Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Looking for advice on an air rifle for less than $800

I started my air gun obsession with a Diana 46. Awesome accurate setup but didn't have the power I wanted. Bought a model 52. Got it doing 840 with 16.2's with es or 8 fps. Needed more bought 2 BSA pcp's my lonestar I got to do 1100 with 16.2's. Bought a scuba tank and a pump and almost bought a compressor. Bought a lightning xl tactical at some point too. When it's all said and done I have the model 46 and a benji 392 I sold the rest. The 392 being my favorite. I have more kills with it then I had with all the others combined. It does 625 with 16.2 jsb's. And cutting the center out of a target at 25 yards is no problem. Lots of power sounded great but enough is enough. I don't mind pumping and not dragging 12 lbs of crap around is nice. 4 lbs in a nice small setup. Perfect out of the box. Little trigger work aside. Oh and the one undeniable truth my journey taught me: if you need more power, burn powder. My lonestar was louder then my .22 with sub sonics by a lot.

Good prices there - Thanks for the link!

I'm going back and forth on this. I like the idea of the power & accuracy of a PCP, but I'm not thrilled about having to shell out the extra money for either a scuba tank or an expensive hand pump.

A springer would be more economical, but I'm concerned about the accuracy being sufficient. I'd like to be able to shoot 1/4" groups at 50 feet and ideally out to 25 yards.

At this time, however, it's a moot point. We got clobbered on our electric bill (Beware: If you're on a fixed-rate plan and that plan ends, you can get nailed with a HUGE bill), loss of power for four days (had to stay in a hotel for 3 days and lost everything in the fridge and freezer), and the cat needed emergency surgery (my wife wouldn't let me resolve the issue with a .22lr). Things are going to be tight for a while, which gives me more time to pine over which air rifle to buy once we're flush again.

Doc
If you search the website link I sent. you will find a useful tab on the specific rifle page called our take. It is a review of the air rifle and includes velocity data.

Doc get the Benjamin Discovery, come with a hand pump and you only have to fill to 2000 psi which isn't that hard from a hand pump. Great little PCP gun without laying out big buck, I have 3 Mauauders and one Discovery, they all work fine.

Got to shoot a benjamin nitro trail in .25. Longer and heavier than the .22 version. It hit with authority and seems to be more accuracy stable - only had the first 20 round through it and was grouping pretty good. Will get an update when my bro shoots it past the recommended break in 200 rounds.

I would push golf tees into the ground at 35 yards and cut them in half with my RWS 52. Accuracy is not a problem with a springer. you just have to be consistant in how you shoot it.

I picked up a Marauder .25 a few weeks ago for 550 shipped off CL with the Benji' pump and 400 pellets, I believe they are Premier's. I grabbed the only spare scope I had, a Revolution 3x9 and even though parallax is horrible, I sighted in at 35 yards shooting 1/2" and have at least 20 kills so far, mostly Grackle's, a couple of squirrels that were hell bent on chewing up my bird feeder and a half dozen rabbits. Most of the shots have been 35-50 yards.

The pump works fine for me, it took about a 100 strokes to get it up to 3000 on the gauge, takes about 50 to go from 2000-3000. The last 20 are some work but every time I smoke a Grackle it's worth it.

The stock is very clunky, in fact, it flat sucks A$$. When I have an hour I will take my angle grinder and flap disc and thin it way down...a chainsaw and woodcarver blade is probably more appropriate for the job.

The magazine is somewhat problematic, I tweaked it after watching a few videos to increase the tension and minimize the spring from popping out of the retaining hole. When it does get flaky, it only takes a few minutes to fix.

It is pretty darn quiet, quieter to me than CCI CB's out of a 24" barrel.

I am thinking about re-setting the parallax on a VX2 2x7 CDS I have on a 223 and trying it on the Marauder, I bet that will improve my percentage a little.

RDW, Is your Marauder one of the new ones? I see they redesigned the wood stocks along with a new synthetic stock. I have one of the .25s also. Incredibly accurate. JSB Exact Kings are the most accurate out of my rifle. The Predator Polymags get rave reviews but I haven't tried them yet. I really get a kick out of the pellet making more noise hitting the target than the rifle firing. This woodchuck, not so much.

The Marauder is definitely on my list to consider. I've read a number of good reviews and watched a few YouTube videos on it as well. The only thing I'm not thrilled about is having to drop so much money on a pump. As so much in life, it's probably going to be one of those "you get what you pay for" situations.

It was basically new in the box, looks the same as your rifle.

I smacked a duck decoy at about 70 yards last night, talk about "smack"





The pump cost is high but I didn't want to mess with filling tanks, chose the pump over an RWS or Beeman but either would be the next choice for me. After shooting the .25, I would not even consider an air rifle smaller than .22.

A .25+ may be in my future

Just posted a LNIB .22 Synthetic MROD cheap in classifieds. Just need a Benjamin or Hill pump and go slaying pests.