Benjamin Armada Reviews

For the record, this ain't no toy guys and gals!!! Just last night I put some rounds downrange after giving the barrel a very thorough and careful cleaning right out of the box (just got it a few days ago from our host). What I do love about this pellet rifle is the weight. I know some others complain about the weight being on the heavy side, but if you are accustomed to shooting the likes of AR powder burner platforms, then this gun is for you. It has the feel and looks (obviously) of an AR platform and it is built SOLID!!!! The accuracy, even without being fully broken in, pretty much left my jaw drooping! I could not believe my groupings at 50 yards. I purchased the .25 cal with an 8 round mag. I put 8 rounds through literally one hole yesterday at 50 yards. I'll try to post a pic. Things I like? EVERYTHING!!!

One caveat to my "Things I like" comments.... The adjustable stock is a bit flimsy and wobbly which I expected from reading elsewhere prior to my purchase. I placed some electrical tape on the tube under the adjustable pull and it really seemed to "shim" it up and got rid of some of the looseness. If that's the worst thing about this rifle that I will experience, then I am not complaining.

Based on my results first time out with this rifle, I would say this is the most accurate pellet rifle I have ever shot in my life. Granted I did not get any flyers which are bound to happen eventually, but with good quality Diablo pellets, this thing is 100% spot on!!!!

The Armada is simple and comfortable to shoot. A great PCP for the price point. Great trigger and safety. Easy to fill with air. Disassembly is easy. No special tools. I shoot three days a week and it's accurate every time I shoot.

It would be great to have better magazines the are durable. Maybe a 4500 psi air tank on the Armada. The scope is a Hawk optics Vantage IR 4- 12X40 AO. I changed out the factory magpul stock and upgraded to a more comfortable Magpul stock. Magpul carbine stock for a better cheek weld. Changed out the plastic pistol/AR grip for a Houge Rubber grip. Houge Beaver tail modular rubber with finger grooves. Changing those items out made a world of difference in comfort. I painted the Armada desert brown because of the terrain in my area. This rifle is great the way it comes from the factory.

My set up I am shooting 25.39 JSB pellets. They fly very well for my style of shooting between 88 and 134 yards for varmints.

I like the look and feel of the gun.

The stock is cheap. The price should be the same as the marauder.

I can shoot a 1/2 inch group at 50 yards easily with a 25cal.

All the Picatinny rails and the rail lengths. I have a GenI Marauder with the 11mm/dovetail rail. I got tired of having to switch rings for scopes to go from my rim/center fire rings to the 11mm/dovetail rings. The bolt throw is less than the GenI Marauder. I like the bolt better. The 5 other mags I have work in the Armada. Very quiet. Fit and finish is excellent.

As others mention, the stock is a little loose, but I dont think it is that big of a deal. It defiantly puts the stock, bore, and rail height very close together. On my GenI Marauder, it had less of cheek weld and more of "lower jaw" weld. The Magpul stock does add weight, but it is also high quality. That is a trade off for weight, which I am perfectly fine with. She is front heavy, but I dont mind. But then I prefer the M1A to AR-15s. Later I will change out the stock and the grip. I like something a bit more beefy concerning the grip.

As I mentioned before, I own a GenI Marauder. I have heavily modded this Marauder to include a Tim Hill Regulated Premium Match Parts kit/ polished the stock barrel. I added a Tim Hill barrel band, and I was getting dime sized 10 round groups with H&N slugs, at 35yrds. I will establish a NIB baseline for both accuracy and FPS/energy using a given pellet (5.52 JSBs) and slugs (H&N .218) and compare those with previous performance with the GenI Marauder. Unless a high quality barrel and match grade chamber, all rifles have a preference for a given pellet/slug be it design/shape, diameter or weight. Once defined, I will then install the upgrades and test again and compare. I expect the regulated match parts kit will result in similar performance as it did with the GenI Marauder. While the first stage of the trigger is heavy and long, the second stage is very good. By the looks of it, the Armada will be easier to adjust the trigger. Will post my findings later.

Question... can this air rifle shoot .22 slugs

The looks.

The sound level and the accuracy.

