BRK Ghost Review

[zx10wall]

So high pressures to obtain an insufficient speed. Maybe I missed that, but is it a sub12?

A real quick calculation would show you that it's not near as neutered as sub 12. I find it quite remarkable that such a short barrel could produce the power the little Carbine and 17" barrel is achieving. Fact is, if slugs are what you really want to shoot, they make a .177 HP version with a 23" barrel that would be much more suited for this, which can run over 30 FPE easily. Where I think this Carbine rig is going to shine and its actual wheelhouse, is around the 20 FPE area.

That is until that .22 - 23" barrel is installed. It will easily produce 50 FPE and can be called upon for 55 FPE if desired.

 

[Franklink]

Those are the exact two fpe I see myself using the gun the most.

• .177 with the 17 inch barrel @ just under 20fpe (proven performer there already, and it's just so pleasant at that output)
• .22 with the 23 inch barrel at 45-50fpe

I also may eventually try to do some testing with the 8gr or so pellets to see if a 12fpe tune could be reached. I've never tried to shoot the WFTF class but I might investigate that avenue a bit down the road.

 

[Centercut]

Good info all. Yes, the OAL of the gun is short. But I don’t necessarily consider 17” a “short” barrel.
Three examples in my own stable.
.22 Cricket mini Carbine, 15.3” barrel, easily shoots 18.1s at 880 fps for 30 FPE.
.20 EDGun Lelya gen1, 12” barrel, shoots 13.7 pellets at 800 fps for 20 FPE.
And lastly, .25 Brocock Atomic XR, 9” barrel, shoots 25.4 Kings at 640 fps for 22 FPE.
I’d consider the above three to have “short” barrels, but still make decent power.
Just food for thought.
FYI., Derrick’s Renegade a few posts up has a 17” barrel…

 

[Deleted 45061]

Thanks for this thread. Very informative on a platform that shows much promise. Looking forward to hearing more

 

[Franklink]

@Centercut, the guns you mentioned are bigger caliber than .177, so make power more easily (bigger cross section for the air to act upon).

My comments about barrel length being such a limiting factor in .177 relate back to the testing of a 24inch .177 poly that I did with a Veteran and a reg pressure as high as 150. Now, apples to oranges since different models of airgun "breath" differently, but suffice it to say that getting a 15gr NSA, or a 16.2gr JSB Beast, and ESPECIALLY a 20.5gr NSA up to speed requires 3 things: a long barrel, a high reg pressure, and a well breathing airgun. With the Ghost Carbine we have two of those 3 requirements. The only thing lacking is the barrel length. When Soren receives his 23 inch .177 we'll see what it'll do with longer barrel.

Derrick, out of curiosity, how much power can the 17" .177 on your Renegade AAFTA Hunter rig put out?

 

[Franklink]

Driving into work I had some more thoughts on the oal of the three configs the Ghost is being offered in. Mostly comparing to how the Veteran is offered in a Short, Standard, Long, somewhat analogous to the "Ghost Carbine," "Ghost Plus," and "Ghost High Power."

So, Taipan went about it by offering three different length airtubes, and two different sized stocks.

And BRK went about it by sticking with the same chassis on all three configurations.

The Vet Short, similar to the " Ghost Carbine" comes in at just under 24 inches. It only has a 13.7 inch barrel, and a shorter length of pull than the Standard and Long to get to that oal.

The Vet Standard and Long share the same stock and length of pull, but each have their own length of barrel and air tube.

If you look at how much barrel is sticking out past the chassis in the photo above, BRK couldn't really have shortened the barrel much more than they did @ 17 inches. Maybe could have gotten away with a 15.5" or so, but I think that would have thrown off the proportions/lines, taking into account the shroud. I feel like they made good choices in their shroud and barrel lengths.

Furthermore, with how BRK chose to offer all three versions on the same chassis, we're given the option of adding a longer barrel to the "Carbine" without it looking like a narwhal tusk on the end of a gun like a Vet Short does when a full length barrel is added to it (been there, done that). I like the BRK approach.

 

[zx10wall]

@Centercut, the guns you mentioned are bigger caliber than .177, so make power more easily (bigger cross section for the air to act upon).

My comments about barrel length being such a limiting factor in .177 relate back to the testing of a 24inch .177 poly that I did with a Veteran and a reg pressure as high as 150. Now, apples to oranges since different models of airgun "breath" differently, but suffice it to say that getting a 15gr NSA, or a 16.2gr JSB Beast, and ESPECIALLY a 20.5gr NSA up to speed requires 3 things: a long barrel, a high reg pressure, and a well breathing airgun. With the Ghost Carbine we have two of those 3 requirements. The only thing lacking is the barrel length. When Soren receives his 23 inch .177 we'll see what it'll do with longer barrel.

