Many years ago, I dabbled in the world of Smallbore Silhouette in an effort to improve my offhand game for NRA High Power and Service Rifle. Reluctant to take on yet another discipline, it was shocking how quickly it grabbed hold of me, and I quickly found myself making as many matches as possible. Knocking over tiny steel targets without any means of support is undoubtedly satisfying, and I urge all of you to give it a try. Sadly, as life got busier and rimfire ammunition became scarce, my Smallbore Silhouette involvement eventually became minimal at best. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t get the itch to play around from time to time, and luckily, with the right equipment, you can duplicate the sport with an air rifle right in your own backyard.
Air Venturi offers an inexpensive set of targets scaled to the official Air Gun version of this sport, and this past January, Crosman released a game-changing .22 caliber pre-charged pneumatic package to make entry easy and affordable. Molded in the image of its multi-pump Model 362, the new 3622 PCP kit includes a three-stage high-pressure hand pump and only carries a price tag of $219 MSRP. If you already have your own air supply, the rifle is available by itself for only $149.99 MSRP, making it impulse-buy inexpensive. Curious as to whether something so low-cost could produce the accuracy needed for a style of shooting so fine, I requested one for review and prepared to reunite with an old pastime.
The rifle arrives with a pair of primitive iron sights. Although adjustable and capable, most interested in using this rifle for tiny targets are going to want to add an optic. To do this, it must be upgraded with the “Steel Breech Kit.” On the surface, it sounds like a job for a gunsmith, but in reality, it only requires a screwdriver and the included Allen keys; I installed mine in approximately 15 minutes. The price for this kit is $42.99, which might make you groan at first, but in reality, when you consider what you typically spend to get a centerfire rifle ready to accept a scope, things start to even out. Once affixed, I topped it off with a Crosman CenterPoint 4X 32 mm scope, and had one sleek little rig that weighed less than five pounds after my upgrades.
Crosman’s 3622 PCP can be pressurized from an air gun-rated air compressor, scuba tank or, thanks to its minimized 2,000 p.s.i. tank, a high-pressure hand pump. The company includes its Airmaster pump with the package, and I found that I could get from 0 to 2,000 in around 75 strokes. Keep in mind that you’ll likely never shoot the gun down this low, so recharges will be significantly less.
From here, all that was left was to select pellets and head out back to get some testing in. I decided on Benjamin’s 14.3-grain domed match-grade pellets, as I figured this would yield the accuracy that I needed to connect with steel consistently. Being that air rifles good for knocking down metallic animals are also good at knocking down the delicious ones, I paired these with Crosman’s hollow-point pellets of the same weight, with the hope that they would share the same point of impact.
I began testing by establishing a 15-yard zero with the Benjamin match-grade pellets, and to my luck, the scope was already on paper. Topping the tank back off, I fired a string of 10 shots and was impressed by both the standard deviation and extreme spread. Consistency can be challenging for unregulated pre-charged pneumatic air rifles; however, this one was exceptionally well-built.
Additionally, the pellets were darn close to the advertised maximum velocity, which was a refreshing stroke of honesty, as that number is often derived from unrealistic laboratory environments. Accuracy, on the other hand, could have been better, as my best of five five-shot groups measured .465-inch. I know that sounds amazing, but for a match pellet, I’d like to see minute-of-angle accuracy, which is .150-inch or better at this distance. However, like powder burners, it’s often just a matter of finding the right pellet to get there. After refilling the tank to 2,000 p.s.i., a process which only took 23 pumps, I moved on to the Crosman hunting pellets. To my surprise (and delight), I got much closer to the accuracy that I sought. Groups as tight as .264-inch were on the menu, and my overall average wasn’t much larger. Crunching the numbers, this is between three and four times more accurate than it needs to be to hit each target at their sanctioned distances, so as it sits, this setup is good enough to win a match.
Of course, victory at a match requires more than just accuracy—the rifle needs to be shootable, too. With that, I set up a mock course of fire with the targets at their official distances and got to work. Due to its lightweight nature, the Crosman 3622 PCP was incredibly easy to hold steady without a sling or shooting coat. It might become a problem on a windy day, but for the moment, I was loving it. Even with the scope mounted, the balance point was barely in front of the trigger guard, allowing me to place my support arm against my chest for a solid connection all the way through the gun. A measured trigger pull weight of four pounds, two ounces, doesn’t exactly qualify as match-grade for this sport, but it was undoubtedly capable, as determined by hit after hit on each target. Loading was much easier on my feet than it was from the bench, as domed pellets tend to nose-dive when slid forward by a bolt. In a standing position, you can use this quality to drop them directly into the chamber without any fuss.
Chronograph Results
As the afternoon came to a close, I found that you could get an average of 25 usable shots from a fill before losing enough pressure to be concerned. Since each Air Gun Silhouette string of fire only has 10 shots, you have a chance to refill at less than half that amount. Keeping the hand pump on the firing line isn’t unrealistic, nor is carrying it in a backpack while hunting, as the folding leg design makes it inherently compact. All in all, it’s an excellent rifle to have in your collection, regardless of what you plan on using it for. Crosman did a terrific job of bringing affordable pre-charged pneumatic technology to the everyday shooter. I believe the Crosman 3622 PCP is an invaluable tool for working on your offhand shooting, or even dipping a toe into the world of air gun competition.
Specifications
Learn more about the Crosman 3622 PCP at crosman.com.
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