Marauder Retired Professor Confesses His Lifelong Secret Affair With Benjamin Air Guns

Retired Professor

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I will be 80 in a few months and its time to confess my addiction to Benjamin Air Guns. It all began back in the mid 1950s when as a teen my best friend Michael had a pump up Benjamin in .177. Since we were too poor to afford pellets we used bb's and he loaded one at a time and held the gun up so the BB would not roll out of the gun. I loved his gun and wanted a pellet gun for Christmas. My dad bought me one and when it came I had to pretend not to be disappointed because it was a Crossman .22 with seamless stock that gave me a large blood blister every time I caught my hand between the stock and the pump handle. Benjamin pump handles were round and could not bite you. Not only that but I could not shoot BB;s in this .22. It had a very tinny bolt handle and nothing so nice as the nice round Benjamin bolt handle. Needless to say I really did not use this gun very much.

I am a gun guy and love to repair air guns and firearms. I have reloaded since the early 1960's and have Lee Classic Press, Dillon Square Deal in .45 ACP, and a lee progressive press. I cast my own bullets with Lee commercial molds with a Lee furnace. I have more than a dozen air pistols. I also have a Air Force Talon in .22 and my pride of place airgun is my Benjamin Akela with a very nice scope. I shoot Olympic ten meter targets in my back yard and I have a view lot with no one behind me for miles. Never the less I keep all pellets on my property in a target box I have made that has a clipboard front and electrician's putty in the back to catch the pellets. I have used this set up off my back porch for more than a decade now. Even though I am blind in the right eye and get eye injections in my left eye every few months I love my shooting hobby. I bought a regulator for my Akela since I want to maximize shots and accuracy rather than generate the standard curve in speed. I have a chrony and measure all my shots in my back yard range.

I have been looking at the Benjamin Marauder for many years because it is regulated. And I would still like to own one, but the new rifle by Air Venturi, the Avenge-X has so many more features and versatility that I have pre-ordered one on Pyramid. I can change calibers with a new barrel and shroud for $69 per caliber complete with probe. The regulator is adjustable as well as the hammer spring. This makes this new X model way more sophisticated than the Benjamin. I have also just ordered a very nice Schofield No. 3 in nickel finish in .177 and plan to use the special pellet shells so I can shoot more accurately and with more fps than most blow back designs will allow. So my air gun collection is growing as it has over the years since I first fell in love with a Benjamin pumper. My dad was a carpenter and we built houses in my early years. He said that once sawdust gets in your blood it never leaves. The same is true for air guns. And Benjamin was my first love and it is still that old original Benjamin that I still think of wishing I had one back in the day. Then I go over to my special Tipton gun vice and take out my new Akela and go out to my back yard and yield to my addiction and life long affair with Benjamins. I confess all this with no regrets in later life. By the way I was a clinical therapist specializing in marriage and family therapy for over thirty years and I have seen it all. One thing I can say is that if you love a Benjamin that it will stay true and faithful to you all your days like a true first love should. Dr. LJH Somewhere in Southern Utah not far from the Nevada boarder.

 
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I will be 80 in a few months and its time to confess my addiction to Benjamin Air Guns. It all began back in the mid 1950s when as a teen my best friend Michael had a pump up Benjamin in .177. Since we were too poor to afford pellets we used bb's and he loaded one at a time and held the gun up so the BB would not roll out of the gun. I loved his gun and wanted a pellet gun for Christmas. My dad bought me one and when it came I had to pretend not to be disappointed because it was a Crossman .22 with seamless stock that gave me a large blood blister every time I caught my hand between the stock and the pump handle. Benjamin pump handles were round and could not bite you. Not only that but I could not shoot BB;s in this .22. It had a very tinny bolt handle and nothing so nice as the nice round Benjamin bolt handle. Needless to say I really did not use this gun very much.

I am a gun guy and love to repair air guns and firearms. I have reloaded since the early 1960's and have Lee Classic Press, Dillon Square Deal in .45 ACP, and a lee progressive press. I cast my own bullets with Lee commercial molds with a Lee furnace. I have more than a dozen air pistols. I also have a Air Force Talon in .22 and my pride of place airgun is my Benjamin Akela with a very nice scope. I shoot Olympic ten meter targets in my back yard and I have a view lot with no one behind me for miles. Never the less I keep all pellets on my property in a target box I have made that has a clipboard front and electrician's putty in the back to catch the pellets. I have used this set up off my back porch for more than a decade now. Even though I am blind in the right eye and get eye injections in my left eye every few months I love my shooting hobby. I bought a regulator for my Akela since I want to maximize shots and accuracy rather than generate the standard curve in speed. I have a chrony and measure all my shots in my back yard range.

I have been looking at the Benjamin Marauder for many years because it is regulated. And I would still like to own one, but the new rifle by Air Venturi, the Avenge-X has so many more features and versatility that I have pre-ordered one on Pyramid. I can change calibers with a new barrel and shroud for $69 per caliber complete with probe. The regulator is adjustable as well as the hammer spring. This makes this new X model way more sophisticated than the Benjamin. I have also just ordered a very nice Schofield No. 3 in nickel finish in .177 and plan to use the special pellet shells so I can shoot more accurately and with more fps than most blow back designs will allow. So my air gun collection is growing as it has over the years since I first fell in love with a Benjamin pumper. My dad was a carpenter and we built houses in my early years. He said that once sawdust gets in your blood it never leaves. The same is true for air guns. And Benjamin was my first love and it is still that old original Benjamin that I still think of wishing I had one back in the day. Then I go over to my special Tipton gun vice and take out my new Akela and go out to my back yard and yield to my addiction and life long affair with Benjamins. I confess all this with no regrets in later life. By the way I was a clinical therapist specializing in marriage and family therapy for over thirty years and I have seen it all. One thing I can say is that if you love a Benjamin that it will stay true and faithful to you all your days like a true first love should. Dr. LJH Somewhere in Southern Utah not far from the Nevada boarder.

Great post! I am happy for you for having such an extended time shooting. I’ve been shooting 60 years, pb’s mostly, but airguns the past few years and I have to say shooting never gets old or boring. May we both have many more years of shooting.
 
Pushing 40 here and getting my PCP start with Benjamins as well! I have a Cayden and an Akela at the moment, and while I’ve only had them a short while they’ve been enjoyable to shoot! They’ll lead to more “boutique” options in the pretty near future I’m sure, but I think they’ll serve me well for some time. :)
 

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