by B.B. Pelletier
Benjamin’s 347 multi-pump was sold between 1969 and 1992.
Let’s shoot this old classic Benjamin multi-pump and find out just how accurate it can be. This is a test of a rifle you can’t get anymore, but the Benjamin 397 is a very similar airgun, if you’re interested.
Before we begin
I must first comment on the open sights; because after many trips to the range with the .22 rimfire target rifles I’ve been using for the CB cap test, I was shocked back to reality by the wide open notch in the rear sight blade on the 347. It isn’t a precision sight in any respect, and the rear notch is about three times too wide for the front post. I had to guesstimate if the front post was centered in the rear notch, because it’s too wide to know for sure.
Some readers might be inclined to mount a scope or a red dot sight on a rifle like this, but I’m not going to. It has always seemed to me that a rifle like this was meant to be shot with open sights, plus the mounting methods for optics on these multi-pumps leave something to be desired. The mounts can flex the barrel solder joint, eventually breaking it. There’s no good repair when that happens.
I also want to comment on the trigger. Compared to a modern “lawyer” trigger, this one is downright decent. Oh, it isn’t super-light, nor is it especially crisp, but it still breaks at less than 3 lbs., as we discovered in Part 1 of this report; and that’s a trait I like in a sporting rifle. I wish all modern airgun triggers could be this nice.
I decided to shoot at 10 meters, partly because I didn’t know what to expect from this rifle and partly because this is a sporting rifle, after all. It isn’t supposed to be a 50-yard tackdriver.
This rifle does have one quirk. The pump link is loose at the pump handle; every time you pump the rifle, it shifts position with a click. That could easily be fixed with a new link and bushing.
Accuracy
The first shot was offhand from about 15 feet to establish that the pellet was going pretty close to the point of aim. It was, so I moved back to 10 meters, where I rested the rifle for the test.
The first pellet tested was the RWS Hobby wadcutter. The 347 is a .177-caliber rifle, and in that caliber the Hobby weighs just 7 grains. I decided to use five pumps per shot, which is enough to shoot even farther than I was for this test.
After the first test shot, I figured that the pellet would rise a bit at 10 meters, and it did. Since the rifle has no scope, I used binoculars to verify that the pellet was hitting the point of aim, which was a six o’clock hold on a 10-meter rifle bull.
The shots were landing slightly low and to the left, but they were within the bull, so I left the sights exactly where they’d been.
Though they landed a little left, these 10 RWS Hobby pellets went into a group that measures 0.458 inches.
Next up were Beeman Kodiaks. I’ve found over the years that these heavy pure-lead domes usually perform well in multi-pumps. They are one of my “go-to” choices. As before, the gun was pumped five times.
Ten Beeman Kodiak pellets went into this group, which measures 0.558 inches across. That’s one-tenth larger than the group of Hobbys.
For some reason, this rifle didn’t like the Kodiaks as much as I thought it would. They made a slightly larger group than the Hobbys, but I thought it would be just the other way around. This is still a good group, but it isn’t as good as I expected.
The final pellet tested in the 347 was the Crosman Premier lite. Where the other two pellets had some resistance upon entering the breech, there was none with the Premier lite. It went in like it was made for the rifle…which it is, in a way.
Finally, I got the performance I was looking for! Ten Crosman Premier lites made this 0.39-inch group. You can see that the dime will cover the group easily. This is the pellet for this rifle!
Because I’m shooting 10-shot groups, I don’t have to keep shooting group after group when the results are good. Ten shots eliminates a lot of the randomness of a 5-shot group. To put it simply, it’s far more difficult to shoot 10 shots and have all of them be right than it is to shoot just 5.
So, the 347 is a shooter, just as I thought it would be. It’s right in there with all the other good-quality multi-pumps.
One other thing to note is that the points of impact for all three pellets were remarkably close. Hobbys being very light and Kodiaks being on the heavy end should have spread these points of impact more than you see; but this was shot at close range, and a pneumatic is less influenced by pellet weight than a springer. That’s something for hunters to bear in mind.
