New Benjamin Discovery

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cat_IT_guy

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Took the plunge today and bought a new airgun (actually bought the wife an iwatch and she said i should buy a gun. Well, if you say so.....). My first in probably a decade, my first pcp, and my first >.177 air rifle. Bought with the hand pump. Looking forward to playing with my new toy. Delivery is scheduled for friday.

Any other highroaders have a discovery? Comments for or against?
 
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Got a chance yesterday to play with my new toy. Yesterday's high in Central IL was something like 2 degrees. Not exactly go out and shoot weather (especially to single feed super small projectiles). So I shot in the basement range. I have about a 12y shot.

Overall I think its a pretty neat looking gun. It shoulders pretty nicely. The trigger is very.... meh. A bit better than a cheap AR trigger, I guess (don't have a scale). Definitely not in match territory, but functional. The trigger and guard are plastic. The stock is some cheap-ish wood. Its attractive enough, but definitely not fancy.

I have previously shot into a medium cardboard box full of rubber mulch, as its a nice quiet pellet trap. Frontal dimensions about the size of a sheet of printer paper, and about 4" deep. Being cautious, I balled up some old clothes and finally a board behind my target, since I didn't know what kind of extra penetration the .22 would have. As it turns out, it was overkill, the original "trap" worked fine. Nothing left the back. This was shooting 14.3 gr Crosman Premier HP pellets.

The pump is pretty neat. I was mostly expecting an overpriced, glorified bike pump. Not so much. This thing is seriously beefy. I guess it should be. 20-50 psi in a bike tire is a heck of a lot different than 2000 psi (actually the pump, in theory, is rated to 3600psi, but I'd not want to pump it that far). It took me 80 pumps to go from empty to a full charge at 2000psi (the gun's top end). Pumping wasn't hard, but it does take some effort. I would actually say its about even with pumping a bike pump.

It wont replace the fun & ease of shooting a brick of .22lr, and not having to get up, but then, I bought 500 pellets for $5.84. I havent seen .22lr at just over a penny a shot recently. And no I'm not comparing the power. I well realize that even a healthy .22 air rifle is well behind a .22lr in energy.

I lost count, but figure I shot 15 - 20 pellets in the "green" zone from 2000 down to 1000 psi. It took another ~40 pumps to fill back to 2000 psi.

I had read some reviews stating that the Discovery was loud, but I wasn't sure what to expect. My previous air rifle experience is with springers and a couple of multi-pumps (Daisy 880, Benjamin 397, and a Gamo). The Discovery is certainly louder than my earlier guns. But a .22lr it is not. Frankly, I doubt if any neighbors in anything but a condo would really pay any attention, unless they could see you shooting what appears to be a "real" gun. My wife stayed on the main floor while I shot in the basement. She said it sounded like someone setting a small book on the counter - not a big deal (and maybe, just maybe, wont even wake the kids while they are napping on the second story - fingers crossed).

Recoil? Not worth mentioning (obviously, I guess). The fiber sights are nice, but the lighting in my basement sucks, so I haven't even pretended to try any accuracy testing. Maybe later this week. I also didnt take time to break out the chronograph just yet, but I will. The gun is rated at 900fps. It will be interesting to see how close to that claim it comes, and how the velocity falls off with tank pressure.

Parting thoughts..... I bought the kit (Discovery rifle in .22 with pump) on Amazon for $350, delivered. I'd been toying with the purchase for sometime - something of a curiosity, as Id never tried PCPs before. And as a legitimate small rifle to shoot in my semi-suburban home when I cannot get to the range. If you can shoot a .22lr off your back porch, and weather is rarely to never an issue..... the Discovery probably isn't the rifle for you. You can buy a .22lr that is more powerful, only barely more expensive to shoot, and you don't have to pump anything up, for LESS money upfront. But some of us dont live on a range. I feel I have it pretty good - I can get to a very affordable pistol/rifle/shotgun range in about 15-20 minutes. Its fairly convenient, but still ends up being a near 2 hour commitment. I also have a good sized, unfinished basement for a gun cave. Its not fancy, but prime for playing with light duty weapons inside. Shooting something is definitely better than shooting nothing. I could also see it as a solid option for someone living on a larger lot, but still having neighbors, where a firearm may not be appropriate and/or may draw unwanted attention, but where target practice or small varmint control is still in order.
 
Tried to chrono tonight in the basement. I guess the lighting was not to the chrono's liking. It didnt pick up a single shot. Maybe ill have to suck it up and shoot it outside one of these days. Im really curious how the first five or so shots on a fill will compare to say the 10th, 15th, and 20th.

Aside from being clueless to velocity, the disco is growing on me. Fun to shoot, much easier than 5+ pumps per shot in a multi pump, less recoil than a springer, and more power than both. Its a fun toy for the basement.
 
