The Crosman Prospect PCP air rifle is a new addition to the range. HAM readers first heard about it in our report from the 2024 SHOT Show. At a Street Price of $369.99, it’s a high end model for the Crosman brand. Only the Challenger target rifle is a more expensive Crosman airgun.
So what’s it like? We’ll take a look in this overview…
The first thing you notice when picking-up the Prospect is that it’s a surprisingly heavy air rifle! At a time when synthetics are making an ever-larger contribution to the construction of “value priced” PCP air rifles and reducing their weight, the Prospect weighs-in at a chunky 8 Lbs 8 Oz.
With the Hawke AirMax Touch scope mounted for this post, the weight climbed to 10 Lbs 1 Oz.
The reason for this is that the Crosman Prospect PCP air rifle is manufactured in the traditional fashion from steel parts. Apart from the magazine and fill cap, the only synthetic part I could find was the stock – and that itself was very substantial.
So, if you like traditional feeling PCPs, the Prospect could well appear to you. The weight balances quite well forward, exactly through where I instinctively placed my forward hand. Very good!
In many respects, the Prospect has what has become a very conventional specification for a PCP air rifle that retails at well under $400. Just ten years ago, this combination of price and performance would have been completely unimaginable, such has been the headlong progress of PCP technology in that time. It’s good to be an airgunner in 2024!
The Crosman Prospect PCP air rifle has a regulated action with a sidelever and rotary magazine pellet feed.
The calibers available are .177 and .22. The mags hold 12 rounds in the smaller caliber, 10 in the larger.
These magazines provide a clear indication of the number of pellets remaining, as we can see from the photograph below. However they do not have a block to prevent discharge after all the pellets in a magazine have been fired.
Should you prefer single-loading, a single shot tray is supplied with every Prospect, in addition to one magazine. Both mags and tray snap easily into place in the breech well.
There’s power adjustment by means of the transfer port restrictor on the side of the breech.
Unlike many such devices, this is not provided with a set of detent positions, it rotates freely, if heavily when turned. Most shooters will just leave it in the full open position.
In addition, there’s a hammer spring tension adjuster in the conventional position at the rear of the action. This gives another method of power adjustment that’s easy to do with a 5 mm Allen (hex) wrench that’s included with the gun.
The top of the breech has a full set of Picatinny “teeth” machined in it. This provides plenty of flexability for scope mounting. Even with an unconventional scope like the AirMax Touch with it’s “almost zero” eye relief caused no issues with installation.
The stock is solid and comfortable to grasp. There’s an adjustable comb to the buttstock. I raised this a little to attain an ideal cheek weld for myself. It was easy to do, just loosen two screws…
That stock has an unusual design with an aggressive pistol grip and “almost thumbhole” style. I think the look grew on me with familiarity and I definitely found it comfortable in use.
Personally, I would have liked to have a couple of sling swivel studs installed, but “it is what it is”. Perhaps many shooters will not have my liking for slings on air rifles…
The trigger is a two-stage job that’s adjustable if you really want. Out of the box, the pull weight was a consistent 3 Lb 12 Oz.
I found this perfectly acceptable in my unstructured testing. (My wife calls it playing!) This is not intended to be a formal, comprehensive HAM test review of the Prospect, after all.
The manual safety is of the push-pull type within the trigger guard. When engaged, it covers much of the trigger blade from finger pressure, providing clear indication to the shooter that the gun is not ready to fire.
I mentioned earlier that the Crosman Prospect PCP air rifle is regulated. With a regulator set pressure of 1,600PSI, the regulated shooting pressure range is clearly indicated by the green area in the pressure gauge.
As with almost all Crosman and Benjamin PCPs, the gauge is in a safe-to-read location in the underside of the stock. You don’t need to “look down the barrel” to check the pressure with the Prospect. Very good!
I did run a quick shot string across the Chronograph. This showed the .177 sample gun producing an average of 867 FPS with 10.5 Grain Benjamin Match Grade pellets. That’s 17.5 Ft/Lbs of Muzzle Energy.
As for accuracy, it was clear that this gun REALLY liked the HAM Gold Award-winning 10.5 Grain Benjamins. That would be my choice of pellet to start with your Prospect!
The Prospect is fitted with a shrouded barrel. This makes for a “backyard friendly” report, particularly with the relatively heavy .177 pellets I was shooting.
However the barrel has a threaded muzzle so that a dedicated airgun silencer can be fitted if desired and where legal.
The Prospect’s HPA tube accepts a maximum fill pressure of 3,600 PSI. Connectivity is by means of the familiar “Foster fitting” system.
I found a smear of silicone grease around the fill nozzle’s external O ring made it so much easier to remove and replace the tube cap. That’s the first “upgrade” to make to the Prospect!
While we’re considering the fill nozzle, this can also be used to degass the gun by using the supplied degassing rod and 1.5 mm Allen key.
Overall, I found the Crosman Prospect PCP Air Rifle to be a worthy player in the sub-$400 market. In this brief, unstructured, personal review the sample gun functioned and performed well.
You can find out more at the Crosman website.
Don’t forget that HAM Community members can save an additional 20% by redeeming 1,000 HAM Airgun Points in the Crosman online store. That would bring the price down to around $295.99 with free shipping. Now that would be excellent value!
