When I unboxed the Crosman M1 my first thought was, “What a great looking airgun!” Although the stock is synthetic, it still looks nice. The instruction manual, which is a must-read before using any firearm, is thorough. I recommend that the shooter pay particular attention to the instructions regarding the safety selector, as there are three positions to choose from. Safe, single-shot and full auto. Yes, full auto! The selector switch is a bit small, but it does latch noticeably into position, so once you know where those spots are, you will feel it move to each selection.
Crosman has an excellent short video on its website that details how to operate the gun. Loading the BBs is easy with a latching door for the reservoir, which holds approximately 300 BBs under the forward portion of the forearm of the gun. 
The gun has a 25-round magazine consisting of a tray that is filled by pulling the tab on the forward-most portion of the forearm while the gun is upside down, as if you were loading the BB reservoir. I found that after pulling the tab straight out until it clicked, it was best to firmly but slowly shake the gun horizontally left and right to make sure the magazine got loaded fully. Taking a few quick shakes did not do the job nearly as well resulting in fewer than 25 BBs in the magazine.
Also, if you try to shut the magazine latch and it is not firmly seated, you need to pull it back out, shake the gun a bit and then try again and seat the latch until you feel it seat. This is not a problem to do; I am just mentioning it because I had it happen. (I suspect that the magazine was super full, and BBs may have been in the way of it easily shutting fully.)
The gun is powered by two CO2 cartridges, which are loaded conveniently into the buttstock with the included allen wrench, which is kept there as well. The first cartridge loads nose-first, followed by the second cartridge, which is nose-up, or with both noses of the cartridges pointing away from each other and the bottoms touching each other. The allen wrench needs to be turned approximately five times to close the cartridges and seal them. The instructions say to put a drop of oil on each nose of the cartridges to help them seal. So, be sure you have some Crosman Pellgunoil on hand.
First, a few words about safety. BB guns are fun, but they are not toys. Eye protection is a must! Always wear eye pro, because the BBs can bounce when fired if they hit hard surfaces.
I tested this gun during extremely cold weather in early January. Cold temperatures can reduce the amount of shots one can get from a CO2 cartridge. However, that being noted, I did manage to get a little over 200 shots from each dual load of CO2 cartridges I used, when shooting a mix of semi-auto firing and a few magazines of full-auto firing. I suspect if I was shooting in warmer temperatures or slowed down my rate of fire, I would get closer to 300 shots per refill of CO2.
The gun has an adjustable rear sight and a fixed-blade front sight. The gun weighs approximately 4 lbs. and is 36" long. The trigger pull averages around 8.2 lbs. of effort. The BBs fly up to 430 feet per second (fps) until the CO2 starts to give out, when you notice them lobbing to the target. Using the gun on full auto obviously reduces how fast the BBs will fly near the end of the CO2 life, and shooting full auto also reduces how many shots total you might squeeze out of two cylinders of CO2 as well.
And yes, of course, the full auto feature is fun! The magazine capacity of 25 actually allows users to better stay on target before the recoil takes the gun up and away from the target. In fact, this gun was very pleasant to shoot.
It was easy to operate, sized appropriately, and would be easily used by (supervised) older kids as well as adults. A larger framed younger person could also find it easy to use. I did notice the trigger pull seems a bit long, and when you fire the gun you have to completely and noticeably release the trigger to get the next BB ready to go downrange when firing on the semi-automatic selection. The gun is quiet enough that a large backyard is plenty adequate for using this gun.
How accurate is the gun? Well, I will answer that by saying that if you want to hit a can at a range of 20 yards you will hit it pretty much each time. The gun is not designed to win shooting competitions, but it is “backyard fun accurate,” and even on full auto when you spray a can, many of the BBs will hit the can, particularly if you can control the little bit of recoil.
Out of all the recent tests I have done with full auto BB guns, I think this one may be my favorite for ease of use, handling and its looks. If I was being picky, I think I would like to see the instruction manual with a larger font, the trigger pull a tad lighter ... and maybe the safety switch a bit larger. Overall, the gun is a pleasure to shoot and it looks cool. It has just enough old-fashioned military flair to be interesting. The price points tend to be around $130. Crosman.com.
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