BRK Ghost Review

rc4fun said:

@Franklink don't take this the wrong way. I have enjoyed everything you have written on the Ghost! I have watched every step with interest. And your stories hold my attention. But when push comes to shove you are telling us about a gun that most of us will never have in our hands. Different barrel, hammer and spring we will probably not have access to. BRK should have made sure you had a US production gun. I'm sure you have sold more than a couple.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words. I'm happy to hear that you've been enjoying the reporting.

I completely understand, and even agree with you, to a point.

In past reviews, I was always working under the assumption that I needed to keep the gun in an OEM state. Of course I would clean or polish a barrel or adjust a trigger or even adjust the regulator or hammer spring settings. But in those reviews, they were all OEM guns, in essentially OEM states (aside from "tuning" for optimization.)

My approach with the Ghost review has been slightly different. @Arzrover pointed out some of the reasons why. But in addition to what he pointed out, this time around I was told by AOA to "go through the Ghost, make any and all changes you want, just let us know what you figure out and learn about it so that we know, but also so that we can report those back to Daystate/BRK." With that free rein, I've been much more open to making major changes, caliber swaps, one-off hammer weights, etc. Through this comprehensive process "we" (the general public, me, and AOA) know much more about the gun than we would otherwise.

For example, that light hammer that we stumbled upon in the .177 Carbine was a surprise to EVERYONE.

Another example of the ongoing betterment of the Ghost through my testing/reporting is that the valve that leaked will be passed off to Arzrover at the next match we both attend. It hasn't formally come up in this review, but he is a member of Daystate's "Accuracy Research Team" and has open lines of communication with some of the people back at the factory. So he'll go over that leaker valve, comparing to others in his possession and that have been in use in the Delta and prototype Ghost he was sent. Knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if he drops that valve into either a Delta or a Ghost to see if he can get it to replicate what I experienced. This is all to see if he can figure out what made THAT particular valve leak, and then pass his findings back to Daystate/BRK. Of course all that is with the intent of avoiding the same problem for any Ghost owners. That process of extremely knowledgeable shooters (like Arzrover) passing back what they learn so improvements can be made across all the productions lines is the very premise of the ART team. In short, this is all how it is supposed to work, the entire process is just more out in the open/for public consumption than typical

Now, all of the above being taken into account there are only minimal differences between what I'm shooting and an "off-the-shelf" Ghost.

• As Bob mentioned, the lighter hammer+weight I made is not going to be in a Ghost HP, but that 545grain hammer will be (photo back in post #303)
• The rifling rate seems to be slower in the .22 HP barrel that I've been shooting (it came with the prototype Ghost sent to Arzrover).
• The adjustable stripper cones inside the shroud are an Arzrover experimental bonus.

While it maybe seems that I've made lots of changes, everything else is OEM. Even the shroud Bob made for the Ghost in HP configuration is just OEM replicated in brass. In fact, I needed to borrow the internal stripper/shroud alignment piece that came in the .177 Ghost Carbine shroud to use with the longer shroud he made for the HP. The 0.047" and 0.052" wire hammer springs are Ghost OEM parts. The bottle(s, 300 and 480cc) are OEM parts. The springs in the trigger that I messed with to get the pull weight down are what came in the gun, just squished one and cut some coils off the other. I'm trying to think what else I've swapped out or changed.....I think that's it though.


(I proofread the above and thought I better make a clarification statement for those maybe unaware. Daystate is BRK Brocock's parent company. I believe it was around 2014 that Daystate acquired Brocock. From my foggy memory it seems like the public announcements at the time included an explanation that Brocock had been an independent UK airgun manufacturer for a number of years but were in a troubling financial situation. Daystate chose to acquire whatever was left of Brocock and now Brocock falls under the Daystate umbrella. With the announcement of the Ghost in October 2022, parent company Daystate also officially unveiled the rebranding of "Brocock" to "BRK Brocock," (with the "Brocock" portion typically being in much finer print than the "BRK.") The Ghost is not a Daystate, but shares some parts with the electronic Delta Wolf, namely the valve, barrel, scope mounting and barrel support system. I believe the shrouds are also quite similar, with the Delta shroud obviously allowing for the internal chronograph that the non-electronic Ghost lacks).

