Page 2 - Benjamin Variable Pump Reviews

This airgun brings back memories of seeing the Blue and Silver streak rifles advertised in gun magazines. After owning Crosman 760s and Daisy 880s I am glad I finally have one. I give it four stars only because I havent found that ideal pellet/pump combo yet.

I wish it was still offered with a wood stock. I am still exploring the best pellet and pump combination for this rifle. You got to have something to do in retirement.

The Williams peep sight has been an unmitigated success for me. It mounted easily and is far superior to the buckhorn rear. Even though it offers adjustments without positive clicks it is still superior.

Build quality, material quality, power, just love this gun, its a classic, if you don`t know why its awesome, what are you even doing reading this? :)))

nothing, that`s what a classic means, don`t change it.

Just get one.

Accuracy.

Take the gun off the market. The pump difficulty is not humanly realistic. After three shots, count on a sore arm all day. No way women and teens can pump this thing. And the slap of each of ten pumps is louder than the shot. Give me back my break barrel! I'll take barrel droop any day over this torture device. There is no good way to mount a scope except multiple adaptors. And when you catch your pinky in the pumping mechanism, you will throw the thing directly where it belongs.

Sharp aimer. Good weight aroumd 5 lbs. At three to four pumps, it was quieter than I imagined.

Would be nice if it came with a shoulder strap.

Great gun made in USA. Not for use with BB's. Only for use with pellets. Works well with pellets. Also, if hunting for racoons or any animal that size, states may have a minimum caliber (e.g. .30) size and muzzle energy. Watch for orange tip transportation laws in your region.

Started stacking shots in a couple weeks. Good penetration H&N Hornets and Baracuda Power CUs. Crosman Hollow Point Premier, H&N Baracuda Hunter and Crow Magnum good for small game, ie. brain shot rabbit and Pigeon. If you are not an expert shot I would stick to plinking. A small child would need help with pumping.

More adjustable rear sight is needed.

Sights are not easy for an adult to use.

It shoots straight one inch groups at 30ft.when you get the sights lined up, Feel like a carbine, not too heavy

The monte carlo profile synthetic stock is a poor attempt at updating this rifle.Spend some money, Offer walnut stocks as an option. Start making the barrel assembly/receiver/breech out of steel with sight mounts, dovetails/rails for mounting red dots, lasers, scopes. Offer sling mounts as an option.

Don’t buy this rifle unless you enjoy tinkering or have time and money to throw at it. I read all the reviews before I ordered this Benjamin from Pyramyd, so I saw it coming. This gun was a classic in its day. There are still old ones with walnut stocks available on eBay, and smiths who will renovate them. Crosmans standards are slipping, they are pushing PCP’s now. Never mind changing out the old walnut stock profile for the monte carlo synthetic stock, put a decent rear sight on the gun, even if you’ve got to change the receiver and bolt, make it out of steel instead of brass. I find it irresponsible of Crosman to imply that this air rifle is capable of taking down raccoons on its pictograph packaging! The gun arrived two weeks ago, and I have already modified it. The synthetic monte carlo stock is a joke. I couldn’t aim through the sights on a benchrest until my eye was behind the butt plate, talk about long eye relief. The ‘speed bump’ on top of the ‘monte carlo’ stock blocking my

Great air rifle, refined, crisp, clean, and dependable.

I would prefer going back to the beautiful wooden stocks of the past.

The synthetic stock is nice and tough, but lacks the good looks of wood.

Very well made. The quality is excellent. Seems to be a very good value.

It would be nice if it were easier to pump, but I would not want to give up the power as a trade off.

doubt that you could find a better quality air rifle

At first I was convinced this gun couldnt shoot straight then I took acetone and cleaned the end of barrel it took a good 5-7 minutes to get it off I used an arrow knock with a baby wipe and acetone and worked it around in circles. After that and using a form of shooting with one hand with the small front butt? Pushing up against a firm object in this case my car door wrapped with a no slip carpet under thing draped over my car door. If you put pressure between the butt on your shoulder and against something that wont slip on the front the accuracy is astounding its a weird way of shooting but works

Very accurate with good power. Decent trigger

In my opinion the stock is poorly designed. The height of the comb makes using the iron sights, for me, impossible. Plan on a scope.

I paired this rifle with a UTG 4x32 New Generation Compact CQB Scope. The length of the stock, combined with the shortness of the scope, makes it very uncomfortable for me to position my eye in such a manner to take full advantage to the scope's field of view. A longer optic would have been a better choice.

This rifle is a tack driver! Accurate right out of the box.

The butt stock design makes it difficult to quickly sight and shoot the rifle.

While the butt stock is in need of modification, the performance in all other areas overshadows this shortfall. I am hoping that another stock will be made available that corrects this rifles' only flaw.

I enjoy this air rifle. It works well for me. Its accurate and is reasonably priced. I would recommend this air rifle.

Raised sites would be nice. I put a scope on mine.

Not for weaker people. First time I shot it, I was sore for a weak. But thats the price you pay for buying a pump action over a PCP. But over all its a great product.

Accuracy is amazing with iron sights. Stock is very nice like a synthetic stock on a real gun.

