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Education / Training Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Hardwood – Part 3

Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Hardwood – Part 3

by B.B. Pelletier

On Saturday night, I noticed that my left arm, the one with an IV line, was swollen. Being prudent, Edith and I went to the ER. Since I had no pain, no one thought it was a big deal…but it was. Turns out that I have a very small blood clot. While this sounds bad, it’s actually a blessing in disguise. The doctors are giving me a new IV line and pulling out the old one, they’re now doing imaging and procedures that were originally scheduled to happen in the coming weeks, and they’re moving me along very quickly to finally resolve my pancreatitis.

Part 1
Part 2

Test and photos by Earl “Mac” McDonald

Today, we’ll do the all-important accuracy test for the Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Hardwood rifle. Before I make the report, I must tell you that Mac spent several weeks doing this test over and over. He was unsatisfied with the results and wanted to make certain nothing fundamental was influencing the outcome. In the end, we decided that we are not the H.P. White Laboratory, and at some point we have to act like a regular customer.

With that kind of introduction I’m sure I’ve captured your attention.

Mac shot the rifle at 30 yards off a rest. He used the artillery hold. As he shot, the stock screws loosened continually. And the scope required 150 clicks of up elevation to get on target at 30 yards. He used a hard paper shim under the mount portion of the rear ring. Under compression, the shim is the thickness of an American quarter, which is a huge shim thickness! It raised the point of impact by about six inches.


Thick paper shim compressed to the size of an American quarter, it raised the point of impact 6 inches at 30 yards. This is really too thick a shim to use with a scope. Be careful when tightening scope caps or you’ll crush the tube.

JSB Exact Express
JSB Exact Express domes fit the bore very loosely and were the least accurate pellets tested. They gave a group size over 2 inches at 30 yards. While good in many rifles, this clearly not the pellet for the Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Hardwood.


Medium-weight JSB 14.3-grain Exact Express pellets did poorly in the Benjamin Trail rifle.

JSB Exact Jumbo heavy
The 18.1-grain JSB Exact Jumbo Jeavy pellet did better, as both Mac and I expected. Being a heavier pellet, it provides more resistance to the explosive thrust of the Nitro Piston. The best group was 1.75 inches for 10 shots at 30 yards. That’s still not good enough for hunting accuracy.


JSB Exact Jumbo heavy pellets were second-best but still not worth pursuing at 30 yards.

Crosman Premiers
Not surprisingly, the Crosman Premier pellet performed best of all. Ten shots went into 1.25 inches at 30 yards. Some of the groups had smaller groups within them, but fliers always opened them up. The Premier pellet is made of hardened lead and provides its resistance by taking a lot of energy to expand the skirt into the bore.


Crosman Premiers proved best of all.

Mac reported that the gun’s firing behavior became harsher as the testing progressed. It gave him the impression that it was delivering more power, but the chronograph proved otherwise.

As I said in the beginning, Mac conducted numerous tests mounting and remounting the scope and even mounting a different scope to get better accuracy. The groups shown here represent the best he was able to do at 30 yards.

author avatar
Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier)
Tom Gaylord, also known as B.B. Pelletier, provides expert insights to airgunners all over the world on behalf of Pyramyd AIR. He has earned the title The Godfather of Airguns™ for his contributions to the industry, spending many years with AirForce Airguns and starting magazines dedicated to the sport such as Airgun Illustrated.

84 thoughts on “Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Hardwood – Part 3”

  1. Hey Wow! I’m first to post! Man I need some work. Too much time on the blog!

    This gun isn’t good for accuracy at all, according to Macs tests. What do you do with a beautiful rifle that doesn’t shoot? Put it next to J-F’s 1077? 🙂

    KA

  2. B.B,

    The last group, with the Crosman Premiers, seems to reflect a lateral wind. What were the conditions when this last group was shot? Was this type of almost linear (horizontal) distribution typical for how ever many sets of 10 shots that were tested?

    The other pellets show an almost vertical scatter. Were the three sets on display here shot on the same day?

