Liking my new Cometa Fenix springer

[Abert Rim]

A friend over at Airgun Nation just imported a pallet of Cometa air rifles from Spain. These are rarely seen in the U.S. and have a very good reputation compared to say, Gamo or Norica. Cometa has made rifles for Diana/RWS.
This one, the Fenix 400 USC Star Premier, is just getting broken in at 12 yards, but I am pretty sure I will be shooting one-holers at the distance shortly. Pluses of this break-barrel/spring-piston rifle: It comes in under 7 pounds, compared to well over 9 for the pricier HW97s and AA TX200s. The moderator works well to quiet the shot cycle, especially on a rifle putting out about 16 foot-pounds. The trigger is very good for an under-$400 airgun. Keystoneairguns.com has several models to choose from and I expect to add one in.25 here shortly.

[chutesnreloads]

That's a nice looking springer. Try every pellet you can get in it, see what it likes.
Will it be pesting or target shooting? or both?

[Abert Rim]

Mostly targets. I like my local squirrels.
By the way, I noticed the Keystone Website is down and contacted the owner. He had set it up through Shopify for e-commerce and they were terrified he was selling -- gulp! -- weapons, and suspended it. We have to fight back against this utter garbage.

[Abert Rim]

Shot for groups at 12 yards rest indoors with these three pellets and the Cometa clearly prefers the Air Arms Diabolo Field 8.4s. After I shot with these three pellets, I tried two more targets with the H&N Field Target Trophy 8.64s and the results were similar to the 9.57s -- maybe a bit more accurate. Although all are supposed to be 4.52, the latter were the tightest fit and the JSBs were the loosest.
I knew the Cometa was capable of one-hole groups at this distance.
One thing that surprised me was the differing points of impact of the three pellets.

[gloob]

Interesting scope mounting, there. Is this just what you had on hand, or some other reason you did that?

My preferred method for dovetailed springer is dovetail rings. Rear ring butted against the back of the turret. Cut a new scope stop to butt against the back of the rear ring. No scope movement after that.

Don't see scope stops on these rifles. I take it they have a series of stop holes, instead? Dunno why so many higher end rifles do this. They don't work as good.

Nice shooting!

[gloob]

Here's an example. This scope isn't moving.



If you use a stop pin, it'll usually stop moving. Eventually. After the pin tilts enough. Even if it works great, you can't trust your zero until you've shot a tin or so. But obviously, stop pins are plug and play for people without tools.

Then there's the 1 pc scope mounts that a lot of airgunners seem to love. They can't butt against the rear of the turret, at all, unless you have a really long scope. After locktite and doublesided tape didn't stop the scope from moving, I tried butting the front ring of the 1 pc mount behind the bell of the scope. It eventually stopped moving...

[Abert Rim]

Gloob, the Cometa isn't really equipped with stop-pin holes, which would be my preference. Putting out 16 foot-pounds, it wants to move the scope and mount. Regular dovetail rings were immediately hopeless. This UTG mount is working well if I keep an eye on the torque.