SHOT Show: Nitro Piston Concept Gun

January 26th, 2010

Nitro Piston concept gun

Prior to this year’s SHOT Show, Crosman sent the annual mailing of our new, 2010 product catalog to our vendors. Among other things, the catalog mailing included a key attached to a Nitro Piston™ key chain with instructions for SHOT Show guests to bring that key to the Crosman booth during the show for a chance to win an awesome prize!

Crosman 2010 Press Kit

When the vendors arrived at our booth, key-in-hand, we brought them over to the Nitro Piston Concept Gun area to see if their key would open the prize box. It turns out that Duke and his wife Beverly of Duke’s Sports Shop in New Castle, PA had the winning key, and they won the flashy Nitro Piston concept gun!

Duke and Beverly

With a powerful Nitro Piston™ under its hood, the concept Nitro Piston powered break barrel Duke won features a nickel plated bull barrel and was custom painted right here in upstate New York with the help of JY Custom Graphics and LiVecchi Custom Cycles. Shooting .22 caliber pellets at velocities of up to 1000 fps, the air rifle weighs less than 7 lbs. Before its transition to hot-rod red with chrome-like details, the gun was better known as the Remington® .22 Caliber Single Shot Break Barrel in carbon fiber (RNP22).

Since we don’t want to leave out the people who weren’t able to attend the SHOT Show, we saved the best for last! We have one more Nitro Piston concept gun that we’ll be auctioning off on our website in the near future. All of the proceeds from the auction will go to an organization we frequently team up with when we visit Watkins Glen’s NASCAR Race each summer. Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction enriches the lives of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses by providing life-changing camping experiences that are exciting, fun and empowering, in a safe and medically-sound environment. Anything we can do to help these kids makes us feel good.

Keep your eyes open! We’ll send out an e-mail with more details about how you can participate in the auction, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

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SHOT Show: Game Face Shooting Range

January 26th, 2010

Game Face Airsoft shooting range

One of the cool features of our brand new booth was the Game Face Airsoft shooting range. That’s right, we actually offered booth visitors a chance to shoot the Game Face Airsoft GF15A4 and check out our Verdict Marker BBs in action.

The Verdict judge, in full courtroom attire, stood in the enclosed shooting range where people fired away and marked him with our new white Verdict Marker Airsoft BBs. While some people shot only a few rounds, others turned the GF15A4 to full auto and blew through the entire magazine. The collection of BBs was quite substantial as you can see where by the end of the show, the floor would have been completely white if we didn’t clear them out at the end of each day.

Game Face Airsoft shooting range floor with BBs

We may have to appoint a new judge next year as this guy took several thousand shots to the face, hands and gavel from about ten feet away. Although the judge wasn’t sneering as much by the end of the show, nearly every person who took a shot at him walked away with a little grin on their face!

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Crosman on NRANews.com

January 21st, 2010

Ken D’Arcy, CEO of Crosman Corporation, was interviewed by host of the NRA News show, Cam Edwards. You can check out the interview on http://www.nranews.com

Just click on the red ‘program archive’ button at the middle-top of the page. Then click on the ‘January 19′ tab on the right and you’ll see a little thumbnail image of Ken. Click-o-way and enjoy the show.

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SHOT Show 2010 Day 1

January 20th, 2010

SHOT Show 2010 Collage

Well the first day of SHOT Show is officially over. Crosman had really good attendance with not only our high traffic area helping, but the actual design of the booth as well. The booth structure is extremely inviting with open sides and stand-alone kiosks. It towers nearly to the ceiling (probably 30 feet tall) with six banners arching to the kiosks where three products are uniquely displayed. It really looks professional and is easy to spot from across the convention hall. I got to walk around a little bit during the day and I don’t know if I saw a more unique booth designed to get people in to view new products.

This year we brought the Crosman Nitro Piston Technology to the show. The technology was introduced a few months ago, but we’re really expanding the lineup this year. Just incase people didn’t know about the technology we handed out the ever-so-popular Nitro Piston blinking badges to draw them in to have the technology further explained.

You can take a look at the complete line of the Remington® NPSS break barrel air rifles and a whole Benjamin Trail NP™ Series of magnum break barrels featuring Nitro Piston Technology on the site. For a full listing, visit the Benjamin section of the site and the Remington section.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we’ll go over some of the new Benjamin PCP Marauder products!