    Thanks,
    Victor

    • Victor,

      I tried to answer yesterday, but the hospital network kept kicking me off.

      Mac shot all targets on the same day and there was no appreciable breeze. As he noted in the report, the Trail fought him a lot, which is why he retested it many times. this was the best of all.

      B.B.

      • B.B.,

        Thanks for the reply. Except for those two apparent vertical flyer’s. That was a tight spread vertical wise. I doubt that the barrel (rifling accuracy) caused that horizontal spread. There must be some physical characteristic (i.e., mechanical motion) that is causing that horizontal spread.

        I’ve tested a lot of pellets where I really took my time. I found that I generally get a pseudo random pattern. I say “pseudo” because most shots will be in a tight center group with the rest randomly distributed around that center group. I would attribute the wider group to things like pellet quality, fit, and possibly weight. BUT, if the gun does not have some additional mechanical motion/kick/hold sensitivity, or whatever else, then I would expect a random patter around the center.

        So, seeing that linear pattern, I wonder if there is some other detail that needs mastering with that particular gun.

        Regards,
        Victor

        PS: Spell Checker! Whoo-hoo!

  3. I don’t know if I really agree with this quote or not, what about you?

    “In youth we learn; in age we understand.”
    Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

    Can’t really say if I understand anymore about life after 50 than I did when I was younger, maybe I just still haven’t grown up yet 🙂

    rikib

    • rikib let me quote Socrates “As for me all i know is that i know nothing”
      And “As to marriage or celibacy,let a man take which course he will,he will be sure to repent” 🙂 😉

  4. BB,
    Today, I am experiencing something I don’t understand and hope you and others might be able to help…
    I was shooting my HW30 at 10m (with JSB 8.4gr) and about 5 shots into the session, I shot one about 3/4″ low. I thought, oops…my bad or maybe just a flier. The next shot was right on top of the previous shot – which was 3/4″ low. OK, this is weird, so I thought, something was wrong with my scope (which is Leapers 3-9×32 by the way). Then the next shot was even lower, about 1 1/2″ from the aiming point. So, now the two previous 3/4″ low shots were about in the middle. I really thought something went wrong with my scope or maybe the scope was moved. I checked and everything seemed to be in order. So I left everything alone and kept shooting to see what pattern there might be. The next shot went right back to my aiming point, and I didn’t see those strange shots again for the next 40-50 shots – end of session.
    Could this be something related to velocity? Those 3 shots somehow had lower velocities? (I remember reading your blogs and/or watching Paul C.’s videos about some CO2 or PCP guns when they were at the end of a fill and shots started dropping lower and lower).
    Note that this HW30 is new and I had about 200 shots prior today’s session.
    Thanks a lot.

    • tdung

      Maybe the rifle is still deiseling to differing small degrees due to the rifle not being completely broken in yet? I would expect that to disappear in another 200 to 500 pellets. Make sure your barrel lock-up is consistent.

      Another thing, when I find my groups widening up I usually find it is a relaxing of my technique: either parallax error (cheek weld), by hold on the rifle, or my follow through.

      Keep us updated on your HW30.

      • Thanks SL. I will keep shooting and see…I will try to pay more attention to my technique.

        Another question I have is this…
        I have noticed that at 10m, JSB 8.4gr is very accurate, possible with 5 shots and one ragged hole when I focus. Hobby is right next to JSB and Superdomed is the least accurate out of the three. However, I shoot at 20 yards, JSB is not doing good while Hobby and Superdomed are doing much better.
        So is it possible for certain pellet that groups well at short distance but not well at longer distance, and vice versa?

        As for the HW30 itself, I am able to see some galling already. I’ve been paying attention to the cocking linkage area and now I can see some metal rubbing marks on the underside of the barrel block base where it rubs against the shorter linkage arm. I can also see right in the middle of the joint – between and shorter linkage arm and the longer linkage arm – which rubs against something, possibly the underside of the receiver tube. I can’t see the underside of the receiver tube unless I remove the action out of the stock. So far this really bother me. BTW, where can I find moly grease locally, like Home Depot or some other hardware store?

