The gun's exoskeleton is smooth plastic, with all functional parts except the bolt handle housed inside. Once the AirSource cartridge is loaded, the gun is cocked one time by the shooter and remains cocked until all the gas is gone. For that reason, leave the crossbolt safety on at all times other than when actually shooting.
As futuristic in the 1960s as the Nightstalker is today, Crosman's .22 cal. Model 600 pistol was a wonder then and now. Gaylord says sem-auto pellet guns have been few and far between.
The Nightstalker functions as a semi-automatic revolver. The bolt is cocked by CO2 gas immediately after every shot, so the gun is instantly ready to fire the next shot. The trigger rotates the clip manually, which adds reliability at the price of some extra pull weight.
The trigger of the test gun broke at 7 lbs. out of the box. My experience with the 1077 leads me to believe this will lighten after some shooting wears in the parts.
Bam! Bam! Bam! is what this carbine is all about, so I shot it as fast as I could pull the trigger. I got lots of pellet splashes in the backyard dirt without a single malfunction. I also learned to appreciate that speedloader!
Performance
A novel set of Nightstalker open sights deserve recognition. The rear sight adjusts for windage with a screw, plus it has both a target aperture and a larger battle peep on the same stalk. Simply flip to whichever one you want, like an early M1 Carbine.
Crosman invented the 12-gram airgun CO2 Powerlet in 1954 (below). Today, it's dwarfed by their latest AirSource 88-gram CO2 cartridge-a disposable source of power for hundreds of shots.
A novel set of Nightstalker open sights deserve recognition. The rear sight adjusts for windage with a screw, plus it has both a target aperture and a larger battle peep on the same stalk. Simply flip to whichever one you want, like an early M1 Carbine.
The front sight adjusts for elevation in a unique new way--at least it's a way I have never seen before. An inclined ramp is spiral-wound around a drum that can be rotated for height. Since the front sight adjusts opposite the direction the pellet goes, move it up to drop the strike of the round, and vice-versa. Whoever designed this system that Crosman calls their Mohawk sight, deserves an award!
I used the red dot sight for this test. It mounts to one of two included Picatinny rails that attach to the exoskeleton with screws; the tactical flashlight mounts on the other rail.
Cont to pg3>>>>
