the crossman marauder is a damn lazer beam

and a load of fun to boot my buddy got one an wanted me to site it in so we got to play around with it.... at 50 yards with a crappy scope i was putting down groups like this all day

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8442/7...c3536efa_z.jpg
6 shot group at 50yd standing supported

momma bear was slingin the lead
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8029/7...3c95cb36a4.jpg
7 shot group at 50 yards standing supported

i dont do a lot of shooting on paper and it was a great change of pace from steel to sit and have to thing about shot placement breathing etc

.177 or .22 cal version of it? I've been wanting to grab one of the ultra high velocity air-guns, and can't decide between the high power or cheaper ammo of hte .22/.177.

its the .22!

Nice. Great to hear.

I occasionally use my mid level .177 air gun to take out pesky pigeons. Would be good to have a bit more stopping power for them. A faster .177 would probably do, but a fast .22 would be better.

Just don't like the pricy pellet prices of the .22.

This review might have helped me justify the price.

before you buy let me say it is annoying as hell to recharge it it takes 50 pumps of this bike pump to bring it from 2000 to 3000 psi and you have to recharge every 20 shots if your planning on shooting a lot this comes into play.....that being said this will bust a pigons ass its accurate enough to put one in its eye if you wanted to

Yeah.... You can also refill it from a large tank, so I read...

My father and I are very into brewing; we have many 5lb CO2 tanks, and a few 25lb CO2 tanks for carbonating and serving. From what I understand, I could hook this puppy up to any of those for a few seconds and have it good to go for another 20 rounds. We fill in bulk at dimes per pound, so it would be completely worth it for me to charge off of a tank instead of pumping. And the 5lb tanks should fill it a couple of hundred times, and be light enough to bring on any hunting trip.

Whatcha think? I'm thinking its a pretty good fit for me.

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Originally Posted by Jayock

Yeah.... You can also refill it from a large tank, so I read...

My father and I are very into brewing; we have many 5lb CO2 tanks, and a few 25lb CO2 tanks for carbonating and serving. From what I understand, I could hook this puppy up to any of those for a few seconds and have it good to go for another 20 rounds. We fill in bulk at dimes per pound, so it would be completely worth it for me to charge off of a tank instead of pumping. And the 5lb tanks should fill it a couple of hundred times, and be light enough to bring on any hunting trip.

Whatcha think? I'm thinking its a pretty good fit for me.

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They state right in the description:" Not for use with CO2. use with compressed air Only."

I have some pesky squirrels that need attention. That might just be the ticket. [UZI]

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

They state right in the description:" Not for use with CO2. use with compressed air Only."

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Dang. Suppose i could always repurpose a tank or two for compressed air. Its cheaper to fill anyways.

Im more curious about the types of adapters / regulators necessary to fill the gun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jayock

Dang. Suppose i could always repurpose a tank or two for compressed air. Its cheaper to fill anyways.

Im more curious about the types of adapters / regulators necessary to fill the gun.

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they definitely exist my buddy who owns this is really into scuba and is buying the stuff to fill it off his tanks

Crosman/Benjamin makes a Marauder model, the "Dual fuel" that takes both CO2 and air. Every company makes adapters to fit scuba (K-valves) tanks and/or SCBA air tanks. Most companies also make adapters so you can run them off of CO2 tanks (at lower velocities), at least I know that AirForce does.

The beauty of PCP air rifles are the high pressure/velocity that they can shoot at, but the downside is keeping them filled!

I've got an AirForce Condor PCP in .22 and I'm looking for a scuba tank for it. Yes, the pump will give you a good upper-body workout!

My Marauder can use CO2 or air.

Some paintball guns run off of air or CO2. You can get the tanks filled at paintball shops inexpensively.

These cool, and I would like to have one, but at $360 - $510 each, no thanks.

I'm returning a Crosman Nitro Venom Dusk NP tomorrow because I can't get that turd to group to save my life. I wasn't expecting much for my $150 with scope and I wasn't let down. I'm reading some good things about some Chinese knock-offs that are then hand inspected and selected and customized by some well-known dude here in the states. From the web searching I'm doing it sounds like those in the air rifle community talk pretty highly of these. They were like $160 or so at one point but it looks like they're just shy of $200 now. Just deciding if that's worth it to me. I just have a bit of a rabbit & pigeon problem and live in an neighborhood near the edge of town so I can't just bust out the other rifles I own unfortunately.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jer

I'm returning a Crosman Nitro Venom Dusk NP tomorrow because I can't get that turd to group to save my life. I wasn't expecting much for my $150 with scope and I wasn't let down. I'm reading some good things about some Chinese knock-offs that are then hand inspected and selected and customized by some well-known dude here in the states. From the web searching I'm doing it sounds like those in the air rifle community talk pretty highly of these. They were like $160 or so at one point but it looks like they're just shy of $200 now. Just deciding if that's worth it to me. I just have a bit of a rabbit & pigeon problem and live in an neighborhood near the edge of town so I can't just bust out the other rifles I own unfortunately.