Derrick, out of curiosity, how much power can the 17" .177 on your Renegade AAFTA Hunter rig put out?

I’ve gotten the Renegade up to 21 FPE. Out of the box it’s at 18 FPE. I did a little bit of tinkering to get more power and overshot the 19.9 goal the first try. Went back in and got it to 19.6 FPE averaging 811 fps with the 13.43gr MRDs. That’s Huma regulated (aftermarket) achieving 80 shots on a fill now.

Messing with previous Daystate designs (which is what the Ghost is) was not user friendly. Most had no regulator or hammer spring adjuster. However, the Sling-Shot hammer system did keep things very consistent for a non-regulated platform.

The Ghost now checks all boxes; user friendly for performance adjustments, all mechanical, regulated with Huma (the best) multi-caliber, Lothar Walther barrels (my favorite).

Step aside and see what the Ghost has in store!! Hide and watch I suggest jumping in with both feet

 

[zx10wall]

Good info all. Yes, the OAL of the gun is short. But I don’t necessarily consider 17” a “short” barrel.
Three examples in my own stable.
.22 Cricket mini Carbine, 15.3” barrel, easily shoots 18.1s at 880 fps for 30 FPE.
.20 EDGun Lelya gen1, 12” barrel, shoots 13.7 pellets at 800 fps for 20 FPE.
And lastly, .25 Brocock Atomic XR, 9” barrel, shoots 25.4 Kings at 640 fps for 22 FPE.
I’d consider the above three to have “short” barrels, but still make decent power.
Just food for thought.
FYI., Derrick’s Renegade a few posts up has a 17” barrel…

Point was and in context, a 17” with .177. Guy complained that Cole had to use a lot of reg pressure to get to 24-25 FPE.

I mean, I know of @AirNGasman a .50 Quackenbush pistol with a 14” barrel producing 180 FPE but has nothing to do with .177 @Centercut

 

[Centercut]

Point was and in context, a 17” with .177. Guy complained that Cole had to use a lot of reg pressure to get to 24-25 FPE.

I mean, I know of @AirNGasman a .50 Quackenbush pistol with a 14” barrel producing 180 FPE but has nothing to do with .177 @Centercut
View attachment 299281

Point taken. But generally DS/BRK use TINY porting especially the barrel transfer port in their guns. Didn’t you have to open up the transfer port on your Renegade to get enough flow for 20 FPE with the RDMs? I should have just listed the .20 EDGun Lelya gen1 to be more in context since it’s not a big jump from .177 to .20. A 12” barrel is short, and the .177 Lelya’s did 20 FPE also using state of the art radial transfer ports. Or am I missing the point?

 

[zx10wall]

Point taken. But generally DS/BRK use TINY porting especially the barrel transfer port in their guns. Didn’t you have to open up the transfer port on your Renegade to get enough flow for 20 FPE with the RDMs? I should have just listed the .20 EDGun Lelya gen1 to be more in context since it’s not a big jump from .177 to .20. A 12” barrel is short, and the .177 Lelya’s did 20 FPE also. Or am I missing the point?

True. They have historically used very restrictive porting.

 

[Franklink]

Port on the .177 barrel is 0.14, which would make it about 80% of caliber. I always hear 75% of caliber is optimal.

But it's round in the .177, versus the port on the .22 barrel l, which is oval.

 

[Franklink]

Talk about EASY caliber change!

Here are the transfer ports (.177 on the left and .22 on the right)... The .177 Carbine (and therefore barrel) is a demo gun. I'm not sure of its provenance prior to coming to me. The .22 barrel has been floating around in the ART program for who knows how long (could be up to 2 years), since it also fits a Delta Wolf. In short, they obviously picked up some scuffs somewhere in the R&D/testing phase.

And the probes (.177 on the right and .22 on the left), yes, flow-through for the .177, and extended pin type for the .22)

Here's the sequence for changing out the probe.....

Push the cocking lever forward to also move the cocking block forward.....

Probe will slide out the back of the cocking block...

And continue right out the back of the rear sub assembly.

Replace with the correct probe for chosen barrel, in reverse order.

I was told that the bolt in the back of the pellet probe is for the magnetic hold on the Alpha/Delta (electronic) variation of this gun.


And a couple photos of the 23" .22 barrel installed. Just under 30 inches oal, without any hushers.

OAL about 34 inches is using the 1x14mm to 1/2x20 adaptor (brass in photo-aftermarket, ie Ghost doesn't come with it). A larger/longer bottle would balance those proportions right out, and make sense for a .22 and higher energy output/air usage anyway.

