Benjamin 397 Reviews

3 pumps is plenty for 10 meter shooting (dime size pattern using pistol scope as below). 8 pumps is powerful enough to assure 1 inch accuracy at 30 yards with the scope. I paired this gun with a BSA Edge pistol scope (BSA-PS2x20 mounted via UTG 1" Medium Airgun Rings (RGPM-25M2) on a set of 3/8" Benjamin dovetail Intermounts (CR-B272). (all from Pyramid) This gives perfect eye relief and accuracy if you mount the rig directly over the rear iron sight which does not have to be removed.

The wood finish is greatly improved if you give it a light rub with very fine steel wool. Finish off with any liquid furniture polish. The Williams 64 peep sight said to work with this gun does not adjust adequately for windage or height. ("bottoms out" both ways before correct settings can be made). Don't buy it unless you are shooting over 25 yards regularly. With the BSA Edge pistol scope this gun is a winner and the scope stays zeroed with no issues from the pumping vibrations. All good.

great...wanted one for years...took a minute to get it dialed in but is a great air rifle.... classic design will last the rest of my life and then some.

These guns are great airguns. I have owned several over the years and everyone of them will easily group as many shots as you shoot inside a quarter at 25 yards. They can be a little pellet fussy, the current one I own likes H&N 8.64 grn FTT or JSB 8.44 grn Diabolo Exacts. With other pellets I have tried the grouping expands. When I shot 7 pellets over my chronograph I noticed with the JSB and the H&N pellets an extreme spread of 6 fps. (8 pumps) This consistency adds to the shot grouping. If you get this gun put a good scope on it you will be impressed.

The trigger isnt what it used to be. When I first started to own this series of benjamins the trigger was all metal and was smooth and crisp. But now they put the crossman trigger on it, which effects the shot grouping. These guns will group all day long inside a quarter at 25 yards, but the old ones with the better trigger would group all day long inside a dime at 25 yards.

To put a scope on this gun you will need to order the special scope mounts. The mounts are well worth it. I feel that a better scope with higher magnification brings out the full potential of these guns.

Over the last four and a half years, I've put roughly 23,000 rounds through my 397, which I've used primarily for plinking and pest control. Overall, I am more than happy with the fit, finish, and quality of the rifle, which is definitely on par with the older Sheridans. Accuracy: Initially I could barely hold a 1.5 inch group @25 yards with Crosman ammo (7.9 grain HPs and 10.5 grain Ultras). I started experimenting with some other pellets such as H&N, Air Arms, RWS, and Predator, and while H&N looked slightly promising grouping at just over an inch, I just wasn't impressed. Fast forward six months and I notice PA has JSB Exact Diablos 8.44 grains on sale. I gave them a try and that did the trick! 6 pumps at 25 to 30 yards rested would consistently give me 1/2 inch groups. Quality: Well built to say the least. Wood stock is nice, trigger is heavy but breaks clean. Bluing (not really bluing, more like paint) isn't bad. Careful rubbing it against things because it will scrape off.

The amount of pumps you pump the rifle has a definite effect on accuracy. After 6 pumps group size starts to go south pretty quick with mine. I think it has to do with the hammer not smacking the valve hard enough to empty the air reservoir completely, because I've noticed that the groups become more strung out vertically instead of horizontally, suggesting inconsistent velocitys. If my assumptions are correct, the gun merely needs a more powerful hammer spring. Might be a potential mod. Although I'm not hugely concerned about this, iron sight shooters will be. There is no windage adjustment on the sights, so if you intend on shooting without a scope, plan on making an additional investment in something such as a William peep sight or similar. The scope mounts I bought are branded by Sheridan and can be had on Amazon for about $12. They work fine for me, but if your scope is short in length, then you will most likely have problems with proper eye relief since it sits so far forward.

Beware of the initial pump effort. Took me at least a couple hundred rounds just to get it broke in enough so I could pump it more than 5 times. For those who are shooting in residential areas with neighbors, keep in mind the noise. Nothing major, but there definitely is a little bark to it. After about 9,000 rounds, the seals finally wore out so every time I went to pump the gun up, all the air blew out of the resvoir an through the barrel. I called Pyramydair customer service (GREAT PEOPLE) and they assured me that all I needed was a rebuild kit. I followed the instructions, punched the pins, and replaced the seals. Took me about an hour. Make sure you store the gun with one pump (I didn't, that's probably why the seals wore out so soon on mine). Lastly, make sure you have the proper form when pumping the rifle. I always use the inside of my palm, and hold the butt of the rifle between my legs and press the pump lever closed. Also keep the gun oiled well, and always use Pellgun oil.

Owned one before and wore the brass barrel out with lead pellets. Good rifle. Accurate.

Pump mechanism is rough but I think it will wear in. Need better telescopic mounting features. Quite accurate out of the box.

design on the forearm pump.

Nothing

It has a great feel just the old .20 cal I had when I was a kid, it dose shoot great

They need to work on quality control the stock was loose when it came

It is a work out pumping it but fun

Had one of these 60 years ago and its just as I remember.

Better varnish on the stock

Very accurate out of the box. Build quality is excellent.

some of my friends had these when I was young. I made some good distance shoots with open sight using there back then. so know I bought one for myself

I would set it up for 1100 fps. like mine I bought last winter

Accuracy shooting the JSB 8.44 gr Doomed

Make the stock a bit longer

Classic multi-pump. Not super high end, not low end. Timeless. Shoots nicely. Although I'm a scope guy the Iron Sights aren't bad. Fairly quiet

A usable dovetail scope mount would be great so you didn't have to use the intermounts.

