Friday, June 12, 2009

Benjamin Marauder Scope Mounting Thoughts

My first comment to Nick about modifying Benjamin Marauder was making the comb of the stock adjustable in height. I was kidding at the time(sort of), but that turns out to be a pretty good idea if your scope of choice has an objective lens larger than about 50 mm. I'm not quite ready to grab the saw just yet, but this might help somebody out.

Scope is a 4-16X 50mm Leapers. First installed the scope with medium Leapers Accushot rings. The knurling on the objective housing just barely touched the barrel. I mean "barely" by a couple thousandths.

A quick swap to high Accushot rings gives the clearance you see above. Shouldering the gun and sighting revealed that I had to break my cheek contact and lift my head slightly to obtain a sight picture. It's workable, but the head position sure isn't repeatable. Unless maybe you've got a head like Herman Munster.

Swapped back to the medium rings--but added 2 layers of friction tape in the bottom half of each ring. The friction tape gave exactly this much room. No problem at all. Snugged the scope down and took a peek. Head position and eye relief looked good.
Thoughts? Unless you modify the stock comb higher, it's probably best to use a set of medium scope rings. This will limit the objective lens to no greater than 50 mm. My personal scope of choice for this gun remains the Centerpoint 4-16 X 40mm Adventure Class model. Would've used it, but I got the Leapers at the Pyramyd Moving Sale at a great price and you know how good deals go. If you're going to shoot field target or something similar, you'll need a scope with more magnification and bells and whistles. Just keep in mind the objective lens clearance issue and head position.

8 comments:

Mr B. said...

Derrick,

An excellent idea on mounting the 50mm scope, thanks. How does your gun feel with that scope on it. I put a full size scope on my Disco, still only a .22 :(, and it was much too top heavy. How does your Marauder feel with that scope? If you want/need some more air source cylinders just let me know.

Have you played with your Marauder's "power adjustment" and or its CO2 option yet?

Hope that work isn't to crazy at your shop(s).

Bruce aka Mr B.

derrick38 said...

Mr B

Haven't noticed the gun feeling top heavy, though the scope does seem well suited for star gazing. I have noticed a lot of shooters putting huge scopes/mounts on guns that obviously don't work as far as eye relief and head position. If you have to crane or cram to get a sight picture, it's wrong.

I'm in fine shape on the a/s cylinders. Made a couple pin valves and all is working on that half of the project. Got another Crosman 22XX valve yesterday for the project. Hope to be working on it in about 2 weeks.

On the Marauder, I cranked the hammer spring adjustment all the way up just for giggles and got .22 cal RWS Hobby pellets going 985+ fps.

I've abandoned the CO2 option for the gun as I think I've sort of got that base covered with other guns. Besides, to think that I'd have to pump the Marauder back up to 3K from zero again after using the CO2...Well, there goes half an hour.

Really a great gun. Home run effort from Crosman.

Tried a Leapers 6x Bug Buster yet on the Discovery? Might be a good combo.

Unknown said...

The Centerpoint 4 x 16 x 40mm scope is sold in Wal-Mart for $69.95.

FRED said...

Hey Derrick, a bit late to the party - well 3 years late - but I wanted to add a comment. I purchased a Hawke scope and belatedly realized that with a 4" relief, I had to hold my head too far back from my normal shooting position. I solved this with a BKL cantilever mount. It's a single position mount that can be mounted either on the front part of the mounting rail or rear part and can be flipped so the cantilever portion is towards the muzzle or towards the shooter. Worked like a charm if a bit more expensive than a Leapers/UTG mount but it's made in America as oppposed to made in the far East.

Fred DPRoNJ

Scope Bases B-Square said...

I've been looking into getting the Benjamin marauder .22 because it looks like a great gun overall. the only problem is that i shoot lefty and the bolt is meant for right handed shooters. So i was wondering if you knew if the bolt could be reversed for left handed shooters?

Unknown said...

How does it fit on the benjamin marauder .22? Can I use the scope mounts that come with it? Curious I just bought the scope yesterday and my rifle will be here Monday I'm excited! !!!

derrick38 said...

Dillon,
I'm not exactly sure what you're asking in your question. If you're asking about how the Centerpoint scope fits, you need to use different rings than what come packaged with the scope. The 4-16 Centerpoint comes with Weaver/Picatinny size rings and the Marauder has an 11mm dovetail. The scope has been redesigned and the adjustable objective lens has a larger diameter sleeve that will require taller 11mm rings. Fortunately, the new Marauders have adjustable cheek pieces, so the head position issue I had with the original gun is now a thing of the past.


derrick38 said...

Dillon,
I'm not exactly sure what you're asking in your question. If you're asking about how the Centerpoint scope fits, you need to use different rings than what come packaged with the scope. The 4-16 Centerpoint comes with Weaver/Picatinny size rings and the Marauder has an 11mm dovetail. The scope has been redesigned and the adjustable objective lens has a larger diameter sleeve that will require taller 11mm rings. Fortunately, the new Marauders have adjustable cheek pieces, so the head position issue I had with the original gun is now a thing of the past.