by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
Benjamin’s new Semiauto Marauder repeating PCP.
This report covers:
- What is it, again?
- JSB Exact Jumbo — huge learning curve!
- Wait a minute!
- String two
- Beeman Kodiak
- JSB Exact Jumbo RS
- Sound level
- Shot count
- More power?
- The trigger
- Summary
Today we start testing the velocity of the new .22-caliber Benjamin Semi-Automatic PCP air rifle (SAM). Your comments to Part 1 were thoughtful and enlightened. I was hoping you readers would understand that this rifle is no more a Marauder than a NASCAR racer is a stock car. And you did!
What is it, again?
The SAM is a semiautomatic air rifle. It looks something like a Marauder, and Crosman has chosen to brand it that way, but this rifle is quite different from what we have all come to know as the Marauder. Some of that will come out today. Let’s get started.
Crosman said they sent this rifle out tuned to around 22 foot-pounds, which they say is around 900 f.p.s., but of course that depends on the pellet. It’s also going to vary a little from rifle to rifle, but since the hammer spring can be adjusted, we can tune it higher.
JSB Exact Jumbo — huge learning curve!
Okay — sometimes BB Pelletier is just as confused as anyone, and this was such a time. The first pellet I tested was the 15.89-grain JSB Exact Jumbo. Let me show you the first shot string.
Shot…………Vel.
1…………….802
2…………….528
3…………….529
4…………….556
5…………….536
6…………….791
… and the magazine was empty! HUH? How did I shoot 10 pellets in 6 shots? Unless…
Wow! The SAM is double-feeding with most shots! I gotta tell my readers about that! Unless…
Wait a minute!
Oh, THAT is what semiautomatic means! I don’t have to pull the bolt back, cock the hammer and reload for the next shot. But I did! I treated the SAM like it is a bolt-action repeater. Crosman, copy that explanation and show it to whoever said the Vigilante is a semiautomatic revolver.
Yes folks, old BB was bamboozled by this plumbum launcher! He forgot it was semiautomatic! Never mind what the title of this report is — old BB plumb forgot.
Okay, erase, erase. BB gets a do-over. This time he’ll make it work.
String two
Same pellet only now BB knows what semiautomatic means. Let’s see.
Shot…………Vel.
1…………….802
2…………….804
3…………….806
4…………….802
5…………….806
6…………….802
7…………….805
8…………….802
9…………….806
10..………….800
So — better numbers, no? The average for this string was 804 f.p.s. At that speed this 15.89-grain pellet generates 22.81 foot-pounds of energy. The velocity spread was a mere 6 f.p.s., which can be attributed to the regulator. So far, so good.
Beeman Kodiak
The next pellet I tested was the obsolete Beeman Kodiak dome, which is an H&N Baracuda by another name. This pellet weighs the same 21.14-grains as the Baracuda and should be the most powerful one I test in the SAM because it’s the heaviest.
The first shot was 537 f.p.s., which I thought was slow. Shot two went out at 688 f.p.s., which was more like it. The last 9 pellets averaged 684.11 f.p.s. At that velocity this pellet generates 21.97 foot-pounds. So the way the rifle is currently set up, the JSB Exact Jumbo is the most efficient. And the real spread for those last 9 shots was just 9 f.p.s.
But what about that first shot? What happened there? I have to know because this cannot be a hunting rifle with that kind of thing happening!
JSB Exact Jumbo RS
The last pellet I shot was the JSB Exact Jumbo RS — a 13.43-grain dome. Ten of them averaged 865 f.p.s. and old BB learned what he did wrong on the first shot of the previous string. He didn’t push the forward assist after inserting the magazine. The manual tells you to do that for a very good reason.
Pushing the forward assist ensures that the bolt probe is all the way forward. When the rifle fires, the inertia of the bolt as it cycles carries it forward all the way, but when you load a new magazine, the bolt probe may not push the pellet far enough into the breech and the velocity will drop. I will prove this in a little bit.
The low for this string was 862 and the high was 867 f.p.s. — a difference of just 5 f.p.s. At the average velocity this pellet generated 22.32 foot-pounds of energy.
Sound level
The SAM is pretty quiet. It registered an 84.3 on my sound meter.
The SAM registered a quiet 84.3 decibels on the sound meter.
