Posts Tagged ‘Crosman’
Benjamin Rogue ePCP – a new way of making airguns: Part 4
by B.B. Pelletier
Announcement: Here’s this week’s winner of Pyramyd Air’s Big Shot of the Week on their facebook page. He’ll receive a $50 gift card.
He’s training with his KJW Beretta M9 CO2 blowback airsoft pistol — with his weak side to practice ambidextrous shooting.
The Rogue is a whole new way of making airguns.
When we last left the Rogue, it was shooting groups on the range. Let’s return there today and learn some more of the rifle’s features.
Power
We’ve discussed how the shooter can program the rifle for three bullet weight ranges (100, 145 and 170 grains) and three power levels (low, medium and high). Let’s look at some other things the shooter can do with the power of the gun. For example, if high power just isn’t enough, you can program the Discharge power setting. It’s above the High power setting and was explained to me by Ed Schultz of Crosman as the number 11 on a rock-band amplifier that tops out at 10.
The Discharge setting tells the valve to remain open twice as long as the High power setting for that bullet. Think of it as the analog setting that takes the Rogue back into the world of big bore airguns with mechanical valves. It wastes some air, but it gives you the absolute last word in power, considering the air pressure that remains in the reservoir. So, of course, I tried it!
It turned out to be not as dramatic as it sounded, though I may not have tried it at the place in the pressure curve where it works the best. I had just fired three shots on high power with the Nosler 145-grain bullet, and I had a very nice group starting to form downrange. With the air pressure dropping off, I thought I would boost the power to the discharge setting and shoot the fourth shot at that level to stay in the same group. Here’s what happened:
Pressure…Velocity
2,881…………….805
2675……………..787
2546……………..756
After these three shots, there was 2,447 psi remaining in the reservoir, so I boosted the power to the Discharge setting and fired the next shot.
Pressure…Velocity
2447…………….767
Following that shot, 2,197 psi remained in the reservoir. That one shot on the Discharge setting used 250 psi and gave a slightly higher velocity (767, compared to 756 f.p.s.) than the previous high-power shot that had used 99 psi (2546 – 2447).
Complete user manual valve control
You also have the option of controlling the valve yourself. In that case, all programming is suspended. The valve simply remains open as long as you tell it to. Let me differentiate this from how the gun normally works.
The Rogue usually operates by sensing the air pressure remaining in the reservoir and calculating how long the valve needs to remain open, given the bullet weight you’ve selected and the power level you’re trying to achieve. As the air pressure decreases, the valve dwell time (the amount of time the valve remains open) increases to accommodate your selected performance.
When you override the programming by telling the valve how long to remain open, everything else goes out the window. The valve simply remains open that long. You might do this because you’re testing the gun’s performance with a certain bullet and think you can get a better result than the one automatically selected by the software. The dwell time can be manually controlled in increments of five microseconds. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second. It takes 1,000 microseconds to equal one millisecond. If the display reads 2000 microseconds, it means the valve will remain open for exactly 2 milliseconds.
The heart of the beast
Your next choices for time from 2000 microseconds (either longer or shorter) would be 2005 microseconds or 1995 microseconds. These are incredibly short time intervals that give you a lot of control over the valve. For those with a scientific or engineering bent, you’re now looking into the very reason why the Rogue is such a different air rifle. Other big bore valves, when they close, flutter in time increments greater than the intervals at which you can control in this rifle. That is to say — when they close, they can bounce open and closed rapidly several times before the valve closes completely. The Rogue doesn’t do that. It’s either open or it’s closed, and either you or the software controls how long it remains open to a very exacting degree.
Accuracy improvement
There’s simply too much for me to tell you about the Rogue, even in a series of reports, but I know that everyone is interested in its accuracy. Remember the group I mentioned above, where I was shooting a Nosler 145-grain bullet and wanted to keep the velocity in the same place? That was the one where I set shot four to the Discharge setting to keep the velocity stable. Please look at the group I got with that approach.
Three tight shots at 50 yards with the Nosler 145-grain lead bullet. Shot four was with the rifle in the Discharge setting. Though it traveled just as fast as shot three, it strayed outside the tight group.
I also did very well with a 95-grain hollowpoint lead bullet Crosman sent me to test. On Low and Medium power, this bullet was a real tackdriver at 50 yards.
This 95-grain hollowpoint lead bullet is one of the most accurate bullets tried thus far.
Three tight shots and then a stray on shot four.
I said before that there’s not enough time left in my life to test this rifle thoroughly. But it’s proven interesting for the approximately 150 shots I’ve been able to shoot thus far. As far as conserving air, I started this test with a full 88-cubic-foot carbon fiber air tank, and it’s still able to fill the rifle to 3,000 psi, so this gun is getting far more shots per fill than any other big bore I’ve ever tested.
However, the progress on the Rogue has not ceased. The engineers at Crosman are still refining the algorithms in the software for even better air conservation. While the gun I’m now testing uses about 90 psi per shot, Crosman now has their testbed rifle using only 50 psi per shot. They’re getting 26 shots at a nominal 100 foot-pounds of muzzle energy (actually 84 to 112 foot-pounds) from 2,360 psi down to 1,098 psi. And they didn’t stop with just that.
