24 replies to this topic

[Brant]

Have a P-Rod coming to sit on the front mantle of my see-thru fireplace replacing a Sheridan HB17 that has managed the squirrels and chipmunks in the front yard. Most shots are 10-20 yards.Have a newly released Hawke Panorama 4-12x50 AO with etched glass 10x 1/2 mil dot scope coming as well. The new 1/2 mil dot AO versions are just being added to Hawke Optics web site. It was $239 plus a sunshade. mounts, and a 4" side wheel for one of my other tacticals.I ordered plenty of 14.66 H&N FTT and some 12.6 H&N Green pellets to try.I am also ordering some walnut grips.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Nice. I want to get one of those eventually too.

[crazyhorse]

Friend has one and told me best pellets for it are FTS or the H&N FTT's....he says it sprays JSB's/CP's all over the place......be interesting to see what yours likes...he also has kept his stock with no power mods.

[Brant]

Friend has one and told me best pellets for it are FTS or the H&N FTT's....he says it sprays JSB's/CP's all over the place......be interesting to see what yours likes...he also has kept his stock with no power mods.

I have FTS and ordered some FTTs (1500) and a tin of H&N Green 12.6 to try. I also ordered a cocobola grip and forearm.

[rws fan]

Definitely some fun little guns. I have taken a couple of ground squirrels with mine up to 40 yards and a pigeon 75 yards out. Even a gopher at 15 yards lol.I have one with a LW barrel. When I had my original barrel it shot H&N FTTs (5.53), Beeman FTS', Predators and Dynamic Sn2s pretty well. Then my accuracy went south about 1500 pellets in. Anyways, I suggest you contact Jim Gaska for a LW barrel (got mine for $100 shipped fully machined, ready to drop in) and a mod (about $25) because she has some pop to her when running low on air.Here is a pic of mine:Here's the stock I'm hoping to snag once Steve Corcoran decides to build one again lol:Henry

[Brant]

The barrel going south after 1500 pellets is weird. I am sure sure you did everything like re-crown it.

[rws fan]

Never did anything but clean the barrel till accuracy went south about 100 pellets down the pipe or so. I do remember there being a small burr at the transfer port which is why I had to keep my barrel clean in order for it to be accurate. I even thought about getting an accuracy prep from Tim but for $75 I thought it would be better to cough up the extra $25 for the LW. Glad I'm did too, I now shoot 14.3 or 13.4 JSBs out of my P-rod and it's a little laser lol. Henry

[crazyhorse]

Here is a link to a simple power mod to the PROD...it just involves drilling the 'transfer port' larger...the link gives results for various porting sizes...just click at bottom of graph. Data assumes a 14.3 GR pellet..https://docs.google....hl=en_US#gid=23

[Brant]

I have these cocobolo grips ordered from RB Grips.

[ShooterJohn]

That's going to be a fine looking airgun.

[Brant]

Well my P-Rod arrived but it lost over 1000 psi for two nights in a row so I shipped it to Crosman. Its probably the gauge leaking or the valve but either is unacceptable.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Sorry to hear that it was leaking air. I know that is a pain to deal with. I'm going to have to track down an air leak in a .22 Marauder Rifle that I'm rebuilding because it looses around 1500 PSI overnight. I know what the culprit is though... when I went to deping the rifle I noticed there was some debris in the reservior and I'm sure that a few pieces worked their way into the O-Ring areas of the Gauge Port in the reservior when I tried to blow out the debris. I didn't want to have to pull it apart, but I know that is where the leak is originating and so I have no choice. I hope they get you a good, working and leak free P-Rod back soon.

[Brant]

Cocobolo grips arrived - even if no gun....

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Those are some very beautiful grips. Once you get your leak free P-Rod back it is going to be a real nice looking P-Rod for sure!

[Brant]

P-Rod finally made it back and seems to hold air this time. I assembled the grips and mounted the level and scope.

[crazyhorse]

I have a Hawke Panorama 4-12x40 1/2 MD on backorder...can't wait to get it....is yours the A/O ..??

