I got my Maximus .177 on Thursday and have a couple hundred pellets down it. My first impression was wow, it is well made, has a quality feel to it, the machining on the fill cap and end of of the air tube is very nice. The stock is a nice hard plastic does not feel cheap. The musket looking stock has grown on me the last year and it really does have nice lines. The iron sites are really nice although I did not use them because of noise, I did a TKO. No leaks, rifle came undamaged and overall I was really impressed with the rifle for the 156 shipped I paid. I put on a Centerpoint 4X power scope I had laying around.
I cleaned the bore and removed a ton of factory gunk. I installed a 5 inch TKO and it still had some snap to it so I put on a 6.5 I had and it tamed it down nicely for the backyard. I shot it with the factory hammer spring and it shot GREAT. It was not pellet picky at all with JSB 10.3, Crosman 10.5 ultra mags, Polymag 8grn, Beeman Kodiak 10grn, Beeman Kodiak copper and Crosman premier HP 7.9 all shooting really well at 20 yards. The JSB's seemed to do the best and were doing 1/3 to 1/2'' at 25 yards no problem, even with a 4 power scope and that heavy trigger. JSB was the only pellet I chrono'd and it was shooting 920fps. The trigger is heavy, I am guessing 6-7 pounds but is predictable and is very shootable. It was probably the least pellet picky air rifle I have shot out of the box. I got about 25 good shots from 1800 down to 1000 or so. It shot so well I kinda just stopped testing pellets.
I decided to put in the .42 hammer spring from hillair. Took about 3-5 minutes and I am so glad I got that when I ordered the rifle. It cut the noise in half, I reinstalled the 5 inch TKO to save length and it is whisper quiet. The same JSB 10.3grn were now shooting at 810fps but still accurate enough. I should mention that I did lose a little bit of accuracy with the lower power spring but not much. Groups went to about 1/2- 3/4 inch at 25 yards which I am ok with as this will be a 15 yard rat gun and I can deal with the trade off for quiet and a little shorter. But now I got 35-40 good shots from 1800 to 1000. And if you don't mind 1 or 1 1/2 inches at 25 yards for plinking I got 15 shots from 2,000-1800 to make the total 55 good shots but accuracy suffered from 2,000 down to 1800 with JSB's, not to say you couldn't find a pellet it liked in that range. I actually shot a lot of 1/2" groups with the lower power spring but I wanted to give you real world examples in the pics that some did open up, could be in need of a cleaning.
I am going to clean the bore and see if the groups tighten back up to where they were with the high power spring because I am probably approaching 250 pellets down it. It is light, easy and fun to shoot. It is not as loud as I thought full power without a TKO but it isnt exactly backyard friendly either. I think it is FANTASTIC rifle if it can be had for 199 or so. At the 230 point I would just step into a Fortitude I think, I feel like I got a lot for my money at 154.
The ragged hole group was shot with the factory hammer spring, the rest are with the .42 spring.
I cleaned the bore and removed a ton of factory gunk. I installed a 5 inch TKO and it still had some snap to it so I put on a 6.5 I had and it tamed it down nicely for the backyard. I shot it with the factory hammer spring and it shot GREAT. It was not pellet picky at all with JSB 10.3, Crosman 10.5 ultra mags, Polymag 8grn, Beeman Kodiak 10grn, Beeman Kodiak copper and Crosman premier HP 7.9 all shooting really well at 20 yards. The JSB's seemed to do the best and were doing 1/3 to 1/2'' at 25 yards no problem, even with a 4 power scope and that heavy trigger. JSB was the only pellet I chrono'd and it was shooting 920fps. The trigger is heavy, I am guessing 6-7 pounds but is predictable and is very shootable. It was probably the least pellet picky air rifle I have shot out of the box. I got about 25 good shots from 1800 down to 1000 or so. It shot so well I kinda just stopped testing pellets.
I decided to put in the .42 hammer spring from hillair. Took about 3-5 minutes and I am so glad I got that when I ordered the rifle. It cut the noise in half, I reinstalled the 5 inch TKO to save length and it is whisper quiet. The same JSB 10.3grn were now shooting at 810fps but still accurate enough. I should mention that I did lose a little bit of accuracy with the lower power spring but not much. Groups went to about 1/2- 3/4 inch at 25 yards which I am ok with as this will be a 15 yard rat gun and I can deal with the trade off for quiet and a little shorter. But now I got 35-40 good shots from 1800 to 1000. And if you don't mind 1 or 1 1/2 inches at 25 yards for plinking I got 15 shots from 2,000-1800 to make the total 55 good shots but accuracy suffered from 2,000 down to 1800 with JSB's, not to say you couldn't find a pellet it liked in that range. I actually shot a lot of 1/2" groups with the lower power spring but I wanted to give you real world examples in the pics that some did open up, could be in need of a cleaning.
I am going to clean the bore and see if the groups tighten back up to where they were with the high power spring because I am probably approaching 250 pellets down it. It is light, easy and fun to shoot. It is not as loud as I thought full power without a TKO but it isnt exactly backyard friendly either. I think it is FANTASTIC rifle if it can be had for 199 or so. At the 230 point I would just step into a Fortitude I think, I feel like I got a lot for my money at 154.
The ragged hole group was shot with the factory hammer spring, the rest are with the .42 spring.