The 170-grain bullet is delivering seven solid shots ranging from 196 foot-pounds down to 156 foot-pounds. No other big bore airgun in history has done that! Yes, the Asian 9mm rifles will give eight or nine powerful shots, but the spread of power is considerably greater than what the Rogue is now doing.
By the time they finally release the Rogue, it should be as bulletproof and exciting as it possibly can be. There’s one more thing I want you to think about.
The rifle I’m now testing is one of five pre-production prototype guns Crosman built. This gun has now been fired thousands of times. It has flown on numerous airplanes and has harvested game from around the U.S.A. ranging from 200-lb. wild pigs to gray foxes. It’s been in the hands of dozens of different shooters and, through it all, it still works. That’s as good a recommendation as I can give for any new air rifle.
The future
I believe what Crosman should do is alter the software to allow the owner to program two different shooting programs of his own. This is similar to what can be done with a top-end metal detector or digital camera. The owners will test several bullets and valve dwell times and learn how many shots they can expect from their version of Custom 1 and Custom 2. Talk about making handloading popular!
Benjamin’s Rogue ePCP — a new way of making airguns: Part 3
by B.B. Pelletier
The first day at the range with the Rogue was like a first date.
I spent the day at the range last Friday with the Benjamin Rogue. It was like a first date, as I had no idea of what to expect. With other new airguns, there’s always information from the developers or at least there are the physical specifications to go by. With the Rogue, I was starting from scratch.
Oh, the Crosman engineers had been very forthcoming with their testing anecdotes, and as for experience, there was a bundle of it already in the bag from gun writers who both saw and shot the rifle at the SHOT Show on Media Day. Unfortunately, the anecdotes were told to me in Martian — a language without a universal translator. Crosman engineers understood very well what they were saying, but without a common frame of reference, I had no clue. The little field experience there was came from gun writers, as in, “Golly, Jimbo! It’s a three fifty-seven BB gun! Whad’ja think of that?”
What we need, to make sense of this new rifle, is someone who’s shot other big bore air rifles and can compare them. And, in this case, that’s me. So, there I was, on a first date.
Here we go. First, I filled the gun in a very conventional way. The Rogue has a male Foster quick-disconnect fitting, so my standard female Foster fitting on my carbon fiber tank fit without a hitch. I filled to 3,000 psi, because that’s the maximum pressure for which the electronic valve is set. With a Quackenbush Outlaw Long Action rifle with a purely mechanical action, you know the nominal fill limit is 3,000 psi, but every rifle will accept a little more than that. So, your first trip to the range consists of filling to progressively higher levels until the actual fill pressure for your individual rifle is discovered. My Quackenbush .458, for example, takes a max fill of 3,500 psi and gives two powerful shots in the 500+ foot-pound region. Then, it’s time to refill. If you attempt shot three, as my buddy Mac did a couple weeks ago with his .458, you can stick a bullet in the barrel — like he did.
But the Rogue is completely different. The onboard computer controls the firing valve to release exactly the right amount of air, depending on how much air was in the reservoir, the weight of the bullet fired and what you want the gun to do. You control all this through commands that you input into the onboard controller. When they say the max fill is 3,000 psi, it really is!
Ammo
Crosman sent me bags of several different lead bullets to try, plus Nosler shipped me a sufficient quantity of their new Benjamin eXTREME Bullet with Ballistic Tip. It’s a 145-grain lead bullet designed expressly for the Rogue. One look at it and you know that someone who knows big bore airguns had a hand in its design.
This special lead bullet with its ballistic tip is made by Nosler for the Rogue. So far, this is the best overall bullet I’ve tested.
Nosler’s eXTREME bullet with ballistic tip for the Benjamin Rogue is designed to create minimum friction with the bore by touching the lands only at the driving bands. A hollow cavity in the base obturates when the rifle fires, sealing all the gas behind the bullet — just like a Minie ball — for maximum efficiency.
This is the round that shocked all the gun writers at the 2011 SHOT Show Media Day, when it outperformed a .223 AR-15 on a coyote silhouette at 75 yards. The fast-moving, lightweight centerfire bullets simply exploded on the steel target, while the big Nosler hammered down the silhouette every time. Of course, the smaller bullet was simply vaporizing too quickly to transfer its energy to the heavy steel target, even though it actually delivered many times the impact energy of the Rogue. But seeing the airgun flatten the steel silhouette was the mental impression the writers carried away.
This is the bullet I selected to begin testing. I know what you want right now is a chart of velocities with the bullet. Well, I can’t give that to you — yet. There’s more testing to be done, as you’ll see shortly.
What I can tell you is that, when the rifle was at 2,421 psi and the power was set to medium with a 145-grain bullet programmed, the Nosler bullets went 760 f.p.s. on the first shot and 700 f.p.s. on shot six. The pressure dropped from shot one (2,421 psi) to the end of shot six (1,773 psi). Each shot used just over 100 psi of air. Although I didn’t have to, I stopped after shot six and I’ll tell you why.
