Crosman Auto Air II Review

Overall Rating

Cheap, fun, reliable, shoots BB's, pellets, and darts.

Smooth bore. Poor performance with pellets. Horrible trigger.

I've had this pistol for over 10 years. I bought it from a Service Merchandise store when it was going out of business, and I got it for 50% off. It had been worth the purchase price, but I would not pay full price for one of these (if they are even still available). The safety button broke on mine, and constantly slipped into the on position. I would have to shoot with a finger pressing on the safety button, so I decided that was less safe than just eliminating the safety button anyway. The four rules are my safeties anyway (All guns are always loaded, be sure of target, backstop, and beyond, don't touch trigger until ready to shoot, don't cover anything with the muzzle you aren't willing to destroy).

The thing that makes this pistol fun is it's semi-auto capability with BB's. It's great fun to rip off 18 shots in a row at a target, especially since the majority of airguns are single-shots. This gun has a smooth bore, but it's still possible to keep a full magazine of BB's in a pop can at 10M, provided you can overcome the TERRIBLE trigger. Seriously, this gun has the worst trigger of any gun--real or fake-- that I've handled. It's very heavy, extremely creepy, and one is never sure when the gun will fire.

Performance with pellets is very poor. The smooth bore provides no spin to stabilize the pellets, and I have yet to find a pellet that doesn't seat too tightly in the bore. It IS admittedly fun to lob the pellets of of the gun at ~100 fps or less, but it's less than useful for target practice. I did try the gun with some mohair darts I had, and it worked great, but these are of limited usefulness. They shot right through the dart board I had.

Overall, I'd recommend this gun provided it is very cheap ($20 or less). Otherwise, save your money to spend on something better designed.