I would offer this in wood again

Probably to hard to pump for your daughters

The forend slapping against the barrel and receiver is louder than a 10-pump shot with a lead pellet. 90 to 93dB! It is dang hard to pump. Harder than any breakbarrel I've tried. The forend is extended so the pumping lever is 16 inches from fulcrum to the very end where I hold it. Have to hold above the trigger to pump. It grouped almost 2" to the right. I have to learn how to adjust the rear sight. Its cheek rest is so high I cannot get my eye down low enough to get the proper sight picture. Most uncomfortable rifle I think I've ever shot. I couldn't hit 900fps with alloys. Watching and reading reviews on it, people got chrony readings in the upper 700s with lead, 800s with alloy.

Pumping force. Dampen that hammering when you pump it. Lower the comb so a person can get a sight picture.

I've got close to this muzzle velocity on a Daisy 880. The Daisy 901, if you can find one, feels as solid, is MUCH easier to pump and shoots almost as fast. I was looking forward to having a Benjamin. Too late, I think.

Gun is light compared to the others i shoot. Feels good to shoot.

the stock been better left in wood stock, for the money you pay they(crossman) could have taken just a little more time to buff the roughness off the parts that pivot and clean the paint from inside the muzzle.

I bought two of these 392 and the 397. 392 is mainly for me. I dont have the problem not being able to line the sight up but if my head was larger it would. I have only shot this about 20 times at 10 yards and at this point accuracy is fair dime size groups with benji discovery hp pellets. The reason i gave this a low value for the money is they got rid of the wood stock. However i will agree that this rifle has a potential to be as the "older" ones are if you wanna spend the extra to do so to beef it up. Just feel crossman could do a better job. I am starting to feel a bit of "recoil" and expect these rifles will become better with use. If nothing else it be a good trainer for the grandkids. will update as needed.

Solid well made versatile

Stock comb is to high to easily use the iron sights though I adapted to it and it shoots very well

These 22 are very accurate small game hunters and like meadium weight pellets ri

I am glad this gun is still here.Just wish you could still get in wood.

Change the comb on the stock,so you can use open sights.As it stands,you will want it scoped.

I put a Baker Airgun mount on my gun-works great.

wanted a fixed barrel for accuracy, grew up shooting a early 60's benjamin that my dad had as a kid, put a rebuild kit in it and I shot it 1,000's of times, still works today 50-60 years later. I was hoping for an accurate gun that would last me for along time. Just shot it for the first time with scope, 3/4" at 50 feet. Have not had a chance to try different pellets at longer range in really good shooting conditions. seemed to need 6 pumps to get any kind of accuracy. 3-4 pumps seemed to shoot less consistent.

The stock for me is way to high, I could not even use the open sights, impossible. Bolt handle will not allow the scope to be mounted far enough rearward, bolt won't clear the scope, the scope eye piece has to be forward of the bolt handle, cheap scopes then don't have adequate eye relief, ideally you need a long eye relief scope. The pump handle makes a lot of noise when it snaps closed, plastic seems to echo the snap. Trigger is decent, not to noisy shooting it, makes all the noise when pumping it. 6 pumps takes some effort, seems to have good power. Box states 1100 fps with 10 pumps, 850 fps with 6 pumps. with alloy pellets.

I almost returned this air rifle. For the price I don't feel it's a good deal. If it had a good wood stock with correct cheek height to use the open sights then I would have rated it 4 stars across the board. I expect to find a pellet that will shoot 1/2" at 50 feet. I was shooting in poor light conditions and little wind to get the 3/4" group. I don't normally review products. I wish I could have bought a brand new one like the old 1960 vintage one I grew up shooting.

I really like the workings of the gun. The pump arm and action, the bolt and loading chamber. I have a break barrel nitro rifle but I think I prefer the the pumpers as I've owned Crosman 66s and 2100s the majority of my life. If Crosman would come back out with a .22 pump rifle I'd get one as I do prefer their platform to the Benjamin. However, I do like the 392.

I have the synthetic version and the stock is oddly shaped and configured. Requires a scope to use properly as people are aware. One other thing however is the pistol grip area. Not ergonomic as a Crosman for gripping while pumping. I'll adapt to that I'm sure but I think the Crosmans are better. Again, this is for the synthetic version.

Proper powerful shooter, accurate. When ordering just plan ahead and order the relevant scope mount and preferred scope with the gun. The open sights are good but you have to put your eye completely behind the butt of the stock to get your sight picture which kind of screws any proper technique. Honestly a ridiculous stock that needs to be rethought. I give an average rating for value simply because Crosman is capable of putting out a .22 caliber 2100 type gun for somewhere around $80.00 apparently going off their pricing and history with their 2200. Why they don't bring that gun back is beyond me. So the 392 has a monopoly.

Nothing. Its plastic. less powerful and accurate than the original. Clearly crosman is going under (they have discontinues all wood)

Fire the sales idiot phil. Hes clearly just a greedy idiot running crosman in to the ground. Everything they rel;ease is plastic trash.

Dont buy from crosman/ benjamin