Page 5 - Benjamin Trail NP Reviews

Wow what a gun! I purchased the .22 model on back order with a pellet pen and got it a week later. Immediately I could tell that THIS IS NOT A TOY. It punches through a phone book and still has enough energy to embed itself in a 1/4 inch plywood fence. It took about 100 shots to get the gun consistent and quiet, and then I started getting quarter sized groupings at 30 yards. It is a good hunting gun, I got my first squirrel the other day that was scaring the songbirds away from the bird feeder. It went straight through the squirrel and the fence behind it. I feel comfortable taking Racoon sized animals with no problem. I really like the scope that comes with it, it's all you'll ever need for air gun shooting and is a good value.

At 9.5 pounds it is pretty heavy if you want to carry it through the woods for a day, but the sling that comes with it does help. Shooting from a standing posistion can become difficult after a few shots. I personally don't mind the trigger for my needs, but it is a very long and strange trigger pull. An upgrade isn't necessary in my mind, but probably a good idea.

The first few shots out of the box are pretty loud, but it settled down a bit after 100 shots or so. There is also some recoil, but it isn't bad at all. The pellet pen is a very good investment at 10 dollars. A good backstop is very important because this gun can go through a decent sized phone book. Overall it is a great purchase, and a very high quality item. I'm sure it will last a long time! Buy one!

.22 caliber. Impressive power & accuracy for $200. After about 400 H&N FTT's it groups well at 35 yds & getting better. I was very skeptical at first now I think I'll buy the XL1000 when I have this one dialed in.

I agree with others about trigger yet you get used to the pull. The adjustment makes only minor change. After warranty ends, may change it out.

Clean barrel bore before shooting. Looks like manufacturer leaves machining residue yet that protects it. Don't scour with solvents & brushes, just pull some patches through with string trimmer line until clean, then leave it. I pulled a patch through after 400 shots out of curiosity & it was very clean. Be patient as this rifle is just a wild thing out of the box. Loud, inaccurate with recoil like a cannon. As other reviewers stated after a few hundred rounds, it settles down. I have tried a few heavy pellets yet will stay with medium weight pellets.

The price, power, solid, pistol grip.

Trigger

None

Quality feel and construction, great little scope, easy to sight in. This gun is both powerful and accurate.

This is a great gun. I haven't shot an air rifle in about 20 years, and this makes my old Crosman 760 Pumpmaster I had in college look like a toy. This gun is a beast! A 14.3 grain Crosman Premier pellet blows right through half inch plywood with a big exit hole at 10 yards. I had the scope at zero for 10yds and 50yds with about a dozen shots total. Yes, the trigger is long, but "priming" it by pulling in a couple mm's makes it acceptable. The scope rings did need to be adjusted to match up with the weaver rail mount; it seems this could have been handled at the factory to make things easier.

I am a relative novice with little shooting background, so if I can get this gun shooting straight pretty much out of the box, anyone can. To all the reviews nitpicking this gun, I would have to ask why you're buying a gun in this price range anyway if you're expecting to compete in the Olympics with it.

.22 cal. 60 year old male with large rodent problem. Never had a springer before. Cleaned barrel, installed scope & shot at target using 14.66 H&N. Wow. Impressive power & accuracy for $200. After 50 shots I tried the H&N 21.30 pellet. Double wow! I have no doubt this will humanely solve my rodent problem. problem.

The trigger pull mechanism yet I only have fired 100 pellets.

Clean barrel before firing then leave it. Manufacturer leaves the machining residue to protect against corrosion. Don't go nuts with JB compound, etc. No solvents. Be very careful if you pull a metal rod through bore. Don't ding the rifling or breech. I mounted scope out of box yet I should have fired 20-30 rounds to get used to recoil of a heavy springer. Use a bench rest to sight in scope.

Very well put together. Firing cycle is smooth

All ready did the trigger to Da Tuna. Big improvement.

Clean the barrel it helps.

The price ! And it shoots great . 1/4" groups at 20 yards using 16grain predator polymag . The stock works great ! love the pistol grip. Good job on the weaver base.rock solid! Benjamin trail NP is a well put together gun . I would recommend this air rifle to any one that wants to hunt pest or small game. .22cal. 16 gr. pellet 760 fps.

Only thing I would change is the trigger & scope the trigger has a long pull "but " it works! The scope is clear . but after 300 rounds the scope lost zero . I had to order a new scope. The gun is well worth $209.00 shoots like a $400.00 gun.

