I see a lot of discussion about other brands and rifles, and while I know the Marauder has been reviewed *many* times, it seems there's a gap in documented experiences for newer .25 Marauders as they are being produced today. I wanted to take a little bit of time to document my recent experience and thought process for purchasing the Marauder for those who are in a similar situation as I was, mostly since there are so many different PCP rifles on the market today in varying price points. I found this decision to be much more difficult than I anticipated. I was looking for a .25 rifle which was adjustable and had good parts availability. I care about quality and parts availability enough that I was considering a wide price range. For a bit of context on my thought process and current ownership, I own both a .177 Marauder with Lothar Walther barrel and an FX Dreamline Classic in .22 with a walnut stock and FX/DonnyFL moderator. I've shot and adapted/modified both rifles, the FX with a power plenum and 600mm Superior Liner and the .177 Marauder with Hill valve, hammer, High Flow Transfer Port and Huma Regulator. That Marauder then went on to become a project rifle, which is in and of itself both fun and challenging. I'm looking to share my excitement about how I arrived where I have, and I hope this leads to some good discussion over what's around today and what advantages/disadvantages there are with the offerings!
The choice
I had been mulling over getting another PCP, considering a couple FX options since I've been mostly happy with the Dreamline I own. Ultimately I choose the Marauder because FX parts and conversion kit availability has been limited for the Dreamline. The Dreamline is a great rifle, but I was hoping to be able to convert the Dreamline into various calibers and types like the bullpup, tactical, lite, etc. Lack of parts from any of the major retailers meant that the Marauder was still more accessible for playing with and modifying in the future if I wanted to.
I am lucky enough to have been able to find a local retailer who carries Marauders in various flavors, along with a few other Benjamin offerings, and it felt good to buy local. I expect I'll benefit over time from the extensive aftermarket for the Mrod platform, as I already have with my .177. That rifle has served me well both in fun and learning, being my first PCP rifle. I've found it's a forgiving platform for people who want to learn and still have access to a better than good shooting experience in my opinion. It's easy to work on and maintain for anyone with decent mechanical ability, and while there might be better rifles out there I really struggle to think of another rifle, at any price point, that appears to have both parts and informational support as good as what's available for the Marauder platform.
Initial impressions
My initial impressions of the wood-stock are good! The rifle is attractive, and while I understand many prefer the Picatinny rail I think the dovetail rail on the breech is a bit more elegant looking. Comparing the wood stock Mrod to the synthetic stock on my trusty .177, the wood stock seems to shoulder a bit better to me and be overall more comfortable. The rifle shoulders nicely, and I found myself wanting to keep the balance as much as possible. For optics, I'm using a Hawke AirMax 4-12x50 AO scope, and I was able to get this sighted in pretty quickly at ~25 yards.
Out of the box I found the safety needed to be really worked in, much more so than my .177, so I might even have a faulty/unrefined trigger block. A little moly grease on the safety made it a little better but still not anywhere as smooth as my .177. I may call Crosman for a replacement on this if I can't get it sorted.
Cleaning, prep and first shots
Before shooting the new .25 Marauder I took the time to remove the shroud and use pull-through patches soaked in Ballistol. I did this until the barrel was mostly clean and proceeded to fill the Marauder to 3000 PSI. It took roughly 10 pull through patches until I was satisfied. After cleaning the barrel, I set my target and backstop about 30 paces away from my shooting table and got set up to start shooting.
With no adjustments I was shooting Benjamin 27.8gr pellets at ~780 FPS, about two turns on the hammer spring brought that up to 850FPS on a 3k PSI fill. I'm finding that the rifle will shoot about 14 shots before there's a noticeable POI shift out at roughly 50 yards. The power is where I think it should be for now, but notably less than the advertised 50 FPE on the Crosman website. I'm sure I'll be able to adjust for the higher power figures in the future with more tuning. I haven't gotten to run a full chronograph shot string on it yet, but you can hear the rifle changing the tone of its pinging as it progresses through the shot string with the pings becoming more dull toward the end of the second magazine after the hammer spring adjustment. When I fill after 2 magazines, the air reservoir is down to about 2100 PSI.
After the first 100 shots
After ~100 shots I noticed that my 1/2" groups started opening up. There were significant POI shifts, where 4 pellets would land on/very near my point of aim, the next two would land 1-2" down and left, etc. I attributed this to the barrel 'breaking in' and needing to be cleaned. At this point I pulled the breech from the rifle, the barrel from the breech and the O-ring from the barrel to clean the barrel with Ballistol soaked patches and about 10 passes of JB Bore Paste on a pull-through patch. What I'm finding is, no matter how many patches I pull through this barrel, I can't get the barrel completely clean. The patches get *very* tight at the choke, this is the case with both my .25 Crosman barrels. Upon inspection, cleaning and removal of the barrel, I could see the inside of the barrel was not as smooth as I might have expected. There are ridges in the barrel in various areas. This didn't seem to affect out of the box performance, but it does leave me wondering about the quality of the barrel. I performed a similar inspection on the barrel I purchased to convert my .177 to .25 (another topic entirely) and found similar ridges. That barrel shoots consistently enough to lead me to believe this may not be too problematic. But I can say for sure that the inside of my FX liners and the Lothar Walther barrels are completely free from such ridges. I'll see if I can snap a few photos and post. What’s interesting about this is the .25 Marauder is already a bit more consistent than my .177 Lothar Walther barreled Marauder because my first 100 shots were straight and consistent!