Shot count
To this point I have fired 36 pellets on the fill. Now I shot 20 blank shots to avoid wasting all my expensive pellets. That brings us up to 56 shots fired since the fill. The onboard gauge reads about 2,300 psi remaining, and well more than half of the green scale on the pump dial remains. In other words, the rifle is still on the power band. Then I shot another string of JSB RS pellets because I have more of them than the other two types. Let’s see what I got.
Ten RS pellets averaged 864 f.p.s. on this string. That’s just one f.p.s. different than the string 20 shots ago. But this time the high was 873 and the low was 857 f.p.s., so the spread has opened to 16 f.p.s. And that’s 66 shots on the fill.
The next string, which was shots 67 through 76 is shown below.
Shot.…………Vel.
67…………….853
68…………….855
69…………….853
70…………….853
71…………….855
72…………….848
73…………….851
74…………….854
75…………….849
76…………….852
Looking at this string it seems like the rifle is nearing the end of its useful pressure, but even then, at an average 852 f.p.s., the velocity may have fallen (from 864/865 for the RS pellet) but the total variance, low to high, is only 6 f.p.s. The rifle is not off the reg, but it has settled down to a slower average. I think you could still shoot at this average and be fine out to 50 yards, because the difference between this string and the first one is still not that much. That’s at least 76 shots on a fill, when the SAM puts out 22 foot-pounds.
Let’s look at the next string of JSB RS pellets.
Shot.…………Vel.
77…………….593 (I forgot to use the forward assist!)
78…………….850
79…………….839
80…………….841
81…………….831
82…………….828
83…………….840
84…………….833
85…………….828
86…………….830
Here is where we might argue. The SAM is still shooting pretty well, but I think we would have to scale it back to 35 yards. Discounting that first shot for a moment, there is a 22 f.p.s. variation in velocity and the rifle is definitely slowing down. You could still shoot it and do okay, but maybe not on those farthest targets. Let’s add 4 more shots and say the SAM has about 90 shots for 25-35 yard plinking and at least 60 good consistent shots for long-range hunting, when the hammer spring is set as it came from the factory.
After 86 shots on one 3,000 psi fill, this is where the SAM pressure gauge reads.
Secondly, I forgot to use that forward assist after inserting the magazine and there is the velocity drop again. So that’s what it is and don’t let anyone tell you different. The magazine has functioned perfectly in this test.
More power?
Yes, there is more power available and I will adjust the rifle to get it for you. But not today. We’re already doing too many things in this report.
The trigger
Here is something else I’m not going to change. I like this trigger — for this rifle! It has a long, smooth second-stage pull that I can work with. But I’ll show you what it looks like inside.
The SAM trigger parts, as shown in the manual.
Trigger pull
The two stage trigger has a 5.7-ounce first stage, followed by a long second stage that breaks at 2 lbs. 5 ounces. It’s not what I’m familiar with, but I like it.
And I am going to recommend that you always store the rifle with the safety on. Remember — this rifle is a real semiautomatic. As long as there is air in the reservoir, it will fire when the trigger is pulled.
Summary
By golly, we got through it. But next time we’re going to adjust the power up and do it all over again. I hope I can remember to push that forward assist!
So I succumbed to the FWB Sport on sale at Champions Choice. After doing that I started to look for scope mounts. Should have done it the other way around. The FWB mounts are out of stock at Pyramyd and places overseas are not shipping Sportsmatch to the Us now for some reason. So which mounts from BKL were the choice for your test BB?
MMCM13,
It was linked in Part 4 of my 8-part report.
/product/bkl-1-pc-mount-4-long-1-rings-3-8-or-11mm-dovetail-6-base-screws-007?a=2895
BB
MMCM13,
Awesome! I think you are really going to like that air rifle. You should shoot it a bit with the open sights.
Oh, and just so you know. Should you ever get tired of her, just contact us at RidgeRunner’s Home For Wayward Airguns and we will see if we can provide her with accommodations. 😉
B.B.
Please do an accuracy test with the double feed! What a great feature for “throwing lead down range”.
Finally a replica gun that does something the original can not!
Reminds me of that Double Mint chewing gum commercial…..
-Y
Yogi,
I don’t think so! Why abuse a perfectly good air rifle? You buy one and test it, then give us a guest blog.