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Hunting in South Africa: Part 2 by Jim Chapman

December 2nd, 2009

Ethics of Airgun Hunting:
One of the most frequently asked questions I get from hunters that use more conventional weapons is “is it ethical to hunt with an airgun”? This is a fair question, and the short answer is yes. If one knows their gun and what it is capable of, both in terms of power and accuracy, they know what they are capable of with respect to marksmanship. They know the animal being hunted, and they can ethically harvest game. This is of course the same set of criteria any hunter, using any weapon must exercise. As a matter of fact, I can make a strong argument that an airgun hunter able to practice in their basement or backyard and shoot hundreds of pellets per month throughout the year, is going to become a more proficient marksman than a firearm shooter that may put less than a hundred shots per year (often far less) before heading out after game. I hunt with firearms, archery equipment, and airguns; but it is my airgun that makes me a better shot and a better hunter overall.

Ethics are not simply a question of the tools used to harvest game, but how those tools are applied. I will say that after thirty years in the field hunting with firearms and twenty using airguns (concurrently thank you very much), that airguns are a viable option for making humane kills on small game and for pest control. To summarize; pick the proper gun and pellet, keep it to the appropriate range, know your skills, and you can indeed hunt ethically with air power. It is one of my objectives to demonstrate that the Marauder is an air rifle well suited for this application in every respect.

Pest Control
The application for which most airguns are purchased domestically would be for plinking and informal target shooting. However looking at guns purchased with the intention to shoot quarry, without a doubt they are most frequently used to shoot vermin and pest species. This can range from shooting the squirrel or starling raiding the backyard bird feeder to professional pest control removal of roosting pigeons in factory buildings or rats raiding feeders in the farmer’s barn. Most states permit the culling of pest species with an airgun, and even allow some game animals to be taken out of season under a depredation permit when they are causing damage to property.

Some species are by their very nature considered pest animals, ones that are vectors for diseases or cause damage to property such as brown rats. There are other animals that are not usually considered a pest species, but due to population explosions caused by an abundance of food or lack of predators, become pest. The most common pest species shot with airguns are rats, ground squirrels, sparrows, starlings, black birds, pigeons and other animals causing a nuisance or depredation on private property. Under certain conditions, a small game animal such as cottontail rabbits on a golf course or tree squirrels in the attic become a pest animal …. Once again you need to check your local ordinances.

Shooting pest animals makes a lot of sense as the other options are either setting traps or laying poison, both of which have many negative attributes. They are both indiscriminate, you don’t want to poison the barn cat along with the rats, and you don’t want your dog sticking his nose in a rat trap. Shooting can also be more effective allowing several individuals to be culled in a single session and a whole population eradicated over a short period of time. To be successful the shooter needs to keep the pressure up, as these animals tend to breed very rapidly and can quickly build the population back up if allowed to.

It should be understood, the objective of pest control is to kill as many animals as possible, effectively removing the population from a specific area. It is not hunting in the pure sense of the word, you are not interested in sport or giving the animal an advantage, only in removing them (or significantly reducing their numbers) from the ecosystem. In this context, the pest control shooter should not hesitate to cull young animals or females, and unless there are local regulations there should not be a concern over season. The purpose of true pest control is to remove every member of the pest specie that you can. As a matter of fact, if a farmer or facilities manager gives you permission to shoot on his property, it is your responsibility to clear every varmint you can. Using airguns to shoot these pests makes a lot of sense, as they are uniquely suited to the task. They are powerful enough to effectively dispatch a pest animal at 70 yards, and the Marauders discussed in this book are capable of tack driving accuracy. If you do happen to miss, the projectiles will not travel a mile or cause excessive damage to surrounding equipment or buildings. And lastly, with a shrouded barrel this rifle is almost silent. This means that you will not become a pest species to your neighbors as you move around a property clearing out the starling population, your pest might be their cute little bunny … so stealth has its place.

Small Game Hunting
For me, small game hunting with an airgun is a favorite hunting past time, and a couple of my favorite guns are the Marauder and Discovery pre-charged pneumatics. I love being out in the Midwestern woods in fall and winter with an air rifle stalking squirrels, or glassing the landscape in pursuit of rabbit and quail out in the California high desert. I also love taking these guns on my big game and predator hunts; as you’ll see in this book additional opportunities will always arise even in game rich areas such as South Africa!