Get a couple of puck type LED lights, the sort with a handful of LED bulbs in a pattern of some sort. Put them directly above the sensors. If the pucks are magnetic so much the better, you can just use a second magnet with each and stick them to the bottom sides of your chrony filters (if it's a Chrony F1-ish sort of thing) but it's not too hard to hang a couple of LED things in some other way. Just put them directly above, and your shots should pick up 100%. The difference with my F1 was night and day. I never seen an error any more.
 
Get a couple of puck type LED lights, the sort with a handful of LED bulbs in a pattern of some sort. Put them directly above the sensors. If the pucks are magnetic so much the better, you can just use a second magnet with each and stick them to the bottom sides of your chrony filters (if it's a Chrony F1-ish sort of thing) but it's not too hard to hang a couple of LED things in some other way. Just put them directly above, and your shots should pick up 100%. The difference with my F1 was night and day. I never seen an error any more.
Maybe I'll give that a try. Think I saw puck lights at Costco. Thanks for the insight.
 
This is a single shot rifle? Does anyone make a repeating PCP gun? A semi auto would really be sweet for Chipmunks!

Yes, the discovery is a single shot. Benjamin does make a different model, the marauder, that is a bolt action with rotary magazine and still compatible with the hand pump. But it's another 200-300 bucks. I wanted to test the waters before spending that kind of money.
 
This is a single shot rifle? Does anyone make a repeating PCP gun? A semi auto would really be sweet for Chipmunks!
The FX Revolution is a nice higher end PCP semi-auto rifle:

Evanix makes one or two I think. Hatsan has the Bullmaster and the Barrage. I think if you were interested you'd find quite a few with a bit of googling. At the very low end there's apparently a Benjamin semi-auto called the Wildfire:
 
My Disco makes as much noise as some of my .22 rimfire rifles, more that others.

The Marauder is a repeater that doesn’t make too much noise. This is my .25.



That rack is 4 x 2” steel plates, 4x 4” steel and 2x 6” but the rifle is a lot more accurate than that.




The .22 mrod is a little quieter but less accurate, of my examples. A bolt action 22 with a suppressor makes even less noise though.

 
Your .25" Marauder seems to have a bit of a hammer bounce issue, wasting air with repeated strikes on the valve stem every shot. Seems like that to me from the sound in the video anyway. A bit like a short version of one of those door stopper springs being twanged. A well-tuned SSG or other hammer damping setup would eliminate that and likely give you more consistent velocity plus more shots.
 
Your .25" Marauder seems to have a bit of a hammer bounce issue, wasting air with repeated strikes on the valve stem every shot.

Don’t know the answer to that, this was the first 24 shots out of it. Starting at 3000 psi and ending at 1850 (with PSI every 8 shots), loosing about 50 fps.

840CCDCF-EC13-4064-A16F-D04BD739CF6E.jpeg

What are you getting out of them?
 
I don't have a Marauder. Was only suggesting a possible improvement, owing to the sound of hammer bouncing on valve stem. Could be wrong. It was just a suggestion, but that string looks quite good so don't worry about it.
 
Finally got the disco to the range today. It was kind of fun to shoot it where i normally shoot firearms. No recoil and comparably super quiet. Also plenty accurate with the fiber open sites. I did get a funny look from a fellow range member when i hooked it up to the hand pump to refill, but in the end most of us like just about any kind of weapon that sends a projectile downrange.

Chrono results with crosman 14.3gr pellets:
(Shot #) (velocity in fps)
1 872
2 870
3 876
4 872
5 870
10 842
15 791
20 712

So, pretty close to advertised velocity (advertised at 900fps) and way more consistent than i would have guessed for the first few shots. Spread of only 6fps on the first 5 shots, id be stoked to see that from my centerfire rifle handloads. Then by shot 10 we are starting to fall off a bit, but i doubt if noticeable to most of us.

At the end of my session i tried again, after refilling the tank but it was getting dark. Shot 1 was 870, 2 was 859. 3 and 4 the chrono didnt like. Fifth shot came in at 864, so still consistent within the set, but a bit slower than my first test.
 
Thanks for the review. Been considering splurging and getting a PCP but for now still using a 22 cal. Benjamin Trail break barrel with the nitro piston 2 . Yours gets higher velocities with 14.3 gr Crosman pellets than mine. I'm averaging 816 fps with those pellets with only a 14 fps spread between fastest and slowest. Yours looks very consistent for the first 5 shots but of course soon after that the air pressure, and thus the velocity, start to lessen a bit. Was surprised to hear about that trigger; my Benjamin trail (new in Sep. 2015) came with what they called a new, improved trigger know as the "clean break trigger". It breaks at a very consistent 3 lbs. 14 oz. (5 pull average) on a Lyman digital gauge. So while I'm still undecided; the only thing I'm sure of on my next air gun is that it'll be something from Crosman. Their Bloomfield NY headquarters is only about 32 GPS miles from me and I drive by there several times a year so for me it's kind of a "support local business" type of thing.
 
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