The bottom line
A vintage multi-pump like this one has a lot going for it. It will have a much nicer trigger than contemporary models; and unless it’s been abused, it should shoot just as well as a modern pneumatic. With all the aftermarket support that is available for rifles like these, you can be sure they will be doing their thing for decades to come.
Just remember to oil the pump piston head with Crosman Pellgunoil and to store the gun with a pump of air at all times.
An interesting rifle indeed! When I bought my first air rifle at the Roanoke show in 2009, I was torn between the 397 and the CFX. The CFX won out. I should have gone with the 397.
As far as oiling, would silicon chamber oil work?
Use Pellgunoil. It will keep the seals in better shape. Use it anywhere you have metal to metal friction. Sillycone oil is not a good lubricant for metal to metal contact. Use it for chamber oil only on springers.
twotalon
Thanks. What about a SSP? Which would be better?
Same thing. Don’t use silicone unless the manufacturer specifically says to.
twotalon
Yes, I remember those terrible choices of the early airgun days. Both the CFX and Benjamin 397 were up there for me, but neither quite made the cut.
Matt61
Always had a fondness for pneumatics. My first airgun was a Sheridan with the hold down safety. Got it when I was 15 in 1955. Ran many thousands of rounds down that barrel. Sometime in 1981 or thereabout I sent it in for a rebuild. It was in need of a new bolt, forearm and valve and seals. When I got it back I turned it over to my youngest son when he was about 15. That gun killed a lot of game.
Sweeet. It may be this model that my older cousin had, in the early 1970s. He was sure proud of, so proud I don’t remember shooting it. I did pick up a 347 this year, Loving it!!! I still have the stock sights on it. The 347, 1377 and my 2240 is about I all I shoot now. I only have 50 feet to shoot in my garage and the springers get boring at that distance, imo.
My bad. I picked up a 392, this year. Got my numbers all mixed up.
Gene,
Thanks for your comments. You helped me decide of a special report for tomorrow.
B.B.
Good choice BB!
If it can be said that there is a universal example of domestic MSPs the this is it.
When I was a wee lad airgunners were sharply divided into two camps—-those who espoused the .177 as represented by the Benjamins and those who disdained their puny power compared to the Crosman .22s. There was a miniscule third group of wealthy .20 caliber Sheridan elitists who held themselves aloof from the commoners.
;o) Tom
BB,
Thanks for the great article on this great gun.
The first air gun I ever encountered was my dad’s pneumatic Benjamin. It was one of those with the rod at the tip of the gun which was pulled out and then forced back down to pump it.
We quickly discovered you could turn the rifle upside down and set the pump handle on a hard flat surface after it got too hard to pump and force more air into the chamber. This made for a really hard shooting gun!
Don’t know what ever happened to that gun, but eventually I purchased a .177 pump Benjamin. And like almost every other gun I ever owned, it too has been traded or sold. That’s called “betteritis”. You see something “better” and you gotta have it!
Fortunately, though I traded or sold many regular firearms I wish I had now, I have not made the same mistake with air guns! The disco I traded was the ONLY air gun I ever regretted letting go, and luck brought it back to me about 6 months after I traded it, and at a far lower price than I got in the trade! I regretted trading that disco from the moment after they took it to ship to it’s new owner.
A disco is just a disco, right? Maybe, but that one had been modified by me with a home made power adjuster and a home made three screw trigger mod and the accuracy was fantastic and the trigger was great. Also I could adjust power from 775 – 975 fps with 14.3 gr chps which it shot extremely accurately! So it is back with me now and hopefully I have learned my lesson!
Wanna bet I haven’t though? 🙂
“We quickly discovered you could turn the rifle upside down and set the pump handle on a hard flat surface after it got too hard to pump and force more air into the chamber. This made for a really hard shooting gun!”
What is Crosman waiting for to turn this into their own version of the FX Indepence?