We are blessed with a lot of small game animals in North America, with squirrel and rabbits by far and away the most popular quarry. But in some areas turkey, quail, grouse, and other game birds are on the menu as well. Some animals, such as fox, bobcats, coyote, raccoons, and nutria are sometimes considered game animals, sometimes furbearers, and sometimes pest species, and in many jurisdictions can be taken with air powered guns. On my airgun hunts in South Africa game such as the many types of doves and pigeons, crows and ravens, Guinea fowl, geese, several types of starlings, mongoose, fox, hyrax, wildcats, porcupine, rabbits, springhares, and various rodents large and small gave us great hunting and shooting opportunities when not out after big game.

Why use an air rifle rather than one of my firearms as a method of take? I still like to hit the field with my .17 and .22 rimfire rifles and handguns, but find that airguns make it more about the hunting than about the shooting (not saying the shooting isn’t fun or important mind you). That forty to fifty yard airgun range can be a real obstacle to overcome when moving through the forest, knowing that a snap of a twig on the ground will send every squirrel in the area running for cover.

Another major plus for me is that as stated, airguns open up a lot more territory for hunting. At home in Indiana, it seems like there is a lot of open space on one hand, but on the other there seems to be a house on the corner of every forty acre parcel. I am exaggerating, but my point is that there is more limitation on hunting space than out west. I have found that a lot of farmers out where I live will let me take an airgun around their farms, but not a firearm due to the carrying distance and noise generated. A side benefit of the airgun is that the precise placement of the pellet, usually on the head, causes less damage to the meat. These animals are destined for the larder so this is not an insignificant advantage. But one of the most important advantages of airguns in most settings is that they are so quiet. This is very important when hunting around farms and near habitation, but even when using an airgun during down time while on a big game, is a great attribute.

On this trip to South Africa, my primary intent was big game hunting. However, there was a lot of down time in which I could get out with an airgun for both pest control and small game hunting, where the report of even a rimfire would have caused too much disturbance.

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Hunting in South Africa: Part 1 by Jim Chapman

October 28th, 2009

Introduction
As an outdoor writer, and moreover one specializing in hunting airguns, I get to shoot a lot of airguns. There are many good rifles being produced today, and a few great ones. But what we have been missing is a great hunting airgun at a price point most hunters can afford. In a marketplace that is populated by guns starting at over a thousand dollars, not to mention the cost of adjunct gear such as filling equipment, it is difficult for new shooters to enter the sport. That is why I got excited when Crosman entered the precharged pneumatic arena, first with the Discovery then following with the Marauder.
The Discovery is a single shot PCP rifle that has everything the airgun hunter needs in an entry level gun; it is accurate, powerful, and reliable, fills to a low charge pressure with a handpump, and can run on CO2 for lower powered indoor shooting. But the truly compelling thing with this rifle is that packaged with a handpump it cost far less than anything else the airgun hunter could buy. I was lucky enough to be sent one of the first pre-production guns to shoot, hunt with, and give some feedback on. But truth is that I think the engineers and market research people got it just about perfect and delivered exactly what the market wanted and needed. However, there was room for a higher tier rifle that bridged the simple no frill design requirement of the Discovery and the more sophisticated (and much more expensive) rifles at the high end of the price/performance spectrum. While I really like the Discovery, I thought it would be perfect if there was an option to get it with a shrouded barrel, and if there was an option for a premium trigger to be installed by their custom shop (even if that cost a few hundred dollars more), and if there was a multi-shot version. That was the point; this gun hit so close to the mark that the only thing needed to make it a better gun were features only found on much more expensive rifles!

Then a couple years later I received word that Crosman had a new PCP rifle in development, and again was offered a pre-production gun for evaluation. The Marauder was unveiled at the 2009 SHOT Show in Orlando; and what was introduced to the airgunning world was a rifle offering features previously found only on much more expensive models. The Marauder has a 10 shot rotary magazine, a sophisticated match grade adjustable trigger that is a dream, and comes standard with a shrouded barrel that is whisper quiet. This in addition to the Marauder’s intrinsic accuracy and the power to take any small game from squirrels to woodchucks, has resulted in a gun I love to carry in the field. As a matter of fact, I selected the Marauder as my small game rifle for an airgun safari in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, which in past years has been a challenging testing ground requiring a gun to shoot with precision, hit hard, and be reliable. When you’re thousands of miles from home, it makes sense to only carry gear you believe in. The Marauder has proven itself to me.
My intention with these hunts was to demonstrate that the Marauder is the real deal for small and medium game hunting, and that they can be used to make one shot kills that cleanly anchor the tenacious small game and pest species in this hunter’s paradise. Even though this book was based on hunting in Africa, the experience speaks directly to the guns suitability for hunting anywhere in the world.

