Marauder G3, The Things I Do For Fun

[Pumacarl]

So, I did hit the areas I had painted satin black with a matte clear coat and that worked well. I put the barrel back on and weighed the gun empty, no scope, or magazine, and it now weighs 8lbs 2.5oz, or 8.15lbs. The safety had been causing the gun not to fire sometimes and I thought it was because I didn't put tension on it's retention spring when I had taken it apart. It turns out that what actually caused the issue was that the oring on the trigger button was too big and catching on the stock and coming back out a little bit. I changed the oring to a smaller one and no problem. One of my issues that I was having a hard time figuring out was how to silence the noise from the sear setting when cocking the gun. The click is loud enough that a woodchuck would hear it. It turns out that I don't need to do anything to the gun, all you have to do is hold back the trigger when cocking the gun and release it when the sidelever is all the way back and the sear sets silently.

Here's some pics, I'll take better ones in daylight this weekend probably, when I shoot it:





Now to scope it!

 

[rayroz]

So, I did hit the areas I had painted satin black with a matte clear coat and that worked well. I put the barrel back on and weighed the gun empty, no scope, or magazine, and it now weighs 8lbs 2.5oz, or 8.15lbs. The safety had been causing the gun not to fire sometimes and I thought it was because I didn't put tension on it's retention spring when I had taken it apart. It turns out that what actually caused the issue was that the oring on the trigger button was too big and catching on the stock and coming back out a little bit. I changed the oring to a smaller one and no problem. One of my issues that I was having a hard time figuring out was how to silence the noise from the sear setting when cocking the gun. The click is loud enough that a woodchuck would hear it. It turns out that I don't need to anything to the gun, all you have to do is hold back the trigger when cocking the gun and release it when the sidelever is all the way back and the sear sets silently.

Here's some pics, I'll take better ones in daylight this weekend probably, when I shoot it:

View attachment 22161

View attachment 22162

Now to scope it!

I was having the same problem with the safety .I solve it by putting a thin 3 mm washer up against the trigger post , D in the diagram , on the left side of the part. Slide it over the post put the part back in place, moved it over just enough to miss the safety .
I dig the small bottle !
Ray

 

[rayroz]

So, I did hit the areas I had painted satin black with a matte clear coat and that worked well. I put the barrel back on and weighed the gun empty, no scope, or magazine, and it now weighs 8lbs 2.5oz, or 8.15lbs. The safety had been causing the gun not to fire sometimes and I thought it was because I didn't put tension on it's retention spring when I had taken it apart. It turns out that what actually caused the issue was that the oring on the trigger button was too big and catching on the stock and coming back out a little bit. I changed the oring to a smaller one and no problem. One of my issues that I was having a hard time figuring out was how to silence the noise from the sear setting when cocking the gun. The click is loud enough that a woodchuck would hear it. It turns out that I don't need to do anything to the gun, all you have to do is hold back the trigger when cocking the gun and release it when the sidelever is all the way back and the sear sets silently.

Here's some pics, I'll take better ones in daylight this weekend probably, when I shoot it:

View attachment 22161

View attachment 22162

Now to scope it!

Nice looking g3 !
Heres mine with a 500 carbon fiber .
It weighs in at 8 lb and 5 oz .

 

[Pumacarl]

Nice looking g3 !
Heres mine with a 500 carbon fiber .
It weighs in at 8 lb and 5 oz .

That looks great Ray! The bigger bottle does have better symmetry with the moderator then my shorter bottle, and for only 2.5oz extra. Good call. I was just thinking this morning that I would like to just get a shroud that was 5" longer and just use baffles in it like the older models for this very reason.

 

[Pumacarl]

I finally started shooting today, though it was very windy, I could see the potential. I'm still playing around with the power and hammer, I think that I started too high, as I often do. I saw today that terminador industries has a carbon fiber shroud out for this gun so I picked one up. I saw conflicting pictures, but one did have the look of the bottle and wasn't so shiny, I hope I get that version. Here is a link, for those interested:

Benjamin Marauder Gen 3 Carbon Fiber Shroud Kit

I plan on using my STO Levitas suppressor as this is the first airgun where it seems to be the quietest. It is my lightest, so I always try it, this time it won out. It is carbon fiber and only weighs two ounces, so that's a win too. I am not going to start using it until I get the carbon fiber shroud.

Here's some pics with the scope on:



And outside:


I really like Arca Swiss plates these days, and tripods!

 

[BBGunn]

I think your scope looks properly proportioned for that rifle. Hey, looks matter to some rifle owners!

Looking forward to reading about your shooting results!

 

[Billm]

You guys have all done great work with these rifles.

 

[Pumacarl]

I think your scope looks properly proportioned for that rifle. Hey, looks matter to some rifle owners!

Looking forward to reading about your shooting results!

Actually, when my testing is all done, this scope comes off. It's way too heavy. I am going to put a 10x SWFA on it.

 

[BBGunn]

Actually, when my testing is all done, this scope comes off. It's way too heavy. I am going to put a 10x SWFA on it.

If ya run the sunshade on the SWFA 10X the scope will still be about the same outer size.