        Thanks a lot.

  5. God -in whole Croatia i cant order or buy Diana 31 or Diana 34 spring FRUSTRATING(basically they are the same ) and i dont have experience in ordering through internet and i am kinda skeptic so rikib you can say that i am 25 yrs old ledite 😉 🙂 tdung -ill tell you what i have already said to Fused take your pelets and sort them -shoot just with most uniform pellets -but 10 m could it be the scope ?-now this is just what i think so everibody HELP tdung 🙂
    rikib and Edith-grammar checker GREAT but i dont know how much this can help me couse i am one of the biggest grammar siner 🙁 EVER
    W O R D S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNGWH-bAEuM

    • C-S,

      your engish is not so bads. i took yeers to learn engish so wells as you types it on the this blog. engish can reely put starters throogh some loops.

      • Well thank you CLM it is like i always say live and learn -,but i kinda cheat when i not so sure how to write something ,i open GOOGLE and type that word that bothers me and google show me how to write this the right way but sometimes i am just lazy 😉 🙂

        • C-S,

          My quote for the day: “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough”!

          Using Google or any search engine for that matter is brilliant. And your English is as Good or better that most high school students in the Los Angeles school system. The fact that you are using English at all puts you one up on them.

          Keep it up, you’re doing fine. Even when your statements are a little choppy you are understood.

          KA

          • Thank you KA this is like in school -but in the one i like (not the other one) 😉 I wish all the best to our B.B. and i am sure that he will be here with us in no time (healthy ) 🙂

  6. Good morning all,

    it’s weird you got this kind of result from this rifle, I fired a few shots (between 10 and 20) from my brand new NP and I didn’t even have to adjust the scope, it’s right on target. I haven’t shot at paper yet because it’s been raining and the paper would get soggy so I don’t have group size but for poping cans at 40 feet it’s working fine. Is it possible you received a lemon ? Then again mine isn’t close to being broken in and the trigger does need to be adjusted or be replaced because it’s really awful right now (and I’m not one to complain as I can manage my red ryder trigger).

    Edith, franqly i dont no wy soneome woulde niid a spel shacker 😉 i thinq my speling his ok 😉

  7. Good morning B.B.,

    Hope you get sprung in a couple of days with a clean bill of health. Our prayers are with you and Edith.

    I’d like to hear from some of you folks who are shooting the Benjamin Trail Nitro Piston Hardwood and how your guns are grouping, if you all would please be so kind.

    tdung, sure wish I could help you with that one, but it can probably be blaimed on the breaking in cycle maybe, since it has corrected itself.

    Mr B.

  8. It boggles my mind why you guys need to put two of the same letter one in front of the other for exp trigger-wouldn t it be simpler TRIGER 😉 i am kidding 🙂 but in our language we write like we speak -what can i do -i love english language and Tdung i think that Mr B. is right ! but you can also -try without scope 😉 Edith ,B.B. thank you guys for spell checker :)!!!!

    • C-S,

      You are experiencing the WRITTEN version of English. After you master that then you will run into the various dialects of SPOKEN English from various regions.

      Sometimes we can’t even understand each other!

      KA

    • C-S,
      I agree with you totally. Our language seems crazy at times. However, you can’t blame us for our language because we really don’t have one. What we have today was handed down to us from Europeans and Scandinavians. A lot of our spellings with the double consonants came from the Dutch, I think. There is no such thing as American unless you want to consider the American Indians and even they came from somewhere else. Maybe you can say this about any language. What other countries have influenced your language?