Hunts were setup over a five week period in South Africa, and I planned to make the most of the hunts. My friends and professional hunters Rob Dell and Andrew Myers were contacted to organize the trip. From my Indiana based office I was phoning sponsors; Crosman for guns, scopes, and pumps to be drop shipped for pick up on my arrival to the Eastern Cape, Pyramyd Airgun, arguably the biggest and one of best airgun supplier in North America came through with financial support, and Adventures in airguns supplied additional equipment. It all came together and formed one of the most enjoyable hunts of my life.
In this small booklet my objective is to share several facets of hunting with the Marauder, relating our experiences regarding the guns, the gear, the people, and the game. And in the end I believe you’ll see that if you own a Crosman Marauder, you have a gun that takes you anywhere you want to go.

Hunting with Airguns
There is a long tradition of hunting with pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air guns, dating back to the late 1600s when big bore air rifles were used by European nobility to take large game animals. In more recent years, spring piston airguns became available to the masses, and after World War II there was a dramatic increase in the availability of guns. The sport has continued to grow in much of the world, especially in those locales where gun ownership is not an option for the civilian population. In Europe there is a tradition of high quality airgun manufacturing, especially in Germany and the United Kingdom.
As a matter of fact, the UK has arguably been the center of the modern airgunning world. They produce many of the finest spring piston and PCP airguns in the world; and support a vibrant airgun hunting community with a couple popular magazines dedicated to reporting on and promoting the sport. And while the range of available guns offered to the market comprises both spring piston and PCP power plants, there has been an upsurge in the popularity of precharged pneumatic guns in the market over the last decade.

In the United States serious airgun hunting has been relatively unknown, and even less so when it comes to PCPs. However, as Americans are faced with increased urbanization, the attraction of the air powered hunting arm becomes ever more apparent; providing a means of hunting in areas that are more densely populated where firearms are a no-go. While many hunters feel that PCPs are easier to shoot accurately and tend to be more powerful than spring piston guns, the fact that there has been a dearth of appropriately priced PCP guns for the American sportsman has blocked a lot of new hunters from entering the sport. With Crosman’s release of the Discovery and the Marauder, this is going to change in my opinion!

In this book I will examine how these new Crosman guns can be used for field work, and relate some firsthand experiences coming out of our five week airgunning trek in South Africa, in which I relied solely on the Marauder and the Discovery for small game hunting.

Why Hunt With Airguns?
As stated previously, in Europe and much of the world airguns are the only option available to people wishing to hunt. They simply are not allowed to possess firearms, or the population densities are so high that there is not enough open land to hunt over. But there are several reasons that shooters everywhere appreciate; airguns are relatively quiet (in the case of the Marauder, less than a whisper) and have a limited carrying range, they can therefore be used to perform pest control duties and hunt in fairly populated areas, and due to the limited range can even be shot safely in the backyard or down in the basement. The cost of airgun projectiles is much lower than even .22 rimfire ammunition, with pellets costing a penny or two per round. The challenge of the hunt is increased with airguns, because to ethically take game the hunter must close the distance which requires honed hunting skills. In this respect airgun hunting offers many parallels to bow hunting while incorporating traditional marksmanship.

The modern PCP airgun is capable of tack driving accuracy out to sixty or seventy yards, while most springers can be used with confidence out to thirty five or forty yards. Another benefit is that the hunter can get in a great deal of practice. I will often go down to my basement range and put a couple hundred rounds through a gun I’m getting ready to take with me into the field. You’re not going to be able to do this with a firearm unless you happen to live on a ranch in Montana.
The last reason on my list is the least tangible …. Airguns are cool! There is something about the engineering that goes into these guns, along with the diversity in designs available that makes airguns a highly addictive past time. The airgun uses a tiny puff of air to send a fifteen or so grain piece of lead down range to anchor their quarry! This is a fact that always amazes me…

by Jim Chapman

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All right folks that is all for part one, we will be posting the rest of the book a few chapters at a time over the next few months. After that the full book will be available to download.

Thanks for reading.

Joshua

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Marauder Single Shot Tray is available…

October 15th, 2009

Since releasing the Marauder we have had one accessory request more than any other, a single shot tray. Well we heard you loud and clear. The new single shot tray slides in the same channel that the multi-shot clip fits in and allows for a single round to be fired from the Marauder. The single shot tray is available in the PCP Accessories section of the site. Here is a link…

PCP Accessories…

Keep your suggestions coming. We’re listening.

Joshua

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Reporting on the Crosman Challenger PCP: Part 2

October 9th, 2009

PCP Challenger

I promised you I would check out the shot performance of the new Challenger right “out of the box”.

