Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Question for Experienced Air Gunners

Hello.

I've owned alot of different types of weapons over the years but never an air rifle, though I've wanted one for quite some time. So, I recently bought a Benjamin Trail XL NP Air Rifle in 22 cal. Shortly after the purchase, I took it to an indoor range to zero it and in general get a feel for the rifle. I set the first target at 10 meters and began to shoot. Everything was going well until about the 15th shot or so. I had just made a shot (about the 15th) when I noticed I didn't hit the target. This was the 1st time this happened, so I shot again. This time something did not sound right, though I heard the pellet hit downrange but still did not hit the target. I cracked open the rifle and looked down the barrel. It appeared there was a partial obstruction in the barrel closer to the muzzle. I used a cleaning rod but did not see any pellet (either pieces or whole) come out. I then looked in the barrel and it appeared to be free of any obstructions. So, I shot again and the same thing happened (barrel appeared partially obstructed but nothing was pushed out with the cleaning rod and after pushing the rod thru the barrel it appeared free of any obstructions. A also totally missed the target, though I heard the something hit downrange). Well, I tried this a 3rd time and the same things happened except this time I also saw smoke coming out of the muzzle. At this point I ran the cleaning rod thru the barrel one last time and did not shoot again. BTW I was shooting Crosman Premiere 22 cal pellets.

Now, since this is my 1st ever air rifle, I'm willing to concede that perhaps operator error was involved here but I don't see where I did anything wrong. I do not have a clue what could have happened. Anybody with experience have any idea what is going on? Should I try different pellets or something?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Spring piston air rifles leave a cloud of smoke in the barrel after each shot, especially when new. It's referred to as dieseling, the air gets compressed enough in the chamber to ignite the oil and grease in the chamber. New guns are typically slathered pretty heavily with the chamber. So in that sense, everything sounds pretty normal and I assume your rifle is fine.

The other unique habit of spring piston air rifles is the spring piston has a nasty habbit of killing scopes. Typically combo gun/scopes are cheap scopes, and the scopes end up taking a crap. My assumption is your scope crapped out. Hard to believe they'd die on the 15th shot and die hard enough to not hit paper at 10m, but it can certainly happen.

No gurantee my assesment is correct, but my guess is the gun is fine and the scope is dead. It would be helpful to have a spotter behind you to see where your pellets are hitting.

458 Lott,

Thanks for the information. It does make me feel much better. I've never had a "lemon" firearm before and I sure don't want to start now.

The first thing you should have done was to run a couple of patches down the barrel, all airgun barrels aren't clean right from the factory. Don't worry about the smoke, it's dieseling.

From the sound of it, sounds like the pellet is clipping the "guts" of the shroud, it happens. The first few shots were o.k., but with a gas rammed gun, the recoil is much sharper, forward and reverse. (I own 2 rammed guns for the past 6 years) The recoils could have shifted the baffels so that the pellet could clip them as it exited the muzzel. Other owners have said the same thing. Return the gun for an exchange, the XL are good guns, don't let this lemon turn you off about it. As they say, $h!t happens.

And another thing, Those combo's aren't that great. You'll find out sooner or later that the POI will shift on you. Rammed guns along with magnum springers WILL kill lower end scopes. My recommendation is to get a high recoil rated airgun scope. (not all scsope are rated for airguns, especially scopes for powder burners.) I've been using Hawke Optics for the past 6 years now and none have died on me yet, even on my magnums and rams.

Good luck.

Xposo,

Thank you, sir, for the advice. I probably will have to get another scope and will look into the brand you mentioned. I did run numerous patches thru the bore before I shot the air rifle, since there alot of grease in there. However, I never could get rid of all of it, so I just went and shot it.

I'll also look at exchanging the air rifle.

Thanks again.

458 Lott & Xposo,

Since you guys responded to my earlier thread about the problems I was having with a new Benjamin Trail NP Air Rifle, I wanted to let you know the final resolution. I decided to take the rifle back to Bass Pro Shops in Oklahoma City, even though I had it for about 3 months before I finally got to shoot it. Well, Bass Pro allowed a direct exchange for another new rifle. I took this one to the range today and it shoots great with no problems.

Kudos to Bass Pro!

Retsof, good to hear that BP exchanged it for you.
Have fun with the new gun, and watch out, sooner or later you'll get bit by the airgun bug and it won't end. First this gun, then the next, and next, and the next, you know what I mean. It's an endless cycle, airgunitus, there's no cure for it!!!!!

Those crosman premiere pellets are a great choice, I use the same ones in my 22 and 117. I shoot a RWS model 36(117) and 52 in 22cal.