Benjamin Marauder pistol | Air gun blog

R.A.I. Adjustable AR Adapter for Crosman 2240 pistols: Part 2

Posted on June 5, 2014 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 37 Comments

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

The UTG stock is attached to the Crosman 2240 with the adapter and extended as far as it will go.

This report addresses:

• Crosman 2240 pistol is accurate!
• Sight-in reveals a tip!
• Accuracy testing
• Summary

Today, I get to shoot the Crosman 2240 air pistol as a carbine. Thanks to the adapter from R. Arms Innovations and the adjustable UTG 6-position Mil Spec AR stock, my 2240 is now a handy carbine. Allow me to explain why that’s such a good thing.

2240 is accurate!
Many years ago, when I knew much more than I do now, I wrote an article for Shotgun News about some vintage air pistols — specifically the Crosman Mark I Target pistol and the Smith & Wesson 78G. Both vintage air pistols have superb handling and light, crisp triggers, not to mention their fine adjustable sights. I was writing about how the golden age of target air pistols had ended 30 years earlier, and I included a Crosman 2240 pistol in the article, just for comparison. You know — so people could see how far things had slipped over time. Imagine my chagrin to see the 2240 turn in the best results of the test, despite having a much cruder trigger and sights that were as simple as a door latch. I wrote the article that way, admitting my surprise that the current gun bested the two golden oldies, despite lacking all of their sophistication.

R.A.I. Adjustable AR Adapter for Crosman 2240 pistols: Part 1

Posted on May 8, 2014 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 82 Comments

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

This report addresses:

• Missing Part 3 of the adapter report on the Marauder pistol.
• Description of the 2240 adapter.
• Mounting the 2240 adapter.
• Adapter mounted — now what?
• How difficult is the adapter to install?

If you’ve been waiting for Part 3 of the report on the R.A.I. AR Adjustable Stock Adapter used on the Benjamin Marauder pistol, you’ve been waiting a long time. I tested the pistol at 50 yards for a Part 3 report, but the results I got were unsatisfactory. I didn’t think they represented what the pistol can do, so I didn’t report them — and now a lot of time has passed.

R.A.I. adjustable AR stock adapter: Part 2

Posted on February 20, 2014 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 32 Comments

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

Part 1

Today, I’ll begin testing the R.A.I. AR adjustable stock adapter from rarmsinnovations.com with the UTG Pro 6-position adjustable stock attached to the Benjamin Marauder pistol.

Length of pull
Before we begin, I want to say a word about the length of pull you get with this adapter. I gave the range of lengths in Part 1 as 14-1/8 inches to 17-1/8 inches, and that turned off many readers. In terms of conventional stocks, that pull range is very long! But Dave Rensing, who invented this adapter, made it for his 8-year-old son and his 7-year-old daughter. The son uses it conventionally, but the daughter collapses the stock past the first detent so it’s even shorter. Fully collapsed, the pull length measures exactly 14 inches but feels like 11 inches.

R.A.I. adjustable AR stock adapter: Part 1

Posted on February 10, 2014 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 69 Comments

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

Wives, I want to warn you — today, I’m going to be The Great Enabler! Last year, I was sent a product to test for Pyramyd Air — an AR stock adapter for certain Crosman pistols by R.A.I. It lets you turn a pistol like the Benjamin Marauder into a carbine by adding an M4 telescoping stock to the back of the gun.

Why?
But why would you want to do that? Well, Dave Rensing, the owner of R. Arms Innovations — rarmsinnovations.com — wanted to do it so his young son could shoot his Marauder pistol. The big pistol is heavy for a youngster, especially when it has a scope mounted; but with an adjustable carbine stock, the youngster can size it to fit and then rest it on any convenient place and shoot it like a rifle. And because the M4 stock adjusts for length of pull, Dave can adjust it for himself in seconds. If 2 or more people can shoot the same airgun, the $400 price tag gets spread around and diluted.

The Roanoke airgun show: Part 2

Posted on October 2, 2013 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 45 Comments

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

Part 1

Today I’ll show you more of the airgun show that was held in Roanoke, Virginia, last Friday and Saturday. I’m going to jump around just like you would if you walked the aisles at the show.

Let’s begin at Larry Hannusch’s table. Larry has been an airgun writer since the 1970s, and he has a great collection of fine guns. This year, he displayed some of his ball-flask guns, giving show attendees a chance to see airguns that no American museum has.

Hannusch ball reservoir airguns
Not many people have ever seen this many ball reservoir airguns in one place. Larry Hannusch collection.

Hannusch vintage hand pump
How do they fill those ball reservoirs? With vintage hand pumps like this one. Dennis Quackenbush and I experimented with these pumps and learned they can develop up to 1,000 psi when the right technique is used. And they don’t have piston seals — just lapped steel pistons!

2012 SHOT Show: Part 2

Posted on January 25, 2012 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 111 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Photos by Earl “Mac” McDonald

Part 1

This is the second of my reports on the 2012 SHOT Show. There will certainly be at least one more after this, and perhaps even more, as there’s simply too much new information to pack into a single report.

The state of the airgun industry in 2012
Before I get to some specifics, I want to make a general observation. This year’s SHOT Show was different for me in a major way, because I saw for the first time that firearms shooters are beginning to understand airguns as never before. In the past, I always had to start my explanations with the cooling of the earth’s crust and then progress through the age of the dinosaurs because each firearms person I talked to thought of airguns as either toys or BB guns. This year, a lot of them were clued-in on what’s happening. They weren’t surprised by the accuracy we get, and they knew about big bores. A lot of them had some airgun experience and more than a few asked me the same kind of questions that I get from long-time readers of this blog.

Best products tested in 2011

Posted on January 2, 2012 by B.B. Pelletier ↓ 20 Comments

by B.B. Pelletier

Happy New year! I thought I’d review the best products I got to test last year. Some will be new, but others have been around a long time — I just got around to testing them.

Benjamin Marauder pistol
Back in January, when I was pouting about missing the SHOT Show, I had the opportunity to test the Benjamin Marauder PCP pistol. Actually, the test began in 2010 and extended into 2011, but it was such a good test that the pistol has to make it into this report.

Benjamin’s Marauder pistol, known as the “M-rod,” is a winner!

I even did an extra accuracy test because for the first one I mounted an old Leapers 6×32 scope that didn’t seem to give the pistol a chance to perform up to its capability. When I substituted a CenterPoint 3-12x44AO compact scope in the last test, the pistol showed what it can do.