First, using the Benjamin hand pump, I charged the Challenger to 2000 psi - the factory recommended fill pressure. I used the gauge on the pump for all tests to maintain consistency.

Next, I chronographed the shots and noticed a close to 540 fps starting velocity with Crosman 7.9 grain Premiers. The factory claims a 530 fps velocity so it seems this one was set to shoot a hair hot.

I chose the 7.9 grain Premier pellet because it is what I will use later when I bring the power up to field target velocities. Beginning at 540 fps helped me decide where to stop, but I will take it further to see how the shot string looks.

My task was to chronograph each shot until the velocity came back to around 510 fps. I’m sharing the graphs with you so you know what to expect from an “out of the box” stock Challenger with a field pellet. Velocities are similar for a wadcutter match pellet.

Below is the complete shot string shooting from 2000 psi down to 1000 psi. This yielded a 50 fps spread with a 541 fps average velocity for 107 shots.

Shot String 1

The shot string indicates that a 2000 psi charge pressure brings you right into the sweet spot of the charge and not the beginning of it. My Challenger will require an adjustment (most likely slightly shortening the stroke), or a slightly higher charge pressure to find the start of the sweet spot which will yield more shots from the charge.

Keep in mind that most gauges are consistent but are not necessarily accurate. Although I charged the Challenger to 2000 psi on the hand pump’s gauge, it may have actually been 1900 psi and I might need to charge a little higher on that gauge.

I recommend that once you find the correct charge pressure for your particular gun, that you make a mark on the gauge of your gun. That way you will know where to fill it every time; whether with a pump, scuba tank or any fill assembly you choose to use. The gauge on your gun is the same no matter how you fill your gun. Incidentally, I charged the gun back up to 2000 psi with the Benjamin hand pump and it took 58 strokes. I also recommend that you mark your gun’s gauge so you know when to recharge it (once you decide the optimal spot). With your gauge marked in both places, any shot taken with the needle on the gauge between those 2 marks should be a good shot.

The next graph shows the shot string trimmed down to a 24 fps spread for 80 shots. Certainly enough for any 10 meter 3 position match.

Shot String 2

The following graph is for people like me looking for the tightest spread possible from their equipment. This string was trimmed down to a 19 fps spread and 70 shots. This would work very well for people that want to shoot longer distances at the factory stock velocity. Great for MiniSniping or even target class silhouette. For silhouette I would probably increase the velocity closer to 575 fps and live with the reduction in shot count. Those rams at 45 yards some times need a little more push to get them to topple. They will drop with the velocity from the Challenger as it is “out of the box”, but I like a little more just in case.

Shot String 3

The 70 shots yielded a total of 368.8 accumulated ft lbs.

When we power up the Challenger for 11 – 11.5 ft lbs of pressure, it should yield around 25 to 30 shots (368.8/11.5=32). We look forward to seeing how that will work out.

On another note, keep in mind that replacing any part of a Crosman gun, that did not come with the gun or was designed for that gun, voids the warranty. So when we go and power up the Challenger (even though we are using Crosman parts) we are voiding the warranty. Please be very clear in understanding that if you follow along with us and do the same things, you will be voiding your warranty. Just something important for you to think about….

I charged Hans’s Challenger to 2000 psi and fired through the chronograph. The first shots were a little low in velocity and quickly came up to the 530 fps velocity advertised by Crosman. Hans’s Challenger appears to prefer a 1950 to 1925 psi charge (on his gauge) at this time.

Hans mounted a scope to his Challenger and did some quick shot groups to see how it performed out of the box – with no preparations or adjustments at all. At 10 yards, his 5 shot group was 1 pellet hole. Not a one hole group mind you, but one pellet hole that would hit the 10 dot on a 10 meter target centered every time! At 25 yards in a little bit of a wind Hans grouped .25” ctc. At 40 yards Hans grouped .75” ctc. Remember this is benched, in an inconsistent wind at 530 fps with 7.9 premiers. Bringing the velocity up to WFTF levels will tighten those distant groups for sure. It’s very, very promising.

So there you have it. What you can expect from the Crosman Challenger right out of the box. If you are shooting to 10 meters, then you can get close to 100 shots once you find the best starting charge pressure for the gun’s sweet spot. If you plan on shooting longer distances you can get around 70 to 80 shots depending on your needs.

We are going to review scope setup for the Challenger down the road, so I have some homework for you….