.177 barrel with Carbine shroud and 4 inch 0DB laid in back to help visualization of what it would look like if I were to swap over the shroud and moderator from the .177 to the .22 barrel. OAL also about 34 inches here. But I think it would actually extend out further, another inch and a half or so if it were to be installed on this .22 barrel.

(I will eventually circle back around to shooting the 12.5grain slugs in the .177 barrel. Had wind gusts to 60mph at my place today and wanted to fiddle with the Ghost but there was no point in shooting in THAT, so it meant gun room/indoor time).

 

[zx10wall]

My .177 Renegade barrel and .22 Delta Wolf barrel after messaging. Before and after of the .177 barrel. @Franklink I believe that .22 you have has been messaged a bit as well. Bob perhaps.

 

[Redtick12]

This is a great grip @Green_Yamo. At least for my paws

Shop by Weapons - AK 47 Accessories - FAB Defense

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View attachment 298038

I have that grip on a couple of my guns, but the AR version. I love it.

 

[Arzrover]

While I've enlarged ports on occasion to be able to make power at lower reg pressures, not on that one. My Ghost came with that 22 barrel and a 25 barrel. It shoots well with both so no need for me to do anything. It came with a variety of hammer springs to experiment with. The heaviest raises the cocking effort significantly so I've not used it but a few times. I gave Franklink the option of taking the light and medium as we thought he had the light in his from the factory. He took only one and must have been the light because he's not gotten the power up much yet in 22. I'm sure he'll explain everything in his very thoughtful manner but his was untouched and mine has had little except the trigger bar return spring changed.
It's a cool, very solid bullpup.
Bob

 

[Franklink]

While I've enlarged ports on occasion to be able to make power at lower reg pressures, not on that one. My Ghost came with that 22 barrel and a 25 barrel. It shoots well with both so no need for me to do anything. It came with a variety of hammer springs to experiment with. The heaviest raises the cocking effort significantly so I've not used it but a few times. I gave Franklink the option of taking the light and medium as we thought he had the light in his from the factory. He took only one and must have been the light because he's not gotten the power up much yet in 22. I'm sure he'll explain everything in his very thoughtful manner but his was untouched and mine has had little except the trigger bar return spring changed.
It's a cool, very solid bullpup.
Bob

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know the .22 barrel had come with the Ghost they asked you to test, but rather assumed it was part of all the ART barrel experiments that you've done with and for Daystate. And since it will swap into a DW, I just figured you had done testing with it in that platform.

I'm also happy to hear that it shoots well.

Yes, I need more hammer spring for the .22. I've got data for a decent report on chrono testing with the .22 barrel, but I'm wanting to gather some readings with a heavier hammer spring to include that as well. Working at night and sleeping in the day is cutting into my fun with the Ghost.

 

[Franklink]

Was texting with @XSUltimate a bit ago about this.....

He asked what I thought about air splitters, remembering that I had tested with and without and various splitter cone depth settings with the BSA Gold Star that I reviewed a few years ago.

In that particular gun, there were accuracy gains to be had by using the splitter versus a moderator. They were small, but measurable. Now, for myself and many others, I'm pleased as punch with minute of field target kill zone accuracy (as long as the gun will do it consistently). But for the hardcore benchrest guys like Dan, their eyes light up at the mere mention of "accuracy gains." (Dan placed and was in the money, quite a ways up actually, at EBR a few weeks ago. so maybe there's something to being excited about aggregation of marginal gains.)

Anyway, the downside of that BSA Gold Star's design was that it was stripper OR moderator, not both.

And now, for how the Ghost plays into this discussion.....the design of the air stripping, "cone" in the end of the shroud allows for tinkering. AND it allows for a moderator to still be used.

Under the oring are some grub screws that retain the splitting cone.

The Ghost does not come with any additional cones, but for somebody with machining skills, or for somebody willing to pay someone else with machining skills......additional cones can be made.

These three have slightly different apertures, angles, and even lengths to allow varying gaps from the barrel....

Just some food for thought for the types that are hunting 10's over 9's at 100 yards.

 

[SorenDrost]

At my range yesterday and did some testing with the BRK Ghost .177 FAC Carbine and the Howler 12.6 gr slugs

Turned the regulator to about 155 bar and got an AVG of 888 FPS with a spread of 5 FPS and STD Dev of 1.6 FPS over a 10 shot string

So that is just above 22 FPE and it is shooting pretty accurate out to 75 metres or 82 yards.

This is a clip of me shooting a ½ inch spinner at 50 metres or 55 yards.

 

[mr. earl]

My Ghost HP.177 came today and the trigger is very heavy. The quick guide has nothing in it about adjusting it. It says that information is in the main manual. I did not get a main manual, so can you tell me what screws do what.

 

[mr. earl]

I went to the BRK site and found the manual.