Crossman 1008 Repeater Review

Overall Rating

Cheap, double or single-action operation, reliable, easy to load pellet clip into pistol, reasonably accurate.

Not over-efficient with CO2 (only about 30 good shots), not very powerful, barrels wear out rapidly, 99% plastic, little room for modification, sights are dodgy.

**Please note that my Crosman 1008 was purchased in 1996, and some changes may have been introduced since then**

The Crosman 1008 is an 8-shot revolver, with the clip-cylinder concealed within the body of an "automatic". The clip is indexed either by pulling the trigger through a long double-action pull, or by cocking the hammer at the rear of the slide. If cocked, the trigger pull effort is reduced, but the overall distance pulled is the same either way.

Because the trigger can and will operate the hammer independently while tripping the sear, this pistol can be fired "semi-automatically". The muzzle velocity of any pellets fired this way is markedly less than when manually cocking the hammer first, because the hammer does not travel back to "full cock" when being operated by trigger pull alone.

The entire pistol, except for barrel, springs, and some plumbing, is made up of cheap plastic (NOT high-quality engineering resin). The trigger is a "slide type" - not a trigger blade, or "lever type". There is a manually operated safety in the trigger housing, comprising a push-on, push-off button. It can be operated by the trigger finger (RH). This pistol uses one standard 12 gram CO2 non-threaded caplet, which is held in the grip, beneath the plastic grip panels. The caplet is pierced and sealed by a thumbscrew which protrudes out of the bottom of the grip, and takes away from the otherwise realistic styling of the gun.

Realistic velocities for lightweight .177 pellets (7-8 grains) is in the mid to high 300's (feet per second). The barrel is rifled, and the bore is actually a pretty good fit for most pellets. The front sight is a standard, fixed ramp with a 2.5 mm cross section. The rear sight assembly is a crude plastic cube with a notch cut (roughly) down the center. The rear sight can be adjusted with typical the Crosman routing of "loosen with screwdriver, fidget sight a little to one side or other, tighten, test, repeat". Sighting with these guns is at best an exercise in compromise.

That being said, these are pretty consistent shooters, and more than accurate enough for short range (<25 meter) plinking. The pistol (like most CO2 pistols) is by no means powerful enough to be used for humane hunting.

The Crosman 1008 is very lightweight (being mostly plastic), and despite the rather large grip it makes a good pistol platform to teach young adolescents the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship and safety. It is underpowered for any serious application, but makes an enjoyable plinker.