I’d chosen this pressure and power setting with the Nosler bullet to shoot a group at 50 yards. But like I said, this was a first date and you sometimes don’t find out what you need to know until you go too far, so I kept shooting at the target until shot six strayed way over to the right, opening the group from about 1.5 inches to 3.2 inches, effectively doubling the group size. This wasn’t the first group I had shot, and by this time I knew that when the bullets went to the right, they were not coming back.
The first three shots can almost be covered by a quarter or a Euro. Shots four and five moved to the left, while shot six moves way to the right. Had I continued to shoot the shots would probably have continued to the right or started dropping lower on the paper.
Let’s take a closer look at that target. Within the group listed and shown above, the first three shots clustered in 0.736 inches between centers. In fact, two of those three shots took out the exact center of the target. In this group, which began at 2,421 psi on medium power using the 145-grain Nosler, I got a superb three-shot group, a good five-shot group and indications that shot six and all that followed were going to open the group much larger. For the record, the first shot produced 186.02 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle, while shot six produced 157.8 foot-pounds. Shot five, which was where I would stop in the future with these settings and bullet, went 724 f.p.s. and produced 168.81 foot-pounds. All of that was on medium power with a starting pressure of 2,421 psi.
Is this a bit confusing? It was to me at the beginning of the test. When you think about all the possibilities this system offers, you’ll see that you could spend the rest of your life exploring the possibilities and never test them all. After shooting over 50 rounds, it began to sink in what I was doing and how this gun really works.
You could spend the rest of your life exploring the possibilities and never test them all.
How the Rogue works
You tell the gun what weight bullet you’re using, from a choice (with the current software) of 100 grains, 145 grains or 170 grains. Set the number as close as you can to the actual weight bullet used. Then, you tell the gun to shoot on low, medium or high power. The rifle knows how much air is in the reservoir, so it factors that into the equation to determine how long to leave open the firing valve to give as consistent a velocity as possible for as many shots as possible — all things considered.
However, you don’t just set these controls without thinking. For example, if it’s power you want, use the heaviest bullet available, set the gun for 170 grains and high power. If you want lots of shots, select a lighter bullet, a lighter grain setting, and a medium or even low power.
Remember accuracy
Let’s set the numbers and settings aside for a moment. There’s also the target to consider. If you can generate big numbers but have an open group downrange, it doesn’t help you very much. What you’re looking for is the right bullet at the right power, given the right pressure in the gun for the best results downrange, and that takes some time to figure out. What I’ve shown you to this point is one of about ten such test targets that I shot and tracked last Friday. When I can make more sense out of the rifle’s performance curves, I will report it.
Yeah, but how many shots does it get?
Some folks don’t want to see behind the curtain. They just want results. Right now! For them, I offer the following. Here are the first 13 shots I fired with 145-grain Noslers on medium power before the rifle was sighted-in. I started from a 3,000 psi fill and just kept shooting shot after shot. I think the picture will explain itself.
Here are 13 shots in rapid succession at 50 yards. All are the 145-grain Nosler bullets. Note the tight central group, then the two shots above that group and the two below. The four outlying holes were the last four shots fired, with the bottom two being shots 12 and 13. As the reservoir pressure declines below a certain point for each bullet, the group starts to open up. Although I was chronographing these shots, the chrono was misbehaving, so I didn’t get any of the velocities until shot six, which was 705 f.p.s.
Other bullets
On this same day, I also tried bullets weighing 90 grains, 127 grains, 167 grains and 178 grains. I’ll report on their performance in the future, but as you can see, there’s a lot of detail to the testing I’m doing. I don’t want to report anything until I can make sense of it for you.
I tested several others, including these 167-grain round nosed bullets. The first shot (771 f.p.s.) on a fresh fill and “high” power netted 220.49 foot-pounds.
The longest string
The longest string I shot all day without topping off was 16 rounds. But I changed bullets and power settings in that string, so it can’t be taken as a whole. It’s really three tests rolled into a single fill. But 16 shots on a fill is more than I’ve ever gotten on a big bore of any kind, even from those older lower-powered guns — like the Farco — that use CO2.
Lesson learned
The range session ended when I attempted to shoot a hard-cast .357 bullet in the rifle. It would not enter the bore, stopping at the beginning of the rifling. Hard-cast bullets are used by those who wish to handload .357 Magnum pistol rounds to higher velocities because they don’t melt and deform at the base like softer bullets do. But they also take far more energy to engrave the rifling into the bullet, and that was why I couldn’t load this one. It got stuck in the bore. Since I didn’t have a steel rod to push it out, that ended the session for the day. Note to self — always carry a GI sectional cleaning rod in case this happens again, and DON’T use hard-cast bullets in the Rogue!
Benjamin’s Rogue ePCP — a new way of making airguns: Part 2
by B.B. Pelletier
Large and in charge. The Benjamin Rogue electronic PCP big bore is a new horizon in airgunning.
Where’s the On switch?
Today, we’ll learn more about the general operating functions of the new Benjamin Rogue big bore air rifle. I think the first question I had was where is the On switch? I learned that there isn’t one. Turning the rifle on is embedded in how you make the gun ready to fire, and it’s handled by the position of the bolt. In fact, the bolt position is a large part of how this gun operates, so let’s look at it now.
