team Ghost...appreciate the discussion....here is hoping that I can get the ft-lbs down enough that my Gammo pull string resettable targets won't get bent from the impact ...
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BRK Ghost Review
- Thread starter Franklink
- Start date
Team Ghost, from what I have been reading and watching...I want to at a minimum clean the barrel(s) before using as it seems they can have some anti rust coatings ...do I also want to polish them? So excellent how to, do not do videos out there.
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Yes, I highly recommend you clean the barrel thoroughly. I ALWAYS use a bronze brush to thoroughly scrub all the stubborn protective coatings the manufacturers apply to barrels before shipping. It took me around 60 (quick) strokes (forward and reverse) with the bronze brush dipped in solvent and many patches (like over 50) to remove the coatings on each of my guns -- BRK Ghost, Kalibrgun Cricket, Air Arms S410 Extra, Air Arms TX200, AirForce, etc. After cleaning, I give my barrels a good polish to remove the burrs that can strip out lead from pellets and accumulate in the choke. Lastly, I wipe all the cleaning agents with rubbing alcohol.
Cleaning the barrel on the Ghost is simple and doesn't require removal. Cleaning from the breech end is just a matter of removing the pellet probe and inserting the cleaning rod into the hole from which the probe exits and guiding it to the breech.
Below are what I use. The cleaning rod is carbon fiber and made by Tipton and twists to follow the barrel's rifling. (Hint: It's easier to determine the twist rate of a barrel when using a brush as opposed to patches because the brush engages the rifling better.)
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If you ordered the 177 hp I don’t think you will be able to get it to 12 fpe but you can get it to shoot 13 gr jsb very well below 20 fpe with what they are now calling the med hammer spring.
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Thank you! I remember reading many years ago to "never" use a any metal brush on air-rifle barrels...so when I clean my R9 and Revere I use the cotton mops with Ballistol, with the carbon fiber (rotatable) cleaning rod....followed by patches with Ballistol and then dry patches......that brass brush definitely will get the job done quicker than cotton mops...
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Is that a function of barrel length? Would the 17" "plus" barrel shorten the time the pellet is in the barrel enough to get down to 12 ftlb? I can see my dream of my backyard FT course is getting way more expensive....
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Yes the longer barrel adds 40-50 fps with the same settings over the 17” one. Your targets should withstand 20 fpe though the 10 yard 1 will take the most damage but after that it should be fine. Gammo targets are what a lot of ft events use and are regularly shot at 20 fpe
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I don’t believe any of the nonsense about bronze brushes damaging barrels, like I don’t believe many of the things said by supposed experts, especially on YouTube. I’ve been using them for many years and use vigorous forward and reverse strokes through my airgun barrels because lead can get embedded onto their steel surfaces (which I discovered through my AA TX200), which only the bronze brushes can remove. The result after cleaning, as I’ve told another member here, is my guns hitting the cojones of flies at 35 yards.
Also, after polishing my barrels, they rarely, if ever, need to be cleaned. Since polishing my Cricket’s barrel, it has been shooting spot-on to this day, in which more than 70 tins of 500-count pellets have gone through it. Last edited:
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So do you have a technique or know of an accurate video to watch regarding polishing?I don’t believe any of the nonsense about bronze brushes damaging barrels, like I don’t believe many of the things said by supposed experts, especially on YouTube. I’ve been using them for many years and use vigorous forward and reverse strokes through my airgun barrels because lead can get embedded onto their steel surfaces (which I discovered through my AA TX200), which only the bronze brushes can remove. The result after cleaning, as I’ve told another member here, is my guns hitting the cojones of flies at 35 yards.
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I just run a cleaning rod tipped with a mop applied with polishing paste (JB bore paste) vigorously back and forth with the mop exiting the muzzle/crown (contrary to the advice of many). I'd do that for around 300 strokes or so in total before cleaning all the paste with a bronze brush dipped in solvent and wiping dry with alcohol-moistened patches. Job done.
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Something to think about -- if barrel makers took the time to polish their barrels right after they've gone through the rifling process before shipping them to airgun makers, it's almost a certainty that their prices would be much higher than the prices we've paid for them on our "high-end" rifles. A polished end product, no pun intended, is hardly a reality these days, unless the customer is willing to pay even bigger bucks. In my experience, many of the barrels I've owned over the 18+ years of air gunning had sharp lands that would strip some of the lead on pellets and accumulate until the buildup was too much and accuracy went to the dumps.