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Careful with some of the Chinese guns, someone gave me one that looked ok, but after about 500 shots, it was pretty much junk. Pins and Screws falling out, worn pins etc.

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Originally Posted by gnihcraes

Careful with some of the Chinese guns, someone gave me one that looked ok, but after about 500 shots, it was pretty much junk. Pins and Screws falling out, worn pins etc.

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I realize that but I wasn't talking about buying one and just risking it. The version I was talking about is hand selected by an outfit that goes through them and then they break them down and customize them and rebuild them. The odds of having one fall apart as you've described must decrease exponentially if there's a reputable outfit that goes through them and optimizes them before shipping them out. I get what you're saying but this isn't going to be something I need to trust my life to.

Care to mention the vendor that offers this hand-selection service?

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Originally Posted by sellersm

Care to mention the vendor that offers this hand-selection service?

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Hold on, let me see if I can find the information again...

Found it! Here's the quote from a forum I found and it echoes some of the other things I was reading about these types of rifles:

"Get a BAM B26 from Mike Melick at Flying Dragon Airguns. Mike buys the Chinese guns by the case, goes through them, and discards the crappy ones. He will clean and lap the bore, polish the trigger sear, and lubricate the air rifle and ship it to you, ready to shoot for a base price of $140. There is no better bargain in a basic air rifle. The B-26 is a Chinese clone of the Beeman R9 and has an excellent trigger. A MM B-26 in .22 will shoot 14.3 gr pellets at about 625-650, and .177 8.3 grain pellets at about 825-850 FPS. Either will be entirely sufficient for small game like birds, squirrels or even rabbits. I ordered another fully tuned MM-B26 last week (I have three). With tune, trigger work, a new Maccari spring and seal, the front sight removed and a custom muzzle brake installed, the rifle was $240, shipped to my door. Add a BSA 2-7X 32 mm AO or 3-9X44mm AO scope and mounts, and for just over $300, you will have a tuned ChiClone that will hang with any Di 34 Panther or Beeman R9 Goldfinger. I know -- I have both of these, custom tuned. These are excellent knock around hunters. The will be quieter than a Whisper. They shoot smoothly. They have a solid hardwood stock instead of a hollow plastic synthetic stock (which with the springers, adds to the noise significantly), and they are heavy enough (around 7 pounds scoped, as I recall) to absorb some of the recoil and not destroy scopes in short order (another drawback of the Whisper and light, synthetic stock springers."

I was going to order one but I couldn't seem to find this $140 mystery rifle anywhere. This post was a few years ago so maybe things have changed since then.

Try here for Flying Dragon and Mike Melick...

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Originally Posted by sellersm

Try here for Flying Dragon and Mike Melick...

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Yeah, I found that website but it was a bit confusing to an air gun novice like myself and I didn't find what the person was talking about in that quote I copied above.

Here's the B26 model.

There's a blurb on the page and elsewhere on the site, that talks about the tuning options and how to order them (via email/phone, pretty much).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sellersm

Here's the B26 model.

There's a blurb on the page and elsewhere on the site, that talks about the tuning options and how to order them (via email/phone, pretty much).

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Finding it wasn't the problem, I guess I should have been more clear about that. What I couldn't find was the thoroughly massaged model for $140 that the person was talking about. When I read that I was ready to order but then I found that the base model was $165 and I'm sure to add the options he's talking about we're up a fair amount from the $140 I was looking for. I may still contact him to see what the 'options' are and what they cost but for my intended use I'm sure the basic one they sell at $165 would be sufficient for my needs. It may only get fired a handful of times per year at pests around the yard.

In the meantime I've picked up some 'quiet' .22LR rounds and those are pretty darn quiet. I would say that my M&P15-22 is as quiet as that Crosman Nitro air rifle I mentioned earlier and I already have that rifle so saves me a couple hundred dollars. What I'm looking for is a cheap, accurate and quiet air rifle but even the cheapest I find doesn't compare to a box of $3 ammo from my 22.

flying dragon guns get fantastic reviews and he has a large fan club.
As far as any springer or Nitro Piston air gun.... they can be a pain to shoot. They are very hold sensitive. You don't hold them like a regular rifle. You need to hold them lightly. Google Artillary Hold airgun. It will go through how to shoot them. The pcp rifles are outstanding becuse they are not hold sensative. However you have to pay a lot more $$ for the setup. I have been shooting break barrel air guns for years and am still working on mastering getting good grouping. You can't shoot them from a normal bench either. You you have to support the gun with something soft, like a bag of rice. These guns are also picky with what pellets you put through them. Gotta try a bunch before you find one that your gun likes. Another thing to do is clean the barrel with Goo Gone before you even shoot it. There is all kinds of gunk in there from the factory.
Here is a website with all kinds of valuable info.
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/...p?action=forum