Over a year ago I had my Crosman 180 rebuilt by Tim McMurry of Mac-1 Airguns. The little Crosman was bought from a good friend who bought it new in 1957. Clearlly to me, the sentimental value of this little .22 Carbine far exceeds any collectors value. This is why I chose Mac-1 for the rebuild work. Quite by accident, as Tim was hard at work developing his Custom PCP Rifles, work on my gun was overlooked. When I double checked with him, he quicklly finished my 180, but gave it the "HOT" Valvework by mistake. I gladlly paid the small cost adjustment.
However due to illness. never tried the gunout till many months later. When I did try out the 180, the valve did not seal and when contacted, Tim offered to make it good at N/C! First though before returning the gun he suggested heating the gun either with a Hairdryer or by laying it in the Sun to fit and seat the extremelly hard synthetic seal material and try to get it to seat.
Last week I laid the little .22 Carbine in the sunfor a full afternoon, and before shooting the next day, allowed it about 90 minutes more baking in the hot California Sun, atop my car while shooting a couple of other rifles.
BINGO!!!
The first Powerlet totally sealed, and the power of the little 5.5mm Crosman was totally amazing! The small carbine actually had a recoil! Shooting at 20 and 30 yards, many different Pellets literally shattered to bits on steel splash plates! Groups (with the Rear Sight fully lowered) showed hits 3/4" high at 30 yards!
For the fun of it, I set up a 3 pound metal coffee can out at 50 yards, with a 1 1/2" square "Sighter Spot" marked on a strip of cardboard raised about 3 incheshigher and attached to the can.
To my suprise, the little 180 was grouping it's Crosman Pointed pellets onto the elevated "Sighter" cardboard (not the can), at the spot where I was "lollypoping" the square atop the sights! Imagine that flat trajectory! I won't challenge you by quoting group sizes, but let me state that any small game animal or pest animal is in BIG danger way out there...
The Mac-1 modified Valve gave 20 usable shots per 12G Powerlet, (The first 15 being very consistant and very powerfull! Shots 15-20 still totally usable and hard hitting. Shots 26-27 are "Squibs" before exausting it's gas out somewhere inbetween there. What AMAZING preformance from a Mass Produced, 49 year old, .22 caliber Co2 Carbine, firing over the counter Pellets!
I had my stock" Cartrige Valved" Benjamin 392 along, and to nearly duplicate this level of power, full 8 pump charges were needed! (Lacking a Chrony, this only an estimated comparison, OK?) On the same 50 yard set-up, the powerfull Benjamin 392 did it's best grouping with .22 Crosman Points and 5 pump charges.
My "pet" Crosman 180 has the rudimentary stock Crosman open sights (the sight Hood pictured was just a "try-out" and not on the gun). I feel that with it's light weight and trim "Classic" lines, scoping it would just be wrong!
Tim at Mac-1 made this Pet Classic of mine into a real "Vundergun"!
ZVP