M4-177 accuracy

Crimson Starling

New member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I shot my M4-177 at 20 yards with RWS Hobby pellets to see what it would do and the best group was around an inch or so.
I used Hobbies because they shot the best in my garage at a distance of fifteen feet. I shot some more groups in the garage
with other brands of pellets but the gun was just scattering them on the paper and I figured they would be absolutely terrible
at 20 yards. Well, I happened to be playing with a 1322 of mine that I put a Crosman stock on, as well as a 16 inch barrel held
on by a 2289 barrel band and noticed that the accuracy was terrible when I shot it with the barrel band screw tightened up
all the way, so the next thing I did was back off the screw so it put no tension on the barrel whatsoever. (I have a steel breech on it too.)
The gun now puts them all in one hole in the garage. Now I figured I was onto something so I grabbed the M4-177 and fired a group
with Daisy pellets which the gun doesn't like and sure enough it sprayed them into a 1 1/2 inch pattern at fifteen feet. I then backed off
the barrel band screw so it had no tension and fired another five pellets and they went into one ragged hole. Another group I fired with
some CZ brand flat points went one on top of the other, all in one hole! I am going to my Dad's back yard this weekend, he
lives out of town and doesn't have those pesky by-laws, and I will shoot some groups at 20 yards again to see how it does. I'll
post the results as soon as I can.
 
Tried the gun at 20 yards, the accuracy did not improve much. I think this barrel is too lousy to ever shoot any better, it's good enough for
plinking cans and that's why I bought it in the first place. I am done buying Crosman products and I will be saving my money for an RWS/Diana
rifle.
 
You've confirmed my suspicions, and my experience to date with Crosman products in general. My toys love their pellets, but I haven't seen much good of their airgun quality control these days. I have 2 aftermarket barrels right here that have chatter marks all down the rifling. Those barrels produce poor groups.
Best to move on and spend a little more on something else. I guess Crosman must assume people will never tire of their stuff, even if they let quality go down the tubes?
 
Uhhh, 1" at 20yds out of a $90 plinker...and your complaining??
You didn't really expect it to shoot with the RWS/Diana rifles at 3-6x the price?
 
With a little better QC, it would be even better. Some are good, some aren't, would be nice if they kept the poorly machined barrels at the factory.
And don't forget, that's a 1" group AFTER alot of personal intervention on Crimson's part.
 
I've watched a couple of you tube vids with guys getting better accuracy out of their M4-177's and was hoping mine would at least come close. Unfortunately I must have gotten one that was produced when Crosman's tooling was wearing out. If mine had a better barrel, it would probably get better groups. I have a 2240 with a 7" .177 barrel on it that shoots 3/4" groups at 20 yards from a rest. That barrel is a good one with nice clean perfectly cut rifling so I know Crosman is capable of doing better. I will use the M4-177 for weekend can plinking and it will do a wonderful job of that and it is definitely worth the $100 I paid for it at Chinese tire, but for satisfying my accuracy cravings and taking head shots at squirrels I will be getting a Diana 34 in the near future.
 
Those flathead pellets are pushing their luck shooting at 20yds. 10yds is more what they are meant for and Daisy pellets aren't exactly precision units. I thought those M4s were just toys anyways not for serious shooting, just for looks. JMO
 
Crosmans are a good place to start, pointed pellets can be a bit tricky. In .177 Daisy point were the worst I've ever shot followed by Crosman but every gun is different. In .22 Crosman hollow points are my favourite.
 
In my experience; any air rifle designed to fire both bbs and pellets, will shoot poorly with either. The rifling is not deep enough to cut into a pellet sufficiently to grip and spin the projectile, and the small amount of rifling it does have is just enough to destabilize a bb. In any of these guns I have owned, the only accurate ammo is the reusable darts with the feathered tail.
 
I may have found what was causing some inaccuracy with this gun. The front barrel support/muzzle brake has become broken, the result
of the metal pump arm hitting it on the forward stroke on each pump. Whoever designed this thing at Crosman did not allow enough clearance
between these two parts. When I slowly brought the pump arm all the way forward and the two parts made contact I could see that the resulting
movement of the barrel band also moved the barrel significantly, no doubt changing the point of impact for each shot. I am making a new band
out of aluminum at work and I will post the results when I'm done.
 
Well, I managed to get the gun working again and the barrel band I made is keeping the barrel from moving around and it's not being hit by the metal pump lever when being pumped. I shot some groups and am now getting consistent 3/4 inch groups at 20 yards with my Leaper's red/green dot sight using RWS hobbies, RWS superdomes and CZ brand flat point diabolo's, all of which are fairly tight fitting in the barrel. Crosman hollow points and pointed pellets do not group well with this gun, they both went into a 2 inch "pattern" at the same distance. Again I suspect the bore on this gun is a little oversized. Overall, I am more than happy with the accuracy of this gun now and will be posting a picture of the barrel band I made.
 
O.K. Here is a picture of the front barrel support I made.
IMG-20130701-00145_zpsf611bc25.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
Back
Top Bottom