      Take the word hand:
      Hand – to give – please hand me that air rifle.
      Hand – body part – oops I just shot myself in the hand
      Hand – give credit – you have to hand it to C-S his English is good
      Hand – something to talk to – Arnold Schwartznegger in Terminator: “Dalk do da Hand”
      Hand – location – I have a lot of pellets on hand.
      Hand – employee – C-S would make a good hired hand for the ranch.
      Hand – cowboy – C-S is a good ranch hand
      Hand – sailor – all hands on deck
      Hand – writing – his hand is hard to read
      Hand – ability – C-S wanted to try his hand at singing (look out!)
      Hand – cards – he has a very good hand with three aces and two kings
      Hand – clock – when the minute hand reaches 12 you’re done
      Hand – one of two sides of an issue – on the one hand…, but on the other hand…
      Hand – measure – equal to 4 inches, the horse stood 20 hands
      Hand – applaud – let’s give C-S a big hand for learning English

      That’s about all I can come up with.
      -CJr

  9. B.B.
    My Titan (about the same gun) goes from ‘thok’ to ‘thak’ after shooting for a while. A few drops of chamber oil gets it back to ‘thok’. Velocity drops off a little when it is ‘thaking’.
    The gun came soaked in light oil. Don’t know if it is going to self destruct, or if it still needs to get rid of more of the original oil and get conditioned with silicone.

    twotalon

  10. BB,

    Mixed news there on the clot. Are they checking for more possible clots? I have noticed a dramatic improvement Through your posts here. It seems you are feeling much better. Good luck with the further treatments.

    Edith,

    I was surprised this morning by the spell check button. I wasn’t paying that close attention and clicked it instead of the send. Very cool. When will we be seeing the grammar check? lol!

    KA

  11. BB,

    Yikes! Still battling that pancreatitis? I was out of the loop for 5 weeks. My computer was down 4 of those weeks and I was in the hospital one of them.

    I am praying for you now again. Please get rid of that pancreatitis! It surely was not something any one would want to get! Plus man it stunk for the month my computer was down and I could not get your blog. Missed you!

    As for me I am ok. Just a bad infecion landed me in hospital. IV’s with antibiotics and bed rest did the job easily.

    Now about this gun! It is a darn shame that such a nice looking gun simply won’t shoot! Did Mac clean the bore?

    Also on the internet people praise this gun and cuss it too. About 50/50 for praises versus cussing. Ditto for the Titan GP which appears to be a spin off of this gun!

    Is it Chinese made? That would explain a lot. I have bought maybe 10 – 15 Chinese made guns and kept only one! All the rest had or quickly developed fatal flaws. Things like missing sights or blown piston seals or broken springs or CO2 guns with leaking seals or terminally bad accuracy.

    One, a TF TH79 I hated to send back! It was based on the QB 78 but had a thumb hole target stock and diopter target sights as well as regular post and notch sights and scope rail. It was by far and away the most accurate 10 meter rifle I have ever shot and so easy to shoot. But after only 4 or 5 days it developed leaking CO2 seals and would not hold the CO2 more than an hour.

    I understand now you can send it off to someone to tune and they replace all the seals with ones which will last as well as cleaning it up, deburring all parts and making slight mods which improve the already stunning accuracy. Probably going to have to save my money and do that!

    BB get well soon please. This is way too long for you to be sick. My prayers and the prayers of my church are with you.

  12. tdung,

    Re: Shifting poi with the HW30 at 10m

    If you were shooting at longer distances I’d say sort your pellets but at 10m I don’t think that’s your problem.

    Have you adjusted the eyepiece on your leapers scope for parallax? This may be part of the problem but not the whole solution in my opinion.

    Did you check the stock and trigger guard screws? I’d also look closely at the pivot bolt. I’ve seen these groups with vertical stringing from a break barrel gun when shot from a bench. Usually it’s inconsistent barrel lockup. Either the pivot bolt is loose and/or the way the gun is rested creates inconsistent barrel lockup. Gently set the rifle on your rest each time and in the same place each time preferably on the forestock and not the barrel.

    The scopes crosshairs could be moving but if they are they’re moving back and forth consistently so that seems a longshot for the solution.

    Hope this helps.

    kevin

    • Thanks Kevin.
      I did tighten up all the screws when the rifle first arrived. As for the parallax, I didn’t adjust the eyepiece during the session, if that’s what you mean. One thing, as SL pointed out above, is that I am not sure about my “cheek weld”.
      As for the lock up position, I will pay attention to it when I shoot again. Thanks.

