Is the Benjamin Marauder an Affordable, Reliable, Accurate Semi-Auto PCP???

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I e-mailed Tim Hill to ask if he's done any testing of the SAM with any of the Matched kits he currently offerers. It would be great if he started offering his LW barrels and Matched Power kits for the SAM! I'll be following your progress as well. I'd love to be able to make the SAM into a reliable 30 FPE rifle with the same accuracy I have in my Mrod!
 
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I have had my Marauder 22 LW for about 3 weeks now. Here's my update: I shot about 200 rounds through it and I wasn't very impressed with the accuracy. I set up a call with Pyramid Air's "PCP Expert" and it was pretty insightful. Agree or Disagree.. That will be up to you.. But everything he told me has turned out to be 100% accurate. #1 The gun has a 500-1000 cycle 'break-in' period. As of now, I am close to 600 rounds and the gun is shooting substantially better. #2 - Clean the barrel with a pull-through method using FP-10. After doing #1 & #2, I can make a single target punch out at 50 yards and a quarter size group of 5 at 70 yards. I look forward to shooting more to watch it get even better.
 
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My gun's in. That was very fast. I'll get it shooting tomorrow.



Initial impression: It's like toting an M1. I'm sure this is old hat to you guys but it's new to me as I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I did expect it to be heavy and it didn't disappoint. However, the action on mine is quite smooth, not as heavy as I thought it would be from Steve's review. Mine's easy enough to cock and I'm an old phart.

I have a good scope mounted but I'll be looking for something lighter and simpler. I'd prefer a lighter gun but it balances well for me and I think it comes to shoulder very nicely. It fits me pretty well and since I don't like pouring myself around the gun, that's a plus. This rifle comes up easily for me. That's different for everybody of course but I like the shape and wanted an adjustable comb. I get a naturally good sight picture through the scope and the gun settles in the right place. The feel is familiar even though I've never held a Marauder before in my life. It's a battle rifle from three wars ago and pleasantly so to me. However, the trigger is strange so it's hard to understand why they did it that way except to accommodate some other mechanical requirement. I'll reserve final judgment until I shoot it but it is a controversial design choice and could outweigh the novelty of semi automatic action for me.
 
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Congrats on the new SAM lewibar! That trigger is unique, but it's much lighter and smoother than other semi-autos I have owned in the past. There is a simple mod you can do that will make it much lighter without affecting function. Also, here's a tip on cleaning the barrel. Raise the cheek piece a bit and use a large rubber band to hold the T-handle back so the probe clears the breech. You can get enough clearance to insert patches for cleaning! 

Barrel Cleaning.1616676618.jpg

 
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Congrats on the new SAM lewibar! That trigger is unique, but it's much lighter and smoother than other semi-autos I have owned in the past. There is a simple mod you can do that will make it much lighter without affecting function. Also, here's a tip on cleaning the barrel. Raise the cheek piece a bit and use a large rubber band to hold the T-handle back so the probe clears the breech. You can get enough clearance to insert patches for cleaning! 

Barrel Cleaning.1616676618.jpg
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Thanks for the tip, FL! That's simple and handy. We had some ferocious weather here so I didn't get to shoot today. I'm eager to try it tomorrow. BTW, mine looks an awful lot like yours!




 
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Here's the chrony results for mine, it will be interesting to see how yours does in comparison:

SAM Chrony.1616761959.jpg
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How much spring pressure/turns-in did you have on there to get those fps numbers? And, if you are running "fairly light" on the spring pressure to get those numbers, when going all the way in to the full spring adjustment, does it go up near the advertised top speeds of 950 fps?
 
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I have no idea how many turns in it's set at the moment, but I do remember that I turned it in until the velocity started to drop and then backed it off a ½ turn, so turning it in any further didn't have any positive affect on velocity. I was never able to reach the advertised velocity, what you see above is the max I was able to achieve. I will also confess, I had a jam early on because I was not letting the t-handle slam forward, and removed the breech to pull the barrel to free the magazine and then clear the barrel. When I had it apart, I swapped out the stock transfer port with a larger size Tim Hill transfer port I had on hand. I have no idea what size the TP was, but it did help increase velocity by about 5 FPS!
 
