Benji Trail XL 1100 arrived !

[airiscool]

The Benji Trail XL 1100 arrived this morning, nicely double boxed from Pyramyd, and exactly when they said it would.

First impressions...

Gun, scope, sling and instructions are well protected - all in their own compartments of the Styrofoam block that fills the entire box.
 
Wood finish looks thin and has been rubbed down to a very low luster. It has no "depth" look to the finish s do many firearm stocks that are also low luster.  Can't tell what type of wood it is through the "muddy" looking stain that is mostly laying on top of the wood grain. However, it's smooth, and well shaped without looking "exaggerated" in anyway.

Stock is moderately wide at the thumb hole/pistol grip and middle of the forearm. I wear medium sized gloves and this stock is just barely comfortable for me. If you have large hands it will be a better fit. If your hands are small, this will feel like a big club.

Pressed engraving is clean and well placed for my hand-hold points.

Bluing is good. Not the deepest, shiniest I've ever seen, but not the worst either.

The gun comes locked with a strange looking two-piece plastic trigger lock. There is a three-pronged "key" included to unlock it.

The padded sling is a nice quality one with a non-slip soft plastic strip down the middle of the underside to help keep it from slipping off the shoulder. On the face of the sling it has "Benjamin"  in large gold letters. It has an Uncle Mike rear stud "swivel", and a buckle to adjust it through the front sling loop that is part of the cocking linkage. And another buckle on the lower strap for additional adjustment of the length. The sling is way more than long enough for the typical range of adjustments of a rifle sling.

The gun is very solid feeling,..... and it is also heavy.  With the scope and sling on, it weights in at 10-1/4 pounds on my postal scale.  I was surprised, because the gun doesn't feel all that heavy.  If you like light, small guns, this is not the gun for you. However, I prefer a heavier gun because I find it much steadier when shooting off hand. My Whisper, at 7-1/2 pounds scoped and slung on that same scale, I find too light when shooting off hand. This gun feels very steady and easier to keep on target.

And, at 48-1/4 inches muzzle to back side of the recoil pad, this is no small gun either.  Despite that, I was surprised to see that even with the long shrouded barrel, it balances very nicely. With the scope and sling on, the balance point is at the "J" in Benjamin - 4 inches forward of the trigger guard.

The "Trail XL" logo on the receiver has been hand lettered after the screened-on "Benjamin". My guess is all the receivers get screened with "Benjamin" and then whatever model that receiver becomes gets hand lettered later on in production.

The Center Point 3-9X40 AO scope with target knobs, comes with the two piece mounts already in place, an Allen wrench, cleaning cloth and see-through scope covers. The scope just needs to be placed on the rail in position best suited to the shooters eye relief and tighten the two Allen screws. No stop pins to worry about - this scope isn't going to budge at all !!!!  

Can't tell how the scope rail is attached other than it looks like it could be either silver soldered, or glued on. Whatever it is, it's been blued over after. And it's on there nice and neatly done.

The scope has "duplex" side and bottom crosshairs with the top and centers of the other cross hairs being very fine. The Mildots are not what I would call true mildots as I own several true Mildot ranging scopes. Instead, each crosshair has three equally spaced small "tick" marks that are too small to be used for mildot ranging, but are more precise when using for holdover/under. Overall the crosshairs are finer and I think will give more precise aiming than my Leapers 3-12 side adjustable AO Mini Swat. Target turret adjustments are crisper and easier than my Leapers also.

Barrel lock-up is super tight !!! Breaking the barrel open requires a good slap to break it open. Cocking effort is more than my gas Whisper, and not as smooth. There is some noticeable roughness during the cocking stroke, but it's on the level of what may go away during wear-in.

A quick look down the barrel to check and it's very clean, not the brownish tint my Whisper was when I first got it. Time to try a pellet.

I put a Superdome in and it's a mild, snug fit.  Opened the back door, aimed out into the snow, clicked off the safety, and ........ WOW!  I sure wasn't expecting that !!!!

70% quieter ? Maybe compared to my 12 ga. This thing let out a crack as load as any one of my 22 rimfires !!! Plus, a not-so small cloud of smoke out the muzzle too. Beware when you fire this for the first time, if your concerned about what your neighbors hear. They may call the police thinking someone is shooting a rimfire. However, all the shots after that first one  were quieter without the "musket" plume, only a bit of smoke to be seen when looking down the barrel after the shot. And, it is quieter then my Whisper.

