The Benjamin Part Dos

Well I got in a good afternoon of shooting and I decided it was about time for another post. The last time I left you with The Benjamin Trail Np and told you I had fiddled with it a bit. Tonight we will get into the why and perhaps the how? Who knows? I may even throw two posts up tonight, I had a pretty amazing night at the range and Im really excited and looking to share.

So why did I tune my TNP? Well as it comes stock the TNP is a great rifle for the money, 200 bucks buys you one hell of a squirrel rifle and since it uses a nitro piston it is incredibly quite and recoil is pretty much nil. The recoil issue is quite important when it comes to air guns.

(Wait wait wait... hold on... RECOIL... from an AIR GUN!?!? I must be on something right? Well no, not really. As a matter of fact, air guns recoil so violently that they require special scopes made specifically for them. A spring powered air rifle will recoil twice, forwards as the piston slams forward and again as it compresses and comes to a stop. This combined with the torsional forces of the piston and spring wreak havoc on a scope. Don't believe me? Try putting your Bushnell on a RWS 34 and see how long it lasts, don't say I didn't warn you though!)

Anyways back to my original point, the recoil in a gas gun is pretty much zero, the nitro pistons, co2, pump up pneumatics, and the pcp guns all have significantly less recoil (if any) than a spring piston gun. This is not only good for scopes but it also makes keeping a nice tight group much easier. The TNP comes in a little heavy at nine pounds but again, this works to your advantage when your putting pellets on paper. So whats not to like? It has accuracy, its quiet, and its CHEAP! Well... there is one thing... the trigger is about as smooth as a walrus's balls... or at least how smooth I would extrapolate walrus balls being. Suffice it to say that it is pretty God awful. Some of the wretchedness of the trigger can be overcome by pulling it about half way and then letting off, getting back into firing position and continuing that trigger pull. This is a very imprecise and inconsistent method though.

Up until replacing the piston seal I just lived with it, now... No more! I already had the stock off, the piston out, and the trigger assembly off of the gun so I figured ehhh.... what the hell? I polished the surfaces of every sear on my DMT diamond bench stones. Yes... The set of stones I use to sharpen knives. They made pretty quick work of the steel used in the sears. I started with 600 grit and worked my way up to 1500. It doesn't take much, so don't get crazy! Its ok to have some of the original "coating" still on the sear all you want is a perfectly even and smooth surface on the contact point. I have 2 areas that still have some of the original black on them but they are smooth as glass. Any who so  I got the trigger back together, put it in the gun and HOLY CRAP!  SOOOOOO smooth. I will also mention, I originally left the trigger spring out because thats what is done for the GTX trigger sold for this rifle, Ill get back to this. Now Ill save you some time and me some typing. I spent roughly 5 hours getting the trigger juuuuust right. I used washers (which were polished on the stones as well as with rouge), I made 6 different trigger springs out of different thickness music wire with different bends and points of contact, etc.. etc... etc... So what ended up working the best, was a polished washer on one side of the trigger placed on the "rod" that is held in with an e-clip, a music wire spring made from .015 thickness, and a 10mm socket head bolt to replace the one that comes in the trigger for the second stage adjustment. This makes one of the nicest triggers in my gun safe. Seriously, its the cats ass.

SOOOOO now I had a TNP with a new piston seal, a new trigger, and a new lease on life. As it was with the first break in, the TNP was pushing pellets faster than a Russian race horse at the Kentucky Derby getting chased by a glue truck. Its calmed down a bit now but I can say with certainty that it is shooting much harder than it was before. I know this for a FACT because of the giant depressions its leaving in my brass targets and the number of pages in the phone book it went through before and after.  The trigger also allows me to get some amazing groups with this rifle now. At 20 yards I was making 5 shot groups that were .20 inches ctc, not bad when you consider its a .22!

So lets recap, the TNP
pros: inexpensive for new shooters, powerful, accurate, backyard friendly, tons of fun
cons: holy sweet baby Jesus that trigger is powerful bad
best 10 dollar fix: a music wire trigger job, if you have hobby lobby near by get some sand paper (600 to 2000 grit), a pack of .015 music wire (1 dollar), and a set of jeweler's round pliers (these are about 6 bucks).
best 10+ dollar fix: hmmm.... a piston seal when the factory one wears out (11 bucks @ pyramidair.com)
final thoughts: I have 1200 dollar tuned revolvers I enjoy shooting less that this rifle. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I CAN shoot this rifle. If you can afford 44 magnum shells right now then more power to you, but I can't. If I do take one of my big girls out to play at the range by round 10 Im just watching rolls of quarters punch holes in a paper target and Im not having fun anymore. A good air gun lets you finish shooting when your ready to be finished shooting and makes sure you have a smile on your face when you do! Any questions just ask!


As always, stay safe and keep it classy!