Visit our website (http://ateam.100free.com/Articles.htm) and print the “A” Team Parallax adj document. You can use these directions to prepare your scope for the Challenger.

Also on our website (http://ateam.100free.com/Crosman.htm) is our A Team PCP Tuning Procedures document.

Download and save or print each of these documents and become familiar with them.

Ray and Hans ~ The “A” Team

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Airgun Hunting in South Africa with Jim Chapman…

October 5th, 2009

Jim Chapman hunting South Africa
Today on Croswords we are taking a few minutes to talk with noted airgun hunter and writer Jim Chapman. This past summer Jim took the Benjamin Marauder on a hunting trip to South Africa and carefully chronicled his journey. He collected all these notes and pictures into a book that we will be sharing with you over the next few weeks here on Croswords. Before we dive into the book I wanted to take a few minutes to ask Jim a few questions about his trip and his love for airgun hunting…

Jim, for our readers who may not be familiar with you and your globetrotting exploits, please introduce yourself and tell readers about your website.
Well I think my experience is not all that different in terms of hunting; when I was a young boy my uncle gave me an old BB rifle that I cleaned, and then used for the summer terrorizing sparrows and gophers. I went through the normal stages of rimfires for small game, shotguns for upland game, and eventually centerfires for big game. After college I left the States and moved to Europe for several years, followed by Japan then Australia, I was away for the better part of 20 years. It was while I was living in Europe in the early 80’s that I was introduced to adult airguns. I like to shoot and since you couldn’t own a firearm in those places I gravitated to airguns once I found out about them. I get to travel all over the world for my work, and have had the opportunity to hunt and shoot in many places. My wife is South African so I’ve been spending a good part of my summers down there for many years, where I always get in as much hunting as I can.

How long have you been hunting with Airguns?
I guess I really became serious about airgun hunting in the late 80’s. I was asked to run a couple projects in Asia and (what was then) Eastern Europe. I moved my wife and son back to the States to be near family, and I alternated between a month abroad and a month back in California. When I was back at home I had a whole month that I didn’t have to work. I hunted almost every day during that period, and often with airguns. That was a fun couple of years!

Why Airguns?
I do a lot of wingshooting and hunt a lot with firearms and bow, but airguns are my favorite. To airgun hunt the way I believe it should be done means getting in close (30-50 yards), which hones your skills as a hunter. I’ve always thought of it as a cross between archery and firearm hunting, as it uses skills from both. Another factor is that I have a busy life and airguns give me an opportunity to hunt closer to home. Because you can safely shoot them just about anywhere, it opens up property for me to hunt where a firearm, even a rimfire, is not going to work. Firearms generate too much noise, too much power; you’d be surprised how many places are opened up to hunt when you don’t have to worry about those two issues.

Do you have any favorite game you like to hunt with airguns?
There are so many species you can hunt in different parts of the country; but I’d have to say that tree squirrels in the Midwest and jackrabbits out West are my favorites. Both of these species require the same hunting skills I use when hunting big game. It’s funny, I get the same charge of adrenaline when shooting a squirrel I stalked, as when I’m lining up on a whitetail. But unlike deer where I might shoot three or four in a season, I can get many shots on a two hour squirrel hunt. Of all the small game animals I hunt with an airgun, guinea fowl in Africa are my favorite. These birds are big, they are fast and they are wary. I think they represent the ultimate airgunning challenge.

Tell us about your adventure to South Africa?
I have hunted in South Africa a lot, with firearms and airguns. I received special permits to hunt big game with bigbore air rifles, and have taken everything up to kudu and warthogs. We always choose standard caliber airguns to bring with us to hunt small game and for pest control at my friends farm, and it always turned out to be great fun. On this last hunt I decided to focus on the small game, and it was an excellent call! We had a great time and I think when readers look at my little Marauder Journal they’ll see why.

What led you to South Africa?
My wife is South African and we have family we like to visit there every year. But more importantly, I have two friends that are professional hunters named Rob Dell and Andrew Myers. Andrew stared hunting with airguns while living in the UK, and Rob is an outfitter (Hounslow Safaris). Rob’s family owns a large property in the Eastern Cape. These guys have become specialists in airgun hunting in South Africa.

You took the Benjamin Marauder with you. What did you think of the gun and its performance?
I wanted a gun that offered excellent performance (accuracy and power), that was multishot capable, and that was reliable. And even though noise was not a huge issue on the farm, I wanted a quiet gun as I also had the chance to hunt on friend’s vineyards back near Capetown where noise was an issue. I had four guns with me, a .22 caliber, two .177 caliber Marauders and a .177 Discovery. We shot thousands of pellets between the three of us, and the guns functioned perfectly.