Cocking effort is up there too.
It starts out stiff up to where it peaked at 40 lbs on my bathroom scale, then dropped off to 38 just before it finished cocking. By comparison my gas Whisper peaks at 34 lbs on that same scale.  Also, with the long barrel, I need all of it for leverage and it's a long reach to the end of the barrel with the butt on my thigh to cock it. I'm 6 foot, and I think a shorter person would have trouble reaching and cocking this gun. Also, after about 20 shots I can feel it in my shoulders. Takes over a hundred shots with the Whisper to get my shoulders to feel like that. This is no gun for a small, lightly built person.

Recoil?  The gun is heavy enough that there is not much recoil......but then again, I do alot of shotgun shooting and I don't think of any of my pellet guns as having recoil, so don't judge that by me. It's about the same as the gas Whisper.

Trigger.  I haven't played with it to see what it's capable of adjusting to, but it is much better than the "brick" that came stock in my Gamo. Untouched from the factory setting it's good, but not as light and smooth as the "Tuna Trigger" that I put in my Whisper. I'll most likely be putting another one in this.

While I was doing some break in shooting in the basement, I compared penetration power to the Whisper. At 6 yards, the Trail blows the Superdomes right though the full one inch thick rough-cut hemlock boards of my coal bin, but they don't penetrate the 1-1/2 inch thickness of a pressure treated 2X4. The gas Whisper only sinks the Superdomes about halfway into those same one inch boards.

Now that it's quieted down, some Chrony work. The F-1 Chrony is outside the back door. It's 43 degrees outside and it's a bit over 1000 ft above sea level here. The gun gets cocked and loaded indoors where it's warm, then stuck outside to shoot. Muzzle about three feet from the Chrony.

RWS Superdome  14.5gr                                        
881.9
884.1
883.0
897.4
887.0
884.2
888.2
886.6
885.2
889.0
Avg = 886.7  

RWS Super HP 14.3gr
894.3
896.9
896.2
891.3
895.2
895.3
893.1
894.0
892.9
890.7
Avg= 894

JSB Exact Jumbo 15.8gr.
793.9
805.2
799.8
799.9
798.6
788.5
801.6
792.2
801.3
801.9
Avg=798.3

JSB Exact Jumbo RS  13.4gr.
856.9
843.9
846.2
839.1
841.2
837.6
852.8
818.4
821.9
849.4
Avg= 860.7

JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy  18.2 gr.
778.4
786.1
786.7
789.1
789.5
790.5
785.5
787.3
791.0
789.2
Avg= 787.3

Ploymag Predators 16.2gr.
821.3
823.2
826.4
824.1
830.0
822.6
824.8
823.8
823.3
827.0
Avg= 824.6

For grins I tried a Gamo "PBA" Raptor  9.9gr  (aka Craptor)
The Chrony read 1071.1 fps and it cracked almost as loud as a 22 rimfire, so I only tired the one.  

With only about 100 pellets through it now, I expect these numbers will go up some as the gun wears in.   When it's broken in more (and my shoulders stop hurting) I'll see how accurate it is at 30 yards.

So far, it looks like this is going to be a hard hitting hunter !!!
All for now,
Paul.

[ezman604]

EXCELLENT report Paul, thanks. And THAT is smokin' at 25fpe. I'm making plans for my next purchase!!!

Enjoy your new beast.

Happy Shooting!!!!

Dave

[dk1677]

Congrats Paul! And thanks for the review!

[airiscool]

Thanks guys.

A correction on what I said about the  Trail logo on the side of the reciever looking like it was filled in by hand. I was putting the box away last night and noticed the exact same logo on the box, so it must all be one screen shot and the shaky hand affect of the word "Trail and the letters "XL" are intentional.

I also noticed on the side of the box it says best accuracy is acieived at a range of 33 feet. Seems a bit strange to put that on the box with all the other stuff about "Magnum" and " 30 foot pounds of muzzle energy" right on the front.

Paul.

[gamo2hammerli]

Great report on the Benjamin Trail XL 1100.  I`m starting to think I need one of those.

[airiscool]

Thanks Stanley,

I think you'd like it.

Paul.

