seriously? Lots of PCP's use something other than a foster fitting. Lots of them use a fill probe just like the Crickets. Yes, the safety is not the best design. It does work and work just fine, but it is not an elegant design, but if you take the stock off, you need to be able to get the safety out and it easily slips out. That is obviously the problem though. Again though, easy to get used to.

Now the good. The gun is ACCURATE. Really accurate. Stacking pellets at 40 yards is very easy with the hammer forged CZ barrel. The gun is light. As a hunting gun, that makes a difference to me. The regulator is very very good. I get a good 50 shots per fill at 33 FPE and usually my ES is less than 10fps. The gun is easy to work on and tune and repair yourself and requires no special tools other than to remove the gauge. The trigger is the best of any of my guns.

There is a lot to like with these guns. Sorry you didn't like it but the Cricket does NOT fall short. You may not like its idiosyncrasies, but that does not make the gun any less desirable to those of us who are quite happy with ours. You can see by my list below that I have a couple of highly regarded air rifles, but when it comes time to hunt, the Cricket is what I grab.

[PlanB]

I felt he same way about the mag and loading. The gun shouldered well, was dead accurate and I liked the trigger too. But I kept feeling stupid with all the buttons levers and pins when reloading. That being said I'd still like to have 1 in compact .22

Dead accurate covers a multitude of sins for me!!

[Jking]

I think they are super accurate, solid as a rock to the feel and a hand full of fire power, I mean air power. It takes me approximately 5 seconds to load a full magazine into the gun, if that . It took a little getting used to and I let the mag fall to the floor a couple of times  but all is well now..
JK

[Unclebuck1234]

I'm another big fan of the Cricket which is as accurate or more so than my other guns, FXs, Daystates and Air Arms. The Crickets I own are both tactical bullpups, a .22 and .25 and of all the airguns I own they are the most solid feeling. Back when they were selling at less than $1300.00, they were real bargains and still are at their current prices when you consider they come standard with a regulator. The 4 extra magazines holder is a nice idea on the tactical models. Yes the magazine removal and insertion are a little odd at first but now I'm use to it and don't give it a second thought. My only nitpicks with the two I own are they don't have a safeties and they do weigh more than you would think a compact gun would but like I said these are solid feeling guns. I wasn't aware they made it in 9mm, maybe I'll have to pick up one of those.

[lavahunter]

I too fell into the big hole of hype. Bought a cricket carbine expecting to sell my other rifle. If they are as accurate as everyone says, my definition of accurate must be different. Along with the mag. and safety problem.
Sold the cricket and still have my other rifle.

[William]

Ok everyone, Got my .35 Cricket today. They made a few changes to the gun thats for sure. I will list what I see has changed.

1. Added a Safety, similar to the ones on the Mrod's!

2. Done away with the Manual/Auto rotate of the Magazine, it is now just Auto Rotate. No second notch inside the mag loading mechanism which allowed you to choose manual or auto rotate. I think they did this due to adding a safety now! "Watch the Video above to see what i mean!"

3. Cocking Pin Identifier that sticks out the back of the gun where the hammer spring is located with a red mark on it, when cocked you can see if it is cocked or not by the red mark showing.

4. No Cheek piece yet, guess for now I have to make my own! They haven't made one for it, the others wont work due to barrel being larger.

My thoughts so far, Comes with 2 mags, extra spring? Hmmm. Extra Oring seal kit! Fill Prob. I got a adapter to put on the probe to fill with my quick connect setup. Stock is nice, no mag holders but it looks good and is a dark color.

It is a little loud and probably not backyard friendly in certain areas of town, my neighbors are approx. 400 feet away with trees and undergrowth between us to deaden the noise so I should be fine. It is a little heavier than I expected but way lighter than an Mrod thats for sure, although I have a heavy scope on it and it seems to balance pretty good (need a lighter scope for sure). The one I have weighs 32 ounces and is 17" long.

Easy to cock and smooth. Pellets load into the breech just slightly rough, you need just a little force to seat them into the chamber, but nothing to complain about due to it being such a big pellet.

Trigger is really light on First and second stage almost too light. I think I may set it a little heavier, I accidently fired the darn thing in the house with the cocking lever back and of course blew out the bolts O'ring, scared the crappers out of me for sure!

Anyway below is some pics of the Cricket and things, later when I get a truck load of air, I will do a full review as best I can on accuracy and FPS and such.

Thanks

William

[mattymatt90]

When will these higher calibers be available with the rifle? I did not like the pup I sold it nearly one week from owning it.. rifles all day!