Home Blog  
Accessories 2017 SHOT Show: Part 4

2017 SHOT Show: Part 4

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

  • Crosman
  • Benjamin Wildfire
  • Marauder Field & Target
  • Adjustable regulator?
  • 1875 Remington revolver
  • Best for last
  • Whew!

Crosman

Let’s continue with our look at the new airguns and things at the 2017 SHOT Show. We will begin with Crosman. While I was gawking at the guns, Jesse Caster from Crosman came up and showed me everything you are about to see.

Benjamin Wildfire

The first thing I did was examine the new Benjamin Wildfire rifle. Based on the famous Crosman 1077 that is itself a copy of Ruger’s iconic 10/22 rifle, the Wildfire feels just as light as the CO2-powered rifle. I was hoping it would.

Benjamin Wildfire
New Benjamin Wildfire looks very similar to a 1077. The biggest difference is the longer reservoir.

That tells me that the trigger will feel the same. The 1077 trigger both cocks and releases the striker and advanced the 12-shot circular magazine to the next chamber. That’s why I keep insisting it’s a double-action revolver. The feel of the trigger is exactly the same as that of a double action revolver.

The good news is the trigger does break in with use, but not with use of the rifle! It is the removable magazine box that determines how well the trigger feels. New magazine boxes are stiffer than those that have been broken in.

Yes the Wildfire is exactly what the Amnerican airgunner has been wanting for years — a repeating PCP for $150 — but the surprises don’t stop there. I was stunned to find they had put a pressure gauge or manometer on the rifle! That floored me! And it was the exact right thing to do.

Wildfire gauge
And there is the gauge — the difference between doing it right and just doing it. Well done, Crosman!

For those who are not yet familiar with the 1077, you are in for a treat. These rifles are quite accurate with the right pellets!

Marauder Field & Target

Moving on, we come to the new Benjamin Marauder Field & Target — the Marauder with a regulator. It’s easy to spot, because it’s that silver strip between the reservoir tube and the receiver of the rifle. I don’t see it live on the website yet, but it looks just like a regular Marauder with a couple important differences.

Marauder Field Target
Jesse from Crosman holds the new Marauder Field & Target. Note the silver band? That’s the regulator. Production guns will be finished there, I’m sure.

Adjustable regulator?

Does it really have an adjustable trigger? Yes and no. The regulator is not user-adjustable, but a switch on the bottom of the forearm allows the shooter to engage it for maximum shot count or disengage it for greatest power potential. Remember that the Marauder is already one of the most owner-tunable air rifles on the market — this feature simple gives you one more option. However, if should be used in conjunction with all the existing adjustments. And Crosman made the switch operate by a coin, or by a tool they now build into the cap that covers the air inlet nipple. Neat!

Can you retrofit a regulator to your Marauder? No. Installing a reg is a complex process with several new parts, including the stock.

The new rifle also comes with an adjustable cheekpiece — another thing done right. And Crosman is now reaming their tubes before rifling them — which improves accuracy. The new Field & Target rifle will have a reamed barrel. And, I have saved the best for last. The suggested retail price will be just $619! Phooey on the naysayers who were guessing it would cost a grand. Apparently Crosman is here to stay!

1875 Remington revolver

Jesse showed me the Remington 1875 revolver next. All I can say is Umarex had better keep an eye on these guys, because this air pistol is a real beauty! Many are familiar with the Colt SAA, but I have also owned an original Remington 1875 revolver and they just do not stand out with a blued finish. I don’t care for a nickel finish most of the time, but on this gun, it looks right!

1875 Remington
Isn’t it beautiful? The 1875 Remington BB revolver is exactly like the firearm.

1875 Remington load
The 1875 uses brass cartridges to hold the BBs. You can use pellets, too!

Final comment on the Remington. It disassembles just like the firearm! And that is something very few shooter will ever have experienced. It’s very similar to the far more common 1858 Remington cap and ball, if you know that gun. I think the realism of these replica airguns is fantastic!

