Buying a Benjamin Marauder in 2022?

[davhowrd]

The Mrod is a GREAT base rig. I have several from mild tunes to WILD tunes, and they're all accurate. I've had a few bumps in the road tuning them, but there is a ton of helpful people here that are more that willing to point you in the right direction. Have fun and Be careful, this game of airgunning is addictive.

 

[jps2486]

I would argue this, only in the sense that its distributed well over its long "chassis" , it does not feel at all like 8 pounds.

Heavy? More than some, less than others. My first PCP was a Gen I Mrod. It shot well, had a decent trigger and was well made. I did feel that it was too heavy for me, so I recontoured the stock and removed almost a pound of wood from it. It was pretty nice then.

 

[SteveV]

So I’m brand new to PCP rifles, and bought a synthetic Marauder .22 from Amazon, based on watching a bunch of YouTube videos. Guys hitting ends of shotgun shells at 40 yards, etc. got me excited to try this out. My wants are:
Accurate
Quiet
Reasonable $

So far, I’m super disappointed in the accuracy. From a bench at about 20 yards, I’m lucky to get under 3” groups. I’ve tried 3 different pellet weights from 13-19gr. Definitely not what I was expecting. Now that I’ve found this forum, I see that one can spend a bunch of time tweaking their rifle for better accuracy, but I guess I was hoping for better “out of the box” results. Is my experience normal for an utter noob? Should this thing go back to Amazon?
Thanks!

Too late now, but stories like this is why I buy from dealers if going the "brand new" route.

 

[3Crows]

It is possible to build a Marauder from nothing. This 5.8 pounds (bare) .25 makes over 60 fpe. Kills big critters dead and is more than accurate enough. Not sure there is another platform other than the PRod which could be built from scratch mostly aftermarket parts. I guess the lego Crosmans count for that also. To be clear, this Marauder was not bought, it was built from parts so there was no original investment. Every part was ordered from various vendors including Crosman, JASAR, Houma, AGR, Tim Hill, Archer Air and the stock was bought used on GTA and a few other bits as well.



This one came in a brown truck, Gen 2 .25:



Then I bought this Gen 1 .25 on GTA and modded it out with a Tim Hill valve and Houma regulator and it is running 54 fpe:





And yet another mostly scratch built .25:



In a way, if modding a Marauder is the goal it might not make sense to buy a rifle, just accumulate the parts in total and in that way there is no initial price of the rifle and left over parts to force you into yet another project .

 

[Motorhead]

With only a fraction of the after market marauder parts today to what we had 7-10 years ago, making up a "TRICK" and generally higher power and easier to cock version is not so easy any more.

I still have my Gen 1 as a .177 cal and the "Parts Stash" assembled Gen 2 as a .30 cal to this day.

IMO if wishing to tinker with basic mods and learn the way of PCP's, the M-rod is still a solid choice.
Wanting to go full tilt on the mods .. the M-rods era and a obvious lack of the really cool parts its time has come and sadly gone

 

[Sanctify7]

Heavy? More than some, less than others. My first PCP was a Gen I Mrod. It shot well, had a decent trigger and was well made. I did feel that it was too heavy for me, so I recontoured the stock and removed almost a pound of wood from it. It was pretty nice then.

View attachment 415291

A pound off the wood stock would place it at the weight of the Gen II synthetic stock. I have two of the latter, and they are not that bad.

 

[Sanctify7]

With only a fraction of the after market marauder parts today to what we had 7-10 years ago, making up a "TRICK" and generally higher power and easier to cock version is not so easy any more.

I still have my Gen 1 as a .177 cal and the "Parts Stash" assembled Gen 2 as a .30 cal to this day.

IMO if wishing to tinker with basic mods and learn the way of PCP's, the M-rod is still a solid choice.
Wanting to go full tilt on the mods .. the M-rods era and a obvious lack of the really cool parts its time has come and sadly gone

Copy. Perhaps the Avenger line has taken much of the BM's place?

 

[Motorhead]

China invasion, Turkish invasion at the entry and intermediate price point did most of it

 

[3Crows]

Everything I used is currently available except for the JSAR breech and there is a good chance it might be again. Yes it is expensive as is the other breech I have but that price is not on top of buying a rifle. I just cannot bring myself to the Avenger. I may do a FX or Sidewinder or Raptor at some point but even those rifles are just kits. A M3 needs a slug kit and a heavy barrel with support and a XL plenum and this and that so the $2500 entry is just that, entry for another $1000 in parts. I just do not think justification needs to be made for modding rifles. And I am not going to buy a China product if I can avoid it.

 

[Nico5999]

If you are looking for a traditional rifle that has a proven track record, I would not hesitate to buy an MROD.

I built a LW barrel, Huma reg Mrod back in 2018. Lightweight hammer, enlarged, TP, Hill 262 HS to free flight the hammer, etc. I was getting about 90 shots with AA 10.3s going @ 910. It shot about 97% of my Air Arms rifles now. Really, really great platform. No regrets and I still have the rifle.

Does it make more sense to just go with an Avenge-X out of the box? Assuming that platform doesn't have any hidden bugs, I think so. If you want to tinker and learn a boat load about PCP air rifles, you can find used Mrod's for great prices.

 

[Perle]

Marauders …. Old not obsolete.

 

[3Crows]

The more I read about problems with some of the CCC stuff the more I like my "old" new Marauders. The JTS guns have flexible breeches that close up such that the magazine is difficult to insert, Avengers have wandering POI, both have shrouds that are not true. And the Gauntlet, I had one of those, no thanks on that beast. What those guns have is shot count due to larger reservoirs and higher pressure fills (in some cases) and a side lever is better for us with arthritis but still, the Marauder, for my purposes, an accurate and capable hunting rifle, it is the better tool.

 

[Drew816]

If they’re old and obsolete, as I approach 60 what am I?!??

 

[Perle]

If they’re old and obsolete, as I approach 60 what am I?!??

Youre old. Not obsolete. !

As I too approach it.