Benjamin Bulldog, first blush

[addertooth]

The Bulldog arrived today.  It arrived in apparent good condition (the boxes were not crushed, and the air tube was holding 800 PSI). 
  It was ordered as the Sportsman's pack, with soft case, Rifle, 4-16X56 side focus CP Scope with caps and 3 inch sunshade, Bipod, 6 nosler rounds in a tube, 25 nosler rounds in a box, Cleaning rod with some foam tips, Scope mounts and a Benjamin logo on rifle sling. 
  An additional 5 round magazine was ordered (having just one is a mistake, when it breaks you lose a lot of use out of many rifles.

  Some time was spent assembling it and leveling the scope, as well as setting eye relief.  It was noted the bipod did not mount perfectly level, this will need to be remedied at some point.  It was filled to 2900 psi from a Ninja tank and taken outside to shoot.  The rounds used for the first 5 shots were the Nosler Extreme 145 grain slugs. 

Point of reference:
   I have both the Maximus in 22 caliber and the Marauder in 25 caliber.  Fit and finish reminded me of the Marauder, with a decent consistency in color, but not the true deep blue which is associated with high end bluing.  With caps and 3 inch sunshade, the scope comes in a bit over 19 inches of length.  This makes the scope a bit more that half the length of the entire gun (36 inches length overall for the gun).  Not including the bipod, but going from the handle to the top of the scope, the gun is 11 inches tall.  The cocking lever surprised me, I expected it to be much more difficult to cock and seat one of the Nosler rounds.  It proved quite easy and surprisingly smooth cocking.  As a reference, cocking seemed to require less effort than cocking the Maximus or Marauder; this was most likely due to the fact the lever is essentially a cantilever mechanism, so you are not directly pulling the bolt back by direct force.  You have a "lever" which offers mechanical advantage. 

Sound Level:
  Loud.  Not really back yard friendly unless you have very tolerant neighbors.  There are two elements of how loud this gun is.  When held and fired, the most notable sound is the ping from the airtube.  When someone else fires it, the report from the barrel is the loudest sound.  I am accustomed to the loudest sound heard when firing the Marauder (or the Maximus with TKO), is the pellet strike.

Power:
   Surprising.  I had set up two layers of bricks as a backstop, with a 5/8 sheet of plywood and an additional fence for safety.  With 5 shots, a few bricks were toast.  A steel lawn chair was put up for the 5th and least powerful shot.  The chair was shot at a 22 degree glancing angle, and it punched right through the steel chair. 

Balance:
   Compared to the Marauder, the weight is much further back which gives the impression of less weight than the Bulldog has.  The scale shows the Bulldog is heavier than the Marauder, but seems easier to keep on target without using the Bipod or a Bag. 

Trigger:
   No impression yet, 5 shots are not enough to give me a clear feel for it, more will be posted on this later.

Accuracy:
   No impression yet, 5 shots are not enough to give me a clear feel for it, more will be posted on this later. The scope has not yet been zeroed.  Out of the box at 25 meters it was shooting about 3 inches low and 2 inches to the left with the scope set to neutral settings. 

Overall Impression:
   It seems big, but not in a way which shows up on a measuring tape; it is more about the proportions of length to height and its overall centered weight.  The whole 5 shots and you are done is strange to me.  I spent the time to modify my Marauder to give me 42 shots at 40 FPE, so 5 and done seems strange to me.  I like the magazine much better on the Bulldog much better than the Marauder magazine.  No having to flip a clear cover backwards and awkwardly feeding in pellets.  You just rotate the ribbed central drum or the magazine and fill it up, it is more intuitive.  The sling seems weak, and will likely be replaced.  The scope exhibits Chromatic Aberrations (lines viewed at a distance have a "rainbow effect" due to the lack of complex coatings on the optics.  On the flip side, the 56mm objective lens does bring in a lot of light.  The case is very lightly padded, and probably would not do much to protect the rifle from a hard knock.  The case does come with one very generously sized pocket on one side.  The space is more than adequate for spare magazines, ammo and anything you might reasonably want to take into the field.  More will be posted when I have a better feel and opinion on the Bulldog. 