Does this report start to sound like the Crosman show? Well, guys, if they have the guns, I’m going to show them to you.

Finally, Jesse asked me if I wanted to see the new Mayhem Stealth breakbarrel with the built-in Silencing Barrel Device (SBD). Yes! It’s a breakbarrel that’s powered by their NP2 gas piston, but guys — get this! It comes with OPEN SIGHTS! And not just open sights — open sights without fiberoptics! From the offerings at this show you would think that Crosman really cares about airgunners, and that they listen to what we say!

Mayhem
Jesse holds the new Mayhem breakbarrel with SBD silencer.

Mayhem front sight
The Mayhem front sight is a plain post. Hurrah!

Mayhem rear sight
Mayhem rear sight. No green meanies!

Best for last

The SBD is asymmetric for a reason. The shape keeps the top of the silencer out of the line of sight of the scope that most shooters will mount. You see — the asymmetry extends to the muzzle of the airgun.

Mayhem muzzle
The barrel is offset from the centerline of the SBD to keep the profile low for scopes. And that nose cap comes off!

Okay, we understand the Mayhem has the new SBD, and we know it’s filled with baffles. Anyone who has ever lost a cleaning patch in the baffles of an airgun silencer, raise your hand. That’s a lot of hands, folks. Well, these Crosman engineers aren’t dummies. They know this is a common problem. So, while the baffles are molded directly to the barrel shroud so they don’t rattle around, remove a single screw and the front cap of the SBD comes off, allowing you to remove the outer shell of the shroud! Voila — access to the naked barrel!

Mayhem SBD disassembled
With the outer shroud removed there is no way you are going to loose a cleaning patch in those baffles!

Whew!

Crosman day, indeed! Well, I have to admit, there are things at this show besides airguns. Let me show you a few pretty shotguns.

Perazzi shotguns
This set of Perazzi shotguns was one of about 25 on display. Sorry for the flare on the receivers. There was so much engraving that it overpowered my flash.

Perazzi price
Oh, you know, I think I left my wallet in my other pants!

That’s it for today. Lots more to come.

53 thoughts on “2017 SHOT Show: Part 4”

  1. I would have been surprised if they had NOT put a manometer on the gun, as people will be filling it with pumps, hpa tanks, and co2 tanks.

    Everyone is looking it from the pcp perspective, which I love, and will use.
    But from the co2 side, it really becomes a high shotcount co2 powered plinker in the summer.

    No more bodged together 88gram adapters that get in the way of the forearm.
    Just smooth clean lines.

    Yea, it is time to close out one of the 401k’s that ain’t doing much…

  2. Noticed KWC Airsoft seems to be moving forward with transforming their replica Airsoft into 4.5 BB guns. I just ordered a select fire M 11.
    Hard to tell who makes what these days, half the stuff is rebranded. Gletcher is starting to put out a lot too.
    Hard to keep up with all this innovation … A guy could go broke !

  3. B.B.,

    Very nice. It looks as if the Manufacturer’s are listening from all that we have seen this year. No doubt, I am sure that you have had a hand in there somewhere. Thank-you.

    – Having a hard time getting past the looks of the Mayhem
    – Way to go on the M-rod. Hopefully it will be offered in .25 in the future.
    – Reamed barrel huh? Is this production method different from the Maximus barrel,… or the same? We never have heard what was new or special about the Maximus barrel.
    – Love the wood on those shotguns! Had to laugh at the price tag though. Maybe they figure that some well heeled gent will come along, whip out four $100,000 bills and say,….. keep the change. 😉

    Fine report,…. More! More!,……. Chris

  4. Great report BB – Thanks!

    Glad to see that Crosman has added a regulator to their FT Marauder and hope that this is the beginning of a trend that would really benefit the casual shooter.

    It takes some effort and a chrony to determine to optimum fill pressure for an unregulated air gun and then you have to monitor the shot-count and/or the pressure to stay on the curve. Think that that is more than the casual shooter is going to do.

