Vintage Benjamin airguns

[jirushi]

The old Benjamins are quality, my favourite is the 257 with rifled barrel, tiny pistol that shoots accurately out to 25 metres, with quite a bit of power for a 4 inch barrel. I resealed my mates front pumper Benjamin pistol with a polyurethane piston seal and was surprised at the power it puts out. The 8 grm CO2 pistols go for £175 boxed, and the front pumpers around £200. There are loads of Benjamins in UK, you can buy them at all the shows.

Baz

[IMG][/IMG]

Thank you Baz, what a beautiful Benjamin pistol you've got there. Looks cool and well made.
I really need to visit Kempton Arms Fair. To name one.

[jirushi]

I have a 1960 Benjamin 312 with the distinctive tootsie roll pump arm and a 1980 Benjamin 347 -- personally I prefer these sturdy little carbines to the Sheridan Blue/Silver Streaks.

The later Benjamin GS392/GS397 CO2 rifles are also nice handy little plinkers with the added advantage that they can obtained with a nickel finish.

My own Holy Grail is the Benjamin 397C pump-up -- only 33" long with a Sheridan rocker type safety rather than the Benjamin push-pull type -- one day I might find one!

Thank you Allan, it sounds like you are a real Benjamin aficionado! If you have any photos of your 312 and 347...
I've just found a BB Pelletier article on the 397C - I'm learning a lot today.
GS392/397 reminds me of my Sheridan Model F. With CO2 rifles, I have a feeling that my Crosman 160/180/400 are hard to beat. But who knows!

[jirushi]

I think I know where there is a 312 for sale Louis about £250
not sure on age as I've only seen pics from a distance and unfortunately it's been polished back to brass

That does sound interesting Ped!

[cinedux]

Wow that is fantastic. Very nice, thank you.
Love the paper work too.
Especially the drawings of "how to charge the Benjamin automatic air rifle".
Why can't they make nice manuals like that anymore. A new trend seems to be a QR code printed on the breech.
Scan it with a smartphone and it takes you to an online manual... Makes me sad.
Even though I'm only 31 and should get excited by QR codes.

The schnabel on your Model 600 is lovely. Quite a simple stock, if I may say so, but it looks great.
Do you shoot your Benji's? Are they nice to use?
Or does "in another life" mean that you don't have them anymore?

Many thanks

life in our retirement village is pretty good.A bit like being on a lovely cruise ship(tied up to the same wharf!!!!).Anyrate,the sight of an airgun would have me expelled in the blink of an eyelid.So,no plinking any more.I do tend to get my guns working.As Dean has commented,banging away with a Benjamin 600 is a very fulfilling way to spend the time.I still have my Benjamin stuff.Love the Model 160 pistol.Trevor

[DT Fletcher]

life in our retirement village is pretty good.A bit like being on a lovely cruise ship(tied up to the same wharf!!!!).Anyrate,the sight of an airgun would have me expelled in the blink of an eyelid.So,no plinking any more.I do tend to get my guns working.As Dean has commented,banging away with a Benjamin 600 is a very fulfilling way to spend the time.I still have my Benjamin stuff.Love the Model 160 pistol.Trevor

As a last result, you might have to be satisfied with the "amazingly accurate" rubber-band powered Sharpshooter. :-)

[AllanM]

Thank you Allan, it sounds like you are a real Benjamin aficionado! If you have any photos of your 312 and 347...
I've just found a BB Pelletier article on the 397C - I'm learning a lot today.
GS392/397 reminds me of my Sheridan Model F. With CO2 rifles, I have a feeling that my Crosman 160/180/400 are hard to beat. But who knows!

I've emailed you some photos of my 312 and 347 Louis.

The 312/317's are my favourite pumpers -- they are becoming quite rare and consequently a really good example commands a higher price than the 342/347.

You are right, I am a massive fan of the GS392/GS397's which are, thanks to Ped, shooting just as good as they did when new.

[kamyonsofor]

In my very distant youth and distant 59 years ago me and a mate had some cheap ex catalogue springers and a lad about 18 came up to us and said did we want to swap one of ours for his brother's brass pump as he was fed up with pumping I said yes and low and behold got me a Benjamin Franklin 312 few years later brain fell out of gear and swapped for a 410 . 2 years ago at a fair saw this guy looking at this brass air rifle resting up against a table so asked was he going to buy "can't make my mind up"give it here I'll have it ,a very nice 342 back to brass at a price I could not believe, snapped his arm off price,since then a benji pistol and a beast of a Sharp Innova , I always keep them lightly oiled and 1 pump of air in each gun and they retain pressure all the time but was recently told by a said Gunsmith you should keep them empty?sorry not for me .Always looking for another if the condition and price is right.

[cinedux]

The last resort indeed Dean.I've some minty Bullseyes and Sharpshooters.Plus the Daisy Indoor shootin' sets(including the .50 cal 1894).A Johnson Indoor and a R100 semi-auto rubberband gun.They will be pried from my cold dead hands.....

