Crosman 2289G Review

Overall Rating

Good in stock form, but much much better when modified. Being a take-down rifle, it is very covenient. Carbine size makes it handy.

Sights are hard to zero. Not the most beautiful rifle in the world. Not very durable in stock form.

Looks: 7 (Your mileage may vary)
Finish: 6
Accuracy: 8 (Stock), 9 (modified, loses 1 point to lack of long range accuracy)
Consistency: 9.5
Range: 7
User friendliness: 6
Upgradeability: 7

Why I choose the 2289
The locals aren't so fond of people walking around with guns, so if I could carry an airgun discreetly, it was a definite plus. Luckily Crosman has made a few pellet guns that fit that description. I had an old model Backpacker, a 1389, around the mid '90s. Of the few airguns I've had, the 1389 had more notches in the stock than any of the others, the B21 being just too damn big to take out. Crosman also currently makes a CO2 version, the 2250, that looks a lot like the old SSP with a stock and 14" barrel.

The new purchase would be used mostly for small game hunting (mostly birds), or at least that's what I thought. The twenty two caliber bore should at least be acceptable for that, depending on where you stand on the .177 vs. .22 debate.

I chose the 2289 over the 2250 because I hate zeroing scopes, and the 2250 would shoot differently depending on temperature. CO2 will push the pellet faster at warmer temperatures than when it's cold. This could be remedied by a Nitrogen or Compressed Air bulk system, but I couldn't afford it, and it would add bulk.

In terms of finish and appearance, I've found that the better a gun looks, the less likely I am to really use it. Plastic and roughly finished steel and zinc suit me just fine.

Sights
You get to choose between the notch and the peep on the stock rifle. There is no provision for a scope on the rifle.... at least out of the box. I have no official stance on the Crosman Intermounts, as I haven't used them myself yet. The '89 could use the metal breech anyway, so I decided not to bother with the barrel mounts. Alternate methods would be to use either the BSquare IZH46 mount with the Weaver-type rail, or Mr. Axlerod's custom mount (http://home.att.net/~jjaxelrod/air.html).

Back to the open sights.... when I pulled it out of the box, it was set to use the notch sight. The front sight blade looked tiny in the notch. It doesn't seem like that arrangement would be too accurate. I flipped the insert over to the peep. I've never really liked peep sights much, but this particular peep works fairly well in terms of precision... at least at 10 yards.

The rear sight is adjustable for windage and elevation. It was very difficult to zero, even at ten yards. Once the windage screw is loosened, the sight is free to move left, right, and rotate around the screw. There are no detents or clicks to help. Adjustment with the Crooked Barn breech is much easier, since the sight no longer has room to rotate.

Barrel
Retrieved pellets don't have rifling grooves around the full perimeter of the heads. That always kinda worries me, but it doesn't seem to matter. The Crosman barrels must have a lot of grooves; there are lots of closely spaced grooves on the skirts.

Barrel appears to be properly crowned. The crown is centered over the bore.

Trigger
The trigger was a pleasant surprise after shooting the B21 a lot. It has a very short pull and fairly crisp let-off. Sure, it's a bit on the heavy side, but since it's so short you hardy notice it. It's almost not even worth messing with.

Recoil
I was surprisingly recoilless after shooting the B21 so long, but there is, of course, a little bit of shake, since there is a fairly massive hammer smacking into the valve. You can dry fire it if you like without pumping. If there's a difference in the pull, I don't feel it.

ACCURACY
Stock
It shoots groups that could easily be covered with a dime with both Crosman Premiers and RWS Super H-Points.

12 gauge shells are so easy to hit at 10 yards, it's almost not any fun. It hit the brass heads pretty well, but I could barely see them at that distance without optics.

Modified
It shoots even better with a good metal breech. Picking off .22lr shells is a piece of cake. My Xisco B21 had a hard enough time hitting 9mm casings. It will shoot out the x ring, and make .25" diameter three shot groups. I wish I could afford a chrony, so I could say what kind of velocity improvement there was.