    Hats off to Crosman to come up with a simple (regulated) option: Full-power / Maximum shot-count.

    Hank

    • Halfstep,

      Crosman standardized on the male Foster fitting years ago, so yes, the Wildfire has one.

      If you can cobble the fittings together to fill with CO2 the Wildfire will probably work, but Crosman discovered a few years ago that the “dual fuel” concept isn’t practical. Better stick with air.

      B.B.

  5. B.B.

    At these shows does anybody talk sales figures? I would love to know the size of the market and how it breaks down, PCP, CO2, Replica guns, spring powered, airsoft.
    Just wondering?????

    -Y

    • Yogi, I would guess that the total market as a percentage of the world population is on the small side.Certain sub groups of airguns are probably really small. In america, where any kid can basically own most any actual firearm her parent will allow, it’s hard for air guns to compete after she reaches a certain age.(unlike countries with restrictive gun laws) There aren’t that many countries that have a population with our disposable incomes. Most airguns in most places are not necessities (Unlike with those of us who populate this forum 🙂 ) I think these things are a large part of why we don’t always fell quality is what it should be or the features that should have been included weren’t or good guns were discontinued; companies have to make a profit from a small number of sales, relatively speaking. grocery stores can make a profit at 1/10 cent on a can of peas because peas are food and they can sell a lot of them. Just my thoughts, based mostly on supposition rather than hard facts, since we don’t get to see the facts as B.B. points out.

        • Gunfun1

          No prob on the name,as for the female pronoun, I’ll just say that I recognize that I have enjoyed many advantages as a white male for 62 years. I have a wife, a mother, two daughters, and a sister and I want them all to have it as easy as I have. One of my small contributions to that goal is to resist using only the male pronoun. I’m not fanatical about it or anything like that, I just love the women in my life enough to make an effort. Both of my daughters were taught basic safety and marksmanship by the time they entered high school. They each had their own springer (don’t remember the brand but it was over 25 years ago and they were marketed as biathlon style guns in .177 and had a price tag of about $50) They don’t shoot today but my oldest recently told me how much she enjoyed outshooting her boyfriend and eventual husband Back In The Day. Warms a dad’s heart, don’t it ?

          • Halfstep
            Yep taught my daughter’s when they was young. One daughter is 16 and the other 19. I shoot with them as much as I can. Seems like they grow up in a blink of a eye. I hope they both continue to shoot as they get older.

  6. you state that the Remington 1875 takes down. Does that mean that that unlike the umarex peacemaker the cylinder is removable/ also it appears that the hammer rests further down to the frame as well, does the cylinder free spin in half cock hammer mode? Could be a new Sheriff in town. Did you get a chance to fire the Umarex MP40 sub gun? That would be the star of the show to me.

        • Just think of a Rem1858 loading round balls like the original and using the percussion nipples as channel for co2.

          Or maybe an 1860 Army model withenlarged percussion nipples to accept pellets or round balls, fixed front portion of the cylinder with no gas escape and revolving back ortion with tight fit, so it looks as one part. Any Colt engneers or marketeers reading

          • I don’t see why these couldn’t be done . I believe the Umarex Peacemaker has the basic frame For percussion 1860.. The old Crosman Peacemaker loaded pellets from the front, adding s rammer would be easy

  7. B.B.,

    I just know that a lot of folks are going to say the Mayhem Stealth’s sound reducing system is ugly, but I have to say that in your photo of Jesse Caster holding the air rifle, it looks sleek and futuristic to me. I like it!

    Regarding the 1077/Wildfire revolving mechanism with the circular clip, I wonder if they can’t be made a bit smoother with careful smoothing of mold seams and such. The strange thing about those mechanisms to me is that in the long discontinued Nightstalker, the trigger is O.K. Not anything to write home about, but not bad at all. I know folks like to put down the ol’ Nigthstalker, but one will out-shoot the Beretta Storm air rifle all day long, and not by a small margin, either.

