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Benjamin Marauder

brock ratcliff

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My son has an addiction. He is absolutely addicted to airguns. I don't even know how many he has at this point, but I'm willing to bet it's close to ten. Over the last year or so he has been watching "Ted's Holdover" on youtube religiously. This kid is now well versed in trajectory and widage...like a well-trained sniper! At any rate, his self-education has taught him all about PCP air rifles. Most of which cost thousands of dollars, the exception being the Marauder. Ted highly endorsed it, so of course Mason started asking Santa for one last year. Santa tried to avoid it and bought him a different, really nice air rifle last year, but the boy persisted and Santa gave in this year.

I mounted a 3x9 on the thing, but I need to get him a scope with mil dots to stretch his range. I'll get to that at some point, but for right now he is thrilled with it as is. I helped him get it fairly close sighting in, and he has done the rest. Honestly, I have only shot the thing three or four times at paper, Mason has put hundreds of .25 cal pellets through the thing. (And of course they are expensive because he has to shoot the brand recommended by Ted!) He has told me how accurate it is, and has shown me on occasion, but today I was blown away when I shot it myself a couple of times.

Starlings have moved into our neighborhood in a big way today. I hate 'em. There was a bunch of them feeding along the woodline to the west of our house today. I had a few minutes so I went into Mason's room and got the Marauder, loaded two pellets into it's clip, checked that it was indeed charged to 3000psi and went out to the picnic table. A few minutes later a starling gave me a shot at 48 yds. Poof. Dead. Then another hopped up onto a limb just beyond the dead one. I worked the bolt. Poof. Dead. This thing is amazing! The biggest portion of the first one's heart was laying on the ground beside him...25 cal pellets are apparently wicked! I have fired two shots out of this thing at living critters at nearly 50 yds and folded 'em both up! Mason claims it's a "100 yard" gun, and from what I've seen at half that distance, I have no doubt!

If any of you have considered taking the PCP plunge for a little something different, consider this a recommendation for the Marauder. It impressed the heck out of me!
 

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brock ratcliff

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This was the first 60 yard group Mason shot with it on Christmas morning. It was windy...
 

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brock ratcliff

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It's pretty heavy but I don't know off the top of my head what it weighs. Jamie is going to try to make it down Sunday to go chase some squirrels with his dog. I'm sure Mason will want to test it out then. :)
 

epe

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Dad has a serious problem with buying pcp airguns. He a FX and a ED gun.. Big $. Have Mason look those up. I went 17-18 on pigeons at 40+ yards. Last year with a airforce pistol. Killed a chipmunk with one this year.. His favorite is the .25 cal.
 

brock ratcliff

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Oh, I've heard all about those guns. I'll never spend a dime more for an air gun than I did on the Marauder! That boy had better never think I will either. They are impressive, but they are still air guns! You can buy a heck of a nice custom rifle for the price of those... I mean a rifle that goes BANG.
 

MK111

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Brock remember on air rifles the recoil is backwards. Best be getting a air rifle scope as most scopes won't hold up on air rifles due to the reversed recoil..
 

brock ratcliff

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There is no recoil with pcp rifles, Frank. This doesn't use any springs like an RWS would. Its all air. I have an old Model 1 in 22 that I'm going to rebuild. It wasn't quite as impressive as the Marauder, but I killed a pile of squirrels and rabbits with it as a kid. It would shoot dime size groups at 25-30 yards ----far better than most spring guns made today.
 

MK111

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There is no recoil with pcp rifles, Frank. This doesn't use any springs like an RWS would. Its all air. I have an old Model 1 in 22 that I'm going to rebuild. It wasn't quite as impressive as the Marauder, but I killed a pile of squirrels and rabbits with it as a kid. It would shoot dime size groups at 25-30 yards ----far better than most spring guns made today.

Did not know that of PCP air rifles.
 

Big H

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I still have my Winchester break action .177 air rifle that my dad got me when I was 9 or 10. I had a hard time cocking it when he first got it for me. It still shoots very well and I hate to think how many critters have been killed with that air gun.
 

finelyshedded

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Great thread Brock! That boy is beyond where I was at 16 years of age! Quite impressive on where you got him at today. Love reading stuff like this about our youth of today, I wish there were just more of em! He has a great teacher!
 

hickslawns

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I feel you Brock. I like something that goes "BANG!" as well but I can see some advantages in the lack of noise. Coyotes? Getting shots at more than one would be nice. Getting a shot at ONE with a caller or mouth calls is difficult though. I think I will stick to bang bangs. The nice thing about them is the ability to bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang bang. . . .lol

In all truthfulness, I have never unloaded more than 3 rounds at coyotes on the run. Nice to have the option though.
 

Dannmann801

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Great thread Brock! That boy is beyond where I was at 16 years of age! Quite impressive on where you got him at today. Love reading stuff like this about our youth of today, I wish there were just more of em! He has a great teacher!

That's for sure - that boy Mason is (literally) one in a million.
 

epe

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The ones that don't have built in silencers, are loud enough to scare away game. A couple of dads you can only hear a small click. If you miss, the tree rats or chipmunks don't have a clue and just sit there..lol..
 

brock ratcliff

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Epe - this thing is fairly quiet, but does make a little poof sound. It doesn't seem to startle a flock like a spring gun would though. Mason killed 6 starlings in a row last night with 6 consecutive shots in about 5 minutes. He said he just kept bolting in another pellet and plinking away :). When I got home from the shop @ 11, GSP had 3 of them neatly piled on the back porch... We should probably find a better disposal system for carcasses. :)