Having owned a Benjamin Kratos .22 PCP for about 18 months now, I thought I'd share my experiences with it...
Some of the reviews of the Kratos on YouTube are quite good, and some of the targets shot at 50 and 100 yards are quite spectacular for a $700 PCP (1/2" at 50 yards). But you will find a mixed bag of reviews on the Kratos on the major airgun retailers' websites, with some claiming their Kratos is a laser, and others saying it can't hit the broad side of a barn. Unfortunately for me, my Kratos fell into the latter category.
After shooting just about every JSB and H&N pellet there is over the past 18 months, I saw the same consistent behavior in my Kratos. Over a 12 shot group at 50 yards, I might have 4 or 5 pellets in a 1/2" single ragged hole, with the rest of the pellets sprayed around the target 2 to 3 inches away, or even worse. Sometimes I would watch the pellets fly over the backing board as much as 18 inches from the target.
Then one day, my Kratos started hissing and losing air...and it was dead. After talking to Benjamin, I ultimately decided to send my Kratos to a 3rd Party authorized Benjamin warranty center called Airgun Revisions. They determined the loss of air was due to a faulty exhaust valve. After replacing the exhaust valve, and then testing my Kratos, they also found the horrible accuracy. So, they tried a new barrel on it. But to their surprise, the new barrel performed just the same, with some pellets flying true, and others flying off in all directions. And this had not been their experience with other Kratos' they had shot in the past.
After further investigation, they determined that my barrel and the other new barrel they tested had a 0.218 to 0.219 bore before the choke. Only the largest head size pellets were catching the rifling. So, they returned my Kratos after having also tuned it and installing a new spring kit. I guess the Kratos has always had very consistent air management for a non-regulated PCP, with mine being no different. When I got it back with the new spring kit and tune, it shot an amazing standard deviation of 3.99 over 79 shots (my chronograph missed a few shots), with an extreme spread of 18 fps. And it did better on accuracy with the H&N Field Target Trophy 5.55 pellets that they had recommended. But I still had some flyers ruining my groups, with those likely being pellets with head sizes slightly under 5.55mm in the tin (they had suggested I start sorting my pellets to find only those pellets with true 5.55 head sizes or larger). And I know serious competitors sort their pellets for defects, head size, weight, etc. But I felt like I would be looking for hen's teeth in anything other than the 5.55 FTT tins, and even with the 5.55 FTT tins, I was going to have to sort.
So, after shooting my Kratos for another week or so, and feeling very restricted on what I could do with it, I went a different route and ordered a new Lothar Walther barrel for it from Airgun Revisions. My hopes are that a new LW barrel will give me a reset for my Kratos and open up the entire field of .22 pellets to shoot and hopefully find an accurate pellet for it. With its excellent air management, and now a 15 oz trigger after their tune, I thought it was worth trying. It certainly couldn't get any worse...lol
Some of the reviews of the Kratos on YouTube are quite good, and some of the targets shot at 50 and 100 yards are quite spectacular for a $700 PCP (1/2" at 50 yards). But you will find a mixed bag of reviews on the Kratos on the major airgun retailers' websites, with some claiming their Kratos is a laser, and others saying it can't hit the broad side of a barn. Unfortunately for me, my Kratos fell into the latter category.
After shooting just about every JSB and H&N pellet there is over the past 18 months, I saw the same consistent behavior in my Kratos. Over a 12 shot group at 50 yards, I might have 4 or 5 pellets in a 1/2" single ragged hole, with the rest of the pellets sprayed around the target 2 to 3 inches away, or even worse. Sometimes I would watch the pellets fly over the backing board as much as 18 inches from the target.
Then one day, my Kratos started hissing and losing air...and it was dead. After talking to Benjamin, I ultimately decided to send my Kratos to a 3rd Party authorized Benjamin warranty center called Airgun Revisions. They determined the loss of air was due to a faulty exhaust valve. After replacing the exhaust valve, and then testing my Kratos, they also found the horrible accuracy. So, they tried a new barrel on it. But to their surprise, the new barrel performed just the same, with some pellets flying true, and others flying off in all directions. And this had not been their experience with other Kratos' they had shot in the past.
After further investigation, they determined that my barrel and the other new barrel they tested had a 0.218 to 0.219 bore before the choke. Only the largest head size pellets were catching the rifling. So, they returned my Kratos after having also tuned it and installing a new spring kit. I guess the Kratos has always had very consistent air management for a non-regulated PCP, with mine being no different. When I got it back with the new spring kit and tune, it shot an amazing standard deviation of 3.99 over 79 shots (my chronograph missed a few shots), with an extreme spread of 18 fps. And it did better on accuracy with the H&N Field Target Trophy 5.55 pellets that they had recommended. But I still had some flyers ruining my groups, with those likely being pellets with head sizes slightly under 5.55mm in the tin (they had suggested I start sorting my pellets to find only those pellets with true 5.55 head sizes or larger). And I know serious competitors sort their pellets for defects, head size, weight, etc. But I felt like I would be looking for hen's teeth in anything other than the 5.55 FTT tins, and even with the 5.55 FTT tins, I was going to have to sort.
So, after shooting my Kratos for another week or so, and feeling very restricted on what I could do with it, I went a different route and ordered a new Lothar Walther barrel for it from Airgun Revisions. My hopes are that a new LW barrel will give me a reset for my Kratos and open up the entire field of .22 pellets to shoot and hopefully find an accurate pellet for it. With its excellent air management, and now a 15 oz trigger after their tune, I thought it was worth trying. It certainly couldn't get any worse...lol
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