  13. Hi BB,
    That was bad news about the blood clot but with a silver lining of getting bumped ahead on your treatment.
    My dad has had a couple of clots that went from his calf to the lung,so keep an eye on your breathing.
    Any shortness of breath,don’t muck around,straight to ER.

    What a shame about the accuracy test on this particular Benjamin Trail.
    As J-F said it could just be a lemon.
    DaveUK

  14. BB

    Another small bump on the road to recovery. Thank goodness for the early detection.I am looking forward to returning to 100%. From this end, the difference is impossible to tell. It has been great having you back.

    Slinging Lead

  15. I have a very interesting result from some shooting i did yesterday with my NPSS. I was shooting at 25 yards with Crosman Premier 7.9 grain domes, the pellet i find to give me the best accuracy. I was getting great group sizes almost all under an inch. Then i found some old beeman pointed pellets that are really cheap and low quality. I have had these for a while and they needed to be shot before they became oxidized. I was expecting large group sizes based on the visual defects and inconsistency. But surprisingly they grouped the same or maybe tighter than the crosman premiers in the same conditions! I was…confused, and happy if these 5$ a tin pellets are better than the expensive premiers. This is confusing yet cool. I have yet to try these at different distances.

  16. Mixed blessings. Blot clots…bad.
    But if it speeds things up it could end up being a blessing, best wishes from Edmonton.
    Anyways…onto airgun stuff.
    Does anyone have any substantial experience with red dots?
    At 10m both my Slavia (open sights) and the XS-B9 are one holers, if I do my bit. Although I’ve noticed that if I’m not real careful placing the ‘dot’ in the exact centre of the field of view (the B9 has the red dot) the groups open up quite dramatically.
    So this weekend I was back on the range doing some more testing for my ‘Quigley’ shot. At 30yds, with Beeman Siver Bear, which are a nice tight fit in the Slavia’s breech I was getting 5 shot .75″ groups with the Slavia.
    The best I can do with the B9, no matter what pellet I use is 2.5″ groups.
    I’m wondering if it could be the Red Dot. It is a Vortek StrikeFire, and at $175 it is fairly price (about $50 more than the B9) and has good reviews in the tactical world.
    But the manual says it is parallax free at 50yds.
    Could this be the problem? Would even small errors centering the dot in the field of view cause this much shift in POI?

    On a different matter…is it possible to imbed photos in this blog?

    • Newby alert here. I have a cheap red dot that is/was on my 1377c. With the steel breech it now has no rear sights. I struggled with that red dot and the 1377 since they were both new, 7 months ago. I just thought it was the pistol giving me big groups. This weekend I noticed I left the red dot ON and the battery was dead. For the heck of it I mounted a air rifle scope on it. At 50 feet I was with in 1/2 inch groups, when bench rested. I was amazed. Now for me the red dot is not going on a single shot gun at all. I may put it on a semi auto CO2 pistol for some quick shooting, but not for accuracy, just to get it close.

      my .02$ only

  17. Gene, I kinda think my red dot is the culprit here.
    I may leave it on the B9 however. I purchased the gun because of it’s tactical look, plus that fact that it is a repeater (it’s a sidelever springer that uses a 12 shot clip).
    It is kinda fun to put all 12 shots in a 4-5″ circle in under 20 seconds.
    And extrapolating the accuracy out to 100 yds (say a 6-8 circle) I quess it is accurate enough for it’s intended purpose (hitting the torso).

    • 2.5″ groups at 50 yards sounds pretty good to me, esp w/ a red dot.

      For me my next move is to the eye doctor and get a set of shooting glasses or contacts. An eye ball Dr. friend says I need to measure from the front sight to my shooting eye when the rifle is mounted to my shoulder. Then learn to keep both eyes open so I can use the non shooting eye to see the target. I am talking iron sights here. After seeing what my guns will do with a scope, I want to see how well I can do with iron sights.

      • Gene

        For someone who announced a newbie alert, I think you have hit the nail on the head with the eye doctor thing. All of my eyeglasses are at least three times older than the airguns I am shooting (except the Diana.)

