Help finding the right Benjamin/Sheridan

[Hoosier Daddy]

You could fill an entire gate here on that discussion alone.
 Kind of like on the Car / Truck / Motorcycle forums asking which oil is better.

I am now buying guns other than Sheridans in .20 but have some .22 I like as well.

[Duckfish]

Older is better,

[SwampHunter]

You could fill an entire gate here on that discussion alone.
 Kind of like on the Car / Truck / Motorcycle forums asking which oil is better.

I am now buying guns other than Sheridans in .20 but have some .22 I like as well.

Royal purple or amsoil of course! Hahaha!
 
Didn't realize it was that big of a discussion lol, seems like a lot of opinions vary then? Better try the .20 then, simply because I haven't had one!

[bantam5s]

Are the Sheridan's only available in .20? Other than that what is the difference in the same years? I didn't realize they were made at the same time time. Thought that Sheridan's were the really old ones and then switched to bejimans?

The Benjamin Franklin air rifle company started long before ww2.
But Bob Krause and Ed Wackerhagen ( probably spelled 'em wrong ) created Sheridan products Inc in the late 40's and we're later purchased by Benjamin in '77 and nothing really changed till crosman got both around I believe '91.

 I've heard Sheridan's often had a reputation for better accuracy due to their slightly better quality of pellet, the caliber itself doesn't really seem to actually end up offering too much over .22 In a C series Sheridan blue streak vs say a Benjamin 312 or 342 when the most common pellet options in either caliber are 14.3gr. it really is the gun not the caliber.
Power and pumping efficiency is a bit better on a Sheridan streak, but accuracy and build quality is pretty much on par.
 It's the more refined Sheridan design and form that really sets it apart.
I like my '67 312 with the " Tootsie roll " shaped pump handle handle because it's just a nice sleek little rifle with good pop, but while it's perfectly adequate for pumping it's just a pump handle and not a forearm which I feel is better
The Sheridan's had more thought put into the hold while pumping but also how you'll hold the rifle when shooting.
You've got a longer fatter forearm to pump with that is nice to hold onto while shooting and at some point not too far down the line they started to include a ribbed rubber hand grip that pops onto the barrel just in front of the receiver so you've got a comfortable place to hold the gun while pumping.
Probably feedback from streak owners since they are a bit harder to pump than a Benjamin 312 / 317.


The earlier benjamin guns are nice little rifles but the round little pump handle is not as nice for extended shooting than an actual forearm that really gives you something to hold onto.
I don't know why the little pump handle would seem less than ideal for anything compared to an actual forearm but it does.


I say the c sereis Sheridans at are the best of the two, but while my '82 342 is kind of rough I can say they're a great gun and would be a fine choice over a streak if you wanted .22.

[WECSOG]

Looks like I'm late to this party, but wanted to add my 0.02. First, .20 vs .22. I have both and prefer .22. There is a far, far greater variety of pellets available for .22 than .20. For just plinking, decent (non-premium) .22 pellets can be had much cheaper than .20. For hunting, yes the standard weight is the same for .20 and .22 but you can get .22 pellets that are double the weight of the heaviest .20 pellet, and the Benjis generally shoot those heavy pellets well.

Old vs. new: My recommendation is to get a new one and an old one. First, on the new one. I have two, 392PAs (which is the new model) and neither has the leaning sight. Both are accurate, too. In my opinion the folks who buy a new one that's not perfect out of the box do the rest of us a huge disservice by making far too much of it. It has a warranty. It is still made in USA. Like any mass produced item, yes some have a flaw. If you get one of those, return it! That's what the warranty is for. If they were hand made with loving care, they would cost $1000+.
Everyone has heard the sour-grapes reports from a few folks who received a 392 that didn't measure up. If their intention is to cause the last decent quality American pumper to be discontinued due to lack of sales, they're doing a great job.

Trigger: Yes, the trigger is imperfect (but generally usable) out of the box. That's the reality of the lawyered-up society we live in. However, there is a lot you can do to that trigger to improve it. It is a better-designed and more robust trigger mechanism than the older ones. And if you mess up while working on it, Crosman will sell you a complete new trigger assembly for a few bucks. Btw, the trigger assembly and trigger guard are metal. I've read on some forums that it is plastic. That is totally untrue.