Can we trust a "cold shot" from the Ghost?

It's been a busy two weeks here. Per my notes I haven't touched the Ghost since 1/09/23 when I did the two full strings over the chrono (post #317).

Was off work today (for the first time in far too long) and got a bunch of firewood processed, laundry, honey-dos, etc. Basically got all the no-fun stuff done that needed done to free up tomorrow for some airgun time!

Fiddling around in the gun room now, organized the chaos, topped off tanks, lubed some pellets, and finally (the relevant detail) put some cold shots over the chrono to see how trustable this Ghost is going to be in HP config.

So, today is the 18th, that makes it 9 days (feels like more) since I've took a shot with the Ghost. Perfect scenario to see how that first shot over the chrono does. Tank pressure reads 160bar, Reg still at the 140 I last had it set at. For the integrity of the test I decided to not even top off the gun before the cold shot, making it a true cold shot, gun hasn't been topped off or shot or even looked at for 9 days. So, similar to what a guy could expect if they needed to run grab the gun for a quick shot at a pest. As I touched that first one off over the chrono eyes I could feel myself making that face a guy makes when they're afraid that they're about to confirm negative suspicions......but no, 935.3fps!!!! Heck yes, this is the slightly slower batch of .22/25.4grain Monster RDs, the one that produced the 55 shot string with an ES of 8.4, SD of 2.33, and average velocity of 937.7 back on Jan 9th. So, fears assuaged, the Ghost HP can be trusted on the first, cold shot! Took 4 more shots and got 936.4, 937.2, 938.9, and 933.3. NICE!!! That'll do. That'll do just fine.

Hope to shoot it a bunch from 20-100 yards tomorrow as a dope verification session. Winds are only supposed to gust to 18mph and high of 44 degrees. Should be a great day. (airguns are my therapy).

Disclosure

For anyone new on Airgun Nation, and also just for anybody unaware...

This Ghost review is the 5th review of an airgun that I have done. If memory serves, the first was a BSA Gold Star, followed by: Daystate Redwolf in .22, Brocock Concept XR Elite in .177 and a RTI Prophet in .22. All of these, including the Ghost, were lent to me by Airguns of Arizona. . They also lent me an MTC scope for the Concept review and 2 or 3 moderators in the course of all of that. And they gave me around 3 tins of pellets for the Redwolf review (that gun came to me by way of @Arzrover so those tins may have even come from him, not AOA). Minus those couple of tins of pellets that got shot during the Redwolf review, EVERYTHING else was returned to AOA when the reviews ended.

Those disclosures appeared in each of the reviews but I wanted to revisit them now.

I have not received any monetary payment ($$$ or products) for any of the reviews. My "pay" is getting to thoroughly enjoy an airgun that otherwise I would not have.

I pay for my own gas to get to matches and I pay for my own entry fees into those matches. The Ghost wears a scope that I paid for and every pellet it has fired was purchased by me.

The Ghost review began with the same premise as the rest, lent to me for review purposes, returned when the review is done. After I shot the 47/48 at the field target match in October I asked AOA if I could buy it. Some of the other review guns tempted me in the same way, but I was able to resist purchasing them. I could not resist with the Ghost. And in the interest of full disclosure, I have not yet paid AOA for the Ghost. As long as it continues to impress, I intend to eventually buy it when I'm done reviewing it, rather than return it as was originally agreed upon.

We've got another Xtreme Field Target match here in AZ this Saturday, and I'm planning on attending, and probably competing with the Ghost.

Just shot 5 .22/25.4gr MRDs over the chrono in the garage to verify fps and I got:
937.4
933.8
942.8
936.5
937.4
So single digit extreme spread.

