Page 6 - Benjamin Trail NP XL Reviews

First of all this is a beautiful rifle! Accuracy is superb stacking pellets at 32 yards! It consistently hits the mark every time! Trigger pull is crisp and clean, shoulders well.

Nothing really, a superb hard hitting accurate machine!

Power allows me to use copper clad pellets without any great loss of fps. Thumb hole stock is sweet Accuracy is impeccable. More fun than my AK47, any day. Yes, i prefer being on target

Not a must, just a preference, changed out trigger. I got a Chalie da Tuna trigger prior to delivery of my favorite rifle

Charlie da Tuna trigger. Get it while you can. Im in love

lots of power. @ 40 yards, punches holes clean through 1/2 inch plywood. poor little animals... good accuracy & grouping (only with) JSB Monster 13.4 gr. pellets.

Need to weld the weaver scope mount rail on a lot stronger. After about 400 shots, my Trail XL 1500 started shooting all over the place, and I found a hair line crack through the weaver rail welds. Lots of other reviews mention this same problem. If they would fix this weld problem, this would be a really sweet gun.

for .177 cal. The JSB Monster 13.43 gr pellets grouped (A LOT) better than these other pellets: Crossman premier 10.5, JSB beast 16.2 gr, and H&N sniper 14.97 gr

couldn't ask for much more in a 260 dollar break barrel. It's solid,shoots well,haven't had any issues. Hard hitting,almost the perfect .25 cal,single shot air rifle. I'm really happy with it. Started off with break barrels,then,bought a bunch of high quality pcp's,which I love,but wanted another b-b. So here we are.

I've read complaints about the trigger and piston seal. For now everything is fine as frog's hair. May upgrade those components later. So, no changes thus far. Changing the trigger looks easy enough but haven't found any useful info on piston seals

This is a damned good rifle for the money. Had to get an extra long case for it. It's just shy of 49 inches. Treat the wood stock with the proper oils,do your research,take care of it and you should have a nice small game hunter for years to come. It's on the medium scale of loudness. Perfect if you have woods or a few acres,or just really cool neighbors

Every bit the design and look I wanted.

At this point, nothing

The gun looks fantastic and is an absolute beast down range.

The Scope mount. After about 250 Shots the welded on scope mount broke off the gun sending my own personal scope smashing on the ground. 100% unacceptable.

This is a very powerful pellet gun. Accuracy is more relative to my shaky hands but have controlled the squirrel population on my farm. It is powerful enough that I got my face too close to the scope and it bumped my nose and eye. I expected that from my .270 not this air gun. User error!

I first must admit I received my .25 cal xl as a gift last Christmas but not from PA. This is an extremely powerful rifle. Averages 773 fps with H-N 24.38 gr pellets. Shoots 3/4 inch groups at 35 yrds. 1.25 in groups at 50 yrds. Use of artillery hold a must. Not a target rifle but a great hunting rifle.

The factory trigger is crap. Replaced immediately with a Charlie da tuna GRT3 trigger. Greatly improved accuracy and no more sore trigger finger. Cocking to shoot the first time I heard a scraping noise and saw wood chips fall. Front end cocking mech drive pin was not secured and it gouged the inside of forestock. A punch, little wood filler n stain fixed that.

I installed a UTG 3x12x44 side focus swat scope. With this and the new trigger this rifle just destroys squirrels. I'm very satisfied with this rifle but Benjamin's quality control is what it is.

I've had this rifle for about 7 years and I love it. I'm just a fun shooter and use to dispatch varmints near my bird feeders. One shot one kill at 40 to 100 feet. The feel of this gun with the pistol stock is very comfortable, I think it add greatly to accuracy. Just as much power now as when it was new.

Can't think of a thing

Everything, Big, Heavy, Plenty of Power, True Hunter!!!

Nothing!!!