After cleaning and careful reassembly, it took roughly 40 shots for the accuracy to come back. At this point I've gone through one tin of the Benjamin 27.8s so far, and the accuracy is decent without any pellet testing on the new rifle. It will be interesting to see which pellets the barrel on the new Mrod comes to like, since the other .25 Crosman barrel I had ended up preferring Air Arms 25.4gr best and would produce 3/4" groups at 50 yards.
More to come as I progress through the new rifle!
The choice
I had been mulling over getting another PCP, considering a couple FX options since I've been mostly happy with the Dreamline I own. Ultimately I choose the Marauder because FX parts and conversion kit availability has been limited for the Dreamline. The Dreamline is a great rifle, but I was hoping to be able to convert the Dreamline into various calibers and types like the bullpup, tactical, lite, etc. Lack of parts from any of the major retailers meant that the Marauder was still more accessible for playing with and modifying in the future if I wanted to.
I am lucky enough to have been able to find a local retailer who carries Marauders in various flavors, along with a few other Benjamin offerings, and it felt good to buy local. I expect I'll benefit over time from the extensive aftermarket for the Mrod platform, as I already have with my .177. That rifle has served me well both in fun and learning, being my first PCP rifle. I've found it's a forgiving platform for people who want to learn and still have access to a better than good shooting experience in my opinion. It's easy to work on and maintain for anyone with decent mechanical ability, and while there might be better rifles out there I really struggle to think of another rifle, at any price point, that appears to have both parts and informational support as good as what's available for the Marauder platform.
Initial impressions
My initial impressions of the wood-stock are good! The rifle is attractive, and while I understand many prefer the Picatinny rail I think the dovetail rail on the breech is a bit more elegant looking. Comparing the wood stock Mrod to the synthetic stock on my trusty .177, the wood stock seems to shoulder a bit better to me and be overall more comfortable. The rifle shoulders nicely, and I found myself wanting to keep the balance as much as possible. For optics, I'm using a Hawke AirMax 4-12x50 AO scope, and I was able to get this sighted in pretty quickly at ~25 yards.
Out of the box I found the safety needed to be really worked in, much more so than my .177, so I might even have a faulty/unrefined trigger block. A little moly grease on the safety made it a little better but still not anywhere as smooth as my .177. I may call Crosman for a replacement on this if I can't get it sorted.
Cleaning, prep and first shots
Before shooting the new .25 Marauder I took the time to remove the shroud and use pull-through patches soaked in Ballistol. I did this until the barrel was mostly clean and proceeded to fill the Marauder to 3000 PSI. It took roughly 10 pull through patches until I was satisfied. After cleaning the barrel, I set my target and backstop about 30 paces away from my shooting table and got set up to start shooting.
With no adjustments I was shooting Benjamin 27.8gr pellets at ~780 FPS, about two turns on the hammer spring brought that up to 850FPS on a 3k PSI fill. I'm finding that the rifle will shoot about 14 shots before there's a noticeable POI shift out at roughly 50 yards. The power is where I think it should be for now, but notably less than the advertised 50 FPE on the Crosman website. I'm sure I'll be able to adjust for the higher power figures in the future with more tuning. I haven't gotten to run a full chronograph shot string on it yet, but you can hear the rifle changing the tone of its pinging as it progresses through the shot string with the pings becoming more dull toward the end of the second magazine after the hammer spring adjustment. When I fill after 2 magazines, the air reservoir is down to about 2100 PSI.
After the first 100 shots
After ~100 shots I noticed that my 1/2" groups started opening up. There were significant POI shifts, where 4 pellets would land on/very near my point of aim, the next two would land 1-2" down and left, etc. I attributed this to the barrel 'breaking in' and needing to be cleaned. At this point I pulled the breech from the rifle, the barrel from the breech and the O-ring from the barrel to clean the barrel with Ballistol soaked patches and about 10 passes of JB Bore Paste on a pull-through patch. What I'm finding is, no matter how many patches I pull through this barrel, I can't get the barrel completely clean. The patches get *very* tight at the choke, this is the case with both my .25 Crosman barrels. Upon inspection, cleaning and removal of the barrel, I could see the inside of the barrel was not as smooth as I might have expected. There are ridges in the barrel in various areas. This didn't seem to affect out of the box performance, but it does leave me wondering about the quality of the barrel. I performed a similar inspection on the barrel I purchased to convert my .177 to .25 (another topic entirely) and found similar ridges. That barrel shoots consistently enough to lead me to believe this may not be too problematic. But I can say for sure that the inside of my FX liners and the Lothar Walther barrels are completely free from such ridges. I'll see if I can snap a few photos and post. What’s interesting about this is the .25 Marauder is already a bit more consistent than my .177 Lothar Walther barreled Marauder because my first 100 shots were straight and consistent!
After cleaning and careful reassembly, it took roughly 40 shots for the accuracy to come back. At this point I've gone through one tin of the Benjamin 27.8s so far, and the accuracy is decent without any pellet testing on the new rifle. It will be interesting to see which pellets the barrel on the new Mrod comes to like, since the other .25 Crosman barrel I had ended up preferring Air Arms 25.4gr best and would produce 3/4" groups at 50 yards.
More to come as I progress through the new rifle!