BB
Why would that be abuse?
Did the designers and lawyers not know about that feature?
-Y
Yogi,
Most any pellet rifle can be doubled loaded, semi-auto or not. Why is this one different? Heck, you can even do it on your break barrel springers.
Chris
A few years ago, Tom wrote about a break barrel that was a double barrel rifle, and fired both barrels at once.
Ian…
Ian,
I remember that. Over/under? For some reason I was thinking it was either barrel, not both. At any rate,.. they were cheap enough that I for sure thought that they would show up on Wally World shelves,.. but they never did. I was going to pick one up for the shear novelty of it thought they might be a collector item down the road.
If not they are not around any more and only a few were sold,.. I would think that they would be somewhat collectable. Maybe not.
Chris
Yogi,
It’s not a feature. It was a mistake in operation. I made a joke of it, but it shouldn’t be done.
BB
Tom, I have looked at the photos of the SAM, online, I see the bolt / cocking lever, but can you show us the forward assist?
Or is it just push the bolt handle forward after cocking it?
Thanks.
Ian.
Ian,
It’s the round knob above the charging handle.
BB
Thank you.
I thought that was just the ear of the bolt to show it was cocked.
B.B.,
Does that shrouded barrel have any baffles at the end? I have seen double feeds damage the baffles in airguns that have them. A fellow airguner with YouTube channel showed his Urban with the baffles broken after he accidentally double fed it. I double fed my Urban a few times when I first got it, before I learned to pull the bolt completely back. Luckily, the baffles were not damaged in my Urban. Gamo does not make the baffles available for purchase. He found a fellow that makes a replacement baffle system using a 3-D printer. The replacement was quieter than the original. With so little clearance through the baffles, I would think baffle damage could occur on any airgun with a double feed.
Geo
Geo
My SAM has 6 or 7 baffles. Can’t remember exactly how many right now.
But yes I had the shroud off for 2 reasons. One basically to see if they used back pressure in the shroud to cock the the action like FX and Hatsan does with thier semi autos and Crosman does not.
And 2nd I wanted to just for the heck of it see if my SAM was more accurate with the shroud off. It wasn’t. Still real accurate with it off or on.
Yogi,
You that poor of shot that you need to launch 2 projectiles at once to improve your chances at hitting something? 😉
I was shooting the Red Wolf with the shot tray one time and did a double feed (by mistake). At 30 yards, they hit about 1″ low and about an 1/2″ apart. So there is your test! 🙂
I remember it as it was the first shot(s) at the target, so 2 holes with 1 shot was easy to spot. It also sounded slightly different as it was most surely slower. I remember being a bit shocked that it did that well. And no,.. I will not purposely be doing that again.
Chris
BB,
Looking good thus far. I am glad that the regulator is showing no signs of lag/being slow. I assume that you just shot it at a nice comfortable pace/time between shots?
Perhaps a rapid fire test (with chrony) to put the reg. to the test?
Looking forwards to more testing.
Chris
Chris,
I never even thought about and regulator lag. It worked as fast as I did.
BB
BB,
Well,.. you have had some trouble with slow regs. in recent test(s),… so that always sticks in my mind. Plus, with this being a true semi-auto,.. a slow to recover reg. is something that would be a complete deal killer.
You know there will be people that will pull the trigger just as fast as they can.
Chris
Chris
And there is people like Gunfun1 that will pull the trigger faster than it can bepulled. A joke ok. 😉
GF1,
Good for you on giving it the super hard core test!!!!!
Nice job on finding the regular M-rod magazine will work too (with spring tweak for “super” rapid fire).
🙂 Chris
Chris
The SAM is way cool. It does everything the regular Marauder rifle does plus more.
I have over 2000 rounds through mine and it super accurate and here is the key word. RELIABLE
It doesn’t leak and it doesn’t miss fire and again its accurate and gets alot of shots per fill. Oh and its quiet.
Crosman got it right. I have had some other semi auto pcps that were high end as well as ones that was equal in price as the SAM. The SAM blows them away.
And you know ole Gunfun1. I was for sure going to try the regular Marauder rifle mag in my SAM no matter what. But I will say if the SAM mag was available i would probably get it. But that’s the whole problem that got me on trying the regular mags. The SAM mags were not available. To me that’s a bummer. What do you do if that SAM mag was the only one that worked and it wasn’t available yet. Seriously I would be mad. That means that gun would be down over a $15 part. And for how long. That just ain’t right.