Valve: The new ones have a drop-in brass cartridge valve. Much easier to work on than the old ones. You can buy a complete replacement from Crosman for a few bucks. They are easy to work on, and you can mod one to your heart's content, for more power. If something happens and you mess it up, or just want to return it to stock for any reason, just drop a new valve (or the original one you set back) in.

While we're still on the subject of the new ones, let's touch on the ACP (Air Conserving Pumper) that someone else mentioned. It wasn't Baker Airguns that (allegedly) sold those; it was Airguns Of Arizona. I tried to buy one. AoA couldn't even be bothered to return any of my communication, either to sell me an airgun or answer any questions. Baker Airguns is a top notch company in my experience, and I don't hesitate to recommend them to anyone. But they don't sell the ACP. Apparently, neither does anyone else. So I built my own. Later, I "un-ACP'd" it.
I think the guy who came up with that idea has a bad rep anyway. But it's not difficult to mod a standard 392PA into an ACP, or a Steroid using a few parts from MAC1.

Ok, on to the old ones. Yes, I love those too. However, I recommend only buying one from one of the established members of this forum, or from Baker Airguns. Here's why: First, these were mass produced too, and some of them had flaws. Fortunately, most of the ones that have survived are pretty good. I think that is for a couple of reasons. First, they're airguns. Like most airguns, some were abused and neglected and did not survive. A lot of the better ones have survived because their owners liked them well enough to want to take care of them. Second, the triggers and other working parts have worn-in and become smoother from years of use.
The triggers on the older ones are one thing I want to address. Some of them do indeed have wonderful triggers. But these are not high quality trigger mechanisms. Some of them are very smooth from years of use, but they are very simple and cheap to produce. They are made of stamped steel and have no adjustments. If you compare them to firearms from the same era, they in no way compare to a high quality firearm. They are more similar to a bottom-end, utilitarian gun like a cheap single-shot .22 rifle.
I have several of the old ones. A couple of those are good examples of what I'm talking about. One of them had an absolutely atrocious trigger when I first got it. Now that I have shot it quite a bit, it is getting better. But the typical new 392 still has a better trigger than this one. The other one has a very, very light trigger. It is smooth. But it is really lighter than is safe for such a simple trigger mechanism. With very much more wear, it will become even more unsafe until it won't remain cocked at all.
If you have one of these older ones and the trigger has a problem, about all you can do is find another used trigger (from one of the guns that didn't survive as a shootable example) and hope that fixes it. These triggers are not adjustable, and you can't make them adjustable unless you have the skills to build a whole new, different mechanism.
Valves: the old ones have soldered-in valves. They are kind of tedious to get back together, and a lot of people have cross-threaded them while attempting to do so. That pretty much renders it a parts gun. It's possible in some cases to desolder the valve, recut the threads and resolder it. It might even be possible to recut threads without desoldering. But in either case it would cost more to have that done than to just buy another gun.
One more thing: a lot of these old guns cannot develop full power because they start retaining air after 5, 4 or even fewer pumps. That can be fixed, but it requires disassembly and spring replacement.
One last thing about the old ones: it took the factories a few tries to get the safety right. The earliest Sheridan Streak had a safety you had to hold down to shoot, and most people just disabled it by jamming a toothpick or something in there to hold it down. The early Benjamins had a safety that was unreliable and unsafe, by their own admission. I personally like the rocker safety of the later Sheridan Streaks, as do most people. But the fact is that the new 392 has a more reliable and robust safety than any of the old ones.

All the above is why I recommend only buying the old ones from well-established GTA members or Baker Airguns. If you buy one off Gunbroker or whatever, there is a huge chance of getting ripped off or just getting one that is sub-par or has a major internal problem (cross-threaded for example) and the seller won't let you return it, or insists that you pay for return shipping. Been there, done that.

[SwampHunter]

Thank you both for all the info, great stuff!