VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

Mac1 Prepped - Benjamin Marauder Takes Ground Squirrels - An Abert's Tree Squirrel - and A Trophy Soup Can

Tree squirrel season opened here on Friday, and I had a chance to do a bit of hunting with my Marauder yesterday. I was also checked by a Game and Fish Warden. Serious, but nice guy, and he was surprised to find out that the gun I was hunting with was an air rifle. He said he rarely encounters anyone hunting with airguns. 

I had a chance to talk to him about the Abert's squirrels a bit. I mentioned that I don't generally see many of them, and he stated that they are solitary animals, except during breeding season, and density up here runs about one per fifty acres. During peak times that can be as high as 5 or 10 per 50 acres, but the ongoing drought over the past several years, has kept their numbers down. Very interesting I thought. 

When I do get one or two, they seem like real trophy's, and they are. 

There is a ground squirrel that inhabits the same forest that the Abert's tree squirrels do. They are called Golden Mantle Ground Squirrels. They are a bit more prolific than the Abert's squirrels, but not much, and are about one third the size. I hunt both simultaneously. They make for a very challenging air rifle target. The ranges you find them at are the same as the Abert's. Shots range from about 30 yards on out to 70. 

I was only about a 100 yards into the forest, when I spotted something on a rock pile in the distance. It was in the shade of a big Ponderosa pine, and I couldn't make it out with my naked eye. When I put my binoculars on it, it turned out to be a ground squirrels head just peeking over the back of a rock. I shot a quick laser range on it and got 43 yards. 

I have the Marauder sighted in dead on at fifty yards. It shoots dime sized groups with the 18 grain JSB's at that range. I held a little low and launched a pellet. The resounding, THWACK, of a solid hit came back to me, and the head instantly disappeared. I made my way over to the rock pile, to find a lot of blood, but no squirrel. He had dropped out of sight down into a large crack in the rocks. 

I was a little disappointed at not finding him, but was very pleased with the shot. These little guys have a head about the size of a 50 cent piece. As I hunted along, I saw several more ground squirrels, but they disappeared pronto. No Abert's as yet, but I did see ocassional sign. 

About an hour later, I spotted a ground squirrel on a stump behind some low hanging branches of a pine tree. When I moved to get a more clear shot, the squirrel disappeared down into the old stump. I knew from past experience, that there was a good chance he would reappear in a few minutes. I also knew that there was a good chance that he wouldn't come back out at the same spot he had disappeared. 

I started glassing the area around the stump, sure enough, a few minutes later I see him sitting on an old log about 10 yards to the right of the stump he had disappeared into. I range him and it comes back right at 60 yards. It's getting late in the day, and there is zero wind. I put the crosshair on the top of his head and touch off the shot. He rolls off the back of the log stone dead. 

There was a pine tree directly behind him a few feet. The pellet passed through the ground squirrel and hit the tree with a loud SMACK. When that happened, an Abert's squirrel came into view on the ground, from behind the tree. 

HOLY CRAP BATMAN! I was not expecting that. I racked the bolt, and in true buck fever fashion, launched a pellet right over the top of his head. Crap! first Abert's of the season, and I miss. How long have I been doing this? It doesn't matter, buck fever is buck fever, and a miss is a miss. %#@*&^! 

He takes off for a tree a few yards in front of him and off to my left. The guy disappears around to the back of it, so I can't see him. If he goes straight up the back and into the canopy, he's gone. They are absolute masters at becoming invisible in the tree tops. 

I shoot a quick range to the tree trunk. It'll be close enough, and it comes back at 58 yards. As I'm watching the tree through my binoculars, I see him come out on a branch about 30 feet up. He slips out onto it and lays down like they do. This time I settle down, hold a little high, and squeeze the trigger. At pellet impact, he simply rolls left and drops out of the tree. There is a nice soft thud as he lands in the blanket of pine needles below. 

He turned out to be the only Abert's I would see on this hunt. 

Abert's tree squirrel with Golden Mantle Ground Squirrel.

As I headed over to collect my trophy, something glistening in the distance caught my attention. Bright and shiny, and a mile from the nearest road. What could it be? I picked up my squirrel and headed over to check it out. Maybe I was a crow in past life. 

When I get there, I find a nice shiny, all steel soup type can. Say what? Somebody carried that thing out into the boonies, ate the contents, and then just dropped it on the forest floor. Nice. 

As I'm standing there looking at it, I suddenly flash on prairie dog hunting, and the fact that an 18 grain JSB, launched at 30 fpe at the muzzle of my Marauder, blows clear through a prairie dog at 80 yards. Hmmm? Steel being tougher than a prairie dog, I wonder if it would blow clear through a steel soup can at 80 yards? Only one way to know. I picked an old stump, put the can on it and backed off a lasered 80 yards. I set the Marauder up on my Stoney Point bipod and sent an 18 grainer in no wind, down range. 

What do you think, does an 18 grain JSB leaving the muzzle of the Marauder at 30 fpe have enough energy to do any damage to a steel soup can at 80 yards? 

Your answer. 

I took a few pics, buried the can, and started hunting my way back to my rig. I missed a ground squirrel at 56 yards, but dropped a few others on the way back. On a three and a half hour hunt, I went through one mag of ammo in the Marauder, had a very serene BLAST, and can Hardly wait to go again.