GF1,
2000 shots already?!!!!! What?,… you have had that thing for all of a week?!!! 😉
Go get em’ Tiger! 🙂
Chris
Chris
I have had it for exactly 10 days today.
First off I bet we put a tin of 500 through it at my brother’s the other day. We shot it only, no other guns from sun up till sundown with of course some eating breaks and some cold beverages inbetween.
And I have been off since the 23 and again its the only gun I have been shooting. And yes from sun up to sundown.
And I’m sure you know by now I’m serious about shooting. What I keep gathering about this everytime it comes up that people are trying real hard to shoot good and wearing theirselves out.
Just relax and shoot. You will see how much more enjoyable it is when you do.
Don’t kill yourself trying to eyeball that bullseye on the target and stress out on your hold.
When you let it become natural is when you will do your best.
I got reminded about that when my grandson was learning to walk by himself last night. He did fine till he realized what he was doing. Then he was aware and down he went on his butt.
Really I don’t ever feel like I’m wore out shooting. I don’t know what else to say.
BB,
There are a few features about this air rifle that I do not like, but you almost have me persuaded to seriously consider one. I am still likely to get a Marauder before I bought this thing, but If I should I may try to get my hands on that regulator.
RR,
I would just get one of these, it has a regulator.
/brands/benjamin?mid=31
Don
Don,
To which Benjamin are you referring to? Your link does not really go anywhere.
Sorry, trying to get used to a new tablet.
I was referring to the Field and Target with the regulator, weaver base,and option for the L/W barrel.
I will probably be getting the semi-auto, just can’t justify it right now.
Don
The F&T would be a good one, but I would be more interested in the Maximus. I am also trying to find out about the Fortitude.
RR
I would get the SAM over a regular Marauder anyday. They work for multiple reasons.
BB,
Did you ever get another Fortitude in? I know I did a foolish thing and read some of the reviews on the PA site, but you also had problems with the first one and was wondering if it was a hit or miss kind of thing.
RR,
I never did.
BB
Waoh. I was just up at Crosman’s site and just about all of their PCP’s are “Currently out of stock”. I think they are having importation issues.
It looks like the Chinese bio-weapon is going to affect all of us airgunners.
RR,
EEEEAK!!!! Pretty bad when the main source is out of their own stuff. That will trickle down, if not already. Thankfully I am (not) hot on the trail of a new purchase. Nothing worse than having the “burning brain/constant drool/gotta have it now” syndrome and not being able to get your fix.
Now there is a “new” covid that is more infectious by 70% that is making the rounds in the news abroad and now stateside. No more lethal, but you know the powers that be will be playing that for all it’s worth. 2020,.. Part II,……. 🙁
Hopefully things will be getting back to normal sooner, rather than later. Speaking of China, covid is said to be way worse over there in reality despite them reporting zero cases. Who knows for sure just how bad the supply chain is actually affected over there? We may be in for a good long dry spell.
Chris
Chris and RR
That’s because all the vendors already have a supply in stock to sell from Crosman. 😉
I was just trying to look at it a different way. 🙂
GF1,
True optimism. Unfortunately, the only place I can find the Crosman that I am interested in is at the airgun dealer in the SW USA.
RR
Tell me what your looking for.
GF1,
I am still thinking of the Maximus.
RR
There is a place in Columbia Mo. that have the .22 Maximus in stock and on sale for $154. And right now they have free shipping on orders over $50.
If you don’t know what place I’m talking about email me and I’ll let you know.
#$%&^$$%#$#,
I did not need to know that.
RR
Sorry. Just trying to help out.
RR,
Also,.. I am hearing that Crosman did away with their free shipping on Friday’s. Now it is like free with a $75.00 purchase,… or something to that effect.
Chris
Chris,
I do not know, but it is way too easy to spend more than that.
ridge runner…reports say the holdup of air rifles from China is they are putting COVERT-19 virus in the air tank so when fired the whole area is saturated with the virus. but they say if you wear a tin foil hat you will be protected
This one seems a keeper and not a bad one to plunge into PCP World. One question, do not see open or fixed sights on this rifle, though RidgeRunner mentioned them. Perhaps FM is more than half-blind and missed something? As for the shortages from the source of most things airgun, still say this provides a fantastic opportunity for an American designer/manufacturer to fill the gap and, better yet, make it permanent. The less we are dependent on overseas manufacturers, the better off we will be.