No need to turn it upside down…
You depress a small button on the but plate, turn it sideway: instant foot rest!
Unlock the front part of the stock: instant pumping handle!
Now you place the rifle butt on the floor with your feet holding it straight and start pumping with your whole body weight and you have an easy to pump Crosman Standalone PCP…
Stand because you kinda stand on it and alone because you don’t need a separate pump or scuba gear.
Come on Crosman, build it! Who’s with me?
I sold my 397 because I couldn’t pump it, the way it slammed on the closing stroke was too hard on my sick hands.
J-F
I still fondly remember “iceman” from our blog who told me how much fun it was to shoot a Benjamin 397 at ice cubes. I was never closer to buying the rifle than with that comment, and if I had an environment where I could actually do that, I probably would have.
Victor, that is intense about the rats, and I believe I would fight most human beings before I would a random rat. Now my mind is consumed with means of defense. Ideally a rimfire handgun like the Ruger Mk III series I suppose but that wouldn’t work too well in the city. My thoughts turn to the Sjambok, the African straight whip of which an interesting and cheap plastic version is made by Cold Steel. The originals were used by Africans to cut snakes in half so they have the speed. The reach is nice but what happens when the rat closes the distance as they are very capable of doing? Ideally a Ka Bar but more practically some type of concealable folding knife.
So, Victor, this is your first hunt ever? That sounds like quite an occasion. I understand that elk are very tasty. Perhaps you will be the wingman for your son. I was going to suggest some very heavy caliber lever-action, but I don’t believe that elk are particularly dangerous and prone to charge. The landscape that you describe evokes a Louis L’Amour novel that I’m reading so make sure to enjoy it. By the way, this novel really livens up my holster draw practice for my Single Six. Actually the writing is a little disappointing. The hero breaks the arm of one villain, and the guy shows up two weeks later apparently in good health. But the book is good on landscape and showdowns. On the subject of rifle choices, it’s interesting that your experts turned down Winchester as well as Remington. David Tubb shot a Winchester 70 before he designed his own rifle, but his was probably modified beyond all recognition.
Kevin, that is very interesting hunting information from a pro. I believe my hunting distance with a Winchester 94 by your standards is about 10 yards.
Duskwight, as for Sako rifles, I just read a very good review of a tactical rifle with a 20 inch barrel that made your mouth water. But like the other candidates, even this one wasn’t any more accurate than a Savage while being more expensive and less available.
Mike, no kidding that the Shanghai Municipal Police had firearms. I had no idea. How interesting that the British opted for the Colt 1911. What was the make of the other gun, the 1908? This would explain how Fairbairne developed his expertise with point-shooting before he taught the commandos. His methods, refined a bit during the war, are still the best I’ve found–better than the flash sight picture of the Weaver hold or anything. Square up to the target with the shooting arm extended and held 45 degrees or so below horizontal. Raise the shooting arm and squeeze with your whole hand to release the shot as soon as the gun breaks your line of sight with the target. Simple and effective with my Umarex pistol.
DaveUK, I was wondering too how they managed to keep track of the right neutrinos over 454 miles when millions of them are bombarding our bodies all day long. Well, I assume those who know about these things have checked this out. As for breaking the light speed barrier, I DO like the idea of going to other stars in a reasonable time frame. But I DON’T like the logical paradoxes of going back in time and changing the future. But it’s not up to me…. The first step will be to repeat the result, and I think that the chances are fair that they won’t and we’ll never hear about this again.
