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Ammo Benjamin Trail NP pistol: Part 6

Benjamin Trail NP pistol: Part 6

by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4a
Part 4b
Part 5

Benjamin Trail NP pistol
Benjamin’s new Trail NP breakbarrel pellet pistol, with cocking aid removed.

We’re certainly getting a good look at the Benjamin Trail NP pistol! While the title says this is Part 6, it’s actually the 7th report because Part 4 was so large it had to be broken into two parts.

Let’s look at the performance of the pistol after break-in. This test pistol has been shot so much that it’s now broken in, so today we’ll look at the velocity. Crosman says in the owner’s manual that the pistol needs several hundred shots before it’s fully broken-in, and this gun certainly has that many shots through it.

They also say the gun will become quieter after a break-in, and the test pistol is certainly quiet now. Apparently, some guns have detonated and surprised their owners, so Crosman is being conservative in its explanation. The test Trail NP pistol has never been very noisy.

I’ll report the velocity of each pellet before and after the break-in period, so you can compare them.

RWS Hobby
The first pellet I tested was the 7-grain RWS Hobby. It’s normally the fastest lead pellet in almost any airgun.

RWS Hobby pellets

Crosman SSP hollowpoint
The Crosman SSP hollowpoint is a 4-grain, lead-free pellet that’s shaped like a wadcutter but with a deep hollow point. Being so light, it’s a real speed demon.

Crosman SSP hollowpoint pellets

Crosman Powershot Penetrators
Crosman Powershot Penetrators are synthetic-jacketed pellets that have a metal core. They weigh 5.4 grains and loosely fit the bore of the Trail NP pistol.

Crosman Powershot Penetrator pellets

Crosman SSP pointed
Crosman’s SSP pointed pellet is another 4-grain, lead-free pellet. You’d expect it to have about the same performance as the SSP hollowpoints, but this pellet isn’t sized as well as the hollowpoint. Consequently, they fit the bore variably, which affects the velocity.

Crosman SSP pointed pellets

JSB Exact RS dome
The last pellet I tried was the JSB Exact RS dome. It weighs 7.3 grains and fits the bore loosely.

JSB Exact RS domed pellets

So there you have it. All 5 of the pellets shot slower after the break-in, and all but one had more consistent velocity spreads. Clearly the Benjamin Trail NP pistol does break in as the company states in the owner’s manual.

This report has been a look into the performance of a spring-piston air pistol as it breaks in. We’ve seen the way to maximize the accuracy of the airgun, and we’ve learned how to overcome the too-tall front sight post. I hope this experience has been of benefit to the new shooters and perhaps provides a template of how a spring gun breaks in.

34 thoughts on “Benjamin Trail NP pistol: Part 6”

  1. WOW, after the break-in period this one is clearly legal to own without a single pellet breaking the 4.2 fpe limit for projectile over the 500 fps limit for licensing up here (you have to break BOTH the 500fps AND 4.2fpe limit to be a firearm and for handguns that mean another license to transport said handgun to and from the range because that’s the one and only place where a handgun firearm can legally be shot)!
    If only Crosman had written what weight pellet they used to get that 600fps number it could be ordered everywhere.
    I would have loved to give that nitro piston pistol a try.

    Maybe if they bring a .22 caliber one out?

    J-F

  2. I was browsisng the new stuff that’s just been added and saw the Avanti 845 Mentor air rifle!?
    /product/daisy-match-grade-avanti-845-mentor-air-rifle?m=2143
    Has anyone heard of or tried this? It seems like a cool little rifle for the kids to learn shooting!
    I had never heard of it and it’s not on Daisy website either…
    BB will you test one for us? Does is it have the same kind of accuracy the 499 has? If it does it might be a very interesting gun, especially at such a price!

    J-F

      • My bad I was off by a thousand, no new items have been added.
        It has to date at least 3 years since the first review of it dates back to May 2010 but I’ve never seen or heard of one. It’s too bad for the all plastic stock, because even with cheap wood like what can be found on the RedRyders it would be a much nicer gun.