Things overall are pretty bleak. At two Bass Pros FM walked into in the past week, one in Cary NC and one in Gainesville FL, there was practically nothing available in terms of firearm ammunition and not much in the way of airguns or airgun supplies. Neither had stocks of .22 pellets. Interestingly, the store in Cary had two boxes of .22 Hornet in stock, but no other .22, shorts, longs/LR. Let us pray for better times. Meantime, those who can still shoot should keep having fun shooting. A Blessed and safe 2021 to all!
Basil,
There are no open sights on the SAM.
BB
BB,
The SAM is looking to be a nice rifle for general use – its got decent power and shot count, if it will hold 1 inch groups out to 35-40 yards that would be great for 95% of the shooters. IMHO, 22 fpe is pretty well ideal for squirrels and rabbits.
Might I recommend that you test the accuracy before going for more power.
Judging by the ES and shot count the rifle is nicely tuned to the knee of the power curve for this particular regulator pressure setting. Think the gun has been optomized, just tweaking the hammer spring (and not the reg) might cause problems.
Just thinking, another consideration is how sensitive the semi-automatic is mechanism is changes in tune – too much power might throw off the “timing” as much as too little power. That might be fun to explore.
Testing accuracy at the factory tune and a power tune might show some interesting results. Found that many (.22 caliber) airguns are most accurate at the mid 800s ( plus or minus 30 fps), the SAM is at the low end but it is running efficiently.
Looking forward to the rest of the series!
Hank
Hank,
Let me find out if I can adjust it back to where it is now first. If I can do that then adjusting to high power is reversable.
BB
Hank
I tuned mine up and down. It shot just as accurate on all settings of the striker spring. And absolutely no cycling problems on any of the settings.
Crosman got something right with thier semi auto action. It blows away the FX Monsoons I had as well as the two different semi auto Hatsan’s I had. And come to think of it the Evonix Speed I had.
BB, That little Umarex compressor isn’t the right one for this gun. The Covid needs at least 65% alcohol content to disolve the fatty lipid outer layer of the protein. Vodka wont work, needs to be grain. Anti bacterials dont work because its a virus, not considered a life form. Soap and hot water is the best overall solution, not a tin foil hat you morons. Have a nice day.
Rob
1stblue
Why do you say the Umarex compressor is not right for the SAM?
BB
I’m glad you got yourself to keep your hand off the bolt when you shoot. Keep the trigger finger by the trigger on a semi auto ok. 😉
And yep the forward assist button. I wasn’t sure how that worked when I got the gun which was basically when you did part one on the SAM. What I got into the habit of doing is when I load a new mag I push the bolt in then no matter what I push the bolt assist in. Zero problems when doing it that way.
And isn’t it crazy the shot count the guns getting and how consistent from shot to shot. Oh and no regulator lag at all. I have shot several targets emptying the mag at a rapid rate. Not as fast as I can pull the trigger but definitely faster than you would normal target shoot and I’m easy keeping the groups in a one inch circle at 50 yards. And I’m getting even better groups sizes if I take my time between shots. Like say about 2 seconds between shots.
And the trigger. I tryed adjusting the trigger position forward and farther back as well as the trigger pressure screw. I found that the trigger position was good from the factory which is the .050″ Allen wrench. And then the trigger pressure screw I adjusted it as light as it would go. That gives me the best pull when I do target shoot at paper. But it is one of those triggers that you just have to pull through and let that happen while you hold on the bullseye. Now rapid fire plinking the trigger is great. Once you get the feel of the trigger as to where the trigger is home and then the spot the shot goes off it’s pretty controllable. My trigger moves about a 1/4″ from when I touch the trigger till the time the shot goes off. Again very controllable once you get use to it and it is a pretty light pull when set like I have it.