This plastic empty-breech indicator comes with the rifle and proves there’s no bullet in the breech.
The bolt is key to the Rogue’s functions
The Rogue bolt does what every bolt does on a bolt-action rifle. It opens to allow loading a single bullet if the rifle is set up for single-loading, or it withdraws to allow the spring-loaded magazine to advance to the next round that will then be pushed into the breech when the bolt goes forward. That much is like every other bolt-action rifle, except that this is the only big bore I know of with the facility for both single-loading and magazine-loading.
The bolt moves along the track as seen here. The lower track is where the bolt operates the firing mechanism and activates the trigger. Notice the large bolt probe, which pushes the bullet into the breech. Also note that the single-shot loading tray is installed in the gun. It appears as a dark black rectangle below the bolt probe.
But the functions of the bolt don’t end there. The Rogue bolt is also one part of the “switch” that activates the electronics that control the gun. Where the bolt is positioned determines if the gun fires or not, and the breech is marked to indicate that. With the bolt pushed down into the short lower track in the receiver, forward is safe and back makes the rifle ready to fire. After the shot, push the bolt forward and the rifle cannot fire again — but the bolt doesn’t work by itself.
Behind the bolt is a lever called the bolt valve lock with the words Disabled and Active underneath. When you can read the word Disabled, the bolt is physically prevented from being pulled back to the Ready to Fire position. In fact, the bolt is locked in position and cannot be moved in any direction. The lever is a mechanical cam that prevents bolt movement, and it has enough resistance that you will not make the rifle Active without deliberate intentions. When the lever is in the Active position, the bolt can be pulled back to the Ready to Fire position.
In this photo, the bolt is in the forward position of the lower track. The bolt valve lock lever is switched to the Disabled position, indicating that the rifle cannot be fired. The bolt is physically blocked from moving with the valve lever lock in this position.
In this photo, the bolt has been pulled back to the rear of the lower track, the valve lock lever has been switched to Active, but the safety is still on (see above the trigger). When the safety is pushed off, the rifle is ready to fire.
Safety
The safety operates independently of the bolt but is also employed when making the rifle safe. It is a familiar mechanical crossbolt safety that most shooters will recognize from past experience with other guns. Push to the right to make safe and to the left to take the safety off. When handling the Rogue, use all safeties and safety measures at all times, not only because the rifle is extremely powerful, but also because it’s electronically controlled and uses mechanical inputs to determine the firing status.
A safe field operating method
Perhaps a safe field carry arrangement would be with a bullet loaded, the bolt forward, the safety on and the bolt valve lock in the Disabled position. When you want to make the rifle ready to fire, swing the bolt valve lock forward to the Active position and pull the bolt back to the Ready to Fire position. Then, take the safety off and fire.
The status display
The status display can be turned on any time by pressing the Mode button once. The display remains on for 30 seconds and then turns off automatically. There’s no manual way to turn off the display. If you’re in bright sunlight and have a difficult time reading the display, pressing the up and down buttons simultaneously turns on the backlight that brightens the display.
The display tells you the status of the rifle. If you overfill the reservoir, for example, the onboard pressure sensor will detect it and give you two error messages that will read:
CRITICAL HALT
VERY HIGH PSI
MANUALLY VENT
THE TANK
It also lets you change the programming that makes the rifle perform differently. In the current model, you have three grain-weights of bullets to select from –100 gr., 145 gr. and 170 gr. Choose the one closest to the actual weight of bullet being used. There’s also a low, medium and high power setting to select. That will have an affect on the number of shots the gun can provide at the fill pressure in the reservoir when the selection is made. The software will not let you choose a performance mode that the rifle cannot deliver. For example, if you have only 1,500 psi in the rifle and indicate that you will be shooting a 170-grain bullet, which is the heaviest choice, and want to get high power, the display will inform you that combination isn’t possible with the air onboard. The messages would read:
CANNOT PRODUCE
SELECTED POWER
PRESSURE TOO LOW
FOR POWER SELECTD
Of course, the status display tells you much more. It also gives you the current reservoir pressure reading, the number of shots that remain (if the gun remains at the current settings) and the battery life. But wait, there’s more!
The Discharge mode holds the valve open for twice the time that the gun would normally use. You can use the Discharge mode to bleed down the tank rapidly, but Crosman also sees it as the number 11 on a rock-band amplifier that only goes to 10. In other words, it’s using all the air available to launch the bullet. Maybe you have a bullet stuck in the barrel or perhaps you want a final coupe de grace shot for your quarry. This is a hunting rifle, after all. At any rate, when the ship hits the sand, put her in the Discharge mode and let fly!
And, finally, there’s the Solenoid Time mode. It doesn’t display the time that the solenoid remains open for shots that are part of the programmed possibilities (weight of bullet and desired power, given the remaining air pressure), but it gives you the ability to control the solenoid time directly. You do that by entering a certain amount of time you desire the valve to remain open (expressed in ten-thousandths of a second). Then, all the other programming is suspended and YOU are in full control of the gun. Experimenters could connect to a carbon fiber tank and develop ideal dwell times for specific bullets, for instance.