        J-F

          • Of course I am! About the same size and weight of RedRyder but with the Avanti name on it… if it can be as accurate as a 499 with BB’s it could be an awesome little trainer for the kids.
            I’m no sure about pellets use because of the reviews said the pellets fell into the rifle and had to be “shaked out” I might be tempted to only use BB’s in there but then again if it can achieve great groups with pellets it might be worth the trouble but at 335 fps with 5.1 grains BB’s I’m not sure pellets would even reach the target.

            Like I said I had never heard or seen one before last night, it was a bit late and since I browse the site by item number and I was WAY off I tought it was a new item. I searched a bit and couldn’t find other reviews of it other than what was posted on PA. No youtube or other website reviews of it.

            J-F

            • J-F,

              As it has a bore large enough to handle .177 pellets, I doubt it could be as accurate as the 499 with BBs. The 499 achieves its accuracy by having a very tight bore, probably about .175 or .176. That’s how it can shoot BBs, which are mostly .173-.174, so consistently at 5 meters.

              That said, having an aperture sight on a BB gun can’t be bad for accuracy.

              Michael

              • That is also what I’m thinking about it but it does have the Avanti name on it rather than Daisy so it must have something other than just the sights going for it no?
                Am I just dreaming and expecting too much of a cheap rifle? Did Daisy put lipstick on a pig and called it and Avanti Mentor?

                I have no idea, I’ve never heard of the gun or know/found someone who does!?!? Even with obscure long gone airguns of the past you can always find someone who will own one or have heard of it but this one has been available for at least 3 years but everyone seems to be as ignorant as I am about it…

                J-F

    • J-F, I’ve never seen the 845 Mentor, but I have a 840 Grizzly and they appear to be a lot a like. When they came out I figured the 840 was the gun they based the 845 on. That said, my Grizzly is a joy to shoot. I’m over 40 and I love to shoot it. It will out shoot my Son’s and my Daisy Red Ryders, mod. 25 pump action and 105 bucks. I love the lack of spring “buzz” of the single pump too. I’ve never shot a 499 Avanti but from what I’ve read, it is the king.

    • Smoothbore… BB…

      Drop the BB capability, and stuff a rifled barrel on it, and it might be of interest… Other than the sights it doesn’t show anything that would make me give up my early 80s USST 953.

      • Let me use one of my favorite newly learned quotes:
        I think you’re comparing apple to monkeys here or at least bananas LOL.
        It’s no where near being in the same class as your USST 953.

        J-F

    • I could see this as a good choice to start training a kid to shoot with. But I grew up on Crosman so I’m partial to the Crosman 760. That little rifle was the start to a life long career behind the trigger.

      • One of the big advantages I can see in this rifle compared to the Crosman 760 and the reason why I sold my 760 is the single stroke part. This is meant to be a plinker, you don’t need much velocity. The way I see it, it wasn’t meant to be shot at much more than 10 meters.
        If you offered me a Crosman 760 with target sights, single stroke pneumatic and decent accuracy. I’d probably buy it.

        J-F

        • I might be misinterpreting what you said about the Crosman 760.
          But they are multi-pump and the early rifles were rifled barrels and wood stocks.
          And they were actually pretty accurate guns.
          I have one of them that I had when I was a kid. Late 60’s early 70’s era if I remember right.
          My kids shoot it with a red dot sight out to about 30 yrds at soda cans and they hit pretty constantly.

          The new 760’s are plastic stocks with a smooth bore barrel but they are still multi-pumps.

          On the other hand the Daisy Avanti 853’s are single pumps with the Lothar Walther barrels and around 500 fps.
          Those guns are extremely accurate.

          • Yes I knew that. The thing is I don’t like multi-pump airguns. There, I said it 😉
            I sold my 760, my 1377 and my Benjamin HB17. The one and only multi-pump I kept is my old longer barreled Crosman 2289.
            So that’s the reason this rifle is appealing to me. A light weight, easy to pump, easy to shoot rifle to teach the kids and kill cans in the backyard.