I bought this rifle in .25 cal around last January thinking that it would match my Benjamin Marauder .22 cal. First problem: the noise level. At first I did not knew why it was so high when compared with my Umarex Gaunlet .25 cal. At last search the internet and found the possible explanation - the baffles. I took them out off he rifle and found all of them damaged. I bought a set of new baffles but the noise did not go away. Finally I bought a Donny moderator, well it does not match the low noise level of te Umarex Gaunlet with the moderator. About the noise level and the baffles Crosman did not honor the warranty in Puerto Rico, U.S.A. The rifle do not have any accuracy with: JSB 25 grains, Benjamin 27 grains or JSB 33 grains.

Versatility, accuracy, and the aesthetics of this gun. I can add as many accessories as I would like. Great value for the money.

This gun is heavy and would probably best be fired from a bench. Other than that, I would not have changed anything. I would also make this regulated from the factory to get more shots per fill.

I would definitely purchase another of these in a different caliber (.25).

the benjamin armada .25 is a precision air rifle. I was able to shoot tic tacs off a golf tee at 15 yards consistently with magpul iron sights and a wide variety of ammo.

to load the magazine into the breech the bolt action cocking lever has to be pulled back otherwise the mag will not seat properly. this is fine when im shooting from a bench and the rifle is on a bag. but when i'm shooting off hand or out in the woods hunting i can't get a magazine into the gun. one hand to hold the rifle steady one hand to pull the bolt back and one more hand to put the magazine in. a 3 handed job! this had to be overlooked when designing the rifle.

this rifle is on the heavier side compared to other .25 cal PCPs. most of the weight is towards the front half of the gun

Its very quiet when shooting and. Good accuracy

Nothing

It is very easy to fill with a hand pump or a compesser

Accurate, very quiet, good feed system.

Stock is flimsy and doesn't need cheek riser. I should have bought the Marauder as I like having my scope closer to the barrel, and you are forced to mount it high on this gun. It's heavy.

I have this and the Hasan Flash Pup QE - both have advantages and disadvantages. The pup is lighter and more powerful, but louder and harder to load. Also the Armada has a quick detach connection but the flash pup makes you use a probe which I had to buy an adapter for my pump.

There is a learning curve very accurate and powerful

Stock seems flimsy magazine spring not strong enough to advance next pellet,had to modify

This gun is a tack driver. It was shooting 850 fps out of the box. I took it apart and made some adjustments ourlined in the owners manual and its shooting 970 fps. My favorite aorgun so far.

The barrel wasnt straight in the shroud. I just put an oring on the barrel to center it

very accurate exstreamly quiet except the ping the internals make but can be upgrade so it make no noise at all

change the plastic stock to metal

this is an amazing gun its awesome!!! shooting 10 out of 10 on a 2in spinner at 30 yards in 45mph wind at 21 ft lbs with 14gr pellets using the flip up iron sights i have havent mounted my scope yet!!! and yes 45 mph wind i live inthe high desert its allways that windy some time 60mph plus!!! I'm a vary good shot at least thats what im told!

Mlok mounts for all kinds of accessories. Picitinny mounts for scopes.

The buttstock. Mine wouldn't even collapse or extend. It was stuck in one place. I had to replace the buffer tube and buttstock right out of the box.

The accuracy of my Armada is so so. The velocities are very inconsistent. I've tried many different pellet types and have yet to find one that is accurate enough to hunt with.

easy to upgrade to your liking, very backyard friendly. i was getting up to 60 shots per fill using jsb 15.89 and jsb 18.13 at about 2800 psi and about 40 shots using jsb 25.39. i bought the .22 cal since i have all the stuff for it.

buttstock for sure will not stay locked in place and needs padding on the end of it, made my own padding.

very accurate i'm using a utg 30mm scope, will take down a woodchuck at 35 yards

I bought this Benjamin Armada after studying every YouTube video and article I could get my hands on. I bought the standard version knowing that I was going to customize it myself with Magpul stock and pistol grip. I called and spoke with a really nice and knowledgeable gentleman in customer service and then later in the day spoke with a gal at the ordering desk and she was super nice. She encouraged me to sign up for the email and newsletter and I got the 15% discount and after everything was finished I paid $619 out the door after purchasing the rifle, two extra magazines, and a ton of jxb exact Diablo heavies. I have not gotten to cite the rifle in yet as I have to purchase a scope and then I will head out to my buddies property and cited in from 25 to 50 yards and I will come back to make an additional review. So far the packaging is great and the service has been awesome! This is probably my V air rifle from pyramid so far.

Has everyone has said so far, yes the rear buttstock is wobbly and somewhat loose but replacements are so inexpensive, as little as $20 online so that is no problem at all.

