I've had this Cricket for nearly 8 years. I realized a lot of the airgun world has moved on, but 8 years ago, it was one of the best on the market, and my first "High-end" airgun I bought. It was a retirement gift to myself after 30 years in the Marine Corps and it's been absolutely flawless until a few weeks ago.
I was helping a friend with some squirrels that were decimating his peach trees, and noticed when I pulled it out of the safe, it was down about halfway on the gauge...hmmm....I usually fill every time I put one back in the safe....it had been a month or so, so I thought I forgot. I filled it, put it in the bag and drove out and hunted. I killed a few for him and came home....gauge was as I expected it to be after less than 10 shots, barely moved...if at all.
I opened the safe the following weekend to head back out there...sure enough, back down about halfway....I aired it back up and hunted, then put it back in the safe and checked it the next morning...it was down...but it only dropped to the middle of the gauge? Stayed there the rest of the week. So I pulled it out of the wood, ran a tub half full of HOT water, pulled the shroud and scope, filled it up and dropped it in....occasional bubbles coming from the gauge end...I pulled up on the cap to see if I could tell if it was coming from the fill port...nope...had to be the gauge.
I normally do all my own gun work, have for 15 years now...but been traveling for work, so let a buddy of mine take it to a guy that works on his guns when I don't have the time. The gun came with an O-ring kit when I bought it 8 years ago, and it's been in the safe the whole time. I checked them, they looked good, and the guy said he'd done several Crickets, so I sent the O-ring kit with my buddy.
The guy called me 2 days later and told me we had a problem. His tool "slipped" and he broke the gauge cover...I told him to just stop right there and I'd come get the gun when I got back home from travel....do NOT touch it again! I drove the 1.5 hours over on Friday when I got home from travel and picked the gun up. Curious, I asked to see what he used to remove the gauge....a pair of FORKS clamped together!!!!
I went home and got online to check forums and found several old posts regarding the tool required to remove the gauge....Poor engineering as far as I'm concerned...there should have been removable set screws to remove the ring so you can access the gauge with a wrench...but either way, there was nowhere I could find to access the tools. I was going to send the gun up to Charlie Frear, but he only works on guns he sells now.
So, looking at some posts, I took half a day off Friday, I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 27mm Deep Well, 6 point Impact socket (only 27mm socket they sold by itself). My lathe is well over 100 years old, but still cuts very true...albeit SLOW since it's a belt drive. Needless to say, tool steel barely touches hardened impact sockets...LOL! So, I heated the socket Cherry Red with a torch and let it cool down. Charlie put me in touch with someone that could do the reseal, but it was going to be a few weeks to get the gun done. However, the individual was kind enough to measure the tool he uses (A turned-down socket
) and text me the O.D.
It took a couple of hours given the limitation on the weakness of my poor old lathe, but the finished product came out nice...the time spent on the old girl was good too...it had been over a year and I'm definitely not a formally trained machinest by any stretch of the imagination...the tool came out good I think, and it worked perfectly....
I tore the gun down, cleaned it up good, chamfered a lot of sharp edges, changed all the seals, lubed and reassembled. Just waiting for the gauge now..
v/r
Gunner
I was helping a friend with some squirrels that were decimating his peach trees, and noticed when I pulled it out of the safe, it was down about halfway on the gauge...hmmm....I usually fill every time I put one back in the safe....it had been a month or so, so I thought I forgot. I filled it, put it in the bag and drove out and hunted. I killed a few for him and came home....gauge was as I expected it to be after less than 10 shots, barely moved...if at all.
I opened the safe the following weekend to head back out there...sure enough, back down about halfway....I aired it back up and hunted, then put it back in the safe and checked it the next morning...it was down...but it only dropped to the middle of the gauge? Stayed there the rest of the week. So I pulled it out of the wood, ran a tub half full of HOT water, pulled the shroud and scope, filled it up and dropped it in....occasional bubbles coming from the gauge end...I pulled up on the cap to see if I could tell if it was coming from the fill port...nope...had to be the gauge.
I normally do all my own gun work, have for 15 years now...but been traveling for work, so let a buddy of mine take it to a guy that works on his guns when I don't have the time. The gun came with an O-ring kit when I bought it 8 years ago, and it's been in the safe the whole time. I checked them, they looked good, and the guy said he'd done several Crickets, so I sent the O-ring kit with my buddy.
The guy called me 2 days later and told me we had a problem. His tool "slipped" and he broke the gauge cover...I told him to just stop right there and I'd come get the gun when I got back home from travel....do NOT touch it again! I drove the 1.5 hours over on Friday when I got home from travel and picked the gun up. Curious, I asked to see what he used to remove the gauge....a pair of FORKS clamped together!!!!
I went home and got online to check forums and found several old posts regarding the tool required to remove the gauge....Poor engineering as far as I'm concerned...there should have been removable set screws to remove the ring so you can access the gauge with a wrench...but either way, there was nowhere I could find to access the tools. I was going to send the gun up to Charlie Frear, but he only works on guns he sells now.
So, looking at some posts, I took half a day off Friday, I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 27mm Deep Well, 6 point Impact socket (only 27mm socket they sold by itself). My lathe is well over 100 years old, but still cuts very true...albeit SLOW since it's a belt drive. Needless to say, tool steel barely touches hardened impact sockets...LOL! So, I heated the socket Cherry Red with a torch and let it cool down. Charlie put me in touch with someone that could do the reseal, but it was going to be a few weeks to get the gun done. However, the individual was kind enough to measure the tool he uses (A turned-down socket
) and text me the O.D.It took a couple of hours given the limitation on the weakness of my poor old lathe, but the finished product came out nice...the time spent on the old girl was good too...it had been over a year and I'm definitely not a formally trained machinest by any stretch of the imagination...the tool came out good I think, and it worked perfectly....
I tore the gun down, cleaned it up good, chamfered a lot of sharp edges, changed all the seals, lubed and reassembled. Just waiting for the gauge now..
v/r
Gunner