Adding the breech and scope increased the inherent accuracy, but it now needed a little help in the practical accuracy department. Adding the scope and mount almost doubled the weight, but it still wobbled quite a bit from a sitting position. I made a few lead weights and added them to the forestock, the hollow of the stock, and the space in the grip. There seems to be a noticeable improvement.

It's kind of odd, but it seems like the trigger got grittier and a little heavier after adding the scope, probably just because it's easier to see the gun wobble at 7 power. I summoned up the courage to take it apart and polish the sear. Even with the sear slicked up, it still seemed gritty. Since there are two components in friction,

F (force of friction) = N
 - Coefficient of Friction - reduced by polishing the sear
N - The Force on the Friction Surfaces - determined by sear spring

.... so I decided that it was a good time to get a lighter sear spring. I just could not find the True Value Spring number 143, or the Ace spring number 6. I found a Century Spring (Part # C-614, 5/16 x 1 x 0.040") that was the right size, and seemed to be lighter, so I stuck that one in, and it definitely helps, but it could go softer. I'll leave it be for a while. If you get a breech, ask if you can get a spring with it. I wish I had.

You want to smooth and polish:
1. The very rear of the sear, which hooks on the hammer when you pull back the bolt
2. The lower surfaces of the sear where the spring and trigger make contact
3. The round bump on the trigger. A ceramic knife sharpening rod worked just fine. It's soft metal.
4. The sear engagement surfaces of the hammer.

You might also want to make the top, rear corner of the sear a sharp 90 degree angle. Mine was pretty round.

ULTIMATE BREECH (long barrel version)
Looks good, with the exception of a couple of dents on the right rear. There's an inch and a quarter of rail on the rear of the breach, and one and three quarters on the front. The edges of the bolt handle slot are sharper than a five dollar knife, file away those edges before you put it on, or you'll cut up your finger. The bolt throw is reduced by about half, and the slot is closed at both ends, so it won't flex as much as the stock one could. The barrel is much more secure with the 4 set screws. With the stock plastic breech, the barrel was held in place with only the transfer port and the barrel band! IMO, it looks better with the Ultimate breech, and without the plastic strip under the barrel.

With the extended bolt probe of the Ultimate Bolt, there's just barely enough room to get a pellet in. You can fix this by trimming a little bit off of the rear end of the bolt. Don't trim too much, or there won't be enough to push the hammer back far enough to catch the sear.

There is a dovetail in the rear for the peep sight, which makes for a very tight fit. This makes the sight much easier to adjust, although it's almost too tight. There are no index marks for the rear sight like the stock breech had.

ULTIMATE BOLT
This is a bolt with a longer probe, and a threaded hole for the included bolt handle. The bolt handle is slightly longer, and has a much bigger knob. Straight from Crooked Barn, the bolt handle was too long. When threaded all the way into the bolt, the tip of the handle would drag on the inside of the breech. I got an e-mail from Jim shortly after figuring this out, explaining what was happening. He offered to fix it if I sent it back, but I was able to fix it myself.

I would have just extended the stock bolt, but I don't have a drill press or a tap and die set (yet).

FINISH
It is slightly better than the 1389, I could have used that barrel for a round file, but it could be better. For $52 and some change, I don't complain about it. The grip frame is about what you'd expect a piece made of zinc to look like. The lower tube looks pretty good, average even, with a blued finish. Breech is a pebbled plastic. You can see the mold seams on all the plastic parts. It won't win any beauty pageants, but who cares, it's just a Crosman air rifle (some sarcasm intended).

ERGONOMICS
I was really happy to find that length of pull was about as close to perfect as I could imagine. Chances are it will be a bit long for most people though, at about 15.5". Unfortunately, the butt plate is about 2.5" too high, which makes it a bit uncomfortable. I am in the process of making a height adjustable butt plate. I greatly prefer the vertical grip to the traditional curved pistol grip or straight grip. The length of pull of the grip itself is a bit too short. The trigger blade is narrow, flared at the end precisely where you don't need it. The stock bolt handle is small, but functional, could stand to be half inch longer.