This was to give me confidence/trust in the gun, but also to build on the post from 1/18/23. This was the first time I've shot the gun since then, so another 8 days that it just sat, and fps was right where it was the last time I shot it. So that's twice now, where it's sat for more than a week and the first shot , straight out of the gates, was dead on where I expected it to be.

A disappointingly large percentage of regulated guns need a couple cold shots to get everything refreshed. I've shot FT matches, regular and XFT, where my squad mate would shoot one or two into the dirt at every lane, b/c they knew they needed to do that to be able to trust the gun to put out the following shot at an fps that they wanted. What a hassle that would be! For me, an unreliable reg (or set of regs) is a deal-breaker. SO glad that the Ghost isn't that type of gun. It would have been a very short review if I was fighting inconsistencies b/c I would have politely returned it to AOA, and quickly!

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

Today I found some time to play a little game of versus. As previously noted, there's the XFT match tomorrow, so my first order of business today was shooting through all the distances, 20-100 yards. Of course I did that with the Ghost, but also performed the exact same process with my personal Veteran Long. The intent here is that I want to shoot the gun that I think gives me the best chance at winning, so, comparison was working towards figuring out which of the two that is. I also like having a back-up gun in case something happens with the primary, I can still shoot the match and not completely waste a 3 hr drive, each way.

The ¨Long¨ version on the Vet Long can be found here: https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/veteran-long-re-barrel-x2.847527/

The short version is that it is a Vet Long that has had 3 or 4 different barrels on it, but mostly lives with a 23 inch unchoked Lothar, 12 land and groove in .22, and that's what was on it today. It also has a single plenum addition. Reg pressure of about 140bar, OEM hammer spring with zero preloading shims. It's good for 45 shots per fill at 45 fpe, pushing the 25.4grain Monster RDs at an average of 885-890.

I haven't updated that link on the Vet for awhile, but I shot it at Extreme/American Field Target at EBR in Oct and placed 3rd in the Sportsman Division (.22 class). Suffice it to say, it is a very accurate gun, that I really like.

So call it a comparison of 45 shots at 45fpe (Vet) versus 50 shots at 50fpe (Ghost).

Here they are, laying next to each other.





So this process was interesting. I have three pellet traps and I walk out and put them at, for example 20, 25, and 30 yards. I then walk back and shoot those distances and compare impact points to turret location (or holdover) and Strelok, and record the data. Shooting is done from the position I will be competing with, in his case ¨bucket and sticks.¨ I then walk back out and move the traps to the next three distances: 35, 40, 45. And so on until I've shot all the distances from 20-100 yards. This time though, I shot each of the three distances with both guns before moving the traps. Going back and forth between the two guns made all the differences very apparent.

Some of the impressions I recorded during this session;
(keep in mind that I think very highly of the Veteran platform, enough that I own duplicates)

• I prefer the general ergonomics of the Ghost, over those of the Veteran
• I prefer the shot cycle of the Veteran over the Ghost's
  • This ¨tune¨ of the Ghost has picked up a sort of ¨thwannggggggg¨ sound at the shot. This is likely due to my addition of the hammer weight b/c it doesn't do it without that hammer weight.
• Both triggers are VERY good, but the Vet's is a bit better, and only b/c the break is more crisp/distinct.
• I like my curved buttpad addition on the Vet more than the Ghost's buttpad.
• The muzzle report of the Ghost (in this config of 0DB + custom shroud) is quieter than that of the Vet. And the Ghost is putting out about 5 more fpe. And this one surprised me b/c I've always felt like this Vet Long with the baffled shroud was pretty quiet.
• I prefer shorter guns so I like the OAL of the Vet more than that of the Ghost. Although even the Ghost HP is much shorter than most bench howitzers being used in long range airgun comps these days.
• They are equal in feeling ¨solid.¨
  • Set up like this, neither are light guns. And some of that solid feel comes from the weight. They both have real, honest to gosh 15mm barrels, both of which are 23 inches long. There's some weight in that much steel. And for target use, that's a good thing.
  • When I say they both feel equally solid I'm saying that neither feel weak, or flimsy, or chintzy. Nothing on either gun makes me think, ¨oh, THAT'S gonna break eventually.¨
• The contoured cheek rest on the Ghost is a more comfortable experience than the breech of the Vet, that serves as its cheek rest.
• Of course the rear-cocking of the Veteran versus the mid-cocking of the Ghost...
  • I single feed when I'm target shooting, and really, when the process is to cock, then load a pellet, then close the lever, then shoot, there's no benefit to either location. The way I see it, the debate over cocking location is strictly for the 100% magazine users.
  • Single feed is easier with the open breech/easy access of the Vet versus the harder to get to barrel on the Ghost.
• And finally, they're neck and neck in the accuracy department. As I went through the process, neither pulled ahead as the obviously more accurate gun. Which prompted the next part of my fun comparison today....BC collections.