 

[Pumacarl]

Finally getting back to this project. I figured that I never properly set my reg pressure, so I de-gassed the gun and screwed it in all the way, screwed the hammer spring in a half turn back from full, gassed back up, and started chrony checking. I was very surprised by how well this gun breathes. I was upping the reg slowly to find out what minimum pressure I needed to get the gun to do 920fps with the hammer spring all the way up. Once I determined that, I adjusted the hammer spring for the speed that I want to shoot at, 875fps. Anyways, I had originally set my reg at 2100psi because I usually start around there, -big mistake. It turns out that I can get all the power that I want to use at only 1700psi. That's going to give me quite a few more shots. I should have known better than to skip a step. Looks like tomorrow is going to be windy, but I'm shooting regardless.

 

[rayroz]

Hello glad to read your back at it.
I have done some tuning myself the last couple days .
Mine is a 22 cal shooting jsb 18s ,here is where im at so far .
My reg is at 1350 or so with the HS turned in one turn from all the way out ,
Its avg is 905 fps .
SD is 2.3
ES is 8.9
From a fill of 3000 psi im getting around 120 shots with the 500 bottle .
Im by no means a tuner but so far so good
One thing i can tell you its very accurate out to 50 yrds with no flyers .

Have fun Ray

 

[Pumacarl]

Hello glad to read your back at it.
I have done some tuning myself the last couple days .
Mine is a 22 cal shooting jsb 18s ,here is where im at so far .
My reg is at 1350 or so with the HS turned in one turn from all the way out ,
Its avg is 905 fps .
SD is 2.3
ES is 8.9
From a fill of 3000 psi im getting around 120 shots with the 500 bottle .
Im by no means a tuner but so far so good
One thing i can tell you its very accurate out to 50 yrds with no flyers .

Have fun Ray

That's great Ray, and those are good numbers! You're a tuner now, all that it takes is to do it, and you crossed the Rubicon, congratulations!

 

[rayroz]

Thanks man now thats funny .
Enjoy Ray

 

[Pumacarl]

I shot today, all with the same regulator setting, 1750psi, and I tried eight different hammer spring positions. Long story short, one full turn out from full gave me the best ES and SD of 10 and 3.6, at 900fps. I think I might do better if I increase the reg a little, but I am just going to shoot it like this for a while. The really interesting thing was trying my Zan 28gr slugs, after I got done shooting pellets. This just might be a better slug gun. Nice dime coverable grouping. I didn't shoot much with them but what I did I liked. They were doing 945fps and with their bc of .091 the wind had noticeably less effect on group size. After paper punching (which I really dislike doing) I set the gun up on my tripod to check how Strelok was doing with my inputs, further out. My first slug shot at 84y I let an 8 year old, who had never shot an airgun, shoot, and he nailed my reaction target. The Strelok data was good, no tweaking needed yet. He said, "that shoots just like my.22," in a surprised/excited way; good, another convert, I thought.

I am done with SFP scopes too. It's bad enough having to keep track of rto, throw in remembering to change the magnification slider in Strelok and I'm done. I've got some scope swapping to do now.

 

[rayroz]

Im a convert to ffp , less for my 69 yr old brain to mess with .
Your numbers are on point . These guns are well worth the dollars spent .
Took some fiddling to get the trigger to my
liking but to each is own . It will shoot with my sons crown all day long .

Ray

 

[Powermonger1]

should be ready for field target and bench rest when you are done. Have to let us know the difference before and after when your done out to 100 yards

 

[Pumacarl]

should be ready for field target and bench rest when you are done. Have to let us know the difference before and after when your done out to 100 yards

Field target type shooting more than benchrest, benchrest shooters will want to go with the original heavy bottle. I don't have a before and after either. Not how I do things. I like to get everything that I want do, done, before I ever take a shot. The only gun that I would not do that on, that I know of, is a Thomas. Everything really needs to be checked, prep'd, and adjusted to what I want to do and how I want to do it. The only thing I deal with after that is the actual finding what ammo, speed, and pressures to run at. That's challenge enough, I don't want to have to go back in pieces to adjust the trigger, polish the barrel, etc., once I start shooting I get the only data points that matter to me, that of the gun, as I will be shooting it.

 

[Pumacarl]

I noticed today, having my gun outside and shooting without the tripod on my bench, that I have been blind to the fact that my Arca Swiss plate from a quick side view, looks just like a magazine sticking down from the gun. I never even considered the look in this case because I like the plate so much. Funny how that works.

 

[Pumacarl]

I got my Terminador Industries carbon fiber shroud today. It's really shiney. That's not going to fly with me. It's too bad, because of the six pictures he has on his webpage for this, four of the shrouds look shiney and two look like raw carbon fiber, and I got a shiney one. I have an email question out to him about what I can do to kill the shine. I don't work with cf much because I know it's very dangerous to breath in, so I'm unsure how to proceed. I would really prefer to just sand it down to a raw grey finish but I don't know if this particular carbon fiber is ok with that. We'll see.

 

[rayroz]

I got my Terminador Industries carbon fiber shroud today. It's really shiney. That's not going to fly with me. It's too bad, because of the six pictures he has on his webpage for this, four of the shrouds look shiney and two look like raw carbon fiber, and I got a shiney one. I have an email question out to him about what I can do to kill the shine. I don't work with cf much because I know it's very dangerous to breath in, so I'm unsure how to proceed. I would really prefer to just sand it down to a raw grey finish but I don't know if this particular carbon fiber is ok with that. We'll see.

Thats a bummer , you got it
Ray