I wouldn't buy the Benjamin All-Weather Nitro Piston .22.
Been having ongoing squirrel problems* also and got tired of pumping my 25+ year old Benjamin 392 .22.
This airgun, $175 at Walmart (which is a
very good price) has issues. Manual says a 100 round break in is needed to be accurate. Well 200 rounds later and after trying 8 or 9 different .22 pellets, that I probably spent $40+ on, I gave up. Was lucky to get a 4-5 inch group at 50 ft. Certainly not minute of squirrel. My old Benjamin pump will do 1" with me shooting it and probably a lot better with someone that is a better shot.
This airgun comes with a barrel shroud that turns out to be some sort of silencer. It has about a 5/16 hex hole in the end at about 1.25 inches from the barrel exit. This machined aluminum "nut" has 4 holes in it that bleed air into a sleeve maybe 3/4 inch diameter over the barrel, all the way down to the action.
I had caught a review somewhere where a guy drilled out the hex hole to a larger round hole and improved the accuracy. Apparently he never figured out the "nut" and shroud is removeable as he went to some grief getting all the aluminum shavings out when he drilled it.
Well I simply unscrewed the nut, slid the shroud off and went to 1" groups!
Wow!
Called Crosman and talked to a script reader in their "tech support". He told me the gun would shoot better after about 100 shots as it needed to "blow all the excess oil out". I asked him where this excess oil was, he said the barrel and the "piston". Told him I thoroughly cleaned the barrel multiple times with no improvement and asked how in the heck "excess oil" could get out of the sealed high pressure nitrogen filled piston. He then told me it really needed 200 shots instead of just 100. Told him I had passed 200. He was stopped dead in his tracks.
I then told him my findings with the suppressor off. He said put it back on it would improve the more I shot it. I told him I didn't think so as there is obviously a design issue with their suppressor upsetting the pellet. There is no oil to be blown out anymore.
He then told me was going to send that info to the their "engineers", suggested I run it that way and promptly hung up.
Decided I didn't need a Chinese POS that costs more than my Henry lever .22 that is just as quiet, with CBs, and a hell of a lot more accurate and for
less money. I was so disgusted with their "support" I returned it today to Walmart.
My 25+ year old 392 will do just fine when I need a pellet gun.
* Obviously a squirrel had no problems chewing a hole through my silicone 3" turbo hose ($40) under my diesel pickup hood but- did you know given enough time they can also chew through a 3/8" diameter overhead aluminum neutral wire feeding my house? Any electrical types here know what havoc a bad neutral can cause to voltages in the house..not fun.