.25 cal. Benjamin Marauder?

[tjwilhelm]

Has anyone checked out the Benjamin Marauder?

.25 cal., repeating, 8-shot, bolt-action, pneumatic rifle: www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Benjamin_Marauder_Air_Rifle/1774

It seems to be getting rave reviews and a friend just picked one up. I'm looking into this as a near-silent option for hunting. Here are a few specs:

•Benjamin Marauder air rifle
•10-shot repeater with auto-indexing feature (.25 ca8 is an 8-shot repeater) (single-shot tray is available for .177 & .25 calibers only)
•Uses compressed air (up to 3,000 psi) (gun comes adjusted for 2,500 psi air fill; to fill to 3,000 psi, make required adjustments as stated in the owner's manual)*
•Can be adjusted for different velocities
•Internal shroud makes this a VERY quiet gun
•Choked barrel delivers superior accuracy
•2-stage adjustable match trigger...and the trigger is metal!
•Raised aluminum breech for easier loading of circular magazine
•Accepts 2-piece scope mount (does not come with sights)
•Hardwood Monte Carlo stock with dual raised cheek-pieces and checkered grip & forearm
•Built-in air pressure gauge (manometer)
•215cc air reservoir
•Air reservoir ends with a male quick-disconnect Foster fitting for fast refills (requires a female Foster quick-disconnect adapter to fill from a scuba tank or hand pump)
•Includes one magazine, sling swivel studs & degassing tool (to remove air or CO2 from reservoir so you can quickly switch to the other gas)

Whadaya think?

[woodyz]

www.amazon.com/Beeman-Dual-Caliber-Rifle-Combo-rifle/dp/B0010DV5Q4
www.airgundepot.com/beeman-rs2-dual-caliber-air-rifle-combo.html
www.amazon.com/Beeman-RS2-Dual-Caliber-Rifle-Combo/sim/B0045R3L0K/2

It just seems high priced to me. You can kill a lot with a beeman for a lot less cost.....but single shot and 1/2 the power......I just don't know

[Cwi555]

I've looked into the large bore hunting variants. 3000 psi appears to be the current standard.
www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Sam_Yang_Big_Bore_44_909_Light_Hunter/394
This one will punch 166 grain 45 caliber bullet out at 740fps for six shots on the tank. Others are the stronger yet, with a few of the higher end ones getting up too 800fps with a 200 grain bullet. Well within the territory of larger game.
However, the catch is in the air charging. The tanks get weaker with successive chargings, and the hand pumps take a long time and a lot of effort to charge. Motorized charging gets around most of that, but the pumps are very expensive, often as much or more than the gun.

In my eyes the only real benifit, is that it is not classified as a 'firearm'.
It can techically be silenced without a silencer stamp (depending on your state).
Other than that, it would be considered cost prohibitive for what it is.

My take on it for what it is.

[marc]

Pretty neat - but I've loved air guns since my first Benjamin pump .177 in 1966. Nowadays, I see higher end air guns as a great hobby item for folks with money to burn. My friends with them can honestly and accurately brag about what they can do, but the cost is high. Hunters are taking big game with air rifles these days. My last experience firing a friend's big bore airgun at high pressure reminded me that it was not a quiet weapon! Long term, I wonder about maintenance and parts for the gun and a air compression.

Like many other areas, we are allowed to put a true high attenuation so called "silencer" suppressor on our guns for a $200. tax stamp.

If you haven't fired a .22lr with subsonic ammo through a suppressor, you don't know what quiet is! Even big rifles with supersonic full-house loads are amazingly tame sounding with a good "can." All of the guys that I shoot with have more than one suppressed gun - except me - because I won't spend the $200 for yet another tax!

BUT - as I said, I love the concept of air guns and it would be great to be able to play in that arena!

Marc

[garret]

i was raised shooting air rifles, compressed spring at first till pre-charged came on the scene, the easiest way to re charge these guns is via divers air bottle and the appropriate regulator hose, it is a lot cheaper and easier than a mechanical pump and a heck of a lot quicker than a manual pump and one of the main benifits of these types of rifles is absolutely no recoil so holding shots on target is much easier

the gun i used for hunting was a theoben rapid 7 in .25 caliber wound up to 60flb of pressure, lots of punch and because the air bottles were removable (like a paint ball gun) you could carry 1 or 2 spare bottles for more shots and on the plus side is that if a bottle fails to hold pressure for any reason it doesnt make the complete gun useless, just swap out the bottles and away you go add 5 or 6 magazines holding 7 pellets each and you can have a fun and cheap days hunting