[geewhiz380]

i love those numbers but im 5'8"and weigh 216 so i might as well get the remington npss.22 which was my first chioce and shoots great also my friend just got his on monday and he was hitting some good shoots out the box..jorge

[Checco]

Hey Paul, nice initial review. I have one on order but I'm really interested in the accuracy review. My partner has the same rifle and you review is spot on! However we can't seem to get any consistency with the accuracy at 30 yards. Oh and the trigger SUCKS! Looking forward to putting "Tuna's" trigger in it. Hopefully that will help dial the groups in.

Lemme know what you think at 30 yards.

Thanks.

Matthew

[airiscool]

Matt,
Thanks. It's apart right now waiting for seals I ordered this morning. The one in it had about 25% of it's edge nicked up.

The weather has been getting better so last week I could get out to my 30 yard target  frame. I started testing  what hand-hold postion and what pellet it likes  best.

After trying what I had thought was best, a powder burner hold, the targets showed it prefers resting on an open hand at the ballance point just forward of the trigger guard. That same point on the shooting bag improved some even more.

Testing pellets.
I have alot of Superdomes so I've been mostly testing with those.  Now that I was shooting at paper, I found it sprayed the Superdomes all over within a 4 inch area. Switched to Jumbo heavies and it improved to about two inch groups.  Then tried the Jumbo 15.8 gr and got a nice three shot goup - all three within a 1/2 inch of each other. Tried more and the groups started getting large and larger to over 2 inch. Switched to Preditors and I was able to keep those just under 2 inch, but by now the gun had over 300 shots through it and I noticed it was puffing out more smoke everytime I opened the breach. Looking down the barrel I couldn't see day light without blowing the smoke out.

And, the wind was picking up more so I gave up.

Then, I read what Gene reported that he had replaced his seal. Plus, Bob mentioned how often the factory seals are damaged from day one. Since it didn't act like scope problems, I opened up the gun that night and sure enough, the seal was chewed up.

I'm hoping that 1/2 inch group at 30 yards, just before it started getting realy bad, wasn't just luck.

Paul.

[Ray]

Paul

Congrats on your new Benji Trail. It does give a good work through. Great job on the review. Have fun with the new Benji.

Ray

[ezman604]

Hey Paul, I'm guessing it has a screw on end cap on therear of the chamberjust like the Benji Super Streak? I opened my SS from the factory without even shooting it and found a bad seal. Look here[/b][/i] for a tip to install a seal undamaged when you have a threaded end cap. I'm surprised (or maybe not) that the factory doesn't use something similar since the threads on the end of the tube will damage a seal every time you insert one without it. I know, it took me 4 seals to get a good one.

Thanks for the write up on the Trail XL.

Happy Shooting!!!!

Dave

[airiscool]

Dave,
Yes, no need for a spring compressor. Once the end cap is backed off about 4 or 5 turns, all the pre-load is off the ram.

And yes, I saw your write-up about sleeving to get the seal in.

I have alot of brass shim stock at work, and have often used scraps to "shoe horn" parts together in my work.

Since sleeving to get seals past threads is not an uncommon practice, I would be surprised the factory doesn't do the same. But.....
 I used the word "nicks" in my follow ups, but under magnification, the damage to my gun's seal looks more like 6 clean gouges, each very shallow and just about 1/8 inch wide, with their ends touching the next gouge.  More like marks left by a small screw driver blade if you were using it to get the lip past the edge of a reciever, so maybe the factory doesn't use the sleeve method

Paul

[Checco]

Thanks again Paul,
That is what I am looking for 1/2 groups at 30 yards.
I ordered a trigger from Tuna late Friday & it came in today.If you are reading this Bob thanks again for the quick service you are awesome.
Anyhow it made a great difference as I knew it would.
 Tried jsb jumbo 14.3 & 15.8 large groups 2.5-3"  I had one more tin to test & was getting 1.5-2" groups with benjamin discovery pcp 14.3 gr.
The best so far,I want to try some jsb 18.1 gr. I need to order some of those & some others to test.
I know one thing,  this  riffle has some major power.
I'll keep in touch when I find some ammo that satisfies me.
Matthew

[ezman604]

Don't overlook CPHP. Those perform great in all of my AGs.

[LongIslandArcher]

The Remington NPSS isn't going to give you speeds like the NP XL.  I have a Crosman NPSS and it only shoots a 14.3 grain pellet around 650 fps.  Maybe it's the moly lube I did to it and it needs to wear in, but my recommendation is to get the regular Trail NP.  The guys at my local airgun shop chronied it at 800 fps with RWS Hobbies.