So, if all the pros and cons each way are a wash, including the accuracy, perhaps the MRDs coming out of one of these guns has a slightly better BC than the other? Better BC makes wind guesses and hold-offs not nearly as critical. Maybe one of the two guns will pull ahead in that department....got set up for some bc collections.

Comparisons of the Ballistic Coefficient

Now this is interesting because it is a polygonal barrel versus an unchoked 12 land and groove. There has been much discussion about better BCs coming from polygonal than from traditional rifling.
See here for more on that, if interested....

Really good conditions for this type of testing, wind was almost non-existent, least amount of wind at my house for months. Humidity was 35-40%. Temps were 25-35 degrees during all this.

Chrono results from the Ghost at ¨10¨on the power wheel (where I like accuracy the best and would compete)

• 10 shot average at the muzzle - 939.2 (ES of 3.5, SD of 1)
• 15 shot average at 63 yards - 802.1 (ES of 35.41, SD of 9.43)
  • produces a ballistic coefficient of 0.057
  • I didn't like the ES of the 15 shots at 63 yards. There are two outliers making the spread so large. Here they are, for those curious; 802.1, 801.6, 814.7, 803.5, 805.3, 798.9, 808, 779.3, 799.5, 805.1, 800.9, 800.6, 785.8, 811.6, 813.9. Red were the low ones.
  • Tossing those two, gets an average of 805fps and an ES of 15.8, which I feel better about.
    • THAT would be a BC of 0.058

Chrono results from the Vet Long (at settings I have found to produce the best accuracy and where I would compete)

• 10 shot average at the muzzle - 885.8 (ES of 8.1, SD of 2.8)
• 15 shot average at 63 yards - 757.2 (ES of 50, SD of 15.77)
  • produces a ballistic coefficient of 0.052
  • Again, I didn't like the ES of the 15 shots at 63 yards. There are 3 outliers making the spread so large. Here they are; 757.3, 762.6, 747.9, 724.1, 769.4, 774.4, 736.5, 765.6, 757.3, 767.3, 773.5, 729.3, 765.3, 769.4, 757.6, Red are the 3 low shots.
  • Tossing out those 3, gets an average of 763.97fps and an ES of 26.5, which is a bit better.
    • THAT would be a BC of 0.056

Chrono results from the Ghost at ¨MIN¨ (for science)
Since I was all set up I decided to see what sort of BCs the poly would do at speeds more similar to what the Vet does. This is just with the power wheel, to get it all the way down to the same speed as the Vet I'd need to drop the reg a bit too. You'll notice the ES at the muzzle isn't as good here as it is at 935-940fps, and that's probably because the hammer spring tension and regulator aren't at optimal settings for consistency like they seem to be for my competition tune.