Regarding the comments on the sensibility of insects which we like to blow apart, I read a famous biology textbook that claims that earthworms probably do not feel pain. Their reasoning? Our consciousness is tied very closely to the structure of our nervous systems. Mammals display behavior that corresponds closely to humans, and we can infer that they must be feeling something similar. (There are YouTube videos of elephant lust!) But as you go down animal orders and their nervous systems get simpler and more primitive, the reasoning is that their perceptions are reduced including what we think of as pain until you get to systems that are so simple like an earthworm’s where one supposes that there is no pain at all. The analogy in the human nervous system is the reflex arc where there is no time for the nerve impulse to go from the sensor to the brain then back down the spinal cord–like when you touch a hot stove. Instead, there is a neural shortcut from finger directly to the spinal cord to activate the muscles to move your finger. In bypassing the brain, the system also bypasses pain–as the saying goes… Of course, your finger will hurt like hell afterwards, even within fractions of a second when the brain catches up, but the initial impulse that activates the reflex is fairly painless. So even though earthworms and insects might thrash in what appears to be pain, these are just instinctive reactions built into them through reflex arcs to remove them from the irritant or source of danger. Anyway, so goes the theory which seems reasonable to me, but the worms are obviously not talking.
Duskwight, saw a very interesting YouTube video last night about neo-Nazis in Russia. Of course you have these types in America and around the world as well as all sorts of fringe lunatics. But I was particularly surprised to see this in Russia given the history of the Russian front and the atrocities committed by the Nazis. The analogy would seem to be militant African-American groups adopting the Confederate Stars and Bars as their symbol or Native-American groups adopting the insignia of the U.S. Cavalry. It doesn’t make any sense. I would think that survivors of WWII in Russia would be terribly offended and run those people out spontaneously. Even in Germany, I believe that it is a crime to make any kind of Nazi reference like the Heil Hitler salutes of the neo-Nazi groups in Russia, and I would think that the sentiment would be equally strong in Russia. My only guess as to the motivation of people like this comes from the book The Forgotten Soldier which helps explain the weird appeal of Nazi ideology. In some respects it transcends race and politics and seems to be about the pure notion of power for its own sake which defies any kind of moral restraint in its path. Such was the heady appeal of “limitless power” that the author felt standing atop a Polish castle and looking East that he and his fellows were willing to accept a level of discipline that pretty much ground them up as individuals. The SS in the course of the war actually became a multinational force among the occupied peoples of Europe. And I believe that Hitler’s favorite soldier of all whom he considered a sort of surrogate son was a French recruit to the SS by the name of Leon Degrelle. The guy was quite a soldier on the Eastern Front and a fanatical and unrepentant Nazi who commented after the war that his only regret was losing…. Anyway, the weirdness of the Nazi ideology is on full display with these characters in Russia that I saw on YouTube.
Matt61
Matt61,
Rats can be very aggressive and are smart. They have the ability to solve problems and work as a team.
Yes, we’re looking into hunting rifles for the very first time. We’ve obviously got a lot to learn, but that will be part of the fun. We’ll train, practice, and learn as much as we can. The actual hunt will be a rewarding experience, I’m sure.
Yes, Kevins standards are quite high, but he reflects the values of someone who is both self-respecting and respectful of the sport. Real competence matters to Kevin. My son and I share his values. I’m pretty sure that I can hold a 3″ group at a 100 yards offhand, but that’s probably my limit. There’s only one way to find out, and it won’t happen without a lot of practice.
Victor
Matt….Elephant “lust” is impressive.However,even more to the point you were making is elephant
mourning.After seeing the ritual caught on film,I was astonished.You would swear you were watching a funeral wake.They literally were lined up and would one by one stand by the recently deceased member of the group,with most placing the end of their trunk on the tusk of the elephant and caress it,just like humans paying their respects.If I remember correct,the pod sticks around for days,protecting the body from scavenging species.Absolutely stunning to watch!
P.s.Your pkg. is ready,please resend your adress to me,thanks. FB
Frank: Another animal who grieve are otters. In the book “Bobcats Before Breakfast” by John W.Kulish(Stackpole Books 1969, ISBN 8117-0250-2), he tells of the otter he learned to trap so well . He caught one and he watched as the mate came back to look for it and he tells of it grieving over the other. He was so touched by what he saw he never tried to catch another,or teach what he had learned about trapping them to anyone else. The book is a good read and shows the heart of the true woodsman, who really did what he wrote about.