        It is certainly possible that my senses are not as keen as they once were. Even superheros are not infallible.

    • Would’nt it be nice if all the worthless do gooders that were looking for something to do , or a cause took up the ” Yeah, where is the Obama birth cert?” or “Why hasn’t he just produced it like EVERY

      • Ha! wrong key! …”EVERY other president has had to do?”

        Or maybe why do the little people have to be forced to accept health care run by a Gov’t than couldn’t make a profit out of a brothel? Humm…

        KA

      • No offense taken kidsagain. When I posted this my comment on ‘not being good for Crosman’ was not so much directed at whether it is true/false (that has to be determined in a court) but that here is a likely case of an ambulance chaser out to make a buck
        Either way, the publicity will not be good for Crosman…but if it in fact turns out not to be true…then Crosman’s reputation takes a hit just because someone sees $$$ signs.

  18. Thanks everyone for helping.

    I just repeat the post I replied to SL up top…

    ——-
    Another question I have is this…
    I have noticed that at 10m, JSB 8.4gr is very accurate, possible with 5 shots and one ragged hole when I focus. Hobby is right next to JSB and Superdomed is the least accurate out of the three. However, I shoot at 20 yards, JSB is not doing good while Hobby and Superdomed are doing much better.
    So is it possible for certain pellet that groups well at short distance but not well at longer distance, and vice versa?

    As for the HW30 itself, I am able to see some galling already. I’ve been paying attention to the cocking linkage area and now I can see some metal rubbing marks on the underside of the barrel block base where it rubs against the shorter linkage arm. I can also see right in the middle of the joint – between and shorter linkage arm and the longer linkage arm – which rubs against something, possibly the underside of the receiver tube. I can’t see the underside of the receiver tube unless I remove the action out of the stock. So far this really bother me. BTW, where can I find moly grease locally, like Home Depot or some other hardware store?

    Thanks a lot.
    ——-

    • tdung

      You can get a good sized tub of moly grease at Advance or Auto Zone for about $10. There are better quality grades of moly available, but I don’t know how big a difference it would make. I had occasion to pick up an HW50S lately even though an HW30 was what I was really after. It was very tight cocking and made scraping sounds when I cocked it. I decided to break open the barrel and add a very liberal amount of “Phil’s Tenacious Oil” around the breech bolt and surrounding areas. It is made for bicycling but I had it laying around. Then I worked the barrel back and forth which much ferocity. Then I let it sit to soak (with the barrel broken) some more. I bet any good quality oil, allowed to soak into the area (try and keep it out of the actual breech) will halt any future galling. Your cocking may also likely get easier as mine did.

      Perhaps the breech bolt needs to be loosened ever so slightly? From what I understand the barrel should stand where you leave it without moving, but no tighter.

      • SL, I didn’t realize we were such close neighbors, by Atlanta standards anyway. I live in Woodstock. Only a short 45 minutes from Powder Springs. In fact I used to live off of Powder Springs Road and Milford Church. We should try to get together sometime, maybe you can teach me a thing or two about shooting these darn things…

        • Fused

          That sounds like it would be alot of fun, I would bring the steaks. I hope you have the space in Woodstock because all I have is my suburban backyard with neighors on all sides.

          You would also have to sign a simple non-disclosure agreement, vowing to never reveal my secret identity.

      • tdung,
        What an interesting question! You are indeed a deep thinker.

        I have pondered similar thoughts myself:

        What satisfaction do I get spending $600, risking my eyesight, to make little round holes in paper 33 feet away?

        What satisfaction do I get spending $600, risking my sanity, for sticks used to smack a little dimpled ball around for four hours?

        What satisfaction do I get spending $21,000, risking my life, to ride around on two noisy wheels getting wet, cold, sunburned, and coated with bugs all at the same time?

        What satisfaction do I get spending $600, risking drowning, swimming under water just to look at a fish?

        What satisfaction do I get spending $600, risking broken bones, to to strap boards to my feet and scream down a steep hill?

        Well, I guess because it’s just a whole lot of fun, challenging, and exhilarating! Someday this stuff may be useful.