• 10 shot average at muzzle - 900.2 (ES of 14.6, SD of 4.7)
• 15 shot average at 63 yards- 782.9 (ES of 29.38, SD of 10)
  • Produces a ballistic coefficient of 0.061

Conclusions
Lol, not sure I made any concrete conclusions from all of the above. In fact, if anything, I lost a bit of confidence in the Vet, seeing how big of a spread my pellets have downrange from that gun. They have consistent muzzle velocities, but something is happing to them between 0 and 63 yards where some are losing speed MUCH faster than others. Could be pellet lot related but needs further investigating. Whatever the cause, this could be the smoking gun for what some airgun competitors feel is the curse of the .22 Monster RD. Some of those guys have gotten so disgusted with the occasional ¨what the hell!!!!¨flyer that they've completely abandoned this pellet and moved on to other high BC options. As for the Ghost, the highest BC from the day was with those MRDs going down around 900fps, versus the 935-940 that I've been pushing them. I like how the pellets coming from the poly barrel are consistent in speed downrange, and if anything, that is probably the tie-breaker between the Ghost versus the Veteran.

The BC is slightly better from the polygonal barrel in the Ghost than it was from the 12 land and groove in the Vet, and that's true for muzzle velocity averaging 940 or 900.

And really, I'm getting pretty nit-picky going to these lengths to assess accuracy and try to figure out which one is the better choice for competitions. They're both great guns that I really enjoy and I'm fortunate to be stuck with the first-world problem of deciding which of the two I should compete with tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I had fun putting this one together (mostly the shooting part),

I ultimately decided to compete with the Ghost at the most recent XFT match.


The Ghost scored a 39/48, which was good for 2nd place, out of 16 pellet shooters. Also, scored 22/24 on the near shots, only the rimfire shooter scored higher there (I tied with 1st place pellet on the near shots). "Near" shots at this match were from 26-75 yards and "far" shots were from 46-100 yards. For perspective, there are 20 shots further than 70 yards.

Out of 19 shooters, the Ghost was the only gun to go 4/4 on the offhand lane. And I didn't practice much from that position. I took 5 or 6 offhand shots with it the day before the match. Even in the heavier HP form (longer barrel and bigger bottle) I REALLY like it for offhand shots.

On the one hand, I'm pretty happy to finish that high in the pack, but on the other hand, frustrated with myself for either pulling shots or misreading the wind a total of 9 times. I'd love to be able to blame conditions since my dope verification takes place at around 5600 feet, and for this month, was done in temps under 35 degrees. In contrast, the match is at around 1200 feet elevation and was around 60 degrees. But I was 2/2 on one of the 100 yard shots and when I could see pellet strikes, my dope seems to be good (strikes were mostly left and right on the far ones....suggesting probably wind I misread). That only leaves the trigger puller to blame, or maybe the JSB .22 Monster RD.

That brings the total competitions I've used the Ghost in up to 4: 2 extreme field target matches and 2 regular field target matches. Overall I've been pretty pleased with the performance of the gun. As a platform, it would appear that it can hold its own against the best airguns that exist. And I say that with BRKs recent advertisements in mind...where they're saying that the Ghost is "The Spirit of Airgunning." I'm alluding to the fact that there are some guns blurring the lines between airguns and powder burners these days. In the context of a historical reference that an airgun shoots pellets, the Ghost is right there at the head of the pack.

This is the ad I'm referencing in the above paragraph...




At this point (4 months in) I'm trusting the gun to come out of the case and put the first shot where it should. And I've made the gun earn that trust. No matter how long it has sat since it was last used or how much it has been bumped around (within reason). The match is a 3 hr drive from my place, about 180 miles. Pretty windy road coming down the mountain, with much of it in poor shape, bumpy transitions from bridge to road, potholes, etc. Gun was pulled out of the case when I got there and spot on, just like a gun should be.

One last thing to note here....I have not changed the scope zero/turrets since before the October match. Again, and rephrased, I shot the match this past Saturday with the same scope zero that I arrived at for the match in October. Take from that what you want, but to me, that fact alone says VOLUMES about the gun and its design. (As previously noted, that zero is around 30 yards with the .177 barrel at sub 20fpe and around 45 yards with the .22 and 50fpe configuration. )

I am constantly and continually impressed with the performance of the BRK Ghost.

