Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Benjamin Discovery?

Has anybody tried the Benjamin Discovery? I saw it in "Predator Extreme". It operates with compressed air from their 2000 psi hand pump or from CO2.

Haven't tried it, or even personally seen it, but Pyramidair has a nice write up on it in their blog section. Looks interesting, I would like to try one some time.

I saw that write up too. I just thought I would see if anyone had tried one. I don't want to be the guinea pig. :-)

One of the more prctical PCP guns out there. Most of the imported ones weigh much more.

Since Benjamin is the "keeper" of the Sheridan name, I am hoping they will bring them out in .20 also...

Bob

Anybody tried one yet?

I held one today at a gun shop. It was much lighter than it looks, or what I thought it was going to be. I have a blue streak, so I compared it to that. The rifle is well balanced. I am planning on getting one down the road. May have to wait for Santa to bring me one, but I plan on whacking yard and vegetable garden varmints with it.

I would really like to know how loud they are. PCP's in general have the reputation for sounding like a .22LR going off.

Probably loud enough for a neighbor to hear, unless you get a shroud for it from someone like mountainaircustomairguns.com then it should be mouse-fart quiet.

I have owned a .177 Discovery for about two months.

I have shot rimfires of ALL types seriously for the last 30 years.Let me tell you this...my Discovery -at it's LOUDEST- is more quiet than CB caps in a .22 rifle.

When shrouded it is about like an Aquila Colibri load(CB with no powder).

The gun with pump is a heck of a good deal.The gun is well built and ACCURATE- about as accurate as a good .22 rifle with hunting ammo at 50 yards.

.5" groups are easy at 25 yards and 1" groups are about the average at 50 if the wind is not blowing too badly.

Frankly, the Discovery is the most fun I have ever had with an air rifle and that is coming from someone who has owned Beeman R1, R10 and R7 rifles.

jim62
Thanks so much for the comments. I've been wanting one of these but wanted to hear from somebody that had one first. I'm thinking about getting the .22 cal.

If you don't mind, what't it like to pump up? Is this a pain or no big deal? What's the trigger like?

Yeselk.
First of all, hand pumping a Discovery is a bit of productive upper body exercise which I personally feel is something ALL OF US can use a bit of each day..

Since the Discovery operates at about 2/3 the pressure of most PCP rifles(2,000 PSI vs 3,000 PSI for most high dollar Euro rifles) it is VERY reasonable to pump up.

Basically, it takes about 55 to 60 strokes of the pump to get from 1,000PSI to just under 2,000PSI(full).The first 50 strokes are about like a bicycle pump and anything after that is a bit harder but nothing a healthy adult(male or female) cannot do.One advantage to the handpump is the physical leverage you have since you can use a bit of your body weight on the down stroke.

When filled the tank is good for about 30-35 good shots.
Think about it...The Discovery takes about TWO pumps to get MORE velocity(900FPS in .177)per shot than a Benjamin/Sheridan, etc gets on TEN pumps.

Detractors of PCP rifles often bring up the whole "self sufficent" rifle thing as to the need for a separate pump to charge the rifle. To me, is a bit bogus as NO rifle (air or powder burner) is "self sufficient" ..you STILL need ammo to shoot it!

To me, in terms of convenient firepower, a fully pumped up Discovery with 35 pellets in your pocket is about like carrying a good rifle afield with about 35 cartridges in your pocket....

jim...have you had the chance to chronograph the rifle at all? These look very nice for the price and I was able to handle one last week at a large local shop... Just wish they would also make it in .20 so I don't have to add another caliber... I have .177 and .20 and just would rather stay with the .20 for hanting...

Bob

Jim62
Thanks for the info. I think I'll get a .22 cal.

I have read that one guy's Disco shoot 14.3grainers accurately up to 875fps, but he has it set to 830fps to get a more efficient shot count. He's shooting around .85 inch, 50 yard groups with it. That's minute-of-squirrel right there!

RJM,

I don't have a chrono. I use the H.I.T.(holes in target) method to evaluate any rifle(powder or air).
Seriously, based on wood penetration and trajectory, my gun has got to be getting the advertised velocities in .177" Also, my shot count starting at about 1,800PSI and going down to 1,200PSI is about 25 shots in the "Sweet spot".
The sweet spot in terms of the # of consistent shots can be lengthened by installing a custom delrin HDD(Hammer Debouncing Device) which keeps to hammer from double tapping the valve if you will on a shot waisting air. Also, tweeking the hammer spring to a lower velocity setting seems to help a bit as well.

jim62, what about storage? Do you/can you leave air in the rifle for "long term" storage? I want to use it on yard and garden varmints, so it would be convenient to grab it and shoot it when needed.

Sakoluvr,

That's one of the good things about the gun.On ANY gas gun, you want to keep at least SOME air or CO2 in the gun for storage.even pump guns should have a few pumps of air in them to keep the seals from shrinking.

As a far as a new PCP rifle goes, right out of the box either it holds air or it doesn't-period.If it has no problems holding air (99% of them are fine) then you will have no problems leave air in.The average "sweet spot" air pressure is from 1,800 to 1,200 PSI. The air assembly and valve seals will be fine.

I keep my Disco filled in the sweet spot with some hollow point pellets nearby on the back porch.The local Starling population hates it.

After picking one up and shouldering it, and hearing all the good reports, I have to get one! Why did you choose the .177?

I chose a .17 because of pellet selection and expense (in most type of pellets 17s are about 2/3 the cost of .22s.
The 17's shoot flatter and usually drift less in the wind.

The Discovery likes heavy for caliber pellets ,so a good .177" 10.5 g pellet , say a Crosman Premier heavy, A Beeman Kodiak or the Benjamin Discovery 10.5 HPs will do anything I need done with a pellet gun.

To limit over penetration, I use the Discovery HP pellets around the house on birds and such.Smacks the crap out of anything inside 40 yards..

I was leaning toward the .22, but I will have to do a little more research now.