Cricket II .22

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Dairyboy

Dairyboy

Member
Jul 23, 2016
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Washington, United States
Got a new to me Cricket II in .22 coming my way. Wasn't the gun I planned on getting but with that one seeming to get pushed back constantly on an arrival date I decided to look elsewhere. Talked to Charlie Frear and he didn't have a Taipan Shorty either. He did point me to checkout the Cricket standards though. So doing my research found them to be something I can work with size wise. I then saw Yen had a nice Cricket II in .22 from Charlie for sale. This was yesterday afternoon and it's scheduled to arrive tomorrow already! Not sure if I believe it but we'll see!

It is power tuned shooting 37fpe in .22. Way too hot for my needs and prefer 28fpe or so. Will be tuning it so will be looking for advice on that.
 
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Sean, knowing you've had bother the EVOL and Cricket II makes me happy to see that. I do know it has the adjustable hammer spring out the back like the Veteran which is a reason I went for it. I'm planning to tear into it and lower the reg pressure in it and get it tuned to max at about 30fpe instead of whatever it is exactly at. 

Cole, over the almost 2 year wait my shooting changed alot. We picked up a new field which was 20 years dormant and was over run by squirrels. That was 4 years ago. I used to have time to shoot them when I had free time but that's very minimal now being a father. 2 years back the population was wiped out with a very late winter. Last year had some coming back but what changed was I was the irrigator for that field so when driving changing irrigation I had an airgun at the ready to shoot them. Obviously bullpups have a big advantage to this due to the shorter length. While the EVOL was no long gun being about 37" max, cutting 10-12" off that makes a big difference. If I could have I would have got a bullpup and kept the EVOL but wifey no likey that idea.

2nd I wanted a gun I can quickly change power level via an external HS adjuster without the need for any tools. We've got rats in the last year that need taken care of but where there at even a 30fpe gun is too much. My hope is to tune for 28fpe and then use the hammer spring to drop to sub 20fpe hoping close to 15fpe and that would be a huge benefit to me. We'll see if I can make that work.

The Taipan Veteran Shorty wouldn't have been anything new for me as I had one previously and do kick myself for getting rid of it. This gun just happened to fill the need as getting one is essentially impossible these days. 
 
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My .22 Cricket II was insanely accurate but I couldn’t live with the horrible clunky cocking cycle. No fault of Charlie’s but Kaliburgun needs to take this one back to the drawing board.
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At least you know you've loaded it. I've been double loading my new Wildcat like crazy for the past two days because the cocking handle will snap back if you don't pull it all the way to the locking click.


 
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My .22 Cricket II was insanely accurate but I couldn’t live with the horrible clunky cocking cycle. No fault of Charlie’s but Kaliburgun needs to take this one back to the drawing board.
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Loading a magazine was designed for people with 3 hands, but you will get used to it. I shoot one and wow! Powerful, accurate and dependable
 
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I'm not worried about the cocking. I really enjoyed the cocking on the Edgun R5M which not many people do so I think I'll be ok. As long as it gets the job done I'll be happy. My EVOL at first had tough cocking but once I dropped power down it became one finger easy cocking. I think with alittle work I can get the cocking to not be bad. Well if I even think it's that bad once I get to handle it. Others are used to Impacts or wildcats cocking wise which ive never had my hands on one. 
 
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I'm currently Neck deep into a full tuning and modification of a .177 Cricket II ..... Honestly I'm not impressed.

Just like Vulcans TOO MANY little screws holding it all together, over tighten they will strip, locktite you may not get them back out.

Just like Taipans PORTING is that of a one receiver manufacturing practice having a transfer passage valve to barrel a HUGE @ .232" diameter ! The Plenum is HUGE as well & while great for a .22 / .25 /.30 cal guns creates a inconsistent refill cycle on a .177 that just sips air. ( BOTH need to be reduced for the .177 application IMO )

As in the past ZERO trigger adjustments for sear overlap, weight, travels etc ... While not bad, it is a utility field trigger.

Hammer spring sits in there loose and rattles / pings horribly when shot ( it is getting guide collars on both ends ! )

Another that will create issue if you fiddle with barrel with the clamping .... barrel is fully floating within receiver and ANY CLOCKING ERRORS will create transfer passage to barrel port misalignment.