I bought Trail NP XL in .25 cal. First of all I used 100 shots within two days to break in piston! Then I took rifle apart, all of it and start cleaning it. There was a lot of chinese dirt and oil inside. I removed factory piston seal and replaxe it with Walther Talon Magnum Seal with 1.142 ODD wich is far better than factory seal! Next I start sanding Chamber Tube with steel wool, so everything inside is smooth for new seal to fit in 100% and increase power! Next I upgrade Charlie Da Tuna Grt-III Trigger to fix the accuracy problems! Next clean the barrel with almost 50 patches. Lubricate all seals with Crosman RmCoil for maximum performance. Assamble evrerything and clean wood and other parts. Installed UTG Leapers Scope 6-24x50, and used Predator Polymag Pellets Only!!! You want to transfer all energy on target, not to hit it and pellet will go through causing target to leave, thats why I use Polymag not normal domed pellets. Now the rifle is Cannon. What ever I hit it is dropped!

Price and looks

needs a better scope, trigger sucks, only shoots about 750 fps.

buy a trigger

The power is definitely there. That's it.

The scope is garbage. Mine went out in the first 100 shots and w no iron sights...good luck. Trigger is harder then I thought to pull while holding aim. Overall the QC is terrible!

If you do buy this, expect to upgrade a lot of things such as trigger, scope, bushings, seals, and pivot washers...maybe not such a good deal now?? I had the 20 for 20 service too and guess what....they mounted the scope and thought they zeroed it. Come to find out from a couple local gunsmiths that the Weaver rail on the rifle was actually welded on incorrectly and caused the scopes I bought to never line up correctly which was causing changes in POA/POI. So, basically expect to spend a lot of time & extra $$ into modding this rifle at your bench indoors and spending less time having fun outdoors. Hopefully PA will take care of me. What a bad first start.....

I like this gun a lot. It's powerful and accurate. The scope is really nice. Better than the trash Crosman usually packages. Sling mounts are included, and needed. This gun is not light.

The checkering on the stock is not deep at all. Would've looked better in a darker brown. I hope someday this comes in NP2.

Good buy. If you're a fan of Trails this is a must buy. Shipping is insanely fast, thanks Pyramyd Air.

I bought this gun used here in Canada, .25 cal. Beautiful piece of work, the previous owner fixed the trigger the easy way (washers) no GRT required, save your money. Many crosman and benjamins are pretty much the same gun other than cosmetics, trigger fix can be found on the web. The scope was also replaced with what appears to be a very, very good 3-12x50 scope (Can't figure out the mfg, though). This thing is big, heavy, and very hard hitting- I like that in a gun. Not a gun for girly men, I can carry and shoot it all day. The sound of a pellet hitting the target is louder than the gun, better have a good backstop, this thing chews it's way through 2x4s. It doesn't seem to mind most pellets but I generally stick to H&N ftt @ 20 grains because I can get a flatter trajectory than heavier 30 grain pellets. I don't have a chrony so no numbers on velocity. At 100 ft (30m) I can hit a target the size of a quarter consistently. It's smooth, quiet, fun to shoot and as far a QC I got lucky.

Wood on the stock is a little soft, easily nicked. If that's my biggest complaint about this gun, big deal I can always refinish it to my liking. I've not had any problems with scope rails falling of, no barrel or sighting issues. Here in Canada this gun costs about $500.00 ($350-$400.00 US) it's totally worth it.

As I mentioned this is a big heavy gun with lots of knockdown power, I don't think it would be appropriate for young or small people. Better have a good backstop, as I've found out the pellets will go through the walls of my house. I'm lucky (or dedicated enough) to have a 10 meter (30ft) indoor shooting range, the gun has too much power for that. It just makes a mess of things, but I like that. Too much fun. I live in the city (Vancouver) but have a target range in the backyard @ 100ft, that works very well. My neighbours have never complained, but I'm a responsible air gunner so no problemo. Other than some nasty little rats I'm not a hunter but I think this gun would serve you well for small game, rabbits, turkeys, pheasants, etc. Overall I highly recommend this air rifle, I have 12 others to choose from but this is one of my most enjoyable guns to use. You can see and feel the power and is more than accurate enough for my target shooting needs. Better hold it properly.

