The beast may have been tamed

[Windmill01]

Recently iornlion posted a thread on naming your airrifle. I call my Benjamin Trail 177 “ sh*t of a rifle “ because well, you’ll have to read the post but the gist of it is that it kills scopes on a monotonous basis. I have tried the Sportsmatch dampa mount, it wouldn’t hold consistent groups and I tried the ZR mount with no success also. In one of my rants in a post on this problem someone eluded that my mount may have been a first generation mount.

A week or so ago I saw a deal online for a cheap 4*12*40 Niko Stirling Scope with a ZR mount for $139.00 Aus. So I thought I’d give it one more try after contacting the store. This ZR mount is definitely a 2nd generation model, vastly more improved then my first mount.

So far so good, ive put about 240 pellets through the “ sh*t of a rifle “ and all’s good, consistent groups and back to its old accuracy. Might have to change its name. Fingers crossed I might order another one for my 22 cal Trail.

Gary

 

[John "spysir" Blount]

Gen 2 is different eh? Even those need to be set up ( modded ) properly to function well. Good deal you found a tough scope but it sounds like "the beast" would benefit from tuning.

Mant a spring/ram rig that was a scope killer have been cured - and often more enjoyable to shoot- by tuning, dont even necessarily have to make less power just less SLAM Evene the RWS54 doesnt break scopes when in a state of proper tune. 

How's your groups?



John

 

[Windmill01]

Yes John the gen 2 has fitted sleeves inside the rings and two Allen screws at the inside end of each ring to adjust and tighten if accuracy fails. Also the rail doesn’t twist and rattle like the first one I had. It also comes with instructions on how to fit properly. The only criticism i have is that the screw closest to the trigger that is part of the three that clamps the scope to the rifle needs to be longer. It also has the stop pin to contend with. I was able to use a longer screw from another scope mount to secure it properly, but so far I’m very happy.

The rifle is usually very accurate imo for a “big box” item that some of the guys on this forum call them. The picture above is when I had a go at Oldspooks challenge. I think the distance was 20 metres but it could have been 25. I’ve done a lot of work to this rifle, including recently filing the sear down further to give a better trigger release. It has the original gas ram in it, 55 kilo and it does slam but I’ve gotten used to that. I’m looking for a 50 kilo or 490n gas ram for it. I have one in my 22 Trail, it came out of a Gamo. You’d be surprised what a difference 5 kilos makes. It feels like half the effort to cock, very accurate, reduced slam, reduced noise and it doesn’t kill as many scopes. The scope in this picture was a Bushnell 4*12*50 I think. Brand new, it killed two of those in a row.

I know you can tune a spring rifle but I think the only thing you can do to a gas ram is reduce its power and trigger work to improve accuracy. Maybe a heavier stock like on my HW77 might improve things but it’s a relatively a cheap airrifle that is reasonably accurate and I don’t think it warrants the extra expense.

Gary