I've not had much time to shoot the Ghost in the last few weeks, but was off work today and did some indoor airgunning (tinkering). Temp was -6 this morning, and it warmed all the way up to 23 degrees around lunch time. Between the bitter north wind really letting us know how cold it was, and the 6 inches of snow on the ground, I decided to keep it mostly inside today.

The first Ghost project was pretty vanilla, the straight-forward addition of a bubble level for the scope. Found out real quick that I don't hold the gun vertical to get the vertical stadia truly vertical. So, I set the bubble level to produce vertical crosshairs, not necessarily to keep the gun vertical. Ie. my usual "hold" for the Ghost has the gun canted but the scope square to the horizon or non-natural horizontal and/or vertical features. I've found this to be the case with all my other guns too. I like it that way (guns aren't as comfortable for me to hold if I'm trying to force myself into a position producing perfectly vertical and horizontal receivers, etc. ) so didn't change anything with the scope mounts or zero on the Ghost today.

The next one was a bit unorthodox though....

Been eyeballing the buttplate, wondering if I could improve it (simply and cheaply) in regards to keeping it from wanting to drop down out of the shoulder pocket. I commented earlier how much of an improvement was made through adding the grip tape, but wanted a bit better tendency for the gun to hold where it should. Of course PRS makes a big rear buttplate contraption that appears to have every possible adjustment one could want, but it also looks like it adds a fair amount of bulk, as well as another inch or so to the length of pull. I like it short and compact (within reason) so devised this less elegant situation....

Be warned that what you're about to see might make some wince or cringe. I also realize that doing this to such a fine airgun is tantamount to sacrilege....but I forged ahead, hoping to be able to source another plastic buttplate, or worst case scenario, pony up for the really nice PRS buttplate if the end result was an utter failure.


Basically just removed some of the supports and drilled a hole through the angle that would coincide with the top of the shoulder. No photo, but filled that cavity with jb weld, embedding the bolt within and hopefully providing additional support.

End result is basically the top half of a typical winged buttplate, the most important part for keeping a gun from wanting to drop out of the shoulder pocket (pesky gravity). The little black anodized portion can simply be unthreaded for temporary or long-term removal.



The plastic of the buttplate is thicker than I expected and, sandwiching that plastic between the shoulder of the black peg and the nut on the opposite side, seems to have produced a fairly strong end result. I gave it some hefty pushes and pulls and it seems sturdy enough for what it needs to do. I'm sure if I dropped it the plastic buttplate would break, but barring that sort of unfortunate accident, it seems like it'll do the intended job (and I'll try not to drop it).

A little on the bubba'd side, but the goals of keeping it simple, cheap, and generally minimalistic, while making it a bit easier to shoot seem to have all been met.

(Amazingly enough, this little fun project didn't even involve a trip to the hardware store, had it all on-hand. The anodized peg was left over from another project a few years ago. My wife says I save everything but that's not entirely true. I only save the good stuff that I think might have a later use.)

Spent the last couple hrs testing a gun (not the Ghost) and was really struggling with accuracy. Set it aside and pulled out the Ghost. Put 30 shots downrange at paper @ 100 yards and I'm just ecstatic with how much easier it was to get the holes to appear where they should. The first five went into about 1.5 inches, and for the wind conditions today that's PRETTY decent. Also, had the chrono out and already set up from the previous gun so put all the shots from the Ghost over it too, 30 shots, high of 944.2 and low of 936.4 for an ES of 7.8fps. Been a few weeks since it was shot and that all just makes me smile.

Had a bit more fun right before dark.


Yeah, couldn't be more than 10-12 yards so not the hardest shot, but it was fun!

And poor Frosty's nose splattered all over the snow. (does this need the header "graphic" like we used to do for hunting vids? jk)
I think we had plenty of fpe for the task at hand.
9 year old cameraman did a pretty good job, ignore the vertigo.