Oh just to mention I have read that the regulator is set around 1700 psi. My gun seems to be around 1200 psi when it comes off the regulator but thinking more the regulator is probably set higher. I’m going by when I see my poi start dropping on the target. And that is at about 90 shots. And I did check and my gun is set at 3-1/2 turns in from the factory for the striker spring adjustment. I’m getting pretty well around a average of 850 fps with AirArms 16 grn. and JSB 15.89 grn. pellets. The Crosman Premiere 14 grn. pellets are shooting right at about 890 fps. And all 3 of the pellets are shooting with the same accuracy in my gun.
And one last thing. I had it at my brother’s the other day and let him shoot it. He said it reminded him of when we was kids plinking with our .22 rimfire semi autos. He said he’s getring one. He loved it. He tryed to get me to leave it with him for a while. You know the answer to that I’m sure. NO WAY. 🙂
GF1,
Does the hammer spring adjustment screw stop when you adjust it in all the way? I want to count the turns, so I can return it to where it’s at now after I test the rifle at high power.
Crosman says when you get 6 turns out the screw keeps turning without doing anything.
BB
BB
Crosman is right when your turning the adjustment screw in for more spring pressure.
What I did is count how many turns out (counter clockwise) till the screw stopped. Its a positive stop and as you start backing out you can see the screw and see it stop.
So to go back to the factory setting I just screwed back in till I was at that many turns again that I backed the screw out.
GF1,
Thanks. That’s what I needed to know.
BB
BB and all
Got some interesting info that may help out some people that have the SAM already or people thinking about getting the SAM.
They only come with one mag and Crosman has no SAM mags available yet for extras orifyou did happen to break your one and only mag that comes with the SAM.
Well something just got delivered by FedEx. And I thought I had some but I only have some for the .177 and .25 caliber Marauders. So I ordered 2 of the regular Marauder 10 shot rifle mags to try in my SAM.
Guess what they work fine. I just got through using the two regular Marauder rifle mags in my SAM I just got. One mag shot at a paper target and the other one I shot rapidfire plinking at a can. Zero problem they work fine.
Crosman probably isn’t going to like that the cat is out of the bag. But oh well. They should of had extra SAM mags already available for the SAM. Did they really think that someone wouldn’t try.
BB if you have a regular .22 caliber 10 shot Marauder rifle mag give it a try if you want in your SAM. If not ok. I know that isn’t your gun. But seriously it works fine.
GF1,
That’s something I didn’t know.
BB
BB
I didn’t know either. But I wanted extra mags that I could have filled with pellets and ready. I didn’t feel like waiting around for Crosman to release the SAM mags.
I was pretty positive they was going to work after comparing the SAM mag with the other Marauder and Gauntlet mags I have. I just didn’t have any of the regular Marauder .22 mags so that’s why I had to order some.
The only thing different is the hole in the front clear cover of the SAM mag and regular Marauder mag. And I just chronyed and no difference in velocity.
GF1,
Please keep a watch on accuracy. There has to be a reason Crosman would make a different mag for the SAM. It costs them more to manage extra SKUs.
BB
BB
Just shot 4 mags full of the regular Marauder mags from the same tin of AirArms 16 grn. pellets that I been using since yesterday and accuracy on 3 of the mags I shot equaled the groups of the SAM mag. The 4th mag I just shot was a better group than the others.
So all good there. I think the SAM mag is a bunch of hipe to sell mags. Especially since they only include one with the gun.
GF1,
Thanks for checking.
BB
BB
No problem.
BB
I believe I read something to the effect that the hole was a tad larger to avoid any possible problems with the rapid return of the bolt and feeding the next pellet. May have been a video?
Sounds like they may have had a reliability problem with the original Marauder mags and they cured it.
Now if it cycles really fast then I can see a Tri-Burst trigger adapter, made exclusively for this airgun of course, a no brainer. Remember those things from way back when?
Bob M
Bob M
I measured the holes and the diameter is basically the same other than the obvious hole in the regular Marauder mag is bigger that allows 2 pellets to be loaded instead of one.
GF1
So much for my rememberer. Perhaps it was a stronger or bigger spring? Had to be something to change it. Beveled opening? Or simply as suggested, a better way to transfer money from your wallet to theirs? A bigger hole in your wallet!
Bob M
To me it looks and feels like the springs are the same. Even the rotating thing inside the mag looks the same. The main black outside case looks the same. The only thing I see different between the 2 mags is the clear front cover that I mentioned somewhere else in the comments.