The magazine
The 6-shot magazine is an exact replica of a Marauder mag, only larger to support the .357 caliber. First load it, then install it in the action. Just slide the single-shot tray out of the action and replace with a loaded magazine, sliding it in from the left side of the rifle.
A loaded magazine slides into the action exactly like a Marauder mag works. Here, I’ve loaded 6 Nosler 145-grain eXTREME bullets with Ballistic Tips.
I’ll show how to load the magazine in the next report. I’ll also discuss the range of bullets Crosman is providing for the gun and what are your other options. That’s all for today, but I figure we’ll have one more report about the general gun before we head out to the range.
Benjamin’s Rogue ePCP — a new way of making airguns: Part 1
by B.B. Pelletier
Announcement: Last week, we announced that Pyramyd Air’s facebook page would have a Big Shot of the Week photo contest. The winner (decided by Pyramyd Air) would receive a $50 Pyramyd Air gift card. The first winner is Kevan Evans, who submitted a photo of his daughter with her target, which she shot with Kevan’s Benjamin Discovery.
Just 8 years old, and already an accomplished shot. She pumped 16 shots out of the Disco, and put 6 in the same hole! Congratulations to Kevan and his daughter.
I have waited a long time for this day to arrive. Now, I get to tell you the story of the genesis of the new Benjamin Rogue big bore air rifle,and also to test it for you.
Large and in charge. The Benjamin Rogue electronic PCP big bore is a new horizon in airgunning.
How it all began
I was at the 2008 Roanoke Airgun Expo when one of my blog readers, Lloyd Sykes, came to my table and asked if I would like to see an experiment he had been working on. Lloyd had been experimenting with a new type of big bore airgun valve, and he had some performance data that recorded his results.
Quite frankly, I get approached like this all the time from people who have invented better mousetraps, and most of them are so impractical as to be absurd. But, I’ve learned that among these unconventional ideas every so often there comes a real gem of value. From what Lloyd shared that day, this could have been one of them.
I didn’t believe it!
But I didn’t believe him. Not entirely. His data showed he was getting as many as 20 powerful shots from the same amount of air that in other big bore guns produces from two to five valid shots. He swore me to secrecy (and I have since been more formally sworn by others) and then showed me his design, which was electronically actuated and computer-controlled. I’ve seen a lot of airgun designs in my time, but nothing like this.
Yet, I still doubted the numbers he presented. They read like the wishful writings of a firearm writer covering big bore airguns without ever having seen one.
Lloyd offered to film himself testing the gun, allowing me to see the immediate results on the chronograph after each shot. He also had other test instrumentation in the video that allowed me to follow things, such as the pressure before each shot, the pressure remaining in the gun and on-screen graphics of the pressure used for each shot. I agreed to watch his video, and within two weeks I watched those same performance numbers appear on screen as they happened. Then, I believed, and I knew something had to be done with this invention.
After seeing his video, I told Lloyd that his invention deserved to be developed into an airgun. We’d wargamed the possibilities while still at the Roanoke show, and there were not a lot of them. He could develop the gun himself, which would mean spending a lot of money to complete the development of a usable gun, and then a ton more money to publicize it. I told him I thought that was the worst way to go because it would drain him financially, plus he didn’t have the credentials to take a product like this to market once it’s developed. You don’t just waltz into Dick’s Sporting Goods and ask for a place on their shelves. It takes a trusted relationship before any large retail outlet is willing to talk to you about a new product, and that goes for any product. The world does not beat a path to your door!
Another option was the possibility of licensing the invention to someone else. The problem is that you often get a knife in the back when you go that route. I’ve had shivs stuck in my spine several times when I tried to sell my ideas. It’s one of the reasons I’m so careful about who I’ll work with.
A third option is to find a manufacturer who will buy your idea and develop it. While that sounds like a great way to get rich, there are problems there, as well. First, there aren’t many airgun manufacturers these days who know much of anything about airguns. What we DO have are companies with large marketing and sales departments and good relations with factories in China, Korea and Turkey, where the engineering will be done. However, in those countries, there’s no understanding of the vision of the new product, so a wonderful idea completely evaporates through technical missteps before any of it hits the ground.
But there are a couple companies who engineer their own products here in the U.S. Having worked several years before with Crosman on my own idea that became the Benjamin Discovery, I knew they were the best company for this project. If they agreed to do it, they would understand how to do it right. Contrary to what we all think, the world of the shooting sports isn’t that aware of the airgun scene. Telling them there’s a new kind of airgun will fall on deaf ears unless you have a plan to follow through and make believers of them. That’s what Crosman said they would do.
The Rogue
This new big bore airgun could have been any of several different things, but when the dust settled the decision was to make the first one a .357 caliber repeating rifle. Believe it or not, the decision to go with .357 caliber was challenged by the existence of several successful 9mm big bores. In fact, in today’s market, the big bore airgun calibers that are best-known are .30, 9mm and .458. Why on earth would Crosman want to make a rifle that is not 9mm, which is .355-.356 caliber, and instead make theirs a .357? Before you ask, I’ll explain why one-thousandth of an inch does matter.