[45flint]

Thank you Allan, it sounds like you are a real Benjamin aficionado! If you have any photos of your 312 and 347...
I've just found a BB Pelletier article on the 397C - I'm learning a lot today.
GS392/397 reminds me of my Sheridan Model F. With CO2 rifles, I have a feeling that my Crosman 160/180/400 are hard to beat. But who knows!

At the auction I was at last week I got to examine all the Benjamin CO2 rifles. I was interested in them given my recent acquisition of a Crosman 160 and 180. Bottom line to me is they seem crude compare to the Crosman’s, especially the 160. I had no interest. I do have a fasination with the 397c but it’s a hard find even over here. Never have seen one.

[DT Fletcher]

The last resort indeed Dean.I've some minty Bullseyes and Sharpshooters.Plus the Daisy Indoor shootin' sets(including the .50 cal 1894).A Johnson Indoor and a R100 semi-auto rubberband gun.They will be pried from my cold dead hands.....

It's my humble opinion that the Sharpshooter is the single greatest airgun design..... ever! Nothing as cool as a real Rawlings, Wyoming, Sharpshooter in the box with all the trimmings. Besides being a thing of beauty, they are indeed so incredibly accurate. The Daisy Targeteer is, regarding accuracy, terrible.

The Sharpshooter was designed with the goal in mind of being able to shoot a fly. If you've ever been to Wyoming in the summer, that goal is perfectly understandable. For precision insect work, nothing beats a Sharpshooter.

[AllanM]

My friend locally has the Benjamin 392 50TH Anniversary model polished brass with large medallion and special rifle bag and papers. Believe they made 600 in 1987.
Not sure what they are worth, but he could not sell it last year. He bought it new when they came out.

Baz

The 50th Anniversary Benjamin/Sheridan C9PB is a pretty looking rifle with the polished brass finish and 2" medallion in the stock.

The one I would really like to get my hands on is the Benjamin 87 Centennial model .22 cal, again with a medallion in the stock and fitted with a Williams Peep Sight.

[DT Fletcher]

At the auction I was at last week I got to examine all the Benjamin CO2 rifles. I was interested in them given my recent acquisition of a Crosman 160 and 180. Bottom line to me is they seem crude compare to the Crosman’s, especially the 160. I had no interest. I do have a fasination with the 397c but it’s a hard find even over here. Never have seen one.

All of the circa 1960 Benjamin designs, including all of the CO2 rifles, were by Ray Katt, the owner. Benjamin, during it's entire history, never employed a professional engineer. They also had a policy of farming out any machine tool work to subcontractors. For the most part, only assembly happened at the Benjamin plant in St. Louis. All of this is the exact opposite of Crosman. From 1945 on, all Crosman designs were by professional engineers. Crosman had a policy of making as many parts in-house as possible.

A side-by-side comparison of the various Benjamin, Crosman models of the era clearly shows this. Benjamin never could have pulled off something like the 600 or the 38T or, really, any of the modern Crosman designs.

[Benelli B76]

Some of their products are well finished and powerful, but not well thought out when looking to future maintenance. In particular the Rocket 260 series is hard to reseal. Also their repeater 422 is very finicky and hard to get functioning correctly.

Baz

[IMG][/IMG]

[jirushi]

All of the circa 1960 Benjamin designs, including all of the CO2 rifles, were by Ray Katt, the owner. Benjamin, during it's entire history, never employed a professional engineer. They also had a policy of farming out any machine tool work to subcontractors. For the most part, only assembly happened at the Benjamin plant in St. Louis. All of this is the exact opposite of Crosman. From 1945 on, all Crosman designs were by professional engineers. Crosman had a policy of making as many parts in-house as possible.

A side-by-side comparison of the various Benjamin, Crosman models of the era clearly shows this. Benjamin never could have pulled off something like the 600 or the 38T or, really, any of the modern Crosman designs.

That's very interesting. I think Rudi Merz wasn't just an engineer either, but an airgun mastermind?
Not a CO2 gun, but wasn't the Benjamin 312 the product of a mastermind too, considering that this design (more or less) is still being produced?
I might be making some fatal errors here, and I might be sounding like a total amateur, which I am
But I find it really interesting.

[45flint]

That's very interesting. I think Rudi Merz wasn't just an engineer either, but an airgun mastermind?
Not a CO2 gun, but wasn't the Benjamin 312 the product of a mastermind too, considering that this design (more or less) is still being produced?
I might be making some fatal errors here, and I might be sounding like a total amateur, which I am
But I find it really interesting.

I agree Merz’s just took to levels well beyond the other companies at the time. I think of the word genius, but maybe that over plays it? I am happy went to the Alm Auction last week cause in one day you could hold and compare so many airguns that would have taken me years to collect and maybe reject and resell. That may have been of more value to me than the guns I bought. Unlike Ingvar my quest is not to own one of everything. I like to focus on what I feel was the best.