Matt61,
“Such was the heady appeal of “limitless power” that the author felt standing atop a Polish castle and looking East that he and his fellows were willing to accept a level of discipline that pretty much ground them up as individuals.”…..
Sounds like today’s corporate clones. (apologies to any corporate clones out there reading this….)
…Perhaps they tagged each neutrino with a Higgs Boson as it passed by at faster than light speed….
But think, if the neutrinos werre doing faster than the speed of light, they would also be moving back in time, therefore arriving at their 1st checkpoint earlier and earlier. SO, they might appear to be moving in the opposite direction than they’re really travelling. I think I just gave myself a headache…. 😛
/Dave
The other pistol was a Colt 1908. Being smaller in size, the Asian police thought it fit them better. As to Fairbairne’s point shooting technique, “It Works”. It’s best at close range of course but that’s when you need a handgun. If you have one day to train someone to use a handgun, this is what to show them.
As to the rats, if you are outside, any open bore shotgun will make the go “Poof”.
Mike
Matt,
In fact clowns are everywhere. I know neonazis exist even in Israel. I’ve heard there are gay nazis in US and Europe. Seems to me even more impossible with all those hyperactive gay rights movements.
As for NN – guys are too stupid or too weak-spirited, they need to do something “absolute” and are just a byproduct of unstable society and turbulent times.
AFAIK there were Black Confederate troops during Civil War – so it’s partly possible 🙂
duskwight
A Benjamin .22 just like the one in today’s blog ,except that it had the tootsie roll pump handle, was the first reliable air rifle I ever used. It belonged to my younger brother, and I stole it when ever I could. I had a Crosman 130 pistol. We killed a pile of rats and barn pidgeons with the Benji. My brother still has it, and it still works and has never been rebuilt. Hows that for durability, over forty years of use and still working and now being used by another generation.
Robert,
That’s about the longest I’ve heard of. My own Sheridan Blue Streak was purchased new by me in 1978 and it still works, though the power is a little off.
B.B.
BB: Don’t know about the power ,never put it over a crony, but my nephew reports it’s still works good. Looks rough, as the stock has a crack in it , and the finish worn off all over. I also have a 1959 Sheridan that I bought at a flea market last year. The owner said it had never been apart and I believe him . As my old man would have said, it was dryer than a popcorn fart when I bought it. That one does around 700fps with 10 pumps. only the tinest smidgeon of air is left after ten. Mostly only pump to eight. My 1985 Sheridan will do 685 fps with eight, and Benji cylindricals. It’s interesting that the older one won’t do better than a 3-4″ group with the old Sheridan cylindricals. Only will shoot the JSB’s accurately. Whoever had it first must have been real disappointed. As a side note, the 130 I had (actually two as they only worked for a short while) was a piece of crap. Not one of Crosmans better efforts. Replaced it with a 1300 Medialist .22 , which was not real powerful (350 fps with six pumps) but would shoot rings around it. Still have it, and re-sealed it a couple years ago.
A friend of mine had a Benji .22 when we were kids back in the late 60’s. I had the Crosman Power Master and always wished I had the power he had at his fingertips. Mine was hard enough to pump, so of course we could barely pump his Benjamin to 8 pumps at that time (much less going over that limit). Many Magpies and Starlings fell to that gun. Crows seemed to be too smart for us kids to nail one. They seem to know your range….
/Dave
My son has a 397P that I found to be very addicting. In fact, I’ve shot it to the point where I got blisters. I bought gloves just for that gun. My longest shooting session with that rifle was 11 hours, testing 5 different pellets. If not for limited hours of daylight, I’d be in trouble. If I lived in Alaska, I’d probably end up needing some kind of surgery. 🙂
Matt61 and DaveUK (and others)…
I’ve now read the preprint that they put on-line at the arXiv.org site (I think it’s in the Sept 23 dump of new physics papers). Although it is very short on mathematics (good!!), it is not easy to read. There’s a lot of jargon to keep straight and some of the “wiring diagrams” are complicated to follow. The essence of the piece is just what has been reported: over a 454 mile (I think that’s the number) flight path, neutrinos got to the detector in 60 nanosec less than photons would have taken which implies that the neutrinos were faster than light. The authors say they’ve checked things six ways from Sunday and are now looking for help finding an error or repeating the measurement from the community.
