For some reason with all the guns I shoot from just about every manufacturer, it’s amazing that it took me so long to get my hands on one! But I finally have one to test out and decided to head down to Texas with it on a hog hunt.
A friend of mine had a Cricket a few years back that he was quite impressed with. This guy is a fanatical airgunner, so I took him at his word even though I’d only gotten a chance to punch paper with it during a short-range session. I thought it was a nice little gun that warranted some attention and maybe I could get a hunt or two in with it. But for some reason it just never seemed to happen.
But at the SHOT Show this year I was talking to Robert Buchanan about things in general, and he mentioned that AOA had picked up representation of the KalibrGun lineup, and said I should get in touch with Jerrod to get one for testing. It just so happened that I’d be at a dinner that night with the AOA team, so used the pre-dinner social mixer to corner Jerrod and Lauren and get a gun organized.
A couple of weeks later it showed up on my doorstep. I’ll be doing a full review in print and in a video, so will keep it short and high level here. The gun was the KalibrGun Cricket II Tactical 60 in .30 caliber. This is a compact PCP bottle forward bullpup design that is 34″ length over all with a 23.6″ barrel, and weighs in at just under 8.5 lb. So even though it is compact, it’s not a light weight, but the weight is distributed well and the gun snugs right in for offhand shooting. The gun is actuated with a nicely configured sidelever that auto indexes a 10-shot cylinder type magazine. I took it to the range and zeroed the scope, please with tight 5 shot 50-yard groups, and packed it up for the trip south.
This turkey almost busted me! 
I could just see the pig behind the grass 
Taking a high knee, I was able to aim over the top of the grass
The scope I had mounted was one that I hold in high esteem, the MTC King Cobra FI first focal plane scope. It has a Christmas tree reticle with several aim points yet manages to be uncluttered at the same time. The glass quality is excellent, and the low light transmission very good, which as it turned out came in very handy.
I arrive at a friend’s ranch on a Thursday afternoon and decided to take the KalibrGun out on my first hunt towards the end of the day. I quickly topped off with one of my portable compressors, checked zero with a 3 shot group, and was ready to go. I got a ride to the backside of the property and jumped out to head over to a blind. As I took a shortcut through a stand of trees, I thought I heard grunting. Poking my head out of the tree line, I almost got busted by a turkey that was working its way towards its roost. I backed up and sat down for a few minutes until the bird wandered off, then started moving again.
It’s pretty hard terrain to move quietly through, there are dry trees, long grass, thickets, so once out I hugged the woods on the side of the road. My friend had corned the roads on his way out, and as I got to a couple hundred yards from the blind I spotted a small group of small pigs. This is eactly what I wanted when I’d selected a .30 gun shooting pellets, and already decided I’d pass if a big pig showed up.
I went back into the woods and closed to about 60 yards, then slowly moved behind a downed tree with scraggly branches providing a little cover. There was a stand of tall grass that actually game me more cover, and by staying low I could slowly crawl in. Getting up on a knee, I was able to just look over the top of the grass and watch these footballs, the local name for little sub 40lb pigs, and line up a head shot.
The pig dropped like the proverbial brick 
Perfect BBQ sized porker! 
I used a portable AC compressor to charge the gun. I brought a tank but the hose ruptured. Glad I had a backup!
I squeezed the trigger and the .30 caliber JSB Exact flew into the head of this little porker hitting square between the eyes, and he literally rolled over feet up. There were a couple minutes of twitching as he shut down, but the little boar did not move otherwise.
I was really impressed with how the gun handled, and the terminal performance was exactly what I wanted. I used the gun on a couple other hunts for predators and hunters, and I’ll share those experiences with you in the coming weeks.
It seems that I end my posts with an obligatory apology for erratic postings, between a lot of videos and writing projects, as well as my day job it gets hectic. I am building up a backlog of hunts and shooting events, so I’ll try to be a bit more predictable. If there is anything you’d like to discuss, or hunts you’d like me to do, drop a suggestion in the comment box.