I would purchase a better scope !

Well made! Solid... & Heavy. This is actually heavier than my .22 (Non Air Gun) rifle. As soon as you pull this from the box you'll know this is well made. Scope is nice as well. Good power. & I love the bull barrel.

Perhaps, add a rail to the bottom for bipods and the like, but not necessarily a "change" per say...more of an addition.

I have a universal barrel bipod... it does fit where the barrel thins out, but if you are looking at these, you would need to release it every time you want to cock it. Keep this in mind if you are looking at these or have one that the Bull Barrel is a bit thicker than a standard barrel. I will need to look into the sling adapters.

Quiet and reasonably powerful for small game.

The trigger...wait, I already changed that with a DeTuna--big improvement. Don't waste my money on a scope. I'd rather know how much the gun costs and select my own scope (and it wouldn't be a 9x for <50 yard shooting).

I got the .22 for hunting, but on reflection, maybe I should have gotten a .177. It gives up a little in shock, but has a flatter trajectory (shock doesn't work when it's not delivered to the target) and the pellets are half the cost (more practice should help the weakest link in the system). Now I have a reason to get another one.

Love this gun i have put over 700 pelets through it now. this gun is a nail puncher @ 20-30 yards (bench rest)this gun is more accrete then I can hold it, I will move on to 50 yards next and see if I can keep hitting that dime size target

Yes the trigger...after adjusting the trigger pull length it is still to long. I didn't have any problems with feeling several stages, just the length of the pull. the scope could be a better grade, it's okay for starting off but in time you would want to up-grade it if your going to be shooting 30 yards and over. and that’s why I gave it a 4

The trigger can be up-graded very easy. run a clean cloth though the gun after every 200 shots to clean out the build up. the most accurate pellet I have found for this gun is the K&N Sport field target trophy 14.66 gr 5.5 mm or 5.4 mm for practicing I use the RWS Superdome field line 14.5 gr

The first thing I like is the all weather stock the second is the accuracy and power. With the high power mil dot scope I can easily take down targets at ranges of 150 yards. Short rang, long rand, plinking or hunting this rifle does it all well still remaining supper quiet.

Absolutely nothing this rifle is perfect as is.

This rifle is perfect for pest control, birds, and small game like rabbits, and squirrels. Took out a 8 pound squirrel at 80 yards with an H&N Crow Magnum, that will teach them to steal my dogs food.

This gun is awesome if you get a good one. Cant beat the price or the style. The one i got had a problem with consistency. I would have kept it and fixed but wanted to try a pcp. May go back to this gun if the pcp is to loud for the city. I would have stuck to this gun but only had it a few days when i chronied it and i was surprised to find out how bad the fps was. 901 to as low as 200. No wonder it wasn't very loud, even though it grouped well upto 25 yards with jsbs 7.3 grain pellets. Could not group at 50 yards now i know why.

check fps with chrony when you get gun and after every 200 shoots to make sure your fps is consistent.

This gun can be tremendously accurate with it is working correctly. If your gun is not grouping well no matter what you try it must be the highly variable fps. Send it back for another or have the seals on that one fixed. And check with chrony every couple of hundred shoots.

Superb right out of the box. Well made, excellent fit and finish, nice and clean. Very ergonomic.

Trigger SUCKS. Scope is OK, but it could be better.

This is one fine little rifle right out of the box. It was nice and clean except for a little crusted protectant here and there, but that came off with a stiff nylon brush. Bore was clean, although the breech face was somewhat gunky. But I put some Pell Gun Oil down the barrel and into the cylinder, and then cleaned the breech face with it. I just got mine and haven't done any accuracy testing since I want to break it in with some Premier pellets, but in firing a few first shots I can tell that it is sweet... except for the trigger, which is the stiffest, longest and creepiest trigger I've ever felt on a rifle. Maybe it would break in some after a few hundred rounds, but that L-O-N-G pull really hurts the shot placement. I've already ordered a trigger from Bob Werner (Charlie Da Tuna) and that should be here in a day or two. Once I get it installed, I'll run a few hundred pellets through it to break the barrel in. But you definitely get a bit of dieseling on the first shot or two, and with PBA pellets you get a sonic crack, about like a .22 Short. But with slower pellets, it's much quieter. But for the trigger I would give this rifle 5 stars all around. It's well worth the money, even with the $30 or so for the new trigger.