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As I am about to get a Ghost...which solvent do you use? Since you have a known method, that can hit fly nutz at 35 yards...I will duplicate it! thanks, tcI don’t believe any of the nonsense about bronze brushes damaging barrels, like I don’t believe many of the things said by supposed experts, especially on YouTube. I’ve been using them for many years and use vigorous forward and reverse strokes through my airgun barrels because lead can get embedded onto their steel surfaces (which I discovered through my AA TX200), which only the bronze brushes can remove. The result after cleaning, as I’ve told another member here, is my guns hitting the cojones of flies at 35 yards.
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I use Hoppe’s bore cleaner, which in my experience has been the most effective solvent for lead, copper, and carbon removal.
Buy No. 9 Gun Bore Cleaner and More | Hoppes
Shopping for the No. 9 Gun Bore Cleaner - Learn more about the latest Traditional Hoppes #9 and other hunting or shooting gear at Hoppes.
www.hoppes.com When you get your Ghost, I would recommend that you clean its bore really good before shooting it. Or, you could shoot it first so that you would have a basis of comparison of the gun’s performance after cleaning. When you do clean, however, don’t be afraid to push and pull vigorously a bronze brush wet with solvent through the barrel. Just be careful when inserting the cleaning rod. I would also recommend polishing it after a good cleaning (and removing the polishing paste with the solvent again after the polishing process). Once you’re in, have at it and don’t be fearful of ruining the barrel—it’s made neither of wood nor of glass—or else the fly is going to giggle.
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A big week for the little .20 Ghost....
Sniper Class American Field Target at Extreme Benchrest
On Thursday I campaigned the JSB .20 Heavy (15.89) at the long range/high power version of field target at EBR. The Sniper class is .22 and below, but to the best of my knowledge I was the only competitor shooting a caliber other than .22. The .22/25.4grain Monster RD is the pellet of choice for long range .22 in high level competition such as this. Most people shoot those .22/25.4s in excess of 940-950fps, which puts them up around 50fpe. In contrast, the Ghost .20 pushes the 15.89s to 915fps for best accuracy, resulting in exactly 29.55 fpe. In other words, I was competing with 60% of the fpe as the rest of that class, the veritable "knife at a gun fight."
Surprisingly it went well for me, all things considered. There were a total of 40 shots, 8 of which were standing bipod.
On the first lane I lost one point, but didn't miss any kill zones. I watched the pellet fly into the middle of the desired impact point (kill zone). It was an aligator target around 50? yards, with a kill zone that was probably 2.5-3 inches across. For the Ghost, an absolute gimme, since it'll shoot 10 shot groups into dimes at that distance. This was my first inkling that I was going to have trouble with my measly 29.55 fpe. Simply not enough energy to knock down some of the targets. Score = 7/8.
The second lane was the 8 standing bipod shots. I clean missed three of them, two misses were on the same target... a maybe 1/2 inch kill zone at around 28-32yards. The third miss was the last shot of the lane, and wasn't a hard shot, I just pulled off of the kill zone as the trigger broke. So, 5/8 on the offhand lane. Going 5/8 on the offhand lane ultimately broke the 3 way tie, in my favor. Score at this point is 12/16.
The third lane had the longest targets. One of which was at 102 yards. I made it fall on one of my shots, and the wind got me on the second shot at that target-watched the pellet get pushed away from kill zone and impact the face plate. I also missed both shots on the 90ish yarder, last target on this lane. Clean misses, wind got me and pushed me out of kill zone to face plate hits. So now I'm up to 17/24, still happy that I've only lost one point due to not enough energy.
On the fourth lane I went 8/8. Cleaning this lane had me feeling my oats. The target I remember the most here was a howling coyote, seems he was around 80 yards. I had to hold left of kill zone for the first shot, and the wind switched and I had to hold right of kill zone for the second shot on him. Both were correct wind reads and he fell for both shots. Up to 25/32 now.
The fifth and last lane didn't go so well. Two of the targets would not fall, despite watching that pellet sail right into the kill zone multiple times. One of those two was the last target of the course and I still had my mulligan so I used it. I hit the kill zone of that target 3 times and it simply wouldn't go down. In field target if it doesn't fall, you don't get the points.
So, all said and done, official score of 29/40 with 5 points lost to bringing that knife to the gun fight (simply not enough energy). 6 absolutely clean misses. Based off kill zone hits, my score was a 34/40. Which would have been good for 2nd place in this class. The .20/15.89 has the accuracy and precision to hang with the .22/25.4grain Monster RD, but it has an obvious deficit when a certain threshold of fpe is necessary. Officially I was 5th out of 30 shooters.
