Archive for November 2011

The Crosman M4-177 Pneumatic Air Rifle – Tactical looks at a very affordable price

Monday, November 28, 2011

The M4-177 with the stock collapsed.

Recently Crosman Corporation brought out a new air rifle – the Crosman M4-177 Pneumatic Air Rifle. As the “M4” in the name strongly implies, this new rifle looks like a tactical carbine, the same look that a lot of powder-burning varmint rifles have adopted in recent years.

The M4-177 is a .177 caliber multi-stroke pneumatic air rifle capable of launching both .177 pellets and .177 BBs. Almost all the visible parts of the M4-177 are molded of engineering polymer. Not surprisingly, it weighs just 3 lbs 9 oz and stretches just 30.3 inches from end to end with the stock collapsed, and 33.75 inches with the stock fully extended.

The M4-177 with the stock extended.

At the extreme aft end of the M4-177 is corrugated butt plate that has slots top and bottom for attaching a shoulder strap. A lever underneath the adjustable stock allows to be slid in and out to adjust the length of pull (LOP – from trigger blade to butt plate) to the shooter’s preference. The LOP can be as short as 9.75 inches or as long as 13 inches.

Forward of the butt stock is the black polymer receiver which has a black polymer pistol grip attached below it at roughly a 45 degree angle. On the left side of the receiver is a tab that can be rotated sideways to allow a generous supply of BBs to be poured into the M4-177 and a BB retainer button.

The hole into which up to 350 BBs can be poured.

Ahead of the pistol grip is the trigger guard which surrounds a black plastic trigger and which houses a push-button safety. Forward of that is a magazine housing. The faux magazine can be dropped out of the housing, and serves as a storage place for the 5-shot pellet clip and the tool for adjusting the front sight.

The faux magazine serves as a storage place for the pellet clip and the front sight adjustment tool.

Forward of the magazine is the forearm, which serves as a grip for holding the M4-177 while shooting and also as a pumping arm for charging the multi-stroke pneumatic action. Toward the front end of the forearm, on the underside, there is a short section of Picatinny rail which could be used for attaching accessories such as a laser or a flashlight.

The front sight attaches to the Picatinny rail near the muzzle.

Beyond the end of the forearm, you’ll find the barrel, which has a plastic molding on it that provide Picatinny rail sections top and bottom. The post type front sight clamps to the top section of Picatinny rail. Moving back along the barrel, you’ll find another section of Picatinny rail on top of the receiver. The peep type rear sight (which has two different apertures and flips from one to another) clamps to this section of rail or a scope can be mounted. On the right side of the receiver, you’ll find the bolt for cocking the action and a slot for inserting the 5-shot pellet clip.

The right side of the receiver, showing the bolt (pulled to the rear) and the slot for inserting the pellet clip.

Adjusting the sights on the M4-177 is a bit unusual. For elevation adjustment, use the special tool stored in faux magazine to move the sight up or down as needed. For windage adjustment, you’ll need a screwdriver to move the rear sight left or right as required.

The rear sight attaches to the Picatinny rail on top of the receiver.

To load BBs into the M4-177, slide the BB loading port cover to one side, pour in up to 350 steel BBs, and slide the port cover back to its original position. Next, push the BB retainer button forward (toward the muzzle), point the barrel at the ground and twist and shake the air rifle to until the “visual magazine” on the left side of the receiver is filled. Push the BB retainer button back toward the butt stock to keep the BBs in the magazine. Insert the empty pellet clip into the breech slot so that the bolt will pass through one of the pellet chambers. Pump the M4-177 at least 3 times but not more than 10. Pull the bolt all the way back (two clicks) and push it forward again. The magnet on the end of the bolt will pick up a BB from the BB magazine and slide it into the barrel.

Squeeze the trigger. The first stage comes out at 3 lb. 13.4 oz. At about 4 lb. 14 oz., the shot goes down range. At ten pumps, the M4-177 launches steel BBs at around 650 fps. I found that’s enough to blow through both sides of a soup can at 13 yards.

Loading pellets requires inserting 5 pellets into the 5-shot clip (make sure the M4-177 is empty of BBs first). Pump the M4-177 up to ten times, pull the bolt back, slide the clip into the breech until it reaches the first detent, and slide the bolt forward again. Pull the trigger. At 10 pumps, the M4-177 launches Crosman Premier 7.9 gr pellets at about 625 fps and delivered a one-inch edge to edge 5 shot group at 13 yards from a sitting position under relatively lousy conditions. Good enough, I think, for terminating pests in the garden at short range.

