Cometa Lynx .20 caliber

HISTORY:  This gun came to me via a friend wanting to get rid of it.  Who am I to say no....lol?!  The air rifle was in OEM form and in OEM caliber which was .22 cal.  Shooting 18.13 gr JSB Diabolo pellets roughly 880 FPS.  At this time, I was already wanting another .20 caliber air rifle but, now especially since I heard that soon, JSB would be coming out with a heavier .20 caliber pellet.  Previous brand .20 cal pellets were weighing in the 13+ gr arena so, a heavier .20 cal pellet really rang a bell with me.  And as luck had it, I also had previously received a phone call from another buddy that happened to get his hands on a spare .20 cal barrel that was machined to fit a Theoben Rapid air rifle and the previous owner used the .20 cal barrel to shoot FT matches.  So I knew the barrel would be a good one.  This is how the Cometa Lynx .20 cal started life.

The 1st order of business after purchasing the air rifle was to observe/inspect and fix the leak that I knew the rifle had and to also clean/polish the internals and replace all o-rings (lubed). So strip the gun down I go.......

The next thing to do was to get the newly acquired .20 cal barrel and have my buddy Doug who is my machinist, copy the .22 caliber OEM barrel. The more SILVER barrel is the .20 caliber and the darker is the OEM .22 cal barrel.  Mission accomplished, .22 barrel copied and .20 cal barrel fits the action very well. Time to clean and polish the barrel.

Next was to get rid of the aluminum shroud and to convert it to FULL Carbon Fiber.  This gives the rifle a little more pizzazz and lighted it up just a tad overall.

Now, the theory is that since the gun was pushing .22 caliber, 18.13 gr JSB at 880 fps, then it should be very similar in FPS/FPE once shot in .20 caliber.  Especially since the new .20 cal JSB's come in at 15.89 grs. which is definitely starting to get heavy for .20 caliber. After adjusting the regulator to the desired PSI output to push the new JSB Heavies to 885-895 fps, it was now time to shoot groups.  Initial test showed promise and let me know I'm heading in the right direction.

The last piece to the puzzle was to find a bi-pod adapter to mount a bi-pod because the stock is so short and thin up front, that it doesn't allow for bi-pod to be mounted to the stocks forearm underside.  Mission accomplished thanks to another buddy of mine, Jason, who also owns a Cometa.

Quick pesting session proved fruitful after I spent some time ranging the rifle and getting to know the .20 cals trajectory.  Also trying out the Side Shot scope-cam setup.  This was a very easy 78 yard chest shot that proved fatal to Mr Ground Squirrel.

OVERVIEW:  In the past, I owned a Logun Solo .20 caliber and was totally amazed and how fun and accurate the caliber was.  I felt as though I had been missing something all my airgun life when I converted the Logun.....lol.  I had since sold it and very much regretted it.  So after all these years, a donor rifle falls right into my lap and I could not pass up the opportunity to own another 20 caliber airgun.  This airgun though, had some advantages.  1, it has a side-lever action.  2, it has a magazine. 3, it has a bottle which has more capacity than a tube.  4, its regulated for consistency. 5, it has a pressure gauge.  These are all things the Solo did not have.  And these option make this airgun very attractive.  And yes, if you haven't caught on by now, I'm using the standard .22 caliber magazine that came with the rifle and it functions just fine cycling .20 cal pellets. I think overall I did a great job on this rifle and I did it to keep the 20 cal legacy alive.  This is a caliber that If you are a small bore airgun lover, you need to own an airgun or 2 in .20 caliber.  It also can't go unmentioned that I thank JSB/PREDATOR INT'L for not only making the .20 calibers legacy live on by updating a tried and true product and making it better.