It’s not hard to keep track of the neutrinos: the CERN synchrotron puts one burst of radiation every few seconds or even every minute or so. The pulse is very narrow in time, and the “beam optics” of the system filter it down to an even sharper point. Since there is so much time between pulses, pulse A has cleared out of the entire system before the next pulse, pulse B, is even started. They compare the shape of a pulse as measured near the source to the shape of the pulse (in time) measured at the distant detector under Gran Sasso in Italy. This is a fairly standard technique, and the group has a reasonably good reputation.
The distance hack is given by GPS signals, and therein may lie the rub. GPS was never designed for that kind of timing, and there are likely to be all kinds of subtle effects that take a long time to understand. This is a lot harder than an electronic target for a 10m AR finals!
I will bet reasonable sums of money that either (a) somebody finds an error in the data analysis or (b) nobody who tries to repeat the experiment ever comes up with the anomaly, even if they don’t find out why it appeared in the first place. My son is a senior member of the T2K (Tokai-to-Kamiokande) neutrino experiment which shoots neutrinos from Tokai, Japan, to a massive detector at Kamioka. They may already have the right data in the can to look back and check; and if they don’t, they are one of the 2 collaborations most likely to try a replication. Actually, he’s in Japan now talking about it; I’m hoping he thinks of dear old Dad and sends me an e-mail when he has some thoughts. The guys from CERN are at the same meeting, so there should be some interesting beer and sake sessions.
Here are three reasons why I don’t think that faster than light neutrinos exist:
1) Special Relativity is checked extensively every time anybody fires up an accelerator to do a high energy physics experiment, and I’ve never heard of any discrepancies.
2) Neutrinos have been shown to have a very small amount of mass, perhaps 1/500 that of an electron, maybe less, but still finite. The Lorentz equations for mass increase state very clearly that nothing with mass can exceed the speed of light, and the mass vs velocity curve has been traced out very accurately from slow speeds to very incredibly close to c. Nobody has ever seen a discrepancy nor any indication that the curve has a high velocity inflection point that would give rise to a singularity allowing a massive particle to exceed the speed of light. Neutrinos are interesting because they have the smallest rest mass of any known particle; therefore for a given energy they would go faster than any other particle.
3) Supernova 1987A which was in one of the Magellanic Clouds (in 1987) was measured very precisely and put out a lot of neutrinos. Some of those interacted in some of the major neutrino detectors of that era, and were clocked at the speed of light to a much higher precision than were the Gran Sasso particles. OK, a caution: the Gran Sasso neutrinos are much, much higher in energy, so something funny could have happened.
So aside from my not wanting to see Special Relativity be shown to have an exception, there is a lot of evidence floating around that argues in favor of SR’s essential correctness. If the CERN/Gran Sasso result is proven correct, then I will cheerfully eat my hat because Nature is what She is and all we can know is what we measure. And as an experimentalist I lived for the day when I would measure something that the theorists could not understand or that disproved a fashionable theory.
But I bet this goes away.
