Anyone know the Benjamin Model 3030 CO2 Repeater?

[wingspan99]

At one time I thought this would be a great rabbit gun because, the ads always said it was the "hardest-shooting CO2 gun on the market".  Magazine holds 30bb's and up to 30 shots from a CO2 cartridge, a bolt action gun.  I'm curious about speed and energy and can it even fire pellets?  Price was $21.95 in the 1974 Leslie Edelman catalog, a Long Island, NY based sporting goods store.  I attached a scan of the page from their catalog.  I suspect it was around 500fps and with BB's that's not a rabbit getter, and it was smoothbore too so groups probably would have been wide with only BB's to shoot.
-Tom in Colorado

[airgunandy]

Almost bought one a couple of years ago. It uses an 8 gram CO2 bulb instead of the more usual today 12 gram. That turned me off from buying it. After I got home I found you can still buy the 8 gram bulbs. Another thing that turned me off was the idea of shooting steel BB's through a brass barrel. The gun looked great on the outside. The walnut stock was awesome. But I wasn't able to check the bore,  I bet it couldn't have been too pretty.

[wingspan99]

An 8 gram cartridge must have been a Benjamin brand cartridge?  The page pic I posted says their standard cartridges are 2 5/8" long and 47/64" diameter.  The 12 gram cartridges I have at home are 3 1/4" long and about 23/32" in diameter.  Interesting.  30 shots from an 8 gram cartridge will probably have less power than 30 shots from a 12 gram cartridge if they both are empty after 30 shots.