POWER
Well, it put a Premier and an H-Point through Snapple type lids. The holes weren't as clean as a magnum would do, but it punched a hole nonetheless. The Premiers would go through a couple hundred pages of magazines. Super H-Points go through one magazine, and make a good dent in the next. Beeman Crow Magnums penetrate slightly more, but at 18+ grams, are a bit more than I'd use in a low powered rifle.

TAKE-DOWN
To remove the stock, you simply push in the small button behind the pistol grip. The stock will start to wobble a bit, but a few strips of duct tape in the grip area of the stock will fix that. Many suggest that you drill and countersink the stock and bolt the stock to the gun, but I need the two to come apart, so I'm leaving it alone. If I didn't need it to come apart, I would have bought something else. If you detach the stock before you put it away, it will return to the way it was made, and fit tighter the next time you use it.

Both the stock and the gun are about the same length, and fit easily into a backpack. With a scope adding length to he gun portion, you may have a slight problem.

MISFIRES
I have had a few misfires. Twice, I guess the bolt handle was not all the way down. I felt a blast of air in my face, and the pellets struck really low. The other incident seemed to be from a stuck hammer.

If I were making a breech and replacement bolt, I'd make it a straight pull with forward detents rather than using the downward throw to lock the bolt.

OVERALL
With just over $100 into the rifle, I'm happy with how it shoots, and it's got enough ass behind it to do some damage. More accurate at shorter ranges, by a pretty large margin, than my B21 with the same mount and scope. The breech adds a little more durability, efficiency, and perhaps most importantly a solid scope base. I'm a little wary about shooting rabbits and squirrels past 25 yards or so, but it just might do it. The only real durability problem I see is the rear sight screw in the plastic sight. The handy size may just make it your go-to gun.

Coat the grip frame with rubberized spray-on bedliner, and keep a coat of oil on the steel parts and you're good.

DISASSEMBLY
Remove grips or stock. Remove the sear spring. Remove two screws on the right side of the grip frame. Remove plate over trigger and sear. Remove safety bearing and spring (just above safety), and put them somewhere they won't get lost. Also remove the button and spring that hold the stock on. Undo the 2 grip-frame screws and remove grip-frame assembly. It's virtually impossible to reassemble without removing the grip frame.

To remove the breech and/or barrel: loosen the screw in the barrel band, remove the socket-head screw visible in the breech opening with a 0.050" or 1.5mm Allen key, remove the screw in the rear sight. Add a slot to the socket head screw with a hack saw or whatever in case the head strips out.

REASSEMBLY
Reinstall the pins, sear, trigger, and stock button and spring. Insert safety button. The bent washer goes between the inside of the grip-frame and the trigger. Replace the plate over the trigger and sear, and reinstall the screws that hold it in place. The slot for the safety ball bearing and spring is on the left side of the grip frame, insert the bearing first, then the spring after it. Reassemble the grip-frame to the tube, with both pieces left-side-up. Reattach the grip-frame, MAKING SURE NOT TO GET THE SAFETY SPRING CAUGHT BETWEEN THE FRAME AND TUBE.

Reassembly of breech/barrel is basically a reverse of the disassembly. Insert the seal into the tube. The transfer port's wide, short end goes into the seal. The longer narrow end goes into the port in the barrel.

LINKS
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/170154 - The place to ask questions about Crosmans
http://www.dnrsports.com - D&R Sports, where I got my 2289
http://www.crookedbarn.com - Ultimate Breech, Ultimate Bolt, custom Crosman airguns
http://www.silverstreaksports.com - BKL scope mounts, 253 model fits almost perfectly on the Ultimate Breech
http://www.spiralsol.com/airgunmod/ - tips on modifying Crosman airguns
http://crosmanmods.cjb.net/ - more tips on modifying Crosman airguns
http://www.internicsearch.com/crosman/ - Guess what?, more tips
http://home.earthlink.net/~op3nmind/ - even more tips
http://www.mac1airgun.com/ - Mac 1 airguns, someone to modify your airgun for you
http://members.cox.net/co2une/index.html - Co2une, someone else that modifies airguns

(All airgun modifications you do at your own risk. I can make no guarantees about the safety of modified airguns.)