Slightly Surprised

I just received my new Benjamin Maurader. 22 with the lothar-walther barrel and weaver rail on Friday. I spent a little time looking it over and attached an old scope so I could try it out. Out of the box it was able to shoot pretty well, but was putting out only 24 ft-lbs of energy.

This purchase was to get a low cost airgun to leave at my parents so that my father or I can use it to take care of home invading pest. The max distance that it will be used is about 50 yards so I decided to tune for better energy. 

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After playing around for a while with all the different pellets I decided to go with the 18.13gr JSB even though it was not the top performer during earlier testing. I finally got her to where I felt comfortable both with accuracy and energy on my 12 yard basement shooting lane.

Both groups are 10 shot groups with the first group on Bottom and the second on top. I probably could have done a little better on the second group, but didn't take my time, as I was more interested in the chronograph data as I saw the numbers trending. I planned on two separate strings, but decided to continue shooting without changing strings after seeing the results of the first 10 shots.

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I don't know if this speaks to something Crossman has done to improve the Maurader or if it is a product of the tuning, or perhaps a little of both, but the numbers almost appear as if this gun is regulated. Here is the final data from a 20 shot string. High 881 / Low 871/ Avg. 876 / ES 10 / SD 3 

This brings the 18.13's in at 30.9 ft-lbs of energy. 

I know that compaired to regulated guns that this is by no means impressive, but seeing this data for a gun at this price point is pretty good.

I can't wait till I have more time to test it out at longer range.


 
I’ve owned 9 first gens. I have one synthetic .22 gen 2 and I LOVE it. It can shoot anything within reason including the 28.5 RBT slugs I tried yesterday but I had to turn hammer 2 full turns down from max & length shortened 3 full turns from max. TP at 3. 

It’s not sending them super fast, but it is doing it covered by a nickel at 50 yards.

Ideally it loves JSB 18.13. This is a stock gun. The only .22 Marauder I had that was better was the 23.75” Greg Davis tuned gen 1 wood stock Marauder. Sold to Ed Huang long ago. Miss ya Ed if anyone knows ya. Ed traded it for a 1911! Lol, yeah, the FFL dealer was so impressed with that air gun he made a trade with Ed. They’re happy, I realize I should have kept that one. Ugh. 

Marauders are GREAT guns. The aftermarket parts available are like the 10/22. I know many said hit or miss barrels from Crosman. True but my very 1st one from Rick Wellknicker, a authorized Crosman shop for over 40 years put Kodiaks hole in ragged hole covered by a dime at 50 yards and I’ve gotten as many as 10 under that dime.

I want to hear more on your tune when I’m not in a hurry. Great post 👍.


 
If you are happy with the shot count, leave it alone. If it's working for you sometimes the KISS rule is best. If you're not done playing with it, adding a HUMA would give you 40 shots. The Marauder is one of the most dismissed rifle out there, however, it can be just as accurate as high priced guns with just a little help!

Some sort of SSG would be easier route than adding regulator, as it seems pretty efficient already.

I'd leave it alone and just shoot it as it is.

Nice gun right out of the box..
 
I don't plan on further adjustment other than maybe the trigger. I am satisfied with 20 shots in this range as I normally don't need one to get the job done.

Tune setting: valve metering screw full open, hammer spring 5 turns in, hammer striker ???

I started with about 5 turns and did partial and then fine adjustments until I found the accuracy I was looking for. I think my first string before tuning had a SD around 12.