Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Benjamin Discovery - first PCP

Picked up a .22 Benjamin Discovery a couple weeks ago as my first PCP. Put a Hawke 4x12x40 scope on it. Here's my initial thoughts.

Pros:

Nice bang for the buck. As far as PCP's go this is about the cheapest you can go to get in the game.

Far more accurate than I expected.

Super lightweight.

Cons:

Had problems getting it to fill when I got it and yesterday it developed a leak and I had to send it back to the factory. I hope Crosman has quick turn around.

Haven't chrony'd it yet but I will. I'm noticing that at 50 yards, I'm getting pellet drop over about 20 shots, which I suspect is causing my POI to shift. I thought I'd have more consistent velocities over the shot range, but I'm betting they start high and tail off.

Trigger isn't great, but it's usable.

LOUD. Report is about like .22 Long CB's

Hand-pump is a workout. A tank would be nice, but what's a poor guy to do.




This is about the best I can do with this rifle/optics combo. I seriously doubt I'll ever do much better, but you never know. I might luck into a pellet that groups a little tighter.







I bought this rifle for the sole purpose of knocking off some house sparrows that have been killing my Eastern bluebirds. So far I've knocked off 4 sparrows from 10-28 yards. Most of the shots were hastily done, so some of the sparrows weren't hit perfect, and had to be chased by the cat. However, that's fine with me, knocking them down where they're no longer a problem is the goal.

I like the Disco. It fits the bill for what I was looking for. Maybe some day I'll be able to step up to one of the fancier .22 or possibly a big bore. Until then, I'll be happy with this Benjamin. (If the factory gets it squared away..)

Those are pretty good groups. If you want to experiment, I would suggest the 16 grain LSBs. 18 grain is probably the best choice in most 22s, but 16 would be next. It all depends on the rifle. Optimum speed for a 177 or 22 pellet is usually 875 FPS or so.

Great shooting. I'd try a few other pellets as TerryK suggested and you might even tighten those up some.

I tried the Crossman HP 14.3gr. and the H&N Spitzkugel 15.74gr. as well, they shot "okay" at 25 yards, but not as good as the JSB's.

At 50 yards, 1-2 out of 5 of the Crossman and H&N's would spin off into Neverland and completely miss the 5"x5" target. The 18.13 JSB Diabolo seemed to stabilize and print nicely.

I was wondering if this particular barrel might prefer heavy for caliber pellets, so I have a tin of Beeman Kodiak 21.14gr. coming in the mail to test.

May have more to do with pellet design than weight.

Good to see you enjoying that rifle.

If you want to go to a tank, sometimes the scuba shops sell used tanks pretty cheap.

Seen some for $80 or so.

I've had my best luck with the Predator polymags.

That's the nice thing about the Disco running at 2000 psi, you can get a lot of fills (250+) from a standard 3000 psi scuba tank. With the 3000 psi guns (i.e. Marauder) you need a relatively expensive carbon fiber 4500 psi tank. I cheaped out and found a 3400 psi 100cu ft scuba tank on ebay I use for my Marauder, but with only 400 psi to work with I only get 50-60 fills before a tank refill is needed.

Is the Discovery loud? I've always heard how quiet the Marauder is...

They're about the same as a pump up pellet rifle. If noise is a concern a relatively inexpensive ($50-60) TKO moderator/silencer can be added to the barrel.

Mine's pretty loud. Wouldn't work in a suburb setting.


I bought one of these and so far, haven't been too impressed with it. I don't know if it's screwing up the barrel harmonics or if the pellet is actually clipping somewhere, but it kills any accuracy I had. Even with the "choice" pellet, groups are doubled at 25 yards and non existent at 50.

I've tried it a couple different times, clocking it in different positions with no luck.

I've shot about 50 squirrels with mine in the backyard, no one has ever even noticed..... with the Mack1 break it's much quieter. Mine is Mac1 tuned and shoots the 15.9 grain JSB Diablos at 849fps average over 17 shots. After that, they velocity starts to drop about 20-25fps per shot.

Here's mine:

10 shots @ 100 yards.....



88 yards.....

Discovery great gun, powerful and accurate. It is very loud, mine sounds like a 22 LR

Best,

casper_zip

Yea, mine was way too loud for my urban backyard. When your neighbor is only 25 yards away over the fence, the Disco does make quite a bit of noise, and does bring unwanted attention. I did put a TKO on the barrel, and it quieted the rifle down to acceptable levels. The Marauder has a built in shroud from the factory, so no worries there - but I bought my Disco before the Marauder was on the market.

I also didn't like the "Kiddie" size stock on it, so I ordered a thumbhole blank form Boyds and inletted it for the Disco. Now it shoots and feels more like a "Big Boy's" gun...

Agreed, the TKO or other "lead dust collectors" make a huge improvement in the Discovery. It's pretty darn loud without one.

You must be clipping your LDC, mine actually seems to group a bit better with the TKO on it.

I had lots of trouble with mine out of the box and after using a repair station (he put some parts in backwards, I sent it to Crosman and it has plugged along since.

I guess I will get a tank so I will shoot it more.

Trigger is the only thing I would improve, but then it holds minute of grackle and cowbird head as is so may do the two screw addition and leave it at that.