Ultimate Field Target Night Match at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club
I ended the same day with another long range high power field target competition, across town at another shooting range. Slugs are allowed at this event and so I chose to run the .20/18.9grain NSAs, at about 875fps for roughly 32fpe. Also a possible 40 points in this match. 23 total shooters at this match, 17 pellet and 6 slug. I scored a 35/40, good for 3rd place in the slug class and also tied for the 3rd overall highest score. High score of the match and slug class was Thayne Simmons. Second place in slug and second high overall score was Steve M. Both of them are very talented shooters and I don't feel too bad about being beat by folks that shoot as well as they do. My 35/40 was enough to win a gift certificate to Utah Airguns. The 5 misses here were clean misses, all the kill zones I connected with made the target fall. Misses were due to unsteadiness in some cases and b/c I was looking at the wrong dope sheet for a couple of the shots. In a minimal wind situation I'm confident that the Ghost can shoot a clean 40/40 at one of these Ultimate FT matches, using the .20/18.9grain slugs. And I've not shot many gun/barrel/projectile combinations that have made me feel like a clean score at a UFT match is possible.
www.airgunnation.com
Pest Birds at The Dairy
I had some down time on Friday so met up with a buddy at a dairy for some bird shooting. I chose to run the .20/13.73s for the dairy shooting, obviously lots of cows around, but also buildings and equipment and simply b/c 19.5fpe is more than enough for such a situation. Furthermore, less fpe = more shots. In past dairy shoots, the volume of shots is almost unbelievable, so I knew lots of shots was what I wanted and needed for this. I shot a bunch of Euro collared doves, a handful of starlings, and a huge pile of pigeons. For the first hour or so I moved around a bunch, but the last hour was focused on pigeons. I'd gotten a couple out in the middle of a pen and the dead ones were decoying in more targets. Sat right there for an hour or so shooting bout as fast as I could load. At one point I scanned over the pile of dead pigeons, trying to get a tally. I lost count somewhere in the mid 70s. In roughly two hours I shot most of a 500 count tin of pellets. Which made me realize I've been vastly underestimating the shot count of the 19.5fpe tune with the 480cc bottle. I shot down from 240 to 200bar and refilled back up to 250, I then shot for the rest of the time on that single fill. So, I started with a mostly full tank (240bar) and for a total of 400-425 shots I filled only once. I'd estimate a full 250 fill, and shooting down to reg pressure of 128-130bar is netting me more like 200-220 shots @ 19.5fpe.
This pellet tin was full when I started at the dairy.
2nd Ultimate Field Target Night Match at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club
Saturday night was another UFT match. We had 14 shooters for this match, 8 pellet and 6 slug shooters. The wind was brutal this time around. Even with a BC up around 0.09, 20+ mile an hour gusts are hard for an airgun to contend with. I was only able to come up with a 27/40 this time, which was good for 2nd in slug class and 3rd high overall. Again Thayne Simmons was high score, and again my score was good for a gift certificate to Utah Airguns.
www.airgunnation.com
Conclusion
Over those 3 days I used all three "tunes" and enjoyed the heck out of the Ghost in a variety of situations. By simply spinning the hammer tension to desired setting I was able to shoot 19.5fpe for high volume shooting. 29.5 fpe with a high BC pellet for long range precision in a pellet-only competition, and finally for 32fpe with the slugs when competition rules allowed. That hammer tension adjustment was all that was needed. I used the same scope zero for all three scenarios. In fact, I have enough faith in the Ghost's ability to hold zero that I didn't even shoot any sighters for the EBR event. By having my dope sheet for each configuration pretty well worked out, it was easy peasy. The Ghost is good about that, producing repeatable fps when the available adjustments are repeated.
Sniper Class American Field Target at Extreme Benchrest
On Thursday I campaigned the JSB .20 Heavy (15.89) at the long range/high power version of field target at EBR. The Sniper class is .22 and below, but to the best of my knowledge I was the only competitor shooting a caliber other than .22. The .22/25.4grain Monster RD is the pellet of choice for long range .22 in high level competition such as this. Most people shoot those .22/25.4s in excess of 940-950fps, which puts them up around 50fpe. In contrast, the Ghost .20 pushes the 15.89s to 915fps for best accuracy, resulting in exactly 29.55 fpe. In other words, I was competing with 60% of the fpe as the rest of that class, the veritable "knife at a gun fight."
Surprisingly it went well for me, all things considered. There were a total of 40 shots, 8 of which were standing bipod.
On the first lane I lost one point, but didn't miss any kill zones. I watched the pellet fly into the middle of the desired impact point (kill zone). It was an aligator target around 50? yards, with a kill zone that was probably 2.5-3 inches across. For the Ghost, an absolute gimme, since it'll shoot 10 shot groups into dimes at that distance. This was my first inkling that I was going to have trouble with my measly 29.55 fpe. Simply not enough energy to knock down some of the targets. Score = 7/8.