In the end, I liked the M4-177. It’s fun to shoot and will definitely put a smile on someone’s face on Christmas morning. For an airgun that will probably sell for under a hundred bucks, that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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That safety thing . . . again

Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving is  just a few days away.

For me, Thanksgiving is the time of year when I take stock of my situation, and – more to the point – all the things that I have to be thankful for. I have been truly blessed. I have many things for which to give thanks, and I hope that you do too.

One of the things that I am thankful for are the folks who read this blog. I am grateful for your readership, your comments, and your feedback. And when you like one of my goofy shooting challenges . . . well, that’s the icing on the cake. So thank you, and keep reading!

The year is rapidly rolling toward the holiday season, and with visions of new airguns dancing in my head, I expect that some of you will receive new airguns for Christmas, and some of you will give new airguns for Christmas. With that in mind, I feel honor-bound to remind all of you that as airgunners our first concern should be for safety.

The basics are pretty simple:

  • Never point an airgun at anything you don’t want to see broken or destroyed, injured or killed . . . ever.
  • Treat all airguns as loaded even when you “know” they are not.
  • Keep your finger out of the trigger guard until ready to shoot and when you are loading your airgun.
  • Shoot at a pellet trap or other safe backstop. Don’t use a hard backstop with BBs.
  • Make sure everyone on the firing line is wearing eye protection.
  • If you are hunting or controlling pests, make certain you know where your pellet will go if you miss. If you are not certain, don’t pull the trigger.

The following is special to parents or anyone else who is involved with children shooting airguns.

Airguns are not toys. They are real air rifles and air pistols and can be dangerous if not handled properly. Your child needs to understand the difference between an airgun and a toy gun is like the difference between a toy car and a real car.

Remember and observe the number one rule of airgun safety: never, ever point your airgun at anything you don’t want to see a hole in, including any person, any animal (except for hunting) or someone else’s property. When the airgun is not aimed at an appropriate target, keep it pointed in a safe direction, such as at the ground.

If you have any doubt that your children and anyone who is with them will observe Rule One, supervise their shooting. If you are not completely certain that they will always handle the airgun safely, supervise them, regardless of age.

Supervision means being close enough to control or redirect the airgun if it is pointed in an unsafe direction. It only takes a moment for a mishap to occur. Be close enough to prevent that from happening – no more than an arm’s length away.

Maintain control of the airgun when it is not being used, including at the beginning and end of each shooting session. Don’t load it and leave it unattended. Store your airgun, unloaded, where it cannot be used by curious youngsters or unauthorized persons. Store the ammunition separately.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

 

-          Jock Elliott

 

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The FX Gladiator Mk II – Part II

Monday, November 14, 2011

The left side of the Gladiator Mk II

To ready the Gladiator Mk II for shooting, attach the filling probe to a SCUBA tank or high pressure pump, slide it into the filling port at the end of the forward air tube, and slowly fill the Mk II to 220 bar.

The spring-loaded 12-shot magazine is self-indexing.

Next, load the rotary magazine. You’ll notice that the Gladiator now uses the same magazines as the FX Royale. Start by turning the transparent lid to the magazine counterclockwise until it stops. Put one pellet in the open slot on the rear side of the magazine so that the tip of the pellet is pointing out of the hole. This locks the magazine spring in place.

Turn the magazine so that the transparent lid is facing you. Turn the lid clockwise one slot at a time and fill the slots with pellets with the tip of the pellets facing into the hole. Lock the lid in its starting position.

When selecting scope mounts, make sure they are high enough to provide clearance for the magazine.

Next, pull the bolt lever all the way back and insert the magazine, black side toward the muzzle, into the breech from the right side. Now, this is where life got interesting for me while testing the Gladiator Mk II. When I mounted the first scope, the magazine hit the “saddle” of the scope (the bulge where the elevation and windage knobs are mounted) when I tried to slide the magazine into the breech. So, down into the workshop again and I mounted another scope. This one slide into the breech slot, but I couldn’t get the bolt to work properly. I called Airguns of Arizona, and Kip helpfully walked me through the process until I could finally figure out that the magazine was hitting the tube of the scope so that it couldn’t be seated all the way home (almost, but not quite). Finally, a third scope with higher mounts fit properly, and the magazine slid into place.

Push the bolt forward, flick off the safety, and squeeze the trigger. The first stage required only 9 ounces on the sample that I tested. At 1 lb. 2.2 oz., the shot went down range. This a phenomenal trigger, light and crisp, that feels a lot like a match trigger.

