I have butted heads so many times, on several different forums over the years, about the decisions made by Benjamin, Crosman, Velocity Outdoors, on the Marauder, that I am extremely fatigued by this topic. Everyone always misunderstands the message and believes that you're a hater when it's the exact opposite. I do hate the fact that they went overseas instead of just upgrading the one built here. Just charge more! If everybody and their brother are upgrading these things, they end up spending the money anyways. Look around, this and other forums, people don't seem to mind spending over a grand on an airgun so why doesn't Velocity Outdoors make one? This is the same company that owns Ravin and has no problem with selling a crossbow that goes for $3K. Their customers (me) have been asking them to keep the Marauder (not something else, the Marauder) on the upgrade path for years and the response has been everything except what was asked for. They did a big survey a few years back, and the big winner was adding a sidelever and then it was changing the tube to aluminum to take down weight, etc,. They knew what people wanted, they just didn't want to do it to the Marauder, and they instead released the Kratos, Cayden, Akela, series. Why didn't they make the Marauder competitive against the top tier market and release the Kral guns for the people who didn't want to spend the extra coin? One wonders, but they did do regulated versions, semiautomatic versions, Armada versions, Challenger versions (WHICH HAS A SIDELEVER!), just no regular version that is considered top tier (meaning Daystate and FX to be clear) and made in America with a sidelever, and aluminum tube, or a carbon fiber bottle version for that matter, they could have done a bullpup too. Let the foreign guns be your value line and elevate the Marauder back to the top where it should be. Why not aim high? They certainly do with Ravin. jmo