The second lane was the 8 standing bipod shots. I clean missed three of them, two misses were on the same target... a maybe 1/2 inch kill zone at around 28-32yards. The third miss was the last shot of the lane, and wasn't a hard shot, I just pulled off of the kill zone as the trigger broke. So, 5/8 on the offhand lane. Going 5/8 on the offhand lane ultimately broke the 3 way tie, in my favor. Score at this point is 12/16.
The third lane had the longest targets. One of which was at 102 yards. I made it fall on one of my shots, and the wind got me on the second shot at that target-watched the pellet get pushed away from kill zone and impact the face plate. I also missed both shots on the 90ish yarder, last target on this lane. Clean misses, wind got me and pushed me out of kill zone to face plate hits. So now I'm up to 17/24, still happy that I've only lost one point due to not enough energy.
On the fourth lane I went 8/8. Cleaning this lane had me feeling my oats. The target I remember the most here was a howling coyote, seems he was around 80 yards. I had to hold left of kill zone for the first shot, and the wind switched and I had to hold right of kill zone for the second shot on him. Both were correct wind reads and he fell for both shots. Up to 25/32 now.
The fifth and last lane didn't go so well. Two of the targets would not fall, despite watching that pellet sail right into the kill zone multiple times. One of those two was the last target of the course and I still had my mulligan so I used it. I hit the kill zone of that target 3 times and it simply wouldn't go down. In field target if it doesn't fall, you don't get the points.
So, all said and done, official score of 29/40 with 5 points lost to bringing that knife to the gun fight (simply not enough energy). 6 absolutely clean misses. Based off kill zone hits, my score was a 34/40. Which would have been good for 2nd place in this class. The .20/15.89 has the accuracy and precision to hang with the .22/25.4grain Monster RD, but it has an obvious deficit when a certain threshold of fpe is necessary. Officially I was 5th out of 30 shooters.
Ultimate Field Target Night Match at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club
I ended the same day with another long range high power field target competition, across town at another shooting range. Slugs are allowed at this event and so I chose to run the .20/18.9grain NSAs, at about 875fps for roughly 32fpe. Also a possible 40 points in this match. 23 total shooters at this match, 17 pellet and 6 slug. I scored a 35/40, good for 3rd place in the slug class and also tied for the 3rd overall highest score. High score of the match and slug class was Thayne Simmons. Second place in slug and second high overall score was Steve M. Both of them are very talented shooters and I don't feel too bad about being beat by folks that shoot as well as they do. My 35/40 was enough to win a gift certificate to Utah Airguns. The 5 misses here were clean misses, all the kill zones I connected with made the target fall. Misses were due to unsteadiness in some cases and b/c I was looking at the wrong dope sheet for a couple of the shots. In a minimal wind situation I'm confident that the Ghost can shoot a clean 40/40 at one of these Ultimate FT matches, using the .20/18.9grain slugs. And I've not shot many gun/barrel/projectile combinations that have made me feel like a clean score at a UFT match is possible.
Results - Ultimate Field Target at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club 10/05/23 Match Report
17 pellet shooters and 6 slug contenders combined for a total turn-out of 23 shooters for the night match on October 5th. We had contestants from as far away as Florida. The match started at dark and the weather was perfect, temps around 90 degrees with minimal wind to fight. A lot of...
www.airgunnation.com Pest Birds at The Dairy
I had some down time on Friday so met up with a buddy at a dairy for some bird shooting. I chose to run the .20/13.73s for the dairy shooting, obviously lots of cows around, but also buildings and equipment and simply b/c 19.5fpe is more than enough for such a situation. Furthermore, less fpe = more shots. In past dairy shoots, the volume of shots is almost unbelievable, so I knew lots of shots was what I wanted and needed for this. I shot a bunch of Euro collared doves, a handful of starlings, and a huge pile of pigeons. For the first hour or so I moved around a bunch, but the last hour was focused on pigeons. I'd gotten a couple out in the middle of a pen and the dead ones were decoying in more targets. Sat right there for an hour or so shooting bout as fast as I could load. At one point I scanned over the pile of dead pigeons, trying to get a tally. I lost count somewhere in the mid 70s. In roughly two hours I shot most of a 500 count tin of pellets. Which made me realize I've been vastly underestimating the shot count of the 19.5fpe tune with the 480cc bottle. I shot down from 240 to 200bar and refilled back up to 250, I then shot for the rest of the time on that single fill. So, I started with a mostly full tank (240bar) and for a total of 400-425 shots I filled only once. I'd estimate a full 250 fill, and shooting down to reg pressure of 128-130bar is netting me more like 200-220 shots @ 19.5fpe.