Has a brass barrel so lead pellets only. Not the most powerful out there, and cocking even a magnum springer beats pumping this 8 times, but it shoots smooth, like a PCP so the pumping is worth it. I had the 392 and wanted this for my collection.

Variable pellet speed related to how many pumps you put in.

Better quality control. The wood is not uniform color (I got one with an "oops" where clearcoat dripped onto the wood before the stain was applied) big light colored blot. It's ugly.

I have read good reports on this gun and that's why I bought it. Due to variation is manufacturing, the rifles will vary in quality from junk to really great. I got a junker and waited too long to return it.

I've had my 397 now for 15 years and have never had to replace anything on it. I use it throughout the year every year. It's accuracy can be counted on. Easy hole on hole at 30 yards with the proper scope.

If you use one often enough you will get tired of pumping it. There are easy things Crosman could do to change the pumping assembly and valves to make it easier to pump and more powerful to boot.

It may seem pricey but keep in mind that I've had mine for 15 plus years and have never had any issues with it. It's an excellent air rifle.

Fairly accurate.

Trigger pull needs to be lighters

smooth trigger, very accurate and easy to shoot

Too hard to pump! With stock between legs while standing and left palm on top of breech it was very hard to break tension and start pump action with the right hand. After freeing pump lever the pump stroke was hard the whole way and very hard to complete which included a painful snap at closure. After sighting in and shooting about a hundred rounds my left palm was badly bruised and thankfully the pressure module would not hold pressure anymore and I was able to send back and buy the Benjamin Discovery which I hope will be a better experience.

See above details.I started the air gun trip with the Gamo whisper fusion and still have the gun and will use it happily. The violent nature of the nitro piston recoil makes it very tricky to shoot well. I can hit the 4" gongs at 35-40 yds. steadily but would like to do the same with a 2" target. Maybe the pcp will be the answer for me. I have a small 40 cu. ft. nitrogen cylinder and a fill kit a welding shop friend put together for me complete with a pressure release valve and I am just waiting for the Disco to get here. Jerry at Pyramid Air was more than helpful in the successful resolution to this problem. I will recommend them highly to anyone who is interested,

solid rifle/ no frills, just like the one my dad had in the 60's, that gun was sold years ago and I just had to have one like it, yes it is made now with modern technology, but if he was alive he would pick it up and smile with every shot!

the packaging was skimpy to say the least, 2 pieces of foam on the gun and a cardboard box, but it was not damaged in shipping

shoots best in targets with Crosman Wadcutter pellets

I LOVE this gun. It is a classic, cheap for what it is, and is really special as this is what older family members learned to shoot with when they were younger. It is very accurate, but the open sights may be hard to use for those whose eyesight isn't what it used to be.

Not much. This gun was well thought out. It is a little wider on the forearm, to make it easier to pump. The only problem for some may be that the higher the pump, the harder it is to use. Shouldn't be a problem for adults, but younger shooters may have difficulty.

This is a classic, fun, and is a great stepping stone in the world of airguns. Try it out!

Wood Stock. Metal fit and finish. Classic styling. Accuracy. Even the trigger is sweet on the rifle I received.

Can't think of anything. I'm tickled with this purchase.

Called the nephews when it showed up. Between the 4 of us we shot a whole tin of pellets. Everyone loves this gun.

Very pleased with this rifle. Accurate with plenty of power if you want it. Just for reference, one pump on this gun will push a pellet out the barrel with slightly less power than my IZH 61 rated at 490 fps. Two pumps puts the fps noticeably better than that 490 fps. Three pumps will put a pellet inside an empty dog food can at 20 feet. Five pumps puts it thru both sides. And that's as far as I went as five pumps gets difficult for me. Pellets used were RWS 10 Match 7.0 gr.

The gun is good to go as is, but I would like to see multi pump gun reviews include pellet velocities obtained with different numbers of pumps applied.

Two pumps per shot is plenty for plinking and target shooting. Three pumps if your feeling aggressive. Won't tire you out. Gotta press your cheek into the stock to line up the sights but I'm guessing that's because the rear sight design puts the sight down low closer to the barrel. That seems like a good thing.

This is a classic air rifle and continues to set the standard for multi-pump pneumatic air guns. The rifle is solid and well built. The finish on the wood stock is excellent and with the exceptions of a small scratch on the barrel near the serial number the rifle is in excellent shape. The scratch was easily covered using a black “Sharpie” permanent marker. I like the option of shooting at lower velocity levels, but also like having the ability to pump it up to a level capable of taking out small pests. This is my main reason for buying this model.

Nothing; this gun is a good buy the way its manufactured.

I bought one of these as a Christmas gift for my son back around 1990. I was impressed by its performance and wanted one for myself. I’ve been air gunning since 1975 and have several Crosman multi-pump pneumatics, a Beeman and Browning spring piston and a Gamo gas piston air gun. But, the Crosman guns aren’t powerful enough for pest control and the spring and gas piston models are too powerful to shoot in my small garage. Out of the box the accuracy and power of this gun is apparent. Using the sight that came with the gun I was able to shoot clover leafs at 15 feet. I was able to duplicate those results using the Williams peep sight manufactured for this gun. As far as the power, at 15 feet I was able to place a Crosman Premier Domed Ultra Magnum 10.5 gr and Beeman Silver Sting 8.64 gr pellets cleanly through a 5/8” thick board. Get the Williams peep sight for this gun it helps improve its accuracy. Eat your Wheaties before shooting this gun at full power; it gets hard to pump.