Crosman Night Stalker pistol with laser

Tim Finley tests the all-action Night Stalker Co2 pistol from Crosman; it’s got a laser and is a blow-back pistol, making for realistic recoil

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credit: Archant

Crosman never stops coming up with new products, and the Night Stalker is another new one for them. It’s a CO2 12-gramme bulb powered pistol with a ton of features to keep the dedicated plinker happy. For one, it’s a blow-back pistol, and that means the top slide moves back on firing the pistol, just like a firearm. This gives it realistic recoil and adds not only to the fun, but also the challenge of shooting a pistol.

The Night Stalker also comes with a laser, and adding one as standard takes it into a whole new level for plinking – both eyes can focus, and you simply place the dot on the target and fire.

It has a removable 4.5mm steel BB magazine, single stack holding 18 BBs and it runs off the industry standard, 12-gramme CO2 bulb, which is housed in the pistol grip. The grip slides back, exposing the aperture for the bulb. I do like the simple, thumb-screw piercing systems – you just pull the toggle up and screw it in tight to let the gas flow into the system.

Over the chronograph, the Night Stalker gave me three magazines’ worth of shots – t that’s putting 18 4.5mm steel BBs in the drop-out magazine. Loading the mag’ is easy- it has a spring loaded follower and a catch to lock it down whilst you load the BBs in from the top. The magazine release catch wasn’t where is usually is on a pistol, i.e. the side, but instead, it’s on the base of the magazine and operates smoothly and easily. I didn’t get near the 420 feet per second as quoted on the blister packaging, though. It came in at around 370-380fps.

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credit: Archant

ERGONOMIC

The pistol feels good in the hand, weighty, the grip is very ergonomic and I like the random grip pattern very much, better than chequering – and it is ambidextrous. There’s a raised Crosman Logo picked out in red on each side of the grip and the safety catch is on the right-hand side above the trigger; for a right-handed shooter it comes perfectly on to the trigger finger. It looks like a horizontal sliding switch, but you have to press it in in order to get it moving back and forth. Left-handed shooters can use the index finger of the right hand if you are using a two-handed tactical type grip. In its ‘forward’ position, it shows a red crescent moon panel – red meaning ‘fire’ of course. Pulling it back shows a white crescent, for ‘safe’, obviously. Crosman also give you arrows with an F and S to make sure you understand how it works.

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credit: Archant

LASER OPERATION

The laser has an operating push-button switch just in front of the safety-catch position, and again, it is the perfect place for the trigger finger of a right-handed shooter, just push it in from the right-hand side and it comes on. It’s a red-dot laser running off three button batteries, and Crosman supply these in the blister pack, as well as an Allen key to adjust the laser’s position.

To do this there are two Allen studs in the laser’s body at the front; one at the three o’clock position and one at the six. Turning these studs moves the dot left and right and up and down. Crosman give you fantastic instructions for setting up the laser with the three LR41 3-volt batteries, which are also suppled.

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credit: Archant

LASER-PLINKING FUN

I was able to zero in the laser dot very easily, to sit on top of the front post at six yards, by using the supplied Allen key on the two adjusting studs. Plinking with lasers is a whole new level of fun and it really stood out in the loft range, but it works just as well out in the sunshine of the back garden.

The open sights are fixed, and the rear notch has two bright white dots, one on each side of the notch. I found the Night Stalker to be an accurate pistol. Not only do you get the laser, but there is also a 30mm-long Picatinny rail that the laser element fits into. So you can fit a light to have even more fun with a light-and-laser combo.

The trigger on the Night Stalker has a very short reset, so it’s a rapid-firing pistol shot-to-shot, and it weighed in at 3.3 kg, but felt much lighter.

You know when the CO2 bulb is getting low because the hammer doesn’t stay down at full cock, which would indicate that it is ready to fire. You can still carry on firing, but you will have to cock the pistol manually. A good way to do this is just to pull back the top slide and Crosman give you nine grooves on each side to get a hold.

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credit: Archant

VERDICT

Shooting the Night Stalker is great fun. I loved it! It’s a fun system that’s simple to operate and gives a lot of feedback to the shooter. The price you pay, for a full-metal blow-back pistol isn’t bad either – another gem from Crosman.

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