Other than rewinding the springs tighter in the SAM mag and the regular Marauder rifle mag so I could make sure I didn’t have any indexing problems. I had no problem using either in my SAM.
You have a SAM and I thought you said a. 22 Armada and Marauder. Or maybe I’m mistaken. But if you do why don’t you try one of the mags in your SAM. But I will say that you will need to wind your springs tighter to keep from having misfires.
Let me know if you try.
Well, let’s see. I have the Disco in .22, I have two Marauders – one in .22 and the other in .177. Do I need a fourth Crosman PCP with a regulator and semi auto to boot? Or do I save all my retirement funds to leave to my kids when I’m pushing up daisies? I guess I’ll wait for the accuracy test 🙂
Fred formerly of the Democratik Peeples Republik of NJ now Happily in GA
Fred
I’m afraid your going to end up with another Marauder in semi auto this time. 🙂
Fred,
Are you sure that Disco does not want to move into RRHFWA?
RidgeRunner of the Democratik Peeples Republik of VA soon to be of the Democratik Peeples Republik of USA
That Disco with scope and noise attenuator got my first 5 squirrels back in the Peeples Republik (had to thin out the herd in the backyard). They were trying (and succeeding) in getting into my house so I’m kind of sentimentally attached to it. I can’t part with stuff that I’m sentimentally attached to which is one of my many problems. Down here, the hawks seem to keep things under control. Dang.
I understand about sentimentality. My 1906 BSA is going nowhere.
RidgeRunner of the Democratik Peeples Republik of VA soon to be of the Democratik Peeples Republik of USA
Fred
My daughters said “Dad, go ahead and get a Lamborghini if it makes you happy … we can always sell it off for the money after your gone” 🙁 So I told them “You better learn about airguns then”
I have two Armadas, three Marauders and now a SAM and every one of them is different in one way or another.
Bob M
Hey all you folks out there in airgun land!
I would like to hear from y’all who have bought one of the Gen 2 Fortitudes. How many are happy? How many are sad? How many are angry? Yadayadayada.
RR
I’ll wait to answer about the one I had. Let’s see what others say first.
GF1,
I noticed you said had. That tells me something right there.
RR
Yep you got it. My Fortitude was not very accurate.
The Maximus barrel making process must not of been used with the Fortirude or I’m just too spoiled with accuracy.
And since we are here. They must be using the new barrel making process with the .22 semi auto Marauder.
I had two gen1 .22 caliber Marauders and one gen2 .22 caliber Marauder. The ones I had didn’t shoot very accurate.
I’ll just say right off the bat my SAM is not pellet picky. Hopefully that’s a good sign they used the new barrel process.
I hope so also. You could stand a nice Crosman for a change.
RR
I got a good bunch of Crosmans. But those .22 regular Marauder rifles seemed to be a crap shoot.
On the other hand I had a couple .22 marauder pistols and they was very accurate.
Well something to know about the regular Marauder rifle mags.
Same scenario as I mentioned in part one about the SAM magazine.
If I shoot (fast fire) the mags work fine and when I say mags I mean the regular Marauder mags and the SAM mag. But if I shoot very (rapid fire) I would get a miss fire because the mags couldn’t keep up with ole Gunfun1’s trigger finger.
So just like I mentioned in part one I had to wrap the SAM mag spring a little tighter. Same for the regular Marauder mags I just got today. Now all the mags will (rapid fire) as fast as I can pull the trigger.
And yes same accuracy with all mags.
I’m editing this comment.
Thinking more about this magazine thing.
BB maybe you should give Crosman a ring and see what they say about why the regular Marauder rifle magazine won’t work since you have talked to the designers of the SAM. I’m curious to hear what they say.
Gunfun1,
Your the MAN!
Perfect lead-in to a site I found to share with you (on your post about working on the Wing Shot’s striker spring preload) and the rest of the Readership…Oh! and B.B. too.
It was looking for some information about Thomas rifles and in the search this company popped up:
https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/machinery-tools-supplies/types-of-springs/
They have a great set of resources and one is ALL ABOUT Springs. As many kinds of springs as we airgunners need to contend with it is interesting how little many of us know about the “simple” things ;^)
It sounds like you have springs under control but you might like the resource for all the other stuff regardless.
