Review: Crosman M417 air rifle

Vt.birdhunter

New member
Fairly new AR-15 style air rifle on the market from Crosman.

http://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Crosman_M4_177_Multi_Pump_Air_Rifle_Adj_Stock/2631

Recently bought one of these as an informal plinker. Turned out to be a bit better than I expected.

Thought it would be a good training tool to introduce younger shooters to an AR-15 style rifle. In that regard it performs well. The controls and function are obviously nothing alike; but sight picture, grip angle, and general feel roughly duplicate shouldering a 4lb AR-15.

A decent set (for an airgun) of iron sights are included with the rifle. The dual rear peep and front sight are quickly adjustable and performed predictably through all adjustments. Being an AR-15 clone, it easily accepted most optics and accessories from ARs.

Throwing my tritum BUIS set on this rifle gave me a great opportunity to do some "night shooting". Although there was no muzzle flash, recoil, etc., it does give one the opportunity to practice a night sight picture without a dozen calls to the game warden going out. I give it high marks as a training tool for night shooting. Tritium, NV, IR illuminators, Red dots, etc. can all be experimented with easily, cheaply (in regard to the ammo) and quietly to test "proof of concept" or roughly determine an ideal night sight system.

Accuracy was good for the price. About the same as the Crosman 2100 or Benjamin 392. With a 6-24X scope mounted I shot consistent 1" groups at 25 yards with crosman 7.9 grain premiers (brown box). An assortment of Beeman, JSB and other pellets performed a little worse, but not awful...occasional flyers.
At 10 yards your making nice bug holes in 3 shots every time. Figure .5" and under with most decent pellets.
Pellets seem to stabilize out with a minimum of 5 pumps or so. Even the light pellets key-holed a few times with 3 pumps at 25 yards. 10 pumps (maximum velocity) produced the best groupings.
BBs at 3 pumps fly straight out to 10 yards or so, shooting just a tiny bit worse than pellets. At ranges beyond that they curve and tail off in smooth bore fashion. Avanti precision match BBs performed slightly better in the accuracy departmen than less expensive Daisy and Crosman BBs.

Trigger is simply delightful (for an airgun). Although travel is long, mine breaks at 3.3-3.5 lbs after about 500 rounds. Was probably a tiny bit heavier when it arrived new. Pull is long, but EXTREMELY smooth...for an airgun. Better than a factory Benjamin 392 trigger.

Switching between BBs and pellets is simple and nearly instant.
An 18 round internal BB mag makes shooting more rapid than you would expect from a multi-pump.

Would make a great trainer for young shooters prepping for an Appleseed.....a liberty trainer-trainer.


Cons: Plastic, plastic plastic. Thin, light and loose in feel it is guaranteed to disappoint a firearms enthusiast. For a $80 BB gun it is close enough IMO.

Loading leaves room for improvement. The pellet clip must be indexed forward manually for each shot. Takes a little getting used to but does perform reliably. BBs are dropped into place by lowering the barrel, and then picked up by a magnet. When raising the barrel quickly after loading you can flick the BB right out of the barrel. Stronger magnet would be great. BB mag could be put under pressure with a spring/ plunger set up like on other similar air rifles.

All in all, worth the purchase IMO.
Im not affiliated with Crosman or Pyramid Air in any way.
 
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