{"id":2566,"date":"2013-07-22T01:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/?p=2566"},"modified":"2013-07-15T06:37:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T13:37:01","slug":"saying-goodbye-to-an-old-friend-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/saying-goodbye-to-an-old-friend-part-ii.html","title":{"rendered":"Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend \u2013 Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Two<\/a>

Two of Your Humble Correspondent’s Sheridans. At top, a 50th anniversary Sheridan. At bottom, a modern Silver Streak modified with a globe front sight.<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, the modern Sheridan lives on, in a sense, in the Benjamin 392 (.22 caliber) and Benjamin 397 (.177 caliber) multi-stroke pneumatic rifles that Crosman Corporation still manufactures. They are identical in all but caliber with the modern generation of Sheridans.<\/p>\n

When I wrote about the modern Sheridans in 2004, retro-cranks complained that \u201cthey don\u2019t build them like they used to.\u201d From a certain perspective that is certainly true. But from what I\u2019ve seen on the factory floor, there is a lot to be said about the benefits of modern manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Today, the barrels, made with the same alloy and same process, are purchased from the same supplier that made them for the Racine factory. The breech is now CNC machined so they are consistent and precise from unit to unit. The trigger guard is now a zinc casting and the trigger is made from powdered metal. Previously, they were stamped parts. The biggest change is that brazing the action together \u2013 an operation that was highly dependant on operator skill and often required re-work \u2013 has been automated so that it is far more consistent from day to day, gun to gun. Modern Streaks weigh six pounds and measure 36.5 inches end-to-end, including a 19.38-inch barrel with one turn in 12 inches.<\/p>\n

While the manufacture of parts for the Benjamin\/Sheridan has been largely automated, the assembly and testing of the guns is still done manually by highly skilled operators in the same way that it was done back in Racine. Every gun is tested for compression, velocity, operation and safety, and a portion of the guns are tested for accuracy.<\/p>\n

These multi-stroke pneumatic (MSP) air rifles have their own particular charm. They are easier to shoot well than a spring-piston air rifle, but they must be pumped up multiple times after each shot. They seem to me to be the air rifle equivalent of a muzzle-loader, a Hawken gun. Shooting is more deliberate. You have to work a little for your shots, but then it seems that I enjoy each round a bit more. Give a Benjamin\/Sheridan a trio of pumps, and you can plink or shoot targets at short range. With eight pumps you can easily dispatch the rabbit that has been raiding your garden. With a peep sight mounted, accuracy is sufficient to hit anything that appears as wide as the front sight blade. When a neighbor calls wanting a pest control \u201cfavor,\u201d a Benjamin or Sheridan MSP air rifle is my go-to choice.<\/p>\n

There three common complaints about Benjamin\/Sheridan multi-stroke pneumatic air rifles. The first is that it is difficult to mount a scope on them. That is true, and there are two solutions that I can recommend. The first is to forget about the scope and mount a Williams peep sight. It keeps the rifle light and there is no scope to interfere with hand placement while pumping. The second is to forward-mount a pistol scope, scout rifle style. You can read more about that here: http:\/\/198.154.244.69\/blog\/2011\/06\/benjamin-scout-rifle.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The second common complaint is that the trigger is mediocre. You can readily improve it by installing a Supersear. You can read more about that here: http:\/\/198.154.244.69\/blog\/2009\/03\/installing-benjamin-supersear.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The third complaint is that people don\u2019t like all that pumping. Steve Woodward has addressed this by developing the Air Conserving Pumper, which drastically reduces the time and effort between shots and is quieter than the factory model. You can read all about the ACP here http:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/BenjaminACP.htm<\/a> You can read my review of the first generation ACP here: http:\/\/198.154.244.69\/blog\/2009\/01\/steve-from-ncs-wicked-cool-air.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jock Elliott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, the modern Sheridan lives on, in a sense, in the Benjamin 392 (.22 caliber) and Benjamin 397 (.177 caliber) multi-stroke pneumatic rifles that Crosman Corporation still manufactures. They are identical in all but caliber with the modern generation of Sheridans. When I wrote about the modern Sheridans in 2004, retro-cranks complained that \u201cthey don\u2019t…»<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,211,154,5,110],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2577,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions\/2577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}