    Looks like it was a great show.

    Michael

  8. B.B., YES, Crosman put “real” open sights on the Mayhem! Finally, maybe someone is listening. Also, looks like a screw on the hinge, so I assume it can be “tightened” up? For me that was a big flaw in the NP2 that last came out. That Remington 1875 is beautiful! And oh, the wildfire, wow. Looks like a very fun gun. Look out birds, get out of my garden (as opposed to get off my lawn). Fun, exciting times.

    Doc

  9. FYI, The NP2 guns have always had a screw for the pivot. I have two, a Trail and Steel Eagle. The pivot screw also has a locking set screw that comes in from the front.

      • Like most Crosman guns they require a little “attention”. Trigger work, pivot bushings. That being said, very good fit and finish, attention to detail. And mine shoot, on a good day, with my mouth held right, 1/2″ to 3/4″ at forty yards and as smooth as a 21fpe break-barrel can be. The pellet hitting the target is louder than the shot. Also, with the new bushings and the pivot bolt adjusted right, it breaks with less than 20lbs of pressure.

  10. Anybody know if the reamed+rifled Marauder barrels are available as spare parts? I played barrel lottery trying to convert my .177 Mrod to .22 and got tired of it very quickly. Might try again if I knew the answer to my question was yes. Or, someday (when I get tired of my Wildcat – hah!) I will put a MM barrel in it…

    • BenT
      I bet that’s going to be a tricky one to figure out unless they give them a different part number on the parts diagram. Or they list them as generation 3 Marauders on their diagram when they come out.

      If they follow the Maximus barrel design and make the barrels longer that will be one way to tell I’m thinking. But how do you know if they won’t use up old stock of barrels they have first and slip the new design barrels into production.

      But I will go one daring step farther. To me the new Marauder with the regulator looks longer. Air resivoir and shroud wise. So maybe a longer barrel. What I bet happens is they will have a different diagram for parts with it for the as they call it feild target hunter model. So it just may have a new shroud part number as well as a new barrel part number.

      So the first thing I would look for is if they come out with a generation 3 or feild target hunter parts diagram. That’s the best I can say from what I have seen from Crosman throughout time.

  11. I’m very curious how they have managed to rework the internals to get (even close to the claimed 800 fps). I tried in the past to convert a 1077 to air but managed fps in the 400s with a middle weight (c. 8 grn) pellet even with the output pressure on the reg’d bottle cranked up to 1100 psi. I was convinced that this owed to the limited valve volume and the density of co2 compared to air.

    The internals don’t seem to have been obviously reworked given the layout of the gun so I’m curious if there is a very different valve? Not sure how else Crosman could get those fps numbers without it.

    Regards,

    Oli

  12. Interesting modification of the 10/77. It will be interesting to see how the accuracy compares to the old CO2 version which is indeed accurate. What exactly is a regulator for a pcp? There already was a power adjustment feature on the Marauder, albeit not very easy to adjust, and that doesn’t seem to have changed with this new version.

    It will be interesting to hear just how quiet the silenced breakbarrel rifle is. This reminds me of the Gamo Whisper which, thanks to manipulation of decibel values in the advertising, wasn’t nearly as quiet as it was supposed to be.

    Thanks, B.B. for the tip about crimping and starting pressure. I’m glad I’m onto something useful. And the IMR 4064 that I use for my M1 is supposed to be slower than the standard IMR 4895, so perhaps I will gain even more with my crimping. I now have about 400 perfectly crimped and loaded rounds, and I feel like the king in his proverbial counting house.

    Matt61

    • Matt61,

      Simply put, a regulator keeps the same amount of air going to the valve. The opposite of that is a standard PCP in which the valve is subject to gradually reducing pressure with each shot. The valve balances things out to a point, but a regulator will insure the pressure more consistently thereby giving you better performance from shot to shot.