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I'll report my results as soon as I have them but my chrony (FX) is not working (it's seemingly DOA) so I'm retuning it for another copy. As soon as I get that, I'll post my results which will be biased toward JSB 18.1 grain pellets since that's what I have the most of. I have ordered some lighter diabolo pellets for this gun but they're not here yet so I was shooting light hunting pellets (RWS 14.5 gr) today.

I shot off bags at 25 yards to get a feel for it but had some feeding problems. It didn't like the RWS Superpoints I was feeding it and balked a couple of times. At least I managed to zero the scope. I'm not sure why it failed to feed the first couple of mags without glitching but it did seem to smooth itself out after I ran more shots through it. I'll shoot it again tomorrow but any formal results will have to wait until I get another sample of the FX chrony into my hands.
 
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I will say that the domed pellets seem to work the best. When mine damed it was with the Terminator style pellets. A couple tips, let the t-hande slam forward after loading the magazine, and be sure to push the button on the back of the breech all the way in a couple time before taking the first shot. Also, put a drop of silicone oil on the probe every 5 magazine or so and a drop on the head of the first pellet in the magazine. This will keep things lubed and running smoothly.
 
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I'll report my results as soon as I have them but my chrony (FX) is not working (it's seemingly DOA) so I'm retuning it for another copy. As soon as I get that, I'll post my results which will be biased toward JSB 18.1 grain pellets since that's what I have the most of. I have ordered some lighter diabolo pellets for this gun but they're not here yet so I was shooting light hunting pellets (RWS 14.5 gr) today.

I shot off bags at 25 yards to get a feel for it but had some feeding problems. It didn't like the RWS Superpoints I was feeding it and balked a couple of times. At least I managed to zero the scope. I'm not sure why it failed to feed the first couple of mags without glitching but it did seem to smooth itself out after I ran more shots through it. I'll shoot it again tomorrow but any formal results will have to wait until I get another sample of the FX chrony into my hands.
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To keep shots strings consistent, I found that it likes to be kept oiled. Particularly the probe barrel area and inner springs there because they cycle. I use Archoil AR4400 LP firearms oil.
 
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I have no idea how many turns in it's set at the moment, but I do remember that I turned it in until the velocity started to drop and then backed it off a ½ turn, so turning it in any further didn't have any positive affect on velocity. I was never able to reach the advertised velocity, what you see above is the max I was able to achieve. I will also confess, I had a jam early on because I was not letting the t-handle slam forward, and removed the breech to pull the barrel to free the magazine and then clear the barrel. When I had it apart, I swapped out the stock transfer port with a larger size Tim Hill transfer port I had on hand. I have no idea what size the TP was, but it did help increase velocity by about 5 FPS!
Click to expand...

So I have been tinkering... I drilled out the valve and transfer port (.156") to nearly match the pellet probe and also turned up the regulator pressure (90° CCW from the factory settings). My shot count went down noticably from the factory settings, but I am getting 900+- FPS with the Hades now (with full spring tension). With just porting alone I had got a 30 fps increase in speed, and with the regulator adjustment it gained the additional 30 fps.
 
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So I have been tinkering... I drilled out the valve and transfer port (.156") to nearly match the pellet probe and also turned up the regulator pressure (90° CCW from the factory settings). My shot count went down noticably from the factory settings, but I am getting 900+- FPS with the Hades now (with full spring tension). With just porting alone I had got a 30 fps increase in speed, and with the regulator adjustment it gained the additional 30 fps.
Click to expand...

You are the first I've seen to go in to this level of mod on the SAM. :) As such, I have lots of questions, but will refrain for now with a couple. ;)

Do you happen to have any pictures or detailed description of the valve, which is suppose to be unique to the SAM?

Where does the shot string indicate the reg is at now? My guess would be around 2250psi, but that is based off Fortitude regulator.

Scratch that. I will continue discussion in your thread which is more specific to this. :)
 
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