        -CJr

  19. Tdung,your best shot [pun intended] at finding moly locally would be an auto parts chain.The answer to your other question is absolutely!However the reasons involve a couple chapters on ballistics.

  20. Tdung, You can also try Rich in Mich. He will sell you a tune kit that includes small viles of the three major airgunning greases: moly, tar and silicone. It’s really not very expensive even with shipping and it’s good stuff. Order from him he seems like a really nice guy. You might also try Maccari’s website, but I think his are a little more expensive.

  21. Edith and Team,
    I was posting a long message about how great it is that you have incorporated this spell checker. For those that don’t have one installed it should be a big help. Not going to make it long as my browser cut off last time. Just wanted to express my thanks and hope everyone gets used to it as a helpful aid. 🙂

    rikib

  22. BB.
    Forgive me if you’ve answered this already, but what happened to to aperture sight(s) for the Bronco? I’ve been away for a little while and hoping that that the Mendoza rear sight and front spacer would be available by now. I see that that Pyramyd has removed them from their sight. I’d really like one that doesn’t require cutting wood. Any info would be appreciated.

  23. tdung

    Your questions prompted me to take my rifle out of the stock, and get out the flashlight and magnifing glass. I could find no galling anywhere. The very slight blemish I can find is on the long cocking link that connects to the the two smaller cocking links. I think it might be making a slight bit of contact with the forestock screw standing too high. I will sand the screw just slightly so it will sit lower. Otherwise no galling.

    I will say I really soaked the whole area with oil when I first got it, including the breach block and surrounding linkages. I think that made a bit of difference.

    The cocking linkage insert Kevin referenced sounds like just the thing. You can’t go wrong for $3.50. I was thinking of going for the indoor plinkers kit.

  24. I don’t know why there is negativity towards the Trail NP. I think it’s just great. It took about 100 rds to get it to stop dieseling but that’s normal. You can also run a cotton cleaning cloth thru it a couple of times to remove any factory lubricant. Cocking the NP becomes easier the more you shoot it. I’m shooting Crosman Premier HP’s thru it to break it in and found them to be quite accurate. If you’re after small game I would recommend Predators. The airgun came well packaged from Pyramid. No complaints about their shipping department or the ease of ordering from their on-line site.
    All-in-all, the Trail NP is a nicely made airgun. My only complaint…that the stock was finished a little better.

  25. I recently purchased a Nitro Piston and in my earliest test it preformed admirably. With RWS 22 cal. pellets it grouped .6 inches at 50 ft., indoors. Maybe I just got lucky and got a good one.

    • Don,

      that is very good. How many pellets were in that group? Do you have room to take it to 30 yards? Many of us would be very interested in your results. Speaking for myself, I get this type of grouping with 5 H & N Barracudas but at 28′. It’s almost luck to get a group at 1″ at 30 yards and that’s after intalling a Charlie da Tuna trigger and doing a re-crown on the barrel (removing shroud first, of course). Typical groups approach 1.5″ for many of us with this rifle.

      By the way, Don, this post was was published back in July 2010, over a year ago. Very few of us monitor these old blogs. For greatest exposure, post on the current blog. You can always get there via: /blog//

      Fred PRoNJ

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    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.

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  • 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.

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  • Expert Service and Repair

    Get the most out of your equipment when you work with the expert technicians at Pyramyd AIR. With over 25 years of combined experience, we offer a range of comprehensive in-house services tailored to kickstart your next adventure.

    If you're picking up a new air gun, our team can test and tune the equipment before it leaves the warehouse. We can even set up an optic or other equipment so you can get out shooting without the hassle. For bowhunters, our certified master bow technicians provide services such as assembly, optics zeroing, and full equipment setup, which can maximize the potential of your purchase.

    By leveraging our expertise and precision, we ensure that your equipment is finely tuned to meet your specific needs and get you ready for your outdoor pursuits. So look out for our services when shopping for something new, and let our experts help you get the most from your outdoor adventures.

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  • 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.

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  • 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

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.

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