I have done my homework on this purchase and coming away with the decision to purchase my first .25 caliber air rifle comma this one excited me the most. No it is not regulated, but rifles as high as $1,500 including bull pups are not regulated often either. With the fact that this gun is a Marauder inside, this further allows all sorts of modifications and hop-ups on YouTube by watching .25 Marauder videos. So excited to mount on all of the goodies after I find them and get this cited in so I can report back to you all period very happy so far!

The "looks", really nice. I don't own an m-rod but I guess it's similar in performance. I have the .25 cal and it definitely hits with authority , very,very accurate at 30 yards . I have a talon ss in same caliber and have always judged all else by its performance. The armada in my opinion is just as accurate and definitely more Powerful ,although you don't get as many shots. (Tank is half the size)

I love everything about it except ........... The butt stock, flimsy , rattles, feels cheesy. I knew this going in and just bought an actual magpul unit. Problem solved. Bolt is a bit stiff to get it far enough back to insert/remove mag but it's getting looser the more I use it.

At 30 yards off a rest I easily put 3 mags of pellets into a 1/2" hole No problem with accuracy Goes thru 3/4" plywood , plenty of power at 30 yards Did I mention how cool it looks ??? I would decimate buy it again

Ok so lets talk about the .25cal Armada. I love this gun for the reasons: IT is a: Very quiet gun. Very accurate gun. Very versatile gun. Very dependable gun. Quite powerful at range with out manufacturer recommended tune. All the magpul furniture bolts/snaps on perfectly. The Magpul M-LOK system is great but it has some issues I would like to see rectified.( I will clarify further below). The 20" barrel is excellent and needs very little cleaning, I have put thousands of rounds through it. The gun over all is a great shooter. I shoot at 45-50 yrds daily it is a nail driver literally. You will average around 3 mags consistently between 3000 to 2000psi(this literally is your power band anything between 2000-1500 is wasted pumping time for refill. experience speaking here..:)) which is great for plinking but the 25cal is not really a plinker you can but I would not recommend it because the ammunition can get expensive unless you buy bulk here at Pyramid.

OK so here is the Buts as minor as they may be :). Minors: The gun is very front heavy albeit a minor inconvenience but out in the field weight equals consistency and effectiveness of shots if you are fatigued the consistency will ultimately drop. So this is a expensive gun so being as expensive as it is, there needs to be some maintenance options included and should be considered by Crossman. Musts: Replacement MLOC tabs really really should be included they are (I cant emphasize this enough) extremely brittle. Replacement Orings should be included with the rifle. The required lubricants, and silicon greases should be included. A 1 point sling and sling plate would be awesome, or any sling for that matter.

So I did the factory recommended tune and there is a noticeable difference in impact signature. So i ordered a crony to establish my power band. Will update later. I am running a Barska 3x9x44 pro sniper IR optics this optic is phenomenal for this almost zero recoil rifle. All magpul MOE accessories, and furniture including Mil spec buffer tube, MBUS flip up composite sights, MOE vertical forward grip. 2500lmn green Picatinny mounted light. with a sling tab bipod. The ammunition when you get 31gr/above it has great consistency at range. FPS averages around 680-785'ish(before tune) 31-43.2gr pellets that is all I use. Deadly accurate and powerful, It punches clean holes through house building strength 1" pressed pinewood boards at 50 yards and will continue travelling well beyond the board if you do not back it with something else (lesson learned).

Resembles the M14. AR15 compatible. the trigger is pretty good, very predictable.

Air consumption is horrible. First 3 shots will miss the mark at 40 yards, the gun settles down at 1500 psi thats when youll get about 5 shots accurately until it drops off horribly. Heavy weapon not ideal for walking in the woods. loud. very loud. also has a horrible "Ping" sound after every shot. this gun needs needs to be regulated. Magazines are hard to install and impossible to install with out pulling the bolt back hard.

Save for a regulated FX or Brocock.

Power, quietness, accuracy, adaptability, and looks.

nothing

MilSpec AR compatible platform is very versatile. I easily mounted & swapped out Magpul stock parts, and P rails make for easy mounting of scopes, red-dots, and other accessories. The rifle has a cool "tactical" appearance, so the wife accused me of getting yet another AR when she saw it. I really enjoy the excellent sound suppression, and the rifle is quietest at full power. It is also proving to be a great asset against rodent insurgents in the annual battle of the pecan tree.