Benjamin Marauder accuracy issues!!

[Cotton-Eye]

Hi All, I have A Gen. 1 .22 cal Marauder rifle. It has always drilled tacks. I replaced the barrel a couple years ago with a Walther Lothar barrel (after a friend buried several pellets in the stock barrel. Once again, was always a tack driver. More recently, the trigger broke and I replaced it with a solid steel trigger that will never break (unlike the fragile and cheap stock triggers). It was still shooting very accurately after the switch out. I didn’t like how I had so much play in the trigger, so after a few weeks I decided to adjust the sensitivity and accidentally broke the sear (same cheap material as the stock trigger). I think it was because the rifle was charged (I didn’t degass it this time) and as I was unscrewing the assembly, it caused the seat to fracture. So I ordered a new sear, put it all back together again, and now every shot is way off center in every direction. Sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes up, sometimes down. My sight is a Sightmark Wraith that has always zeroed perfectly with only a couple of clicks but isn’t able to zero at all now.

Did I damage something when I first pulled the trigger assembly off? Did I put the assembly together wrong somehow? Could the digital sight be going haywire? I’m really at a loss here….

 

[Long_Gun_Dallas]

Do you have another sight you can try? Hard to imagine how doing tirgger work would cause an issue like this. I'm not really familiar with the construction of the rifle, so I can't lend any specific advice to any mechanical issues with the action/barrel/shroud or much of anything. Did you take anything else apart to get to the trigger mechanism?

 

[Motorhead]

Nothing to do with trigger .. IMO
Make sure BARREL BAND is not contacting the shroud & shroud is snugged up to receiver.

 

[Jasonmc]

Do you have a chronograph? Is it shooting the same speed as before?
Could be some broken bits in the tube in front of the Hammer or hammer could be galled up... Hammer dragging on trigger sear... how about the classic "clean your barrel"

 

[Cotton-Eye]

Nothing to do with trigger .. IMO
Make sure BARREL BAND is not contacting the shroud & shroud is snugged up to receiver.

I did pull the shroud and moderator off when I was troubleshooting but didn’t help any.

 

[Cotton-Eye]

Do you have a chronograph? Is it shooting the same speed as before?
Could be some broken bits in the tube in front of the Hammer or hammer could be galled up... Hammer dragging on trigger sear... how about the classic "clean your barrel"

I do have a chrono but never tested my speeds with this rifle. I use it for my M3 impact. The M-rod is my back up rifle and my first pcp that got me into this hobby. I’m thinking you’re correct with broken sear parts maybe getting in there. Maybe I’ll start with cleaning the barrel.

 

[Motorhead]

I did pull the shroud and moderator off when I was troubleshooting but didn’t help any.

All the basics need checking .... Breech o-ring intact ?, receiver is tight to lower tube, CLEAN barrel, Different pellets perhaps that barrel does not like etc ...

 

[Dairyboy]

All the basics need checking .... Breech o-ring intact ?, receiver is tight to lower tube, CLEAN barrel, Different pellets perhaps that barrel does not like etc ...

I had the new tin of pellets issue. My Mrod was a laser with my first tin of pellets I got with it. Bought more and those were a shotgun. That lead me down the rabbit hole of MMHF barrel and many other things....tried years later with other pellets of all brands and nothing worked.

But yeah only thing I can think of would maybe be something in the hammer area? The trigger issue itself wouldn't cause it so has to be something else

 

[Motorhead]

Also check set screws on top of receiver holding barrel in place

 

[AlanMcD]

I've had a sear break on a Marauder before, and it was a completely clean break - no excess parts that could have gone into the tube. I'd check the broken one to see if there is "missing" when you align the parts back together, and if so it could be in your tube messing things up.But it might be worth taking out the hammer and checking things out anyways.

Apart from that, I can't think any way that working on the trigger would cause those kind of issues . . .

 

[Cotton-Eye]

Thank you all for your replies everyone! I ended up solving the problem. I unscrewed the moderator following with the end cap to see if there was something lodged or loose in the moderator. I noticed that there were depressions on the inside of the end cap where a couple of pellets somehow exited the moderator off-center of the opening. Not sure how it happened (maybe I accidentally double loaded pellets?). I took a few shots with the end cap off and it was once again stacking pellets. I bored out the hole of the end cap an extra 1/16“ or so and put a slight taper with a step drill bit on the inside of the cap and it’s back to shooting perfectly again. Figured I’d post my results if anyone runs into this problem in the future. Cheers!