They have some pretty deep stuff that interests me… I’m not so sure just how much the airgun designers are limited by TRADITIONAL METHODS and how much is the Bean Counters but Modders/Tinkerers seem to be the place most of the breakthroughs have been coming from in the past few decade, Lloyd comes to mind as well as Tim at Mac1.
shootski
Shootski
Its amazing what those springs control in our PCP’s, Co2 guns, multi pumps and break barrels and under levers.
Cars and work taught me alot about springs.
And it all makes a big difference.
GF1
You ain’t kidding there. I had a carburetor return spring brake on my 4BBL 351ci, 69 Mustang at a stop light and go full throttle on me. Glass packs made it apparent real quick and made me the center of attention. Ignition off! No help! Too hot already. Had to go out and shut it down by hand. I now have two springs where there used to be one. I also removed the hood locks too.
I was just waiting for it to explode while I was leaning over it. Get the shakes just thinking about it.
Bob M
Yep I always had 2 springs on my old muscle cars. Matter of fact when I use to drag race and tech the cars in that was one of the checks we done on the cars.
Gunfun1,
Can you provide more detail on how much more tension you put on the old style mags to get them to work? Did you just move the spring one hole tighter or did you add another revolution to the mage sprocket? Or, maybe a combination of the two? Thanks.
ptarnuzzer
You just have to see where the pressure is at when the mag indexer is home. Basically no pellets in the mag after all pellets have fired.
I made sure ther was still spring tension for 3 or so more shots after the rotating indexer was home if that makes sense.
My SAM mag and regular Marauder mags didn’t have any more pressure when there was 3 to 4 more shots left in the mag.
You just have to make sure the mag will rotate all the pellets out with some spring tension still left.
.
Thanks! I think I understand what you mean. I have a SAM coming, it should be here later this week, so I’ll see how the SAM mag compares to my old style mags and adjust accordingly. I have probably a dozen old style mags laying around to play with, so I may adjust them differently and see which one works the best!
ptarnuzzer
When you get it let me know what you think of the SAM and how the other mags work out.
There is some other mods I know to do on the mags too if you want to shoot super fast and reliable.
I ordered some more regular Marauder rifle mags and I’ll be modding them. I’ll post a picture of what the mag looks like when I’m done. I learned how to do it when I had my FX Monsoons when they was having cycling problems. The FX Monsoons mags are similar to the Marauder mags.
And reply to my comment because I usually don’t check back on old blogs. Or give me a holler on the current day blog ok. If ypu post at the bottom I might not see it.
Will do! I called Crosman this morning and ordered 3 spare SAM Mags (Part Number: RC 2210 B100). They call them .22 10 Shot — Rev. A. I’m hoping the SAM ships today and I’ll have it by the end of the week. I did take 3 of my old style mages and gave the sprocket an extra turn to increase the spring tension. I’m not sure if this will be too much tension, but it was a lot easier than trying to insert the end of the spring into a different hole in the mag case! My eyes and dexterity just aren’t what they used to be! I’m very interested in hearing the other mods you have done and seeing your modified magazine! Thank you for your help!
I hated the lack of a stop on the trigger before it fires so I made a position adjustable ‘3rd stage trigger stop’.
I bought two MEETOOP Spring Pluger Locking Pins for $10 from Amazon. The pins’ initial push weight is 1 Lbs.
I adjusted the trigger position full back (see the owner’s manual). Drilled a hole in the lower portion of the straight vertical rear section of the trigger guard so the lower portion of the trigger would hit the pin when it was pulled. The hole was just big enough to allow a lock pin to screw into the guard’s soft material. The hole could have been bigger, but I wanted it to screw in. The pull ring interfered with my fingers, so I took off the pins pull ring and replaced it with a short bent wire to hold the pin in place. I screwed in the pin w/ a supplied nut both in front and behind the trigger guard. Screwed the lock pin out a small amount so that the trigger stops when it hits the pin and only travels a short distance before it fires.
I now have a perfect semi-auto trigger with a light pull, a clear stop and a letoff at 3-1/4 Lbs with minimal travel at the stop. Pull weight should be adjustable with both the factory settings and the pins position if you want.
treniets,
If you have pictures that sounds like a perfect guest blog. 🙂
BB
Fire!
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