They went the way they did for one reason — the wide and varied availability of lead bullets in .357 caliber. If you do the research, you’ll discover that there are precious few lead 9mm bullets on the market, and the few that exist are in power-robbing weights of 125 grains and below. But in .357 caliber, there are hundreds of different commercial lead bullets ranging from 80 grains to 250 grains. Just one bullet company — Western Bullet Co., which sells to big bore airgunners, has 15 designs to choose from. And that’s just one company.
Pyramyd Air sells 9mm bullets, but they’re really oversized and will work as well in a .357 caliber airgun. I’ll also test some of them, because they’re among the lightest bullets I can get in this caliber and perfect for high-velocity plinking (with a Rogue?). By choosing .357 caliber, Crosman has opened the world of lead bullets for the Rogue owner.
The test rifle in my possession weighs 10 lbs., 6 ozs., with nothing on it, however it does have two Picatinny accessory rails and another adapter for the front sling swivel stud. A scope (there are no open sights, nor are there provisions for them) will add to that. It has a variable length, due to the adjustable stock, that ranges between 45-1/2 inches and 49-1/4 inches in length. That makes it a big rifle. The length-of-pull adjusts from 11-5/8 inches to 15-1/2 inches, so the pull should adapt to over 95 percent of all adults. However, you’ll have to get used to some muzzle-heaviness, because with the length of the barrel, the barrel shroud and the reservoir, the weight bias is definitely toward the front.
Fully collapsed, the stock is quite short.
Fully extended, the Rogue stock is a long one. You can adjust it with the rifle on your shoulder.
The Rogue comes with quick-disconnect sling swivel studs, and I’ll absolutely make use of them. It also comes with Picatinny rails at the sides and underneath the reservoir, and I plan to attach a bipod to allow the rifle to be laid down on the ground when I’m not shooting it.
The Rogue is controlled by electronics. I know what you’re thinking because I wondered the same thing. What happens when the batteries run down? Well, I think the Crosman engineers made a good decision here. Instead of a rechargable battery, they built the gun to run on two AA cells that can be purchased almost anywhere. If you use the recommended lithium cells, you’ll get about 10,000 shots before they need replacing. And, a spare set of lithium batteries has an incredibly long shelf life (at least 10 years).
Here’s where the batteries live.
The Rogue lets you know what’s happening at all times. The buttons allow you to tell it what to do.
A shroud?
A big bore airgun with a shroud? Are you kidding?
No, it’s true. The Rogue has a shroud, and from listening to it while firing the rifle at the recent airgun show in Malvern, Arkansas, it works very well. In fact, Lloyd Sikes reports in his blog over on the Crosman website that his wife thought the rifle was pretty quiet when she shot it. Of course, she’s been listening to all of Lloyd’s tests in the garage for the past four years, so compared to all that racket I’m sure this is a pussycat. Don’t think for a moment that the gun is silent. The muzzle blast is just knocked back to the point that you don’t have to wear hearing protection when shooting — even indoors, as they found out at the underground NRA rifle range a few weeks ago.
Put a shroud around a .357 caliber barrel and you get a big one!
I think the shroud was the right thing to do. So many shooters who are getting into big bore airguns these days have little or no firearms experience, and many report surprise that an airgun can be loud. The shroud is not to make the Rogue better for your backyard, because it really isn’t made for that. But for user perception and to ease newcomers into the world of high-powered airguns, it’s a good thing.
I’m going to end here, because there’s so much to show you that this blog would stretch on too long to get all the general information out in a single report. Now you know a little of the history and a little more about the rifle. In the next report, I plan to show more of the features, many of which are unique, plus I’ll expand on the rifle’s potential for performance.
But here’s a teaser. This is an airgun that can be a .357 rifle today and tomorrow you can tell it to be a .410 shotgun. Same gun with a few different parts and software changes. Computer control allows for that kind of flexibility and even more. Please spend the weekend dreaming up new universes for us to occupy, and I’ll try to explain how the Rogue fits into each of them.
Marlin Cowboy BB gun – Part 3
by B.B. Pelletier
Before I start, I wanted you to know that the December podcast posted yesterday.
The new Marlin Cowboy BB gun is a beauty!
Today, I’ll test the Marlin Cowboy for accuracy. It’s a good-looking new BB gun but a couple issues like hard cocking, a heavy trigger and a couple failures to feed have me riding the fence on its success.
We have three BBs to test in the gun: Daisy zinc-plated BBs, the Crosman Copperhead BBs and the RWS BBs that Pyramyd Air doesn’t currently stock. Testing is offhand, standing 15 feet from the target and using a Crosman 850 pellet and BB trap because it traps most of the BBs.
Trouble from the get-go!
First out the spout were Daisy zinc-plated BBs. They tended to group near the point of aim, which was a 6 o’clock hold on a 10-meter pistol target. When I went up to the trap, I found only 5 of the 10 holes in the target. So, 5 BBs missed the 7″x8″ target paper altogether. From 15 feet! Now, I’m not a great marksman by anyone’s definition, but at this same distance shooting a Daisy Avanti Champion 499 BB gun, I can keep all my shots on an American dime, which is 0.705 inches. So, missing a target that’s 10 times larger is pretty bad.