All

It meets my needs

4 woodchucks 4 shots. One was in a cage and a head shot. The rest were 50-60' central organ shots that dropped them nicely. My low skill shooting puts them in a 4" circle at 100'. This is qualified to be much better and expect to update and upgrade my review when I can zero it on a bench.

Hard hitting, yet relatively quiet.

Trigger, trigger trigger.

Not for children, or those who are very slight of build. Cocking effort is not terrible for the power. And it has plenty. Have owned both 22 and 25. Great hunting airgun..

Power, looks, fit and finish for the price, decent (though fragile) scope included. Back in 2015 I thought it a bit hard but fun to shoot as the most powerful non PCP airgun. The NP XL pioneered a power level that allowed the shooter to effectively hunt larger game and pests at longer ranges than what the smaller caliber break barrels or CO2's allowed you to do for a reasonably low price without having to go PCP. Marmots, skunks or raccoons are now able to be ethically harvested (or terminated) at ranges long enough for comfort without having to resort to the far more expensive PCP's if you could not afford them or the much louder rimfire firearms where safety, noise or trajectory and backstop of the 1 1/2 mile range issues make them impractical.

Overall fit and finish, excessively long trigger pull can disturb aim and prolongs your shot, unwieldy, heavy, hard to cock, hard to shoot well given recoil, Centerpoint scope has mil dots and nice optical quality for what it is but after a few hundred shots stopped holding zero. While not terribly loud thanks to the gas piston, given how more modern airguns even costing far less are now integrally suppressed this loudness is no longer competitive and better offerings as of 2017 abound even assuming same power level. If I could suggest Crosman (Benjamin) one thing is to update the rifle as the design is getting long in the tooth given that similar rifles at similar power levels at the same price point perform better and are nicer. As with all products showing their age, either the price should drop, the design updated into a new series to integrate more modern refinements at this pricepoint, or both.

This break barrel was king of the non PCP hill but for the money has been surpassed, particularly by the Hatsan QE 135 Vortex. On paper the power, cocking force, heft and characteristics should be the same given the both cost the same, and the Hatsan doesn't come with a scope. However, the Benjamin lacks open sights where the Hatsan can be shot quite easily with its fiber optics and while Crosman gives you a pretty nice scope, mine didn't last so the price of a new one might have to be factored into the acquisition cost. I know it's a magnum but I can shoot 50-100 shots in the Hatsan no problem and the Benjamin is more tiring to shoot, has more recoil, is louder, less accurate, harder to shoot well. It's now 2017 and this rifle is priced in a competitive segment where you can get more for the same money. Without a price drop or an update, if you are willing to pay $300 dollars for a magnum break barrel then look at the Hatsan 135 QE Vortex in either 25 or 30, it's better in every way.

it looked good and I liked the feel and weight of it

quality control! this rifle had nicks and scratches on it by the scope rail, didn't hit as hard as either of the .22's I have. And finally the picatinny rail fell off the gun while I was shooting it! Was really nice to see my UTG 4x16x50 AO scope hit the ground.

I had problems with this from day 1. It shoot to the left from 6" to 8". with the scope it came with. Tried 3 other scopes and finally got it some what zeroed in. As I said earlier, it was full of scratches, the trigger was very hard to use. Yes it was hard, almost felt jammed at times. It did get better after a while but it sucked. And it never would stay zeroed.( sure the rail being loose and falling off had something to do with that). Contacted PA 3 times about all this but they seemed to busy to care. I was told to get use to it, that maybe I didn't know how to zero a scope and last time I was told that if I really needed to send it back it would be on my dime because it really didn't sound like it was the gun. That was before the rail fell off. Now I'm trying to send it back, I'll let you know how that goes.......got a bad feeling about it though. I might have just got a lemon but this is the 2nd Benjamin I've had problems with, think I'll try something different.

Power

Trigger

The photo shows the gun in a genuine hardwood stock - it is not. It comes in a synthetic brown stock- I asked the sales rep if it was supposed to be real wood or synthetic that the rep replied in a circle without giving a direct answer. The .22 version is much faster but this one has a bit more power.

very powerful,accurate

trigger, scope is ok but very sensitive, somewhat heavy

good purchase, will not disappoint