Is it difficult to travel abroad with an airgun?
Of course depends on where you’re going, but in the case of South Africa it is easier to travel with airguns than with firearms. What made it much less complicated was shipping the airguns over in advance, which you cannot do with firearms. That step made the whole process (outside the 32 hour travel time) much easier.

What game did you hunt?
We hunted wild pigeons, guinea fowl, carrion crows, Egyptian geese, hyrax, mongoose, springhare, rabbits, and many pest birds. What was wild was not only the types of animals, but the sheer numbers of them. My friend’s property is about 10,000 acres with hundreds of thousands of acres of reserve and farmland around it. You should understand that in South Africa all properties are called farms; they are what we would call ranches. Even though only a portion of the land was used for livestock, areas where there was feed drew pest species from far and wide. I left two Marauders on the farm where they are used every day for pest control. It’s kind of cool, Rob lives in a place surrounded by all kinds of big game and he carries his Marauder in the back of his truck for pest control when he heads out. I tell you, I made big points leaving those airguns behind as gifts!

Was the trip successful and would you take the Marauder again?
I love the Marauder. Sure, there are a lot of good products out there but nothing comes close to the rich feature set, the performance, and the quality of this airrifle, anywhere near the price point. I’ve taken several small game guns out over the years and the Marauder would be high on my list to use again.

What is your next big adventure?
I’ve got several hunts lined up this year; I’ll be airgun hunting in Texas, California, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, California, and Colorado for all kinds of game. But I think the next long trip will be somewhere in South America. I’m looking for a place that offers
something unique …. But I don’t know what yet.

I would like to thank Jim for his time answering these questions for us. Look for the first chapter of his book here on Croswords starting next week and follow Jim’s continued adventures at his website, American Airgun Hunter

Thanks for reading everyone.

Joshua

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Reporting on the Crosman Challenger PCP

September 17th, 2009

Ray and Hans Apelles

Meet Ray and Hans Apelles – Crosman Pro Staff, and National and World Field Target Competitors

The father and son team of Hans and Ray Apelles “The ‘A’ Team” started shooting field target in 1995 after reading a magazine article about competitive field target matches. They attended a local match together, and the rest is history.

By 1998, they were competing at Nationals and placing in the top 5. In 2000 Ray attended and placed 5th in the Worlds/Nationals after a 3 way shoot off.

During 2007 Ray and Hans were invited to become members of the Crosman Pro Staff. As members, they are supplied prototype airguns to review, compete with, and comment on for us. While shooting a prototype of the Discovery PCP at the 2008 Nationals, Ray placed second in the International PCP competition, one point back from the leader.

Since many suggestions made by Ray and Hans have been successfully applied in our Benjamin Discovery and Marauder PCP’s, and since we greatly respect their expertise and opinion, we thought we would give them a shot at our new Challenger PCP CH2009 competition air rifle. This is what they told us….

Ray Reporting on the Crosman Challenger PCP CH2009

Hans and I just received our new Crosman Challenger 2009 PCP air rifle, and want to share our comments on the gun right out of the box.

Our intent is to turn the Challenger into a field target gun. Giving you a step-by-step description of what we change to bring the Challenger up to World Field Target Federation power levels, we will share what we replace or modify on the Challenger by giving you the part number (whenever possible) and exactly how we accomplish those modifications.

It is our hope that if you do exactly the same things we do, you will have your own reasonably priced world class field target rig. We will tell you what scope rings we use for which scope, and how it gets mounted with settings on the adjustable hammer stroke and spring tension. What the fill and recharge pressures are, and how many shots we get from a charge. You will have a chance to see a sample of our shot string, and once we sight it in together, we’ll even give you a hold over trajectory.

Let’s get started by taking a first look at the Challenger.

The Challenger is packed well in a plain brown box with no graphics. Included in the box are a user’s manual, some Allen wrenches, and a degassing tool which would mostly be used for CO2 users. (We will not be using or testing the Challenger with CO2 but it is designed as a Duel Fuel PCP Airgun as the Discovery is.)

Holding the Challenger reminds us very much of our highly modified Discovery match prototypes. The stock is the same style we have been shooting for over a year now and are very comfortable with. The stock has an adjustable comb (cheek riser), and an adjustable pull length that can be varied by loosening two screws.