I moved up to 12 feet and shot again. Now, all shots landed on paper. In fact, they were in a pretty good group. If I had shot that target from 15 feet, all would have been right with the world; but having to stand 3 feet closer was a bummer!
A pretty good group, but I had to shoot it from 12 feet instead of 15. Daisy zinc-plated BBs.
I wanted to blame the wide rear sight notch for my accuracy problems until I checked a Daisy Red Ryder. My vintage No. 111 model 40 Red Ryder has a rear notch three times wider then the one on the Marlin Cowboy, so no complaints, there. Not because a Red Ryder is all that accurate, but because it has been the gold standard for the past 60 years.
Following Daisy zinc BBs, I loaded up with Crosman Copperheads and tried again. This time, I started at 12 feet, which was a good thing, because Copperheads were not as accurate in the Cowboy. There were also more failures to feed with Copperheads than with the other two BBs, though the gun did have feeding problems with all three.
Crosman Copperheads didn’t group as well, despite shooting from just 12 feet. They seem too loose for the shot tube.
Following the Copperheads I loaded some of the new RWS BBs in the Cowboy and shot once more. Again, the distance was 12 feet. The RWS BBs fed better than the Copperheads and grouped almost as tight as the Daisy zincs. I think this is a BB that needs more testing, because they seem to run neck-and-neck with Daisy zincs in most guns, and who knows what they would do in a 499? In fact, that sounds like a good test to me.
As we’ve seen in other tests, the RWS BBs hold their own with Daisy zincs. They merit future testing.
I also think I might test an original Red Ryder this same way, just to get a comparison between vintage and modern. Because the Marlin Cowboy has a gravity-feed magazine it wouldn’t be fair to test it against a Daisy No. 25 with its forced-feed magazine, but a vintage Red Ryder might be very interesting.
Back in the 1950s, I can remember wanting to mount scopes on my BB guns, because I was under the impression that a scope would somehow make the gun more accurate. The Daisy guns of that age were just beginning to come with scopes, so it was very possible to get them that way, though I never had one. But, I’m mentioning it because I can see no similar provision to mount a scope on the Marlin Cowboy. Have we forgotten the lesson of the upsell?
Final impression
Wood and metal seem to be the Cowboy’s strong points. Functioning and accuracy are its drawbacks. Only time will tell if this new BB gun will take its place alongside the classics.
Marlin Cowboy BB gun – Part 2
by B.B. Pelletier
The new Marlin Cowboy BB gun is a beauty!
Well, we’ve certainly heard a lot of passionate comments about the new Marlin Cowboy from the Part 1 report! Today, we’ll test velocity, and I’m including the new RWS BBs in this test. You can’t buy these from Pyramyd Air as of this date, but perhaps if they test out well in a couple guns we’ll give them a reason to stock them.
Somebody commented that the Cowboy looks like theDaisy Red Ryder, but I don’t think it does. In fact, there’s very little resemblance between these two BB guns, other than the fact that they both have levers. The Marlin is a little larger, overall, and perhaps not as refined as the Red Ryder.
Cocking
Cocking the Cowboy will seem strange to anyone familiar with American BB guns. It has a ratchet that incrementally grabs the cocking lever as it’s pulled away from the gun, hence a ratcheting sound accompanies every shot you make ready for. It’s more of a TX200 sound than a BB gun sound, and I’m still not used to it. It does no harm, but it does remind you that this is a different kind of BB gun.
Thankfully, the safety is manual, so it doesn’t come on when the gun’s cocked. However, the ratcheting mechanism is an anti-beartrap device, so there’s no uncocking this gun. If you cock it, you must fire it. Cocking is hard enough that I think smaller kids will be challenged.
Trigger
The trigger-pull is single-stage and breaks between 6 and 7 lbs. That sounds heavy –and it really is; but when you’re shooting the gun, it doesn’t seem as bad as it sounds. I guess you can get used to anything. I don’t know what effect it’ll have on youngsters, though.
There’s also not a lot of room inside the triggerguard for your trigger finger. Adults with normal-size hands will find it tight, and large hands may find it impossible.
Not a lot of room inside that triggerguard for a finger. Those with larger hands will find it difficult to operate.
Velocity tests
Velocity with Daisy zinc-plated BBs averaged 328 f.p.s. The spread was very tight, from 324 to 332 f.p.s. Pyramyd Air says these BBs weigh 5.1 grains, but I weighed mine and they averaged 5.3 grains The average muzzle energy works out to 1.27 foot-pounds.
Crosman Copperhead BBs really do weigh 5.1 grains, and in the Marlin Cowboy they averaged 331 f.p.s. The spread went from 327 to 335 f.p.s., so once again it was tight. They averaged 1.24 foot-pounds of muzzle energy.
And, now for the RWS BBs. They look so uniform; and when I weighed them, they all weighed 5.3 grains. The average velocity was 335 f.p.s., for the fastest of the test. The spread went from 333 to 339 f.p.s., so another tight distribution. The average muzzle energy was 1.32 foot pounds — the highest of the test.
