Crosman’s 362 100th Anniversary Edition. This is not a stock photo: it’s the actual rifle being tested.
This report covers:
- The test
- Crosman Premier
- Sight adjustment
- JTS Dead Center
- RWS Superdome
- H&N Baracuda Hunter
- Changed the way I looked through the peep
- Surprise!
- Final sight adjustment
- Second group of Benjamins
- Summary
Today we conduct the first accuracy test of the .22-caliber Crosman 362, 100-Year Anniversary Edition multi-pump air rifle. As you read you will learn why this is only the first accuracy test.
The test
I shot five-shot groups today so I could test more pellets. The rifle was rested directly on a sandbag on the shooting table and the distance to the targets was 10 meters. Each shot was made with five pumps of air. Let’s go!
Crosman Premier
The first pellet tested was the Crosman Premier. It required a sight-in shot that hit low and to the right, so I adjusted the Williams peep sight up and to the left. I got it up okay, but the pellet still hit the target a little to the right. Actually the first shot was farthest into the bullseye, and I never looked again until all five shots had been fired. Five shots went into 0.921-inches at 10 meters.
The 362 Anniversary put five Crosman Premier pellets into a 0.921-inch group at 10 meters.
Sight adjustment
After seeing this group I looked at the Williams sight to see what adjustments could be made. The adjustments are made by loosening jam screws and sliding the peep hole left and right and the shaft it sits on up and down. I adjusted the sight up and as far to the left as I could, though I didn’t go as far as possible, but I’ll cover that later in the report.
JTS Dead Center
The second pellet tested was the 18.1-grain JTS Dead Center dome. Five went into 0.794-inches at 10 meters. This group landed lower on the target but, as I will be testing other pellets of differing weights, I did not adjust the sight again until the end of the test.
The 362 Anniversary put five JTS Dead Center pellets into a 0.794-inch group at 10 meters.
RWS Superdome
Next up was the RWS Superdome pellet. The 362 put five into a 0.814-inch group at 10 meters.
Five RWS Superdomes went into 0.814-inches at 10 meters.
H&N Baracuda Hunter
The fourth pellet I tested was the H&N Baracuda Hunter Extreme. Five of them went into a group that measures 0.792-inches between centers. But with this group I noticed something I had seen in the last group of Superdomes. Three of these pellets are in an extremely small hole in the center of a horizontal group. Look at the Superdome group and see something similar.
The Crosman 362 Anniversary put five H&N Baracuda Hunter pellets into a 0.792-inch group, but look at the hole in the center. Three pellets passed through that one!
Changed the way I looked through the peep
While shooting the RWS Superdome group that was before this one I noticed I was sighting with the peep several inches from my eye. I moved my head forward on the stock until my sighting eye was about an inch from the peep. I believe that really made a difference in my sighting. That’s one reason why I said at the beginning that today was just the first accuracy test of this rifle. I’m making plans…
Surprise!
The last pellet I tested today was almost a joke, except it wasn’t as you will see. Several days ago a reader asked me if I ever shot the old-style Benjamin High Compression pellets that were made in the 1940s through the 1960s. I said that I didn’t, but the comment got me thinking. So today I made those pellets the last ones in the test. Wait until you see what happened!
These are Benjamin pellets from over 50 years ago.
Well, surprise, surprise! Five of them grouped in 1.185-inches, which is the largest group of the test. But look at where four of those five went! That group measures 0.302-inches between centers!
Five Benjamin High Compression pellets went into 1.185-inches at 10 meters, with four in 0.302-inches.
Final sight adjustment
After seeing that tiny group I had to look at the sight adjustments once more. There is no way Crosman would build this rifle and not make the sights center the shots! Indeed, when I examined the top left-right peep sight slider I saw there was a small sliver of space left to slide the peep more to the left. So I did. I also slid the post the peep sits on up just a little to try to center the pellets in the bull.
The peep slider is now adjusted as far to the left as it will go.
Second group of Benjamins
After the sight was adjusted I shot the second group of Benjamin pellets. This time five pellets went into 0.776-inches.
The Crosman 362 put five Benjamin High Compression pellets into 0.776-inches at 10 meters.
Summary
The Crosman 362, 100-Year Anniversary Edition multi-pump pneumatic is a good shooter that’s also powerful and easy to operate. Today we have discovered that the rear peep sight can be adjusted to hit the target in the bullseye and we have also learned that holding the sighting eye close to the peep hole probably increases accuracy though more precise aiming.
I plan to conduct this test again with many of the same pellets, if not all of them. I also want to shoot several more pellets, just to see which ones are the best.