I thought my head hurt before…. 🙂 Nice to have an inside track on that! It’s interesting to learn that they measure pulses of neutrinos. I was being facetious in my reply to Matt. Like there would be some little old lady sitting in an office chair, tagging each particle with a unique S/N as it passed by. I’m guessing that’s what the pulse shape is for and that the shape is unique to the burst. Thanks for the short lesson in particles! Pretty cool what one can learn in an airgun forum by making a smart-a**ed comment! 🙂
We got a little off topic there, but I bet others find it interesting too…. Now, if we could just harness the energy of these faster than light neutrinos, maybe we can get them to compress air for our pcps…
/Dave
BB, You mentioned in the report that mounting a scope or red dot left something to be desired and could cause problems with the barrel solder joints due to flexing. Well, I know it is not the same gun (but similar), my Blue Streak (1975) had the Sheridan scope mount on it and a Weaver scope. After a while the barrel came loose and kinda “peeled” off what I guess would be called the compression tube. Being a sixteen year old and not being patient enough to send it Sheridan for repair, I Crazy Glued the barrel back in place. It has been 35 years and a couple thousand shots since then. Still works great and shoots straight.
Toby,
That’s a smart fix. I guess it’s touchy to apply, but if it works, it’s worth the effort.
B.B.
I really like the old pumpers. As to the wide site, it does have some advantages. For one, it works in low light when you couldn’t see a fine notch. It’s fast to line up. It’s easy to see if your eyes aren’t the best. In the field, I don’t think you really loose that much in terms of practical accuracy. My 2 cents anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Mike
BB, you mentioned that the older 347’s don’t have a seal on the bolt like the newer 397’s do. On my 347, there is a small puff of air that escapes from the breech with every shot. Is this something I should be concerned with or is it just the nature of the beast with this model?
Al
Al,
This is where a chronograph comes in handy. If you are getting nearly the same velocity as I have reported in this report, you’re probably fine.
However, if you aren’t, the blowby may be a little too much.
The culprit is probably the long-headed screw on the left side of the bolt that engaged the receiver and pushes the bolt forward. It may be loose, bent or even mission. If so, the bolt isn’t able to hold its position when the air blast hits it.
That is where you should look first.
B.B.
BB,
Thanks:-) I’d love to get a chronograph, but unfortunately at this point in my life I’m not able to. I managed to find a crosman service center in my home state and the gentleman who works on them said he’d take a look at it. I have a 397 that’s no longer holding any air, no resistance when pumping, so I’m taking that to him as well. Squirrel season starts soon and I want to be ready.
Al
I have two 312s and a 340. Got the first 312 with the tootsie roll pump handle when I was around 10 or 12 – some 61 years ago. It’s been back to Benjamin a couple times for rebuilding after I wore it out. Not sure when I got the second 312 with the longer smooth pump handle (shorter than the handle on the current 392’s) Must have been around 1960. It’s never been rebuilt. Got the 340 with the tootsie roll pump handle around 1977 for my son. It too has never been rebuilt, but I recently pulled the bolt out, thinking it would be easier to pull a cleaning snake through it and lost the bolt friction spring (Didn’t lose the ball bearing!!). Seeking a replacement spring. I believe both 312s have the bluing over nickle. The 340 is painted. Until I lost the bolt spring on the 340, all three still worked!!
As a kid, I pumped the guns by putting it vertically against my chest, with the pump handle outward. Grabbed the handle with both hands, pushed the handle out and then pulled it toward me. Was able to get in 10 pumps, easily, as a 10 year old!! Still pump the guns in that manner.
Harry,
Welcome to the blog. Here is two places where the small spring you seek might be available.
B.B.
I grew up in the smokey mountains of Tenn. As a kid my younger brother got this gun for Christmas. We had a wonderful time and shot many things, until one day we had a brother spat and I broke the gun at the pistol grip(which then broke my heart when I saw my brothers eyes) That was around 1977. My baby brother just retired from the US Marines and I would love to find a replacement and make my amends. If anyone can help me please let me know.
Thanks
Darryl,
There are plenty of Benjamin 347s around. You find them on the airgun classified ads.
Here are the two best site to watch:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/79574/
http://www.airguns.net/classifieds/classifieds.php
B.B.
i need parts of Benjamin Francklin model number 342 . plz give me a detail from whom i can purchase.
farooq,
This man sells obsolete parts:
B.B.
farooq,
Bruce