The butt pad can be adjusted in height through a sliding and rotating pad customary on 10 meter 3 position guns. We notice that the butt pad post can be rotated and adjusted to an angle that fits perfectly and will prevent any tendency to cant the gun as it is shouldered.

I have shot many guns that are a chore to hold perpendicular when shouldered because of the fit. A simple few degrees of rotation on the shoulder pad forces a correct upright position when the gun is shouldered.

The bottom of the stock has an accessory rail which can be used for a variety of after market accessories such as a palm rest, sling swivel quick release, forearm riser, bipod, and additional weight sets to name a few. Although Crosman doesn’t offer these particular accessories currently, it is nice to know they can be easily added to the stock if you procure them elsewhere.

On the right side of the stock is the built in manometer (pressure gauge). It is in very easy view so you don’t have to turn the gun upside down to see it. We did suggest to Crosman that it be placed on the left side of the stock so it would be in plain view of right handed shooters (the majority) but Crosman didn’t want something to possibly distract the shooter.

The stock is completely ambidextrous and will fit all shooters with a little bit of adjustment. With a very comfortable vertical pistol grip, it is an easy reach to the match trigger.

The advertised weight is 7.3 lbs. which stays within the 7.5 lbs. limit of the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Sporter Class specifications, which the Challenger has been approved for.

The Challenger action resembles a Discovery but only at a quick distant look. It uses the same reservoir size as a Discovery and same barrel diameter, and while you may notice similar barrel bands and filler cap, things change after that.

At the back of the action is a T handle cocking bolt. This is a very comfortable and ingenious mechanism. Pull straight back on the T handle (from either side as it is ambidextrous) and the bolt opens. Pull further back to cock the gun. Once cocked, drop into the pellet trough your chosen pellet and push the bolt straight in to close the bolt. Make sure to push the bolt all the way in and you’re ready to fire.

The trigger is the same one designed for the Marauder which has proven itself very well.

The Challenger comes set to meet the CMP trigger specifications. It can be adjusted as desired. (We will test the trigger later and report on just how it was set). Moving the manual safety to the front of the trigger guard turns the safety off and the trigger is ready to fire. Pulling the trigger reveals a long first stage and a very crisp second stage… and the shot is away.

Below the T bolt handle is a thumb screw that can be used to adjust the hammer spring tension. We would have preferred this to be an internal adjustment via an Allen wrench but it is enough out of the way to not be accidentally adjusted. Normally a gun is set to the shooter’s specifications and left alone (to maintain consistency) which is why we prefer to not have this adjustment readily available with no tools required for adjustment. Adjust the hammer stroke by inserting the appropriate sized Allen wrench through the center of the thumb screw. The degassing tool works the same way through the thumb screw.

The upper receiver is another departure from the Discovery as it is longer and allows the peep sites required for 3 position shooting. The loading port was moved forward to allow more room for the rear sight. This effectively gives us more room to mount a scope as well. The upper receiver also has a more professional look than the Discovery.

Moving forward of the upper receiver you find a Lothar Walther barrel. Accuracy won’t be an issue with this barrel. Lothar Walther barrels have become a standard that many strive to match and rarely exceed. Just a bit further down the barrel from the upper receiver you come to a barrel band which has been placed there to help hold down the receiver (as we did in our Discovery Match Prototypes). Further down the barrel you see another barrel band which is actually a barrel protector band. The barrel is free floated from the first barrel band forward. So if you bump the barrel and hear a “tink” you are reminded that the barrel is free floated and designed as such. Moving further forward is the front muzzle break which sports a dovetail for the front globe sight. The muzzle break is squared off to very attractively match the upper receiver.

So ends our “out of the box” review of the Crosman Challenger.

Hans and I performed some preliminary tests on our Challengers as soon as we took them out of their packages. I charged Hans’s Challenger to 2000 psi and fired through the chronograph. The first shots were a little low in velocity and quickly came up to the 530 fps velocity advertised by Crosman. Hans’s Challenger appears to prefer a 1950 psi charge at this time.

For our next segment, we’ll post our first shot strings of the Challenger, some of our initial accuracy tests and begin discussing those adjustments we mentioned. We will then take a journey to turn your Challenger into a cost effective “world class” field target gun.

Follow along and see where the journey leads…….

Oh yeah, we attend many matches and always invite fellow competitors and spectators to shoot our guns so they can see for themselves what can be done with airguns, and how easy it can be when the equipment is set up for their individual needs. We always invite people to shoot our new Crosman prototypes as well. While we enjoy the feedback, it also helps us to decide which direction to go with our next project.

Ray and Hans ~ The “A” Team

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