The Airgunner

The Crosman 1077 is, as the name suggests, a pellet gun designed to resemble the very popular Ruger 10/22 rifle. The resemblance is more than just skin deep, as the Crosman rifle also has an easily changed rotary magazine, although the Crosman’s holds 12 pellets to the Ruger’s 10 cartridges. It’s inexpensive, usually selling for under $70, and available in a lot of big box stores.

Performance is fairly modest. Muzzle velocity is listed at 675fps, which implies a muzzle energy of around 7 foot-pounds with lightweight 7gr pellets of the sorts manufacturers usually use for velocity figures. Accuracy is on a par with similar inexpensive repeating guns, with shooters reporting groups ranging from 1/2″ to 1″ at 15 yards. Some have reported groups as large as 1.5″. This translates into accuracy of 3.5 to 10 minutes of angle- not very good. It’s okay for plinking at basement ranges, but no where near good enough for outdoor shooting. The single shot Crosman 2026 offers better accuracy and more power for around the same price.

A big part of the problem is that the barrel of the 1077 is a thin tube that’s not supported very solidly. Shimming with tape or other material can drastically improve accuracy. And unlike more expensive guns, the 1077 is assembled from inexpensive stamped and molded pieces that don’t always fit and move against each other as smoothly as the designed intended. Careful fitting can fix this. And power can be improved with valve modifications and stronger springs.

Luckily, there is a lot of information out there on how to tune your 1077 for better accuracy and higher energy. Most of the tunes require no additional parts, beyond a roll of electrical tape for shimming the barrel, and no specialized tools. The most useful tool is a sheet of sandpaper.

One of the most comprehensive guides I’ve found can be seen here:

http://www.airgunhome.com/agforum/viewtopic.php?t=176

It includes a complete disassembly and assembly guide as well- very useful.

Here’s an even better disassembly/assembly guide, complete with photographs:

http://www.airgunhome.com/pages/1077disassembly.html

There are also a number of makers of custom parts for the 1077:

http://www.gmaccustomparts.com/CROSMAN-1077-PARTS

All and all, it’s a gun with a lot of potential, and can be a good choice for the enthusiastic tinkerer without a lot of cash, as well as a good intermediate training gun for young shooters. As noted, it’s also readily available, and if you can’t find it locally you can find it at Amazon, too..