[Brant]

Yes you can see the serrations on the front for turning the AO.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

It's a beauty Brant! Very, very nice looking. I hope it is a straight shooter for you.

[Brant]

That is the good news breaking from lunch time. I am getting sub 1/2" groups at 30 yards from my bench rest with H&N FTT's. I am very impressed with the accuracy of this beauty. I guess Cliff is right. I ran a few dry patches through the barrel before sighting it in and then tried the FTT's right off given their reputation in these guns. I did my fills to 2600 psi and fired off a few shots before grouping. I setup the Panorama and went to 12x for the sight-in using the scope level. It took about 6 shots to zero 1/2" high at 30 yards. If I weigh and sort the pellets this gun may really do well.(If you dont know who Cliff is his call sign is VarmintAir and he has an excellent blog at http://varmintair.typepad.com/ with tons of good information on airgun hunting and airguns. The P-Rod is one of his favorites too and he really helped my decision to pick one up)

[Brant]

Well I went Green!!! The H&N 12.65 grain lead free (Greenies) .22 pellets are the best pellet from my testing. I tested H&N FTTs 14.66, Benjamin Domes 14.3, JSB Exacts 14.3, H&N Greens 12.65, and Predators 16. From my bench rest at 30 yards I am regularly getting 3/8" groups with the Greenies. The FTTs are almost as good and I think if one weighed and sorted them they would be nearly the same in accuracy. Just looking at the Greens you can see they are very uniform and consistent in appearance. Cliff found that out in weighing and measuring them as well. http://varmintair.ty...er-pellets.htmlThe other difference is I must pull a patch through the barrel every 75 shots or so to maintain accuracy with the lead pellets and the lead-free are sort of self-cleaning. The big negative is the cost of the Greenies. They are roughly $15 per 200 from PA (a little cheaper with 4 for 3 and 10% discount) but what the heck - I ordered up 4 more tins.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Those H & N Baracuda Green pellets are very nice and uniform. I had a tin of them that I used in the Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 with some success. I took out two ground squirrels at around 45 and 50 yards. However, those pellets seemed to not carry as much energy once they impacted the the squirrel and I typically found them just under the skin on the opposite side of the entrance wound. I would say they are definitely good for 30 to 35 yards, maybe even 40 yards, but I wouldn't use them at distances much further than that due to the rapid decrease in FPE they tend to exhibit.

[Brant]

Yes head/neck shots are required. VarmintAir has several great videos using lead-free Dynamic pellets at 12.8 grains out to 60 yards on ground squirrels very successfully but he does all neck/head shots with the P-Rod. Mine are also leaving at 13 FPE. It definitely raises the challenge a bit. I will limit my shots to under 50 yards on squirrels and mainly under 40 yards for them being the largest game I will take with the P-Rod.My PCP Collection Power ComparisonP-Rod .22 13 FPEStubby .25 33 FPEMarauder .25 41 FPEAir Ranger .25 54 FPECondor .25 94 FPE (50 grain Surefire or 110 FPE 62 Surefire)http://varmintair.ty...uder-pistol-22/"The accuracy has been stellar, and the 13 fpe she generates with the 12.8 grain Sn-2 tin pellets, has been more than enough to cleanly kill ground squirrels out to just past 60 yards."

[Brant]

Here is a ballistic chart out to 70 yards. 50 Yards is still 8 FPE which is more than sufficient on a good hit. 6 FPE at impact is considered the minimum for squirrels. The BC is a bit lower than the lead counterparts but still should be sufficient with good shot placement.H&N Green 12.65 grains .0245 BC MV 685 FPSRange Velocity Energy 0 685 13 10 650 12 20 618 11 30 588 10 40 560 950 532 8 60 506 7 70 481 6We dont want our squirrels break dancing.

[crazyhorse]

Good numbers.

[Brant]

I thought I would plug the numbers into Hawke Chairgun Pro and BRC software for the H&N Green pellets since I noticed this gun has quite a bit of trajectory to deal with. The charts bear that out.