New (to me) Cricket mini Carbine .22

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Centercut

Centercut

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Jun 9, 2017
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Received the .22 Cricket Mini Carbine this past Saturday afternoon, and installed the scope and bipod. Scope is a Bushnell Engage 30mm 2.5-10×44 with Hawke Tactical rings. Bipod is a cheapie eBay Atlas clone. Checked velocity with JSB 18.1 grain, and averaged about 855 fps. Input data into Strelok Pro for zeroing and holdover information. 

​ Next day, took to my favorite ground squirrel killing fields, and zero’d the rifle at 43 yards. Got the zero set as good as possible in a slight breeze, and even had a few dime size five shot groups off prone position with the cheapo bipod. First two shots at 55 and 62 yards resulted in these two DOA ground squirrels. Eight more followed in their footsteps in the next two hours.

1528146590_15784850165b15aa9ed3ae85.30980707_KG Cricket mini Carbine 6-2-18.JPG

1528146616_1360306705b15aab85dcef2.30631755_GS-DOA-2.JPG

1528146637_1122926525b15aacdb36702.24726054_GS DOA-1.JPG


PS., One thing I forgot to mention was just how efficient this new gun is. I shot FIVE magazines yesterday on ONE fill. Each magazine is 14 shots. And that was from a fill of 250b down to about 130b or so. Not sure, but I think the reg. pressure is somewhere in that area. I need to find out since I can’t read reg. pressure on the gun. But from a small gun like that at 29 FPE, getting 70 shots is crazy… And the last shot was a squirrel head shot when I was at my car getting ready to pack up, I saw one at about 50 yards and THUNK, DOA! If this was a bottle gun I’d get 140 shots!!! But it wouldn’t look nearly as cool…

All in all, very happy with the .22 Cricket Mini Carbine! Thanks Eric (gto19) for a great gun in like new condition.
​Mike
 
Hi Centercut
I too have the Mini and have had for around a year and have been very happy with it , it's my favorite airgun I have owned.
I get 3 mags from mine before falling off the reg from a 230b fill , if I fill much above that doesn't seem to add that many more shots.
I'm using 16 grain JSBs @ about 900fps.
Has your Mini been tuned by Earnest? 
There's a plastic spacer washer between the breach block and shroud that allows the barrel to be tensioned , I prefer to remove this washer as that allows the shroud to tighten on the barrel and not touch the breach block , it just leaves a small space between , all Cricket BPs in the past never touched the breach whenever the shroud is screwed down tight always had a small gap.
What I'm getting at is leaving the spacer in place made mine very sensitive to how tight I had the sshroud which lead to POI shifts , especially when going outside from inside with a big difference in temperature , others may disagree but keep that in mind if you experience that.
Hope you enjoy as much as I do mine!!!
 
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"Lemensd"Hi Centercut
I too have the Mini and have had for around a year and have been very happy with it , it's my favorite airgun I have owned.
I get 3 mags from mine before falling off the reg from a 230b fill , if I fill much above that doesn't seem to add that many more shots.
I'm using 16 grain JSBs @ about 900fps.
Has your Mini been tuned by Earnest? 
There's a plastic spacer washer between the breach block and shroud that allows the barrel to be tensioned , I prefer to remove this washer as that allows the shroud to tighten on the barrel and not touch the breach block , it just leaves a small space between , all Cricket BPs in the past never touched the breach whenever the shroud is screwed down tight always had a small gap.
What I'm getting at is leaving the spacer in place made mine very sensitive to how tight I had the sshroud which lead to POI shifts , especially when going outside from inside with a big difference in temperature , others may disagree but keep that in mind if you experience that.
Hope you enjoy as much as I do mine!!!
Click to expand...
Change that spacer/washer with an O-Ring. All your troubles will vanish. 
 
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I have to correct my initial post above about the Cricket Mini number of shots per fill. I must have gotten carried away on my first time out with it. After shooting it now many times, and about a tin of JSB 18.1 grain pellets, I can safely say I do NOT get 70 shots per fill to 250b. I do, however, get a about solid 4 magazines per fill, and that is approx. 50 shots. Pretty good efficiency for a small, short barreled gun with a not so large pressure tube shooting 30 FPE. Super satisfied with the gun.

Ordered a carbon fiber shroud from NEIL CLAGUE, and it looks and performs great. It is slightly quieter and lighter in weight than the stock shroud. It also comes with a 1/2"x20 threaded adaptor so that I can add any LDC that I prefer. Neil also sent a 6 inch CF LDC along with the shroud that works very well. Thanks Neil!!!

Oh, and I also wanted to give a shout out to JOHN HAGAN, who made me a socket tool so that I could remove and install the gage on the end of the pressure tube. Without that super thin wall socket its almost impossible to disassemble that part of the gun. Thanks John!!! I wanted to replace the stock Cricket Wika gage with an EDgun EDMU, but the EDMU that I have has a very small leak through the gage and I can't use it until I figure out how to disassemble it and replace the inner o-ring under the pressure plate. Its not as easy as it sounds, and requires another special tool (a three pronged circlip pliars type device).

Additional photos posted, since I changed out the scope with a Vortex Razor HD LH 3-15x42 (that I had on my Renegade), one piece UTG Accu-Sync rings in Flat Dark Earth (FDE) Cerakote color, bubble level, DonnyFL side plate, scope throw lever from MK Machining, AccuTac clone bipod, and an auxiliary scope mounted picatinny rail. FYI, I am currently using the Renegade for 25M and 50Y Benchrest (using the Renegade for 50Y BR at EBR), and have a Weaver 36x40 Target scope on that rifle. 

First pic with CF shroud and CF LDC. Second with CF shroud and DonnyFL Tatsu. Third with just CF shroud and thread protector. 
 
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