Benjamin HI-FI M-422 CO2 Pistol
Hello to all,
The following is an excerpt from my CD entitled Of Airguns and memories with 57 different articles on various airguns.
Benjamin Air Rifle CO. found themselves running behind Crosman in the 60s in the development of CO2 airguns, as they usually did in my opinion. Benjamin was, better suited, in the development of pump up pneumatics, that was really their forte, (just my 2 cents) they did of course have some CO2 offerings but when Crosman introduced the M-600 .22 caliber semi-auto CO2 pistol in 1960 (very sophisticated design), Benjamin again found themselves woefully behind in this area and in an attempt to level the playing field introduced the Benjamin M-422 HI – FI semi-auto .22 caliber 10 shot CO2 pistol in 1961 as competition. The M-422 used the 8 gm. CO2 cartridges as a power source. The M-422 was discontinued in 1973.
I picked up my M-422 in a pawn shop in San Antonio Texas in 1992 it was in excellent shape aesthetically speaking, really a very sleek looking pistol with its black/blue finish and white grip panels. It of course would not hold a charge and required a valve rebuild but I was happy to get it. Specs on the pistol were as follows: .22 caliber , OAL 9”, barrel length 5-9/16”, weight 2 lbs., 10 shot capacity, 8 gm CO2, rear sight adjustable, muzzle velocity approx. 400 fps., accuracy quoted as 1” @ 25 ft., push type trigger safety and hammer lock safety.
The M-422 advertised as the “HI-FI” 10 shot semi-auto CO2 pistol , used a rather odd in-line barrel pellet feed system which utilized a series of 3 O-rings as friction points to control the feed of the pellets in the in-line barrel. The magazine follower under spring tension was located on the right side of the tube that housed the barrel and was withdrawn rearward rotated and positioned on the rear of the CO2 tube until the magazine was loaded then pulled back and the follower portion set in behind the loaded pellets; odd indeed!
It was the system of O-rings utilized as friction points to hold and keep the pellets in position that was the Achilles heel of this semi-auto feed system, more often than not two or more pellets would advance , resulting in multiple discharge of pellets , this led to a negative history on the M-422 and dogged it thru out its production. There were a couple of things that I did that helped my M- 422 in this area, one was to make sure that the O-rings ( #009) were new and dry “no oil” I also removed 5 coils on the magazine spring to lighten the tension on the pellets in the barrel ( I think this was also a major problem area the magazine spring was (simply to strong) with these changes I was able to load 5 pellets only and could fire the pistol with no multiple discharges , of course this defeated the 10 rd. capacity! With these changes when I loaded the magazine with 10 rds I would still have an occasional multiple discharge of pellets, I think with a properly tensioned ( lighter) magazine spring it may be possible to eliminate the multiple discharge problem, but 50 + years later it is too late to salvage the reputation of the M-422.
To charge the M-422, make sure there are no pellets in the barrel, engage the push type trigger safety, pull back the hammer cocking bolt cocking the system and lock down the bolt in the locking slot , unscrew the muzzle plug and put in the 8 gm. CO2 cartridge small neck up , replace muzzle plug and tighten down to pierce the CO2 cartridge and then back out ¼ turn to release the CO2 into the chamber, pull back magazine follower lock in place load pellets then retract follower and let it move forward behind the pellets.
Disengage push type safety, move cocking bolt up out of locking slot and the pistol is now ready to fire.
After a fresh rebuild I set about field testing the M-422, as is my usual practice using cardstock paper with 3 ½” adhesive dots as targets I set the target up @ 25 ft. and from bench rest using RWS match .22 cal. @ 14.0 grs. and RWS Hobby @ 11.9 grs. I shot three 5 shot groups left to right , 5 shots of RWS Hobby measured 1.240 c-c , 5 shots of RWS Match measured 1.060 c-c and 5 shots of RWS Hobby measured 1.265” c-c. I loaded only 5 rds. at a time for this testing and had no multiple discharges. One thing that struck me on the accuracy of the M-422 was that it was not far behind the Crosman M-600 semi - auto but the really impressive area was in velocity and shot count, the M-422 averaged 353 fps & 3.6 ft. lbs. for 35 shots, while not in the same ball park engineering wise, was still close to the C-600 performance wise. Until I actually ran these tests I did not realize how close Benjamin came to being fairly competitive with the Crosman M-600 semi- auto, if they had just spent more time in development of the M-422 magazine feed system, there might have been a possible race between the two, but alas it was not to be. In the end it was no contest!!!!!
One would have to be one’s own judge regarding seeking out a Benjamin M-422 CO2 semi-auto pistol, I can say, I’m glad I have mine!!
Garey