On high power, the Mk II launches 18.1 gr. JSB pellets at average of 855 fps, or 29.38 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle; medium power, 655 fps and 17.24 fp, and low power, 499 fps and 14.42 fp. The good folks at Airguns of Arizona tell me that the Mk II will deliver 95 shots per fill on high power and an astonishing 190 shots on lower power.

At 30 yards, shooting from a casual rest, the Mk II delivered this nice group.

And the accuracy? Well, the accuracy is just fine. At 30 yards with JSB Jumbo pellets, I put 5 shots into a group that measured just .625 inch edge to edge. That works out to well under half an inch center to center.

Yup, if I were in the vermin control business and needed an air rifle that required a minimum of ancillary equipment for a day’s shooting, I think the FX Gladiator Mk II would be number one on my list.

Til Next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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The FX Gladiator Mk II – Part I

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Gladiator Mk II is a tackdriver and, thanks to two air reservoirs, delivers an enormous number of shots.

If I were a professional pest controller who needed an airgun to do his job, I think I have just found the air rifle that would be Numero Uno on my list: the FX Gladiator Mk II.

Before we take a look at the Mk II, a couple of items. First, I reviewed the FX Gladiator Tactical a while back, and if you want to check out those blogs for comparison, you can find them here http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/blog/2010/10/the-outstanding-gladiator-tactical-%e2%80%93-part-i.html and here http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/blog/2010/10/the-outstanding-gladiator-tactical-%e2%80%93-part-ii.html.

Second, I love shooting precharged pneumatic (PCP) air rifles. They have, as a group, a bunch of admirable qualities. Most will shoot one inch edge-to-edge groups at 50 yards with the right pellet, and often they will do substantial better than that. They have no nasty whiplash recoil to deal with, as do springers and gas-piston guns. Many offer a very neighbor-friendly report, and they are just plain easy to shoot well. Buuut, most require the shooter to have a SCUBA tank or a high-pressure hand pump handy to refill the air reservoir when all the usuable shots have been consumed. For me, that diminishes the pleasure of shooting a PCP air rifle; the less ancillary gear I have to drag out the door when I got shooting, the better.

The new FX Gladiator Mk II gets around the ancillary gear problem with a couple of slick tricks: a very easy-to-use power adjustor and two – count ‘em! – air reservoirs. As a result, the Mk II delivers a shot count that should allow the overwhelming majority of shooters to go out the door with the Mk II and a tin of pellets and not have to worry about refilling the Gladiator until they get back home from a day’s shooting. We’ll talk about that some more in a while, but first let’s take a walk around the Gladiator Mk II.

The Gladiator Mk II stretches 44.25 inches from end to end. With the rear air reservoir/buttstock unscrewed, the receiver and barrel assembly measure about 34 inches. Without a scope or rings attached, the Mk II weighs 8.5 lbs, and it looks – to my eye, anyway – just great. With the exception of a couple of teensy spots where dots of red paint appear, the Mk II is a symphony of matte black metal and matte black engineering polymer.

The rear air reservoir angles downward and makes for a comfortable shooting position.

At the extreme aft end of the Mk II, you’ll find a soft rubber butt pad (which can be adjusted vertically) attached to a polymer cheek piece assembly that slides over the rear air reservoir. The good folks from FX have wisely designed the Gladiator so that the rear air reservoir angles down slightly from the line of the receiver. This allows for a comfortable shooting position.

Just ahead of the trigger guard is an easy-to-read air gauge.

Moving forward, most of the rear half of the receiver and barrel assembly is swaddled in another engineering polymer molding that provides a pistol grip, trigger guard, and forestock all in one piece. This assembly secures to the receiver with a single allen bolt. The pistol grip has grooves on either side for better gripping and so does the forestock. Inside the trigger guard is a black metal two-stage trigger that can be adjusted for first stage length of pull and second stage weight of pull. Forward of that, you’ll find an easy-to-read air gauge on the underside of the forestock.

The power adjustor on the lowest setting.

At the end of the forestock is the forward air reservoir with a filling port at the end. Above that is a fully shrouded .22 caliber barrel. At the rear end of the barrel is the breech assembly, which is the same breech assembly used in the FX Royale air rifle. On the left hand side of the breech is a black metal wheel which is the power adjustor. Turn it to change the power setting: one red dot means low power, two dots means medium power, and three dots is high power.

In in the middle of the breech is a slot for receiving the 12-shot rotary magazine, and on the right side of the breech, you’ll find the breech lever and a lever style safety. That’s all there is to it.

Next time, we’ll take a look at how the Gladiator Mk II shoots.

Til then, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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