As in the past as well ... Easy to dirt / debris foul the action in around the cocking and trigger mechanics being it has a fairly open architecture that given a dirty use environment will require some prevention measures or maintenance in cleaning.



Now all said ... It is a SHOOTER and functions reliably being it's new and clean ... time will tell ?



Just makes me respect even more the SOLID engineering & manufacturing of the TAIPANS .... there in a league of there own in comparison.



Sorry to offend anyone .. just speaking matter of fact on whats in front of me having much experience to tell what i'm looking at.



Scott S


 
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I agree Scott, there was room for improvement but all Kalibrgun did was jury rig a forward cocking mechanism onto an existing design. I have the .25 version Cricket2. One thing, the .177 must be different because my barrel is clamped in the middle block under the scope rail just like the older Crickets. No way is that thing moving once those four allen bolts are tightened... And mine too is a shooter. Unfortunately, it LOVES the .25 King Heavy (Mk1), and that pellet is no longer in production. ;( Also, with the HST set to shoot 60 FPE (125 bar reg), the cocking is very clunky the last inch or so of travel. 
 
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You misread that .... if you FOOL with CLAMPING. Yes barrel gets held tight preventing rotation, but take the gun apart, loosen clamping etc the barrel freely rotates and you have no clue where port position is clocked. * There is a small divot mid barrel that is at the 12'o clock, tho guns still apart on the bench. not sure where it ends up and if viewable once assembled ?
 
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Ahhh, gotcha. Those are just like the older Crickets. I usually match mark mine so I know at least within reason where it will be aligned. I've had at least 7 or 8 Crickets, mostly ones I've bought that were abused to clean, tune and re-sell. I do have three now, the .25 Cricket2, the .22 Cricket Carbine, and my favorite gun the .22 Cricket mini Carbine. Other than the mini, all will end up being sold. Some Crickets had a bore through tapped hole to hold the pic rail for scope that if you removed the screw you could see through to the barrel and divot, not sure if the Cricket2 is like that...
 
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Well I'm still excited to try it. Will this be my one gun I keep forever? Unlikely as I still haven't had one over the years that I have. When I'm able to get a Taipan Shorty will I go that route and send this one on its way? Very possible. Sold many great guns that way in the past.

It should be here today though so I'm gonna try to have some fun with it tonight if the wind will stop blowing!
 
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Ahhh, gotcha. Those are just like the older Crickets. I usually match mark mine so I know at least within reason where it will be aligned. I've had at least 7 or 8 Crickets, mostly ones I've bought that were abused to clean, tune and re-sell. I do have three now, the .25 Cricket2, the .22 Cricket Carbine, and my favorite gun the .22 Cricket mini Carbine. Other than the mini, all will end up being sold. Some Crickets had a bore through tapped hole to hold the pic rail for scope that if you removed the screw you could see through to the barrel and divot, not sure if the Cricket2 is like that...
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Well, like you I had a Cricket 2 and a Cricket Carbine Mini. Both .22. I kept the Mini because it's just such a damn pleasant, accurate, precise airgun to shoot. 
 
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Got it and everything looks good! Got to put 2 mags through it and man is it a shooter! I mean it's fairly windy and when wind was consistent I mean I'd say sub 1/2" groups at 55yds. Like very shocked how good it shoots. Trigger is really nice, cocking is interesting. It's odd cause it's the mag rotation mechanism causing it not the hammer spring or anything. Cocking fast makes it feels nice though. It's quiet and well balanced. Mag loading will definitely take time to learn. Took me a good minute the first time to figure it out. I know people complained about a ping but they must have never shot an Edgun lol it's barely anything at all. The stock for me isn't as comfortable as I was expecting but it's not bad.
 
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Congrats! She's a sweet shooter.

(Love the (.22) Cricket 2, I got from GeorgiaAir. 25gr @915fps; one ragged hole, almost, at 40meters. (bottom one in pic).)
1E7D821B-A150-4293-A0C8-D299DCA43746.1621656890.jpeg

 
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yea the WIND !!! Can't recall a spring where the wind has blown months on end every day !!!
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Its been the last 2 years for us. Last year never seemed to stop blowing the whole year which usually only in spring it's windy. This year it hasn't really stopped either. In the next 15 days we only have one day of wind less than 5-10mph. Lots of 10-20mph days.
 
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