So You Call Yourself a Classic?

I had the chance to take the 1377 out yesterday. I decided that this was going to be a rather laid back range review, so I set up my new Duraseal ground squirrel target I got on clearance at Walmart and went to town. I put it up next to the pool since I was doing some maintenance on it anyway and the entire process was rather relaxing; it would have been even more so if it wasn't so humid from the storm rolling in.

The first thing I noticed was that that ground squirrel was a hell of a lot of fun to shoot with this pistol. You knew immediately if you had hit it because the squirrel gave an affirming nod. The second thing I noticed was how well balanced the 1377 was in my hand. This pistol is over a foot long and I had some reservations about how well it was going to shoot. All of them were unfounded, it really did impress me.

I mentioned I had some reservations, let me explain why. I noticed when I took the pistol apart the night I bought it that there really wasn't much of anything holding the barrel in. Seriously it stays in but its not secure by any stretch, it slides and twists around a bit. That made me pretty darn nervous. The second thing I noticed was that all the other parts fit in a fairly similar fashion. There are what I can only describe as bushing that the air moves through in two places in this gun, neither of which are secure in any way shape form or fashion. I had also duly noted that the grips seemed oh... CHEAP, which makes since on a 50 dollar pistol but doesn't add much confidence to its shooting abilities.

Alright theres some bad and some ugly now let me give you some good. This thing shoots! I mean it really really shoots! I was sitting in a lawn chair and if I really concentrated I could put two pellets one on top of the other without too much difficulty. The sights were dead on out of the package at 3 pumps, which was a good thing, I'll get to that later. Most of my shooting was done at 3 pumps since I wasn't trying to put a hole in anything I didn't see much reason to take it past that. It is a super consistent pistol, I really was very very impressed.

Now for a little more bad, the sights are deplorable. Seriously, the rear "windage" is basically you just twisting the sight one way or the other on its axis. This gives you very little adjustment. I literally bumped the sight at one point and was off by and inch so I had to reset the sights which was kind of a pain in the ass. The roll pins... oh God the roll pins...When you pump the pistol it makes a loud springy twang that is quite God awful. I had already taken the pistol apart and was at a bit of a loss as to what could be making all this racket; certainly there are springs in the pistol but none that are in the direct line of  pumping. The conclusion that I came to was that the roll pin at the pivot point was making all this terrible noise. It should die, that is all. I also feel obligated to mention that if you take too many shots one after another the main tube gets rather warm, this is from the valve working so hard. It not a huge deal but worth noting anyway.

So the review, how exactly do I break this down. My typical system isn't going to work here since my frame of reference is a 600 dollar german made howitzer of an airgun. Im going to have to grade on a curve here. I'll do it this way. I'll do one set of stars pitting it against the rws and one set where I give it 3 stars for being able to do the attempted task at all (bare in mind this pistol is 50 dollars).

Accuracy:
Vs. RWS: *** It isn't quite the tack driver that the RWS is, I suspect a lot of this has to do with the barrel mounting situation... or lack thereof.
As a 50 dollar pistol: ***** You can quite literally walk out of Academy with one for 54 bucks after tax, for that kind of money I don't expect to be hitting my 2 inch wide target much at all much less time and time again in the exact same spot.

Trigger:
Vs. RWS: ** It pulls? Other than that its heavy as hell, the sear spring set up is ridiculous, and its a little gritty.
As a 50 dollar pistol: **** I would give 3 and 1/2 if I could but I can't and I'm willing to round up in this case. Sure the trigger isn't great BUT its easy to fix, I honed my contact points with some 320 grit and then some 600 and it helped a lot. The sear spring is way to stiff and the way its set up is a bit ridiculous but its another easy fix. Another two dollars and this gun has a pretty good trigger overall.

Convenience: ****
Ok I could vs. and what have you on this but it will be the same regardless. Its a multi-pump pneumatic, its freaking convenient! It could only be more convenient if it was a stand alone pcp, and guess what? There are aftermarket mods for that!

Value for the Money: *****
Again the scores here would be the same, its a 50 dollar pistol and the darn thing shoots pretty freaking good. Sure, there are a whole pile of areas for improvement but for 50 bucks I feel like you get a pretty good gun for that money. Its not quite a tack driver but its not far from it.

Overall: 
Vs. the RWS: ** It shoots, it loads, there weren't any hiccups but its nothing compared to that fine german machine.
As a 50 dollar pistol: **** Its a darn good airgun for 50 dollars I will happily give it that. It need some work though. Simple things like a delrin guid for the sear and hammer spring would have improved this pistol significantly and would have only increased the cost to manufacture by a few cents. It used to have brass internals, now Crosman uses aluminum. The nice thing about the aluminum is it cuts costs and it cools quickly. The brass however is much sturdier and up to the job of those 10+ pump people out there.

Final thoughts:
I would like to see Crosman do a custom shop version of the 1377. This would solve so many problems so quickly. For those who wanted the 50 dollar base pistol, have at it, but for those like myself who are going to mod it to make it what it should have been already, this avenue makes that a much cheaper endeavor. It would allow the replacement of the stock cheap plastic grips, the steel breech to be installed, and different barrel choices, all of which are popular mods.

This pistol really is a lot of fun and I like it quite a bit more than I thought I would, it does need some help thought and I wouldn't recommend it for those who intend to shoot shot after shot after shot; the valve will get to hot. For those who want a pellet after pellet plinker I would go with the CO2 offering, the 2240, instead. However, if what your after is a relaxed casual plinker the 1377 might be right up your alley!