      Chris

    • Matt61
      A regulater has high pressure on one side of a resivoir. The other side of the regulator that goes to the air guns valve is set at a lower output pressure. And of course the valve feeds the barrel it’s air to shoot.

      What the regulator does if set right allow the air pressure going to the guns valve to be at the pcp’s ideal pressure for best accuracy. And the other benefit it basically allowed the air gun to take a little sip of air for each shot taken.

      So a resivoir filled to a high pressure say 3000 psi now enters the guns valve at say 1500 psi. And then we’ll say that’s the ideal pressure for that gun to shoot a pellet accurately so to speak. Now that gun is just sipping air from the resivoir so it now can get bunches and bunches of good velocity and consistent velocity shots out of that high pressure fill that might of only got a couple handfuls of good shots. So a lot of consistent shots is what you should get with a regulator.

      The only thing that worries me about the new Marauder regulator is how reliable will it be. Or I should say is how long will it be reliable. But as it goes it should be rebuildable.

Leave a Comment

Buy With Confidence

  • Free Shipping

    TEST Get FREE shipping on qualifying orders! Any order $150+ with a shipping address in the contiguous US will receive the option for free ground shipping on items sold & shipped by Pyramyd AIR during checkout. Certain restrictions apply.

    Free shipping may not be combined with a coupon unless stated otherwise.

    View Shipping Info

  • Shipping Time Frame

    We work hard to get all orders placed by 12 pm EST out the door within 24 hours on weekdays because we know how excited you are to receive your order. Weekends and holiday shipping times will vary.

    During busy holidays, we step our efforts to ship all orders as fast as possible, but you may experience an additional 1-2 day delay before your order ships. This may also happen if you change your order during processing.

    View Shipping Times

  • Shipping Restrictions

    It's important to know that due to state and local laws, there are certain restrictions for various products. It's up to you to research and comply with the laws in your state, county, and city. If you live in a state or city where air guns are treated as firearms you may be able to take advantage of our FFL special program.

    U.S. federal law requires that all airsoft guns are sold with a 1/4-inch blaze orange muzzle or an orange flash hider to avoid the guns being mistaken for firearms.

    View Shipping Restrictions

  • Expert Service and Repair

    We have a team of expert technicians and a complete repair shop that are able to service a large variety of brands/models of airguns. Additionally, we are a factory-authorized repair/warranty station for popular brands such as Air Arms, Air Venturi, Crosman, Diana, Seneca, and Weihrauch airguns.

    Our experts also offer exclusive 10-for-$10 Test and 20-for-$20 Service, which evaluates your air gun prior to leaving our warehouse. You'll be able to add these services as you place your order.

    View Service Info

  • Warranty Info

    Shop and purchase with confidence knowing that all of our air guns (except airsoft) are protected by a minimum 1-year manufacturer's warranty from the date of purchase unless otherwise noted on the product page.

    A warranty is provided by each manufacturer to ensure that your product is free of defect in both materials and workmanship.

    View Warranty Details

  • Exchanges / Refunds

    Didn't get what you wanted or have a problem? We understand that sometimes things aren't right and our team is serious about resolving these issues quickly. We can often help you fix small to medium issues over the phone or email.

    If you need to return an item please read our return policy.

    Learn About Returns

TEST Get FREE shipping on qualifying orders! Any order $150+ with a shipping address in the contiguous US will receive the option for free ground shipping on items sold & shipped by Pyramyd AIR during checkout. Certain restrictions apply.

Free shipping may not be combined with a coupon unless stated otherwise.

View Shipping Info

Text JOIN to 91256 and get $10 OFF Your Next $50+ Order!

* By providing your number above, you agree to receive recurring autodialed marketing text msgs (e.g. cart reminders) to the mobile number used at opt-in from Pyramyd AIR on 91256. Reply with birthday MM/DD/YYYY to verify legal age of 18+ in order to receive texts. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Msg frequency may vary. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help and STOP to cancel. See Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy.