I have been sitting on the fence post for a few years, thinking about getting a 22lr, but figured it might be a bit loud for my neighbours (small farm community). So then got to thinking I'd like a pellet gun. Well, geez, if I am going to spend that kind of money on a quality one, may as well get a 10/22. So around and around the circle went. Then a friend of a friend informed me that " Hey, I sell high power air rifles, I can get you a nice one for a reasonable price!". Well, I never even considered that. After much humming and hawing, hear she is!
That be a Norica Black Eagle, estimated at 900Fps. I was absolutely shocked at the quality. This isn't my old pellet gun of days gun by, barely more then a toy, this is an honest to goodness firearm. It's actually as big as my Benelli Nova, almost! Anyone that's shouldered a Nova will know what I mean. The wood stock is beautiful, with laser etched diamond patterns where'd you'd expect them on a quality hunting rifle, and of course the brand name etched into the wood too. It has a fair bit of heft to it, and feels/shoulders like a full size rifle, which I guess it is, and just sits naturally on my shoulder. The rubber recoil pad is fairly thick and happily takes all the punishment that this rifle offers, which is about the same as my 22wmr, but different, maybe a bit sharper if that makes sense. Even the trigger was impressive, not great, but much better then expected. Similar to the savage accutrigger, there's about a quarter inch of take up, then the release, it so light you can barely feel it. It's not as defined of a release as I like, my hands are ruined from 20 years of trade work, so I actually like a more defined, heavier trigger pull, but it's there and did not surprise me ever, it just felt very natural. I'm probably not the best judge of a good trigger, my buddies Model 10BA is heavily modified, and I hate it, I cannot feel the trigger release on it at all! So the Norica is probably just right. I'm going to shoot it some more this weekend and pay closer attention to the trigger.
See...
As for shooting, well I was really surprised. This isn't a walk 20' and poke some holes in empty pop cans pellet gun. We mounted a simmons 4x32 22mag scope to it (the receiver is milled for weaver mounts), which lasted about 200 rounds...I'll need a new scope LOLs! It dieseled for about 3-5 rounds, then all the rest went without a hitch. We started at 30 yards to site in the scope. Once sited in, I couldn't believe how accurate and repeatable it was. At 30 yards we could make touching groups without even trying hard. So, we moved back to 60 yards, and put up some old 4" clays I had sitting in the garage. This proved to be very satisfying, a little puff of black smoke from the clays as they exploded when hit. Our backstop was 4x4 solid oak blocks (used from heavy material shipping). At close inspection, even at 60 yards the pellets would shatter the clays, and embed themselves into the oak, deep enough that we couldn't dig them out, but you could see them just under the surface. I don't know how a break action barrel can shoot so repeatedly, but it did. So we decided to lay the clays down flat at the same range, and I actually hit one, then the 22mag scope said "screw this, I'm taking my crosshairs and going home!". So then we tried the fibre optic sites that came on the rifle. Because we were shooting at such small targets we found the sites a bit big, but I suck a lot with iron sites, so I gave up, going to go pick up a centre point scope today, just gathering up my Canadian tire money. This would make a great little small game, rodent gun.
Best of all, it basically sounds a little like a pellet gun on steroids, very very little noise, and not one complaint, the gun wasn't much louder then the smack of the pellets hitting the backstop. Some more pics of what I got.
Ian
That be a Norica Black Eagle, estimated at 900Fps. I was absolutely shocked at the quality. This isn't my old pellet gun of days gun by, barely more then a toy, this is an honest to goodness firearm. It's actually as big as my Benelli Nova, almost! Anyone that's shouldered a Nova will know what I mean. The wood stock is beautiful, with laser etched diamond patterns where'd you'd expect them on a quality hunting rifle, and of course the brand name etched into the wood too. It has a fair bit of heft to it, and feels/shoulders like a full size rifle, which I guess it is, and just sits naturally on my shoulder. The rubber recoil pad is fairly thick and happily takes all the punishment that this rifle offers, which is about the same as my 22wmr, but different, maybe a bit sharper if that makes sense. Even the trigger was impressive, not great, but much better then expected. Similar to the savage accutrigger, there's about a quarter inch of take up, then the release, it so light you can barely feel it. It's not as defined of a release as I like, my hands are ruined from 20 years of trade work, so I actually like a more defined, heavier trigger pull, but it's there and did not surprise me ever, it just felt very natural. I'm probably not the best judge of a good trigger, my buddies Model 10BA is heavily modified, and I hate it, I cannot feel the trigger release on it at all! So the Norica is probably just right. I'm going to shoot it some more this weekend and pay closer attention to the trigger.
See...
As for shooting, well I was really surprised. This isn't a walk 20' and poke some holes in empty pop cans pellet gun. We mounted a simmons 4x32 22mag scope to it (the receiver is milled for weaver mounts), which lasted about 200 rounds...I'll need a new scope LOLs! It dieseled for about 3-5 rounds, then all the rest went without a hitch. We started at 30 yards to site in the scope. Once sited in, I couldn't believe how accurate and repeatable it was. At 30 yards we could make touching groups without even trying hard. So, we moved back to 60 yards, and put up some old 4" clays I had sitting in the garage. This proved to be very satisfying, a little puff of black smoke from the clays as they exploded when hit. Our backstop was 4x4 solid oak blocks (used from heavy material shipping). At close inspection, even at 60 yards the pellets would shatter the clays, and embed themselves into the oak, deep enough that we couldn't dig them out, but you could see them just under the surface. I don't know how a break action barrel can shoot so repeatedly, but it did. So we decided to lay the clays down flat at the same range, and I actually hit one, then the 22mag scope said "screw this, I'm taking my crosshairs and going home!". So then we tried the fibre optic sites that came on the rifle. Because we were shooting at such small targets we found the sites a bit big, but I suck a lot with iron sites, so I gave up, going to go pick up a centre point scope today, just gathering up my Canadian tire money. This would make a great little small game, rodent gun.
Best of all, it basically sounds a little like a pellet gun on steroids, very very little noise, and not one complaint, the gun wasn't much louder then the smack of the pellets hitting the backstop. Some more pics of what I got.
Ian
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