Crosman Phantom .22 Caliber Air Rifle Review

I had thought that I had pretty much sworn off on Crosman airguns. There are those in the sport who would say that they are decent, value-priced guns that perform decently and geez, they are made in the good ol' USA. Then there are those who say that due to their price point, you can't expect Diana/RWS-like quality. And then there are those who avoid them like a bacterial infection of the rectum. I tended to waver between perception number two and three, more so due to my previous experience with a Crosman T4. Now, I know what you may be thinking - just like anything else, you can't judge your overall view of a company based on one experience. That is generally true and it is a principle I hold when buying things from companies. My Dad reminded me of this fact lately as I was griping about the really crappy Honda dealership, of which my wife and I used to be regular patrons.

So, seeing how I would like to take my own advice on things like this, I thought I'd give Crosman another chance. This wasn't a CO2 pistol anyway, so we're talking about a completely different animal here (the Phantom is a break-barrel/hinge action spring rifle). What I got was the Canadian .22 caliber non-PAL version (even though I have my firearms licence, I still enjoy checking out under-500 FPS offerings). I say Canadian version because as far as I am aware, you can't get a .22 caliber Phantom in the U.S. And the higher velocity Phantoms are all .177 caliber anyway. I bought this in December 2007, taking advantage of a generous store-wide discount that was available.

It so happened that I bought the last one in the store, and heading out of the store with it, one of the gunshop guys remarked, "Why are you buying that? It's a toy!" That didn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies, but for $100.00, I was willing to check it out.

The first thing I noticed was that the box was pretty heavy. I was pretty sure it was the rifle, not the packaging. And sure enough, I was right. As far as air rifles go, the Phantom carried a decent amount of weight (I think it was 6 lbs+ - more if you scope it). It came with the manual and the frequently distributed plastic Crosman cross-block trigger lock. As it was sub-500FPS, I wasn't going to keep the trigger lock on it - may sell it on eBay if I get a chance. After taking apart the contents, I took it to the local range to check out (can't really shoot it in my backyard (neighbours too close and municipal bylaws) or in my house (kids and municipal bylaws). The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't break the barrel. It was solidly stuck. Now, I am not a strong guy, but I am not a weakling either, and based on my previous experience with several break-barrel rifles, this wasn't normal. I spent considerable amount of time trying to break the barrel before I realized that I probably bought a lemon. So I drove back home, but not before taking the barrel and hitting it against a chair in disgust - it actually broke at that point, but no way I am going to be hitting it on a chair every time.

I looked online for suggestions and it turns out that this is common with the Phantom - that you need to "slap" the barrel, sometimes significantly hard, in order to get it to break. That really sucks. So I said, "forget this", and proceeded to take it back to the store, from where I bought it. The guys in the gunshop, to my surprise, indicated that there is nothing wrong with it, and they were easily able to use the open side of their hand and slap that barrel to break it. Even after breaking it, they indicated to me that the spring was REALLY tight, and that likely, I may have an anomaly on my hands - that is, that I may have a spring that will produce velocities of well over 500FPS, putting it into firearms grade (interestingly enough, even though I verified this, they told me I need not worry about contacting the Canadian Firearms Centre to register it). Anyhow, they told me there was nothing wrong with it; that higher end spring-loading air rifles occasionally need a snap. Besides, at least I know the locking hinge is working properly. I suppose. So I took it back and figured that if it really became a problem, I'll just send it back to Crosman Canada (which has since turned over its support and parts operations to a company called Gravel Company in Quebec).

So back to the range I went, with the knowledge that to use this Phantom, I would have to give the barrel a big old slap (which on a skinny solid metal barrel, does hurt the hand somewhat). Most times I needed both arms to pull down the barrel to cock it. I suspected that maybe the guy was right - that the spring was indeed a Phantom 1000FPS version - that would make my gun a very rare item. Anyhow, I'll worry about that later. After exhausting myself in cocking the rifle, I loaded a pellet into the barrel, but not before I noticed that there was a tremendous (and I mean tremendous) amount of grease all over the gun. In subsequent research sessions, I also found out that this was not unusual with the Phantom, but it's still kind of gross having to get grease all over your hands. But that's a minor thing. So I simply decided to test-fire it (not dry fire, which you never do with a spring loader).

Well, after my first shot, I smelled this nasty burning smell. I knew it wasn't from any gunpowder or primer from people around me, as there was no one beside me on my lane at the time. Of course, it was only a minute later that I realized that the burning smell came from the rifle, as smoke started rising from it. No word of a lie - white smoke from an air rifle. In subsequent research, I learned that this was also not unusual and in some air rifles, this smoking gun effect, called dieseling, was simply a way for the gun, when shot, to deal with excess oil and grease (of which the Phantom had plenty). I'd say after about 75-100 shots, it went away. But between that and the barrel not breaking without slapping it, I wasn't overly impressed.

The Phantom, despite common perception, is actually not the same rifle as the popular Crosman Quest. Some believe it is the same rifle, with only a synthetic vs. wood stock being the only difference. The Quest has its own share of quality control problems, but that is another conversation for another day. Anyhow, the Phantom is more along the lines of a stripped down Crosman TAC-1 tactical air rifle (which is not cheap, but mostly due to all the crazy stuff that comes with it).

As for performance, I finally have some good news. The Phantom hits the targets hard and is very accurate (I had on it initially for my tests my Bushnell Sportsman 3-9x32mm w/ AO scope, though I have since moved the scope to a better rifle and put the cheapo Crosman 4032 4x32mm scope on it - both scopes were fairly accurate within 30 yards, producing somewhat close groups (I won't give the actual measurements since I'd like to believe what I shot was considered close groupings, though in all likelihood it probably wasn't). Now, I had to satisfy my curiosity about the theory that I inadvertently received a stronger spring in my rifle, so I decided to take my trusty F1 Chrony and measure velocity. Well, I can say that I won't have to deal with legal issues with having a "oops" model - the chrony recorded average velocities between 470 - 480 (the box advertised it as up to 495, which was obviously correct).

The Phantom comes with a trigger safety (pull it toward the trigger to activate the safety) inside the trigger guard. The length of the rifle is around 44.5", which is a pretty decent length. With the scope attached, you definitely feel the weight.

All that being said, I think it's safe to say that my opinion of Crosman hasn't changed. And since then I have also heard that Crosman has pulled all of its "fireball" pellets off the shelves for serious quality control and worksmanship issues (inconsistent skirts on the pellets, nicks on the same, etc.). I won't return the Phantom, even though it's under warranty, since I already got by the dieseling issues. The slapping of the barrel is a royal pain in the butt, but I can live with it. I'd just hate to sent it to Gravel and get a replacement that has the same issue (in the past, Crosman has been known to simply issue a new replacement, sealed in package), or worse, send it to Gravel, and I never see it again. But I'd seriously need some convincing to buy another Crosman product. Sure, the Discovery is out and the Benjamin line is great, but the old adage applies - you get what you pay for. Crosman is great for backyard plinking and not-too-serious target shooting, but if you're looking for performance and quality, you'd probably want to consider some of the other brands of air rifles on the market.