There were several failures to feed during this test. They happened with all the different brands of BBs. It seemed that if I jarred the gun when it was held level, I would get a failure to feed. So, I’m thinking the BB is falling off its magnetic seat.
Thus far, I’m on the fence about this BB gun. The looks are good and the power is right where it should be, but the trigger’s heavy and there have been a few failures to feed. The accuracy test should tip the balance.
Marlin Cowboy BB gun – Part 1
by B.B. Pelletier
The new Marlin Cowboy BB gun is a beauty!
Well, I’m getting to this just in time for Christmas. And to tell the truth, I haven’t had this gun that long. The Marlin Cowboy, imported from China by Crosman, is a lever-action BB gun made with much of the nostalgic past in mind. On the top of the color lithographed box, they point out the metal lever and mention that the gun is made from solid wood and metal — the same battle cry big bore maker Dennis Quackenbush has been espousing for over a decade. Apparently, they have discovered what the U.S. buyer wants. And from the first look, I would have to say they got it right.
The Cowboy is a 700-shot BB repeater. The instructions say to limit the distances to the target to 10 meters or less; of course, I’ll be shooting it at 15 feet, the same as all other BB guns. The Cowboy has been priced right, at less than $40, to compete with its obvious foe, the Daisy Red Ryder. While I don’t like to make comparisons in my reports, it’s impossible to ignore the market this gun is targeting. Everything about it screams “first BB gun” to me. The size, price and features focus on a small person as the shooter.
The gun (it’s not a rifle because it hasn’t got a rifled barrel) is 33.25 inches long. It weighs a scant 2.75 lbs., and has a cocking effort of 20 lbs. Because the cocking lever is short, kids are going to have to learn to use leverage to cock this gun. You aren’t going to hold it on your shoulder and cock it, that’s for sure. The front sight is a very cowboy-looking blade and ramp, and the adjustable rear sight is a plain notch with a stepped elevator slide. Windage is not adjustable. There are no fiberoptics, thank goodness, so the young shooter gets to learn the basics the right way.
There’s a built-in safety, because this is the age of blame over responsibility; but, again, thank goodness, it’s entirely manual. And it’s small enough to be disregarded unless you mean to use it, which I do not recommend. For the benefit of new shooters, safeties are not the safe things they sound like. They simply mean that a gun may be cocked and loaded and “on safe,” which is never a good thing. Better to not cock it at all, and the safety will not be needed. If you do cock it, which loads a BB in preparation for firing, shoot the gun immediately afterwards to return it to the safest condition of all — uncocked.
The wood is stained with a blonde finish, which contrasts with the dark black finish of the metal. The manual says to oil the outer surfaces of the metal parts to prevent rust, so I would assume they’re finished with black oxide and not the electrostatic paint that’s more common these days.
Cocking will seem strange to those with BB gun experience. The cocking lever is connected to a ratchet that catches it by increments as it swings through its arc. Once caught, the lever cannot be returned to the starting position until the gun is completely cocked. You cannot uncock this gun by any method other than shooting.
At first glance, I thought the gun was put together with rivets until I examined the heads on either side of the receiver and discovered them to be Allen screws. Not that I recommend disassembling a BB gun, which is more complex than disassembling most spring-piston pellet rifles; but when the time comes, the Cowboy should be able to be taken apart.
Both sides of the receiver are covered with Allen screw heads. You can see the manual safety button behind the trigger.
Loading is done on the left side of the outer “barrel” that shrouds the real shot tube. A door is pushed up to open access to the BB magazine. You can then pour BBs in until the reservoir fills.
Lift the loading door and pour in BBs.
I found an undocumented feature on the gun that piqued my curiosity. It appears to be a window that allows you to see if the gun is loaded. It appears to look directly at the shot seat and shows the BB next in line for firing. I bet it was intended to do that very function and somebody decided at the last minute that it was a liability to have it as such, so they left it there but do not mention it in the manual. Because BBs work via gravity feed in the Cowboy, you’re best-advised to believe that the gun is always loaded, even if the last shot fired no BB.
You can see through this window on top of the outer barrel shroud directly into the space above the shot seat. That BB you see is the next one to be fired, but the owner’s manual does not mention this “feature.” You’re well-advised to ignore it in operation of the gun, because the gravity-feed mechanism can always dislodge a BB when you don’t expect it.
When the gun is cocked, the BB falls down onto the shot seat in preparation for firing.
There’s an oil hole in the outer barrel shroud, and the owner’s manual advises oiling with a drop of Crosman Pellgunoil every 250 shots. I over-oiled the test gun before shooting it the first time, and the excess ran out the rear of the receiver and onto the floor — so, oil sparingly!
Overall, I would rate the Marlin Cowboy as a very nice BB gun. It’s one you can be proud of the whole time you own it. I wish there had been BB guns this nice when I was a kid back in the 1950s!
Many of you have waited patiently for this review, so I’ll hurry it along, knowing that there are holiday decisions waiting in the balance. I expect to complete the report before the end of next week.