[Rob M]

awesome! there are gradually more aftermarket parts for the gun so its a good time to have 1

[betapotato]

Congrats on the new gun Todd! I am saving up for a Bullpup too because of the weight balance.

[addertooth]

Donut,

   Good luck with your Bullpup savings plan.  I plan on posting what slugs shoot well in the Bullpup.  I ordered some Nielsen Ammo 126 grain boat tail rounds which are reputed to shoot well.  I will do a side by side comparison with the JSB exact kings 81.02, Nosler extreme 145  and the Nielsen 126 grain boat tails.  Hopefully, this will help other new Bulldog owners from spending money on rounds which may not perform well.

[Dairyboy]

I will be following this for the future. Sounds like it could be a solid close range off hand coyote gun.

[addertooth]

DairyBoy,

You sure gave me a leg up on the Marauder, turn about seems fair play!

[Wayne52]

Congrats on your new Bulldog Adder!!!

[addertooth]

The 126 grain Nielsen Specialty Ammo Boattails came in today.  I did some measurements on them.  They are amazingly *consistent*, with diameter being within 1/2 of 1/1000 of an inch on all surfaces (worst case), with most of the rounds being accurate to the exact same measurement all the way around the ribs which seal the bore.  The rounds labelled 0.357, measured exactly .357 from all angles.  The ammo labelled 0.356 actually measured 0.355 to 0.3555.  I wanted to try two sizes for both velocity (which will give a hint to whether the rounds are sized too tight) and accuracy (which indicates if the rounds are sized too loose/small.  This Sunday at the range will tell the story.  From this I will be able to infer what my actual bore size is on the Bulldog.  If I lose velocity with the .357, but have no better accuracy than the .355 rounds, then the bore is closer to .355.  If the velocity is lower with the .357, but the grouping is tighter, then the .357 rounds are the ones to purchase more of.  As a reference the JSB exact king pellets measured 0.355 on most of the heads, and about .363 for the skirts.  The skirts are soft on the JSBs, so being oversized is not a problem and only enhances the seal.   The Nosler extremes measured a consistent .3565 to .3570 on all the samples.  I want to order some 140 and 160 grain Mr. Hollow points, but it would make sense to wait until I have a better feel of the actual size the Bulldog likes to ingest. 

[addertooth]

I didn't care for the way the textured plastic pistol grip felt on the Bulldog.  Picked up a Hogue Handall grip, model 17000.  It is a great fit (requires a bit of work to get on).  And I have it position so the two finger grooves line up with my pinky and ring finger.  This makes my trigger finger perfectly line up with the trigger.  The rubber-sleeve grip does not go all the way up, so it keeps your trigger finger and thumb web in the same size as before for a good feel.  This means it does not require a larger hand to have good trigger finger placement.   I strongly recommend this product. 
Before the Handall grip, it seemed the pistol grip was a bit slippery.  No good story starts with "I was walking through the woods and my hand slipped off the hand grip". This will keep you from finishing this tale.

[addertooth]

The Trigger

Finally got a chance to put about a hundred rounds down the barrel.  Some follow up opinions.  Trigger is "hunter nice", which is to say it is not adjusted as lightly as my other air rifles.  It is still at stock setting for the trigger group.  Normally the trigger is one of the first things adjusted on many of my air rifles, but as this one breaks bricks with the Nosler round, I kind of like the idea of a longer first stage, and a firmer second stage.  The break is clean and repeatable, which is a very good thing.  Of all the rounds fired today, none of them left the barrel without clear intent. 

Accuracy

This example is likely a 1 MOA gun with the right projectile.  The wind was howling today, and at 50 meters it was fairly easy to shoot 1 inch groups, in spite of the breeze.  On a windless day, the groups could be shrunk to 1/2 inch.  The clear winners were the Nosler Extreme 145 grain slug and the JSB 81.02 35 caliber pellet.  The Nosler produced an ever so slightly tighter group.  The Boat tail rounds were scattered across about a 4 inch group.  The spread was both horizontal and vertical.  The rifle may shoot these better once it is fully broken in.  For the moment, they are not working well for me.  All of the rounds fed through the magazine well and seated properly in the bore. 