            J-F

            • I’m with you about the multi-pumps. I like pcp guns and the co2 cartridge guns. Well the springer’s too. I like that you can just load and shoot. Kept my 760 I guess cause it was my first pellet gun. I cant even imagine how many shots that gun has fired. And still works good.

              But I still favor the pcp guns on compressed air. But I guess it works out the same one way or another you still have to pump the pcp’s up with something unless you use co2 in them.

              Either way they are all fun to shoot. 🙂

  3. I must have lucked out as I don’t remember break-in periods with my spring guns, but maybe they were disguised by my learning curve.

    Thanks to all for the info about leaf springs. So the Gurkhas know a thing or two. In my Bowie knife book I read about frightening knives made from giant files. The wound cavities must have been horrific.

    Michael, thanks for the advice about dealing with Leapers. Fortunately, they were pretty accommodating last time, so I don’t think they will need a lot of strategizing.

    Matt61

    • Matt,

      Leapers is such an established brand in such a narrow, competitive market, I imagine they would much rather make it right than have someone out there with a negative Leapers story to tell. Especially in the internet age, word-of-mouth is make or break.

      Manufacturers do make mistakes every now and then, especially when it comes down to the manufacturing/design folks working with the marketing folks. I have a small amount of experience in technical writing / ad copy writing, and it is a very, very difficult thing to do well and accurately.

      Michael

  4. Does anyone know if B.B. ever did an article on a Crosman 38C or Crosman 38T? Do you have a link?

    I’ve searched for 30 minutes and can’t find one. B.B. has reviewed almost every Crosman CO2 gun and I can’t believe there isn’t one somewhere on the 38C or 38T.

    Thanks.

    kevin

  5. Edith did you know PyramydAir was down? It’s 11:06pm eastern time and I’m getting this:

    HTTP Status 500 – Page ExceptionReport did not generate any markup when rendered. This could be because its template file could not be located, or because a render phase method in the page prevented rendering.

    Followed by a bunch of text and this:
    Note:The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/7.0.29 logs.

    I’m using Chrome as a browser on a Windows computer.

    I checked with my Android smart phone and with Explorer and it’s working fine.

    J-F

  6. i have had this pistol since it was first issued. i have tried crosman destroyers, wad cutters, gold penetrators, premier wad cutters, premier hollow points, Winchester domes, rws super domes, and some cheap tech force pointed pellets.
    the best for accuracy seem to be the crosman premier hollow points. they fit the barrel the tightest, i tried to deep seat them and most of them fit too tight to force in the barrel farther than flush. the crosman gold penetrators work well but are a bit expensive unless you really need to pass through what you hit. they disintegrate glass bottles that the CPHP and RWS pellets bounce off of.
    the RWS super domes are also accurate, but the CPHP are a bit better and cheaper.

  7. I really like my Benjamin Trail NP Pistol!

    I was shooting H+N Final Match Rifles:
    Lo 491.6 Hi 493.8 Avg 492.9 ES 2.20 SD 1.00

    I was getting sub quarter sized groups at 10 yards.

    I was shooting with an AIM 2-7×32 pistol scope which moves the balance point to the front of the trigger guard. As with all break barrels it is very hold sensitive. All my testing was done with the cocking lever mounted.

    I plan to try and move the balance point even further back and hope to mount a permanent muzzle brake/ cocking aid as well as perform some trigger mods to lighten the pull.

  8. Now that my Trail NP pistol has broken in and I lost the rear sight for a simple BSA red dot sight (using the front sight to line up the red dot in the vertical plane and hopefully reducing or eliminating parallax – a cheap co-wittness sight) I find I’m equally accurate at 10 yards with JSB domes as Tom. I’ve left the cocking extension off, using folded cloth over the front sight when cocking.

    Which brings up this question. Has anyone worked with the trigger to reduce the take up, lighten the pull and produce a crisp glass rod break?

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