The rifle when it arrived was well packed and shipped with no issues. The stock is very nice for a synthetic that will allow some bumping and scratches from being in the field. The rifles bluing was excellent and no real issues with any part of the gun on the surface. The weight is very manageable and the cocking effort is easy and should be for most people. Also the rifle is fairly quiet for a backyard plinker as long as you have a good stopping background. My co-workers and I have a wall section built up for training purposes in our job with drywall that is .5" thick. The H&N FTT at about 10 feet went all the way through the actual wall (both sides) and into a plastic trash can! Amazing! I figured the second drywall on the backside would stop the pellet. So this is no kid's gun for sure.

To the not so good..........the trigger system is horrific. But most air rifles are from the box until you tweak what is there or buy an after market system. That is whatI did (Charlie DaTuna's GRTIII trigger system). The included scope is really not too good. It does not zero out on the elevation nor the windage knobs. All scopes should do this for one to know settings for various pellets they shoot. Not bad, but not good. I have plans to replace it on the horizon. But it will do in a pinch for sure.

This gun I have yet to chrony with pellets I shoot which are H&N Field Target Trophy. I have over 500 of these and some JSB's that are heavier through the gun to break in the barrel and hopefully settle in the piston too. I shot two strings of 5 shots each at 10 meters to kind of get things rolling and the groups were .482" and .492" each. I like setting my rifles up at 20-25 meters but no sense since I have plans to replace the scope. Overall this gun is worth the money but be ready to drop another $30 or so on a quality trigger system to make it great. All in all a great little rifle. Overall I give it 4 stars...........wished I could have given 4.5 but it is not an option. I take off 1/2 star from a perfect 5 for crappy trigger and sub par scope. Wished PA would give you a dollar value for upgrade to a better scope of choice!

I seem to prefer a "thumbhole" stock, and this air rifle has the best "feel" I have found yet. It has proven to be very accurate right out of the box, and as it gets more use, the accuracy continues to improve. The scope is very nice, and works as well on my 10 yard indoor range as it does outside dealing with critters in the yard..

The full length barrel shroud adds a bit more weight than I would like, but the trade-off is that is seems to help stabilize the gun when it is fired, so..?

Very nice package deal.

The Stock is great.

Needs a better trigger and the gun is a little heavy.

Nice gun for the money however the trigger is terrible. Accuracy is good after the breakin period.

Feels solid in your hands. The scope is great for an air gun. Quieter than the spring gun I have and no recoil like the spring gun.

The trigger is terrible. Plan on spending $30 for an after market trigger. Benjamin needs to fix this problem. For this quality of air gun to have a $.02 trigger is a shame. If someone didn't make a replacement trigger, I would return the gun.

Not for wimps. Takes some muscle to cock the gun.

stock,smooth trigger,accuracy,easy cocking,scope and power

softer butt pad, and make the rifle a tiny bit lighter

When i got this rifle it was shooting so high that scope couldnt find the impact of the shot. After closer exsamination i noticed that the reason 4 this was a strange bend in the rifle. This bend started at the breach and from their the barrel was at an upward angle.Im sure this is a 1 in 100 problem so im sending mine back to get a swap. This rifle also works brtter with heavy pellets

The gun was everything I expected. High quality, accurate with a good scope. Great value for the money. I gave it 4 stars because it has the worst trigger pull of anything I have ever shot. It seems like the pull goes on forever before it finally fires.

Put a decent trigger on the gun.

For younger airgunners or those not terribly strong, the cocking takes quite a heft.

Very solid, well built rifle. Not as hold sensitive as springers. Has a good amount of take down power. It is relatively quiet with more of a thud than a pop. The scope is nice but gets reflection easily. The break barrel is not hard to cock.

It could be a bit lighter and a bit more accurate. My Benji 392 is more accurate at 20 yards and has a much better trigger. The barrel is very dirty from the factory. The trigger is horrible. It feels like it grinds through 10 stages at first. Mine is getting smoother with use but the pull is way too heavy still.

It has a good bit of recoil similar to a powder burner. It is not as accurate as I would have hoped. 1" groups at 20 yards. I tried 8 different pellet types and RWS meisterkugeln worked the best. Mine didn't settle down and group well until well over 100 shots. Decent rifle for the price and will take down small game efficiently at short to medium ranges. Just dont expect extreme accuracy at longer ranges and you will be happy with this rifle. A trigger upgrade might help with the accuracy.