Air use

What a hog!  Okay, it was purchased knowing it was a 5 shot and done gun, so no surprise there (heavy air use occurs with all big bore air rifles; some of them combat it by putting a larger air tube or bottle on their guns).  With a Ninja Air tank I got about 5 to 6 full fills (after shooting the Bulldog down to 2000 PSI), before the tank was in need of refilling.  For many of the shots I simply tethered the gun with the tank; the placement of the fill nipple rear of the trigger group made this easy.  If it was near the end of the barrel, it would have been problematic.
I have yet to do an official shot string with it off the Bulldog's air tube.  Some of my initial shots across the chrony were too close and produced erratic velocity results.  Later, the barrel was moved a foot back from the chrony, and the results seemed more reasonable (the cement slab ended right at the bench, and there was a dirt embankment at the gun range, so ideal placement of the chrony was difficult).   

More later as I know more.

[TheLakeRat]

Congrats!!!
I'm loving mine.

You can get a LDC for them now and soon will have a regulator available with a larger reservoir.

[addertooth]

The Moderator and the single shot tray arrived today.  Thank you again LakeRat.

[TheLakeRat]

No problem, hope you love them.

[Rollo]

The Moderator and the single shot tray arrived today.  Thank you again LakeRat.

So how's the LDC working out for you???  Any word on a de-pinger???

[addertooth]

The LDC is not in yet.  The Bulldog is still being baselined.  A depinger will not be installed.  I am waiting for a regulator, which will act as a depinger.

[addertooth]

With two weeks at the range, this rifle is starting to grow on me.  I must admit the Marauder is easy to like more.  I am less concerned about the risk of mis-fire with the Marauder, so it's trigger is adjusted much lighter, and it is better suited for target shooting (or small critter shooting).  The scope is also nicer on the Marauder, which gives it an "ease of sight picture" advantage as well. 

This is where an attitude adjustment is needed on my part.  The Marauder is geared towards smacking small critters where the sweet spot of impact is plus and minus a half inch. Typical range for most of my game shots with the Marauder have been around 50 yards or less.   The Bulldog is for shooting larger game, where the sweet spot is plus or minus 2 inches.  Larger critters here, such as deer are more skittish, and so likely shooting distances will be 50 to 75 yards. 

Scope mounts on the stock "hunter's pack" have the centerline of the scope 2.5 inches above the center of the bore.  Assuming you don't want to deal with clicks or mildots, and if you zeroed at 50 yards, this makes the aim point versus the vertical strike point within plus or minus 5/8 of an inch from 15 yards to 57 yards, with the peak at 38 yards (highest point).  Beyond this, at 75 yards you need roughly 1 mildot holdover correction, and at 100 yards it translates to roughly a 3 mildot holdover.  Although there are some small variations, these values are generally accurate for both the JSB exact King .35 and the Nosler Extreme rounds (even though their mass, ballistic coefficient and velocity are quite different).  These observed values are backed up by Hawke Sports Chairgun pro, once you put in a more realistic value for the Nosler's Ballistic Coefficient.  The published .170 has proven to be excessively optimistic, and 0.120 seems to be a better fit.  At 75 yards, a 2 inch splatter bullseye was used, and once the right holdover was used, the JSBs and the Noslers stayed within the bullseye with a light variable breeze.  At 100 yards, a rock which was 4 inches across was used, and the lead rounds put a silver smear across it when it was hit.  In other words, the rock was about as big as the heart of a deer. 

I am still not fond of the factory scope, it isn't that there is an accuracy problem, it is more about eye position and sweet spot (plus the color shift at the edges).  The scope side parallax values are spot on, which was a pleasant surprise.  The scope is more than accurate enough for the gun, but it may get upgraded in the future. 

The bipod has a bit of wiggle to it, more than I like, but by the same token, some people like being able to shift position without re-planting the bipod, so they may actually like the feel.  In the field, the wiggle room would be a plus, from a bench and punching targets it may hinder accuracy.

And of course as a last item, the gun does not leak at all.  Some of the early Bulldogs had a leak issue.  This example does not exhibit that undesirable trait. 

[Smoke229]

So how did this all turn out?  I'm very interested in the ldc and regulator. I'd buy a bulldog if I could get 15 - 20 accurate well powered shots per fill PLUS backyard friendly sound level.
Right now the hatsan herc/bull is where I'm leaning by far.

[tejon]

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