This pellet tin was full when I started at the dairy.
2nd Ultimate Field Target Night Match at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club
Saturday night was another UFT match. We had 14 shooters for this match, 8 pellet and 6 slug shooters. The wind was brutal this time around. Even with a BC up around 0.09, 20+ mile an hour gusts are hard for an airgun to contend with. I was only able to come up with a 27/40 this time, which was good for 2nd in slug class and 3rd high overall. Again Thayne Simmons was high score, and again my score was good for a gift certificate to Utah Airguns.
Results - Ultimate Field Target at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club 10/07/23 Match Report
For the second night match last week the slug to pellet distribution was a bit more even, 6 slug shooters and 8 pellet class competitors. All of our fine sponsors donated dual prize packages, one for each night, the 5th, and the 7th. The match report for the 5th details all they donated...
www.airgunnation.com Conclusion
Over those 3 days I used all three "tunes" and enjoyed the heck out of the Ghost in a variety of situations. By simply spinning the hammer tension to desired setting I was able to shoot 19.5fpe for high volume shooting. 29.5 fpe with a high BC pellet for long range precision in a pellet-only competition, and finally for 32fpe with the slugs when competition rules allowed. That hammer tension adjustment was all that was needed. I used the same scope zero for all three scenarios. In fact, I have enough faith in the Ghost's ability to hold zero that I didn't even shoot any sighters for the EBR event. By having my dope sheet for each configuration pretty well worked out, it was easy peasy. The Ghost is good about that, producing repeatable fps when the available adjustments are repeated.
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Team Ghost,
Finally getting some quality time with my new Ghost HP 177, and i realize the hammerspring adj doesn’t do anything…doest change velocity regardless of regulator pressure…i tried to find online “fix” for this and failed..anybody know how to fix this? I took the top off and can see when i turn the dial the spring gets slightly more or less compressed depending on direction…but again no vel change when cycled..
Finally getting some quality time with my new Ghost HP 177, and i realize the hammerspring adj doesn’t do anything…doest change velocity regardless of regulator pressure…i tried to find online “fix” for this and failed..anybody know how to fix this? I took the top off and can see when i turn the dial the spring gets slightly more or less compressed depending on direction…but again no vel change when cycled..
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If the wheel isn't affecting your fps it is because your reg is set so that it is the power limiting factor in the whole system.
You're hitting the valve harder with increased hammer spring tension (via adjusting the wheel) but the reg is so low that the harder tap on the valve simply isn't doing anything. Increase the reg pressure and you'll see that the wheel effects velocity.
Reg on mine is 128ish and does the following, all with same reg pressure.....
MIN = 19.9fpe with 13.73 pellets (805fps)
"11" = 29.5fpe with 15.89 pellets (915-920fps)
MAX = 32-33fpe with 18.9 slugs (875-880fps)
I don't shoot them this fast, but MAX with 13.73gr pellets is 1040fps, MIN is 805, so a 235fps difference. Same 128bar reg pressure for both speeds, only difference is the hammer tension (power wheel).
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Such a wealth of knowledge and so helpful. I'm sure I am not the only one who appreciates it so much.
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On my 177 HP the reg is 145 PW at 8 and I am shooting the 13 grain KO's at 923. I can go up and down from there just using the PW.
What Cole says above is so true about the reg and PW having to be on the same page to work correctly.
Tony P.
What Cole says above is so true about the reg and PW having to be on the same page to work correctly.
Tony P.
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A more simple way to say it is the following.....
If you want more fps/fpe and increasing the power wheel isn't doing it, then you need to increase the reg pressure.
(Understand that at as you gradually increase the reg pressure you'll eventually get to a point where power actually goes down. This is the far extreme of too much reg pressure and is because the pressure of the air in the plenum is now so high that the force of that air pushing on the valve to keep it closed becomes the power limiting factor. Ie, you now can't hit the valve hard enough to open it as much against the pressure in the plenum. Not quite the same as valve lock, but similar concept and perhaps could be considered partial valve lock.)
If you want more fps/fpe and increasing the power wheel isn't doing it, then you need to increase the reg pressure.
(Understand that at as you gradually increase the reg pressure you'll eventually get to a point where power actually goes down. This is the far extreme of too much reg pressure and is because the pressure of the air in the plenum is now so high that the force of that air pushing on the valve to keep it closed becomes the power limiting factor. Ie, you now can't hit the valve hard enough to open it as much against the pressure in the plenum. Not quite the same as valve lock, but similar concept and perhaps could be considered partial valve lock.)
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