Crosman Model 157 Co2 .177 caliber
Excerpt from my CD “Old Airguns &Memories”
Hello to all;
Back in 2015 I had a customer of mine come in the shop and he told me his father had passed and he was going to sell some of his dad’s collection of firearms and wanted to know if I would be interested in taking a look; of course I said yes!!
We set up a time and I met him to take a look, he had two of the safes open, as I looked in at the first safe the first thing I noticed was a Crosman pistol box on a shelf, turns out it was a Crosman 157 Co2 .177 cal. pistol in the original box with the paper work, I asked if he would consider selling it? (BTW I was there to look at firearms) and he said yes, so a deal was struck and then I continued on. I did make a deal on some of the firearms and the trip was concluded. I had an M-150 Crosman already, so was really glad to get this M-157 at that time!! The 150/157 Pistols marked Crosmans entrance into to the 12 gram disposable Co2 cartridge era.
The M-157 C02 pistol was in pristine condition, aesthetically speaking, box was in good shape along with the original paper work and I just put it in my safe and left as is, my intention was to leave it just as I found it. That is until 2019, I decided to see if it would hold a Co2 charge, so installed a C02 cartridge and it promptly dumped the Co2 out the barrel; a rebuild was definitely in order. I ordered a rebuild kit for it and about 3 weeks later started the installation of the rebuild kit.
A little historical back ground on this unit ;( I am not a Historian, but best I could determine) it is a 2nd variant with a one piece barrel made from 1956 -1966 , the 1st variants were made from 1954-1956 two piece barrel , according to what I have read, both variants were made in .177 caliber and .22 caliber, the .22 caliber. being the most popular!! Production ceased in 1967. The Crosman literature in the Factory box with my pistol had a Nov. 15, 1958 date printed on the documents so I am guessing this pistol was a 1958 production??
The 157 has an adjustable rear sight (minimally speaking; laterally!) but no elevation adjustment, front sight was fixed!! A push button type safety is located on frame. Basically, all the 150/157 units were the same except for caliber/barrels! They also had two cocking positions a low-P first click and high- P second click.
After the rebuild I set up to test for velocity; I used Crosman PMHP 7.9 grain pellets. All tests were on the high power second click cock position (pistol has a two position cock position low & high). Results were as follows, shot number one -407 fps and shot number 45 -360 fps average over 45 shots 384 fps @ 2.6 ft. lbs. After shot number 45 the velocity began to drop significantly and I simply shot the unit down to empty. Some thoughts regarding the velocity test; I believe my 157 is a little anemic velocity wise, this I believe is due to the age of the hammer spring! I have seen some quotes at 450 fps. I could have shimmed the hammer spring or possibly sourced a new one but decided not to do so, the results I had were perfectly ok with me, 45 shots @ an average of 384 fps after 60+ years, good to go as far as I am concerned!!
Now to the accuracy; I used Crosman PMHP 7.9 grain and JSB EXACTS 8.4 grain and Predator Polymag 8.0 grain. Target set at 30ft. Shot from bench. Pistol with fresh charge!
The Crosman PMHP delivered 1.100” Center to Center, 5 shots, the Predator Polymag delivered .900” Center-Center. Five shots with the JSB EXACTS was .975” Center-Center. I was able to adjust the rear sight all the way to the right and this centered the aim point; however, I had to shoot 1.25 inches low to be on target!!!! There were a couple of things I could have possibly done to address this but have no intention of doing any such thing on this pistol!!! It will remain original!!
It is always fun to bring one of these old units back, as was certainly the case with this M-157 Crosman. If you have a chance to get one, I highly recommend it. With some retrospect, I don’t think many of us really appreciated, “those of us that were there during the time frame these units were being produced, along with many others, the ingenuity of what we had available in Airguns in that time frame, but I suppose that’s the way it is with many things as we look back retrospectively; I know it is true for me!!!
Garey
