Crossman Vantage

[Moe M.]

I haven't been a member of Air Gun Nation very long and my appreciation for some "affordable" air rifles may have ruffled a few feathers, I have a thread running about the Ruger Impact Max which is not one of the favored air guns represented here, my experience with my Ruger Impact (a Walmart exclusive in the beginning and marketed as the Umarex Forge in other venues) has been all good, outside of a lousy trigger, the gun is nice looking, well built, reliable, and accurate, it wasn't built in a prestigious German or other European factory, but It's been an excellent shooter.

Well, I'm back with another "Affordable" air rifle, this one is the Crossman Vantage (also marketed as the Remington Vantage), mine happens to be in .177 cal., only because the .22 cal. was out of stock and the .177 cal. was, and on a special sale, most reviews on this gun were mixed, however, Kenny @ myairgunreviews channel did an in depth review of the Vantage (his was in .177 cal, also), he called it a Gem and stated that most of the guns he reviewed went back to the distributer, but the Vantage he tested he was going to keep, it was that good, and IMHO he wasn't wrong.

OK, the Crossman Vantage is not much different than most low priced air guns in that the trigger sucks (but it can be remedied quickly with a couple of different mods, neither of which is involved, expensive, or time consuming, and the included bundled scope is junk, I've had my Vantage for a couple of months and have been shooting it with the included fiber optic adjustable sights and getting excellent accuracy, I put a couple of hundred shots through it to break it in, yesterday I mounted a a Leeper's 3x9 power scope on it, it took about six shots to sight it in at ten meters, then I moved it out to 25 yards, a few clicks down and a few to the right put it in the X-ring, five more shots to settle the scope and then four more five shot strings put all of my shots into one ragged hole that could be covered with a quarter, I was using 10.3 gr. Crossman Premier domed pellets, and experienced no flyers.

I'm sure that there are many break barrel air rifles on the market that can match or better the accuracy that I got with this rifle, but not many of them that sell for $99.99 on sale, and fewer still for that price point come with a nicely finished wood stock and richly blued barreled action.

So, if you're on a budget, don't care where your gun is made, and want a good quality, reliable, accurate, and good looking affordable air rifle, the Crossman Vantage is worth a second look.

 

[Moog]

That Crosman Vantage looks just like my Crosman Storm XT except yours is a nitro piston.

My much older Crosman Storm is also a very good shooter and like you the only real complaint I had was the trigger. I bought a GRTIII trigger from charliedatuna. Just Google it and you will find it. They make drop in triggers for most of the common break barrel designs. I went this route because I don't know how to tinker with a trigger and this is just a drop in part. It works really good and although not as nice as the triggers on my German guns it's a huge improvement over the factory trigger that came with the gun.

I also refinished the stock on it. I did not like the glossy yellow color of the original finnish and it is the first springer I ever took apart to do a clean and lube on. Aside from being good shooters these are great guns to learn on since they are inexpensive. You don't want to mess up an expensive gun while going through the learning process.

No plastic parts on my Crosman other than the fiber optic sights and they work really well. I'm currently shooting this rifle without a scope.

Nothing at all wrong with "affortable" air guns if thats what gets you in the shooting game.

 

[Longfellow]

I have a .177 Crosman Optimus: the non NP version of the Vantage. Or, maybe it would be more correct to say the Vantage is the NP version of the Optimus. Anyway, I did the roller bearing trigger mod for it. Works great. The OEM scope was swapped for a Barska 4x32AO initially and later I put a Hatsan 3-9X40AO on it. It works really great now. I use JSB 10.34's w/ it sighted in for 25 yards.

 

[Moe M.]

That Crosman Vantage looks just like my Crosman Storm XT except yours is a nitro piston.

My much older Crosman Storm is also a very good shooter and like you the only real complaint I had was the trigger. I bought a GRTIII trigger from charliedatuna. Just Google it and you will find it. They make drop in triggers for most of the common break barrel designs. I went this route because I don't know how to tinker with a trigger and this is just a drop in part. It works really good and although not as nice as the triggers on my German guns it's a huge improvement over the factory trigger that came with the gun.

I also refinished the stock on it. I did not like the glossy yellow color of the original finnish and it is the first springer I ever took apart to do a clean and lube on. Aside from being good shooters these are great guns to learn on since they are inexpensive. You don't want to mess up an expensive gun while going through the learning process.

No plastic parts on my Crosman other than the fiber optic sights and they work really well. I'm currently shooting this rifle without a scope.

Nothing at all wrong with "affortable" air guns if thats what gets you in the shooting game.

Actually it isn't the price point that draws me into the "affordable" category of air rifles, I've been a competitive and recreational shooter most of my life and my taste in conventional firearms generally runs with the more expensive firearms, especially with competition guns.

What draws me to the less expensive air guns is the challenge of buying a lower priced air gun and wringing the most potential out of it that I can, but I am selective about what I'm buying, the gun has to be attractive to begin with, it should have a good looking wood stock, it has to have a good all steel barrel, and the fit and finish needs to be good quality, I know right from the get go because of the price that the trigger will likely need to improved on and the bundled scope if one is included will most likely be junk, but if the rest of the gun appears to be well made, has modest reviews, and the overall looks of the gun is attractive to me there's a good chance that I'll give it a try.

In this case, the Crossman Vantage checked all my boxes except for the stock, it doesn't have that eye popping good looks that my other air rifles exhibit, it's comfortable, well finished, and shaped well, it's just dull in appearance which won't take much to refinish, the trigger is stiff, but again a new trigger screw and a bit of smoothing will fix that, and the scope issue has already been addressed, in my opinion Kenny was right, so far anyway the Vantage is a Gem in the rough.