In Preparation For Tree Squirrel Hunting - I Swapped Scopes On My Mac1 Marauder

Marauder with MTC VIPER scope.

Marauder with Bushnell Legend scope. 

During the Summer, I've had my Mac1 prepped Marauder set up for long range prairie dog shooting. I've been running her with an MTC Viper, 4-16x50mm scope with 30mm tube. This is an excellent scope optically. I really like the SCBR reticle. That stands for Small Caliber Ballistic Reticle. This reticle has many more aim points than a standard mildot type reticle does. I find that to be very useful when shooting prairie dogs out to 80 plus yards in the wind.

The down side is, it is a relatively heavy scope. For tree squirrel hunting, I want something a bit more compact and lighter. The Bushnell 5-15x40mm Legend, with mildot reticle will meet my squirrel hunting needs quite nicely. 

With medium height B-Square rings, it's about one pound lighter than the MTC Viper with high BKL double strap rings. That may not sound like much, but a pound less weight really makes a big difference when carrying a rifle on a day long hunt.

Hunting prairie dogs is done over relatively level terrain, and I don't generally cover large amounts of ground, so hunting with a heavy varmint rifle isn't an issue. I also like a heavy rifle for that application, because it helps make for a steadier hold on those long range shots in the ever present wind.

On the other hand, hunting tree squirrels in my corner of the world, can involve a lot of hiking, with some of it in fairly steep and rugged country. 

The Marauder isn't a light rifle to begin with, so pulling a pound of weight off of it by swapping scopes and mounts, just makes a lot of sense when setting it up for tree squirrel hunting in my neck of the woods.

I'm shooting the 18.1 grain JSB's out of her, so with the scope swap complete, I'll sight her in for 50 yards, make note of my hold under point at 25 yards, and we'll be ready to go.

I've got other guns, that from a weight, power, and balance stand point, are ideal tree squirrel hunting rigs, but for some reason I've got this urge to hunt them with my Mac1 prepped  Marauder.

Sometimes when you have an itch, you've just got to scratch it.

I got her out a coupe of days ago, and sighted her in with the Legend, and 18.1 grain JSB's. 

Fifty yards, five shots, 6 o'clock hold.

Covered with a dime.

Brought the target frame in to 25 yards and checked the hold under. Five shots, 6 o'clock hold.

Covered with an Advil tablet.

This Marauder is very accurate. We are now ready for the start of tree squirrel season on October 2nd.

 

Mac1 Prepped - .22 Cal Benjamin Marauder - How Accurate Is It?

I didn't think to use a coin to show group size perspective when I wrote the, "Hunting Prairie Dogs With My Marauder" story, so here are a couple of groups from my sight-in session. 

A penny covers the center to center spread of this first group. I was making scope adjustments on the fly, so there are more than five shots in this group. These groups were both shot at 55 yards, using the 18.1 grain JSB's. I'm thrilled that mine is driving tacks with the heavier pellet. Most of my shots happen between the 50 yard and 80 yard range. A 50 yarder, is a close shot out here in a prairie dog town. The wind is usually blowing as well, so I like the heavier pellet.

I tried to wait for the wind lay down, and then shoot during the lulls. I think I was fairly successful. I know the gun shoots even better than this, but I don't have access to an indoor 55 yard facility to see just how much better. 

The next target, was the last one shot before I started hunting. A dime easily covers the center to center spread of this group with room to spare.

 

I think these groups show the potential accuracy of the Marauder. Mine shoots every bit as well as several of my more expensive PCP's. I like 'em all, no matter what they cost. LOL. 

Hunting Prairie Dogs With the Mac1 Tuned - .22 Caliber - Benjamin Marauder

We had a great day today. I was on the road at 04:30, and pulled through the cattle ranch access gate right at 05:45. I had hoped to get there and sight the Marauder in with close to zero wind. Didn't happen. When I got to the dog town and stepped out of my vehicle, it was already starting to blow. Nothing horrible, but still 3 to 5 miles an hour. It would get a lot worse.

I didn't waste any time getting my gear set up. The conditions don't improve with time. The question in a prairie dog town isn't, is it going to be windy, but just how windy will it be today. 

I set up my shooting stand, got out the Marauder, put the Harris Bipod on her, dug out my rear bag and pellets, and put them on the stand. Next I put out my portable target holder at 55 yards. Loaded a mag with 18.1 grain JSB's, and started sighting her in. 

I started shooting on a large 10 inch Shoot-N-C bull, so I could easily spot the pellet impacts. She was shooting several inches high and right. I made several scope adjustments before I had her centered where I wanted. I moved up to a Shoot-N-C black dot and fired five for effect. My hold was at 6 o'clock on the black dot. They dropped into a half inch. Five shots in a half inch at 55 yards in a breeze...I'm very pleased, but not surprised, considering she was stacking the same pellets at 20 yards indoors.

Next I put one of the Shoot-N-C prairie chuck targets out at 55 yards and dropped five shots onto it. (the target at the top of the page) I love these targets, instant feedback, and they do a very good job of replicating the size of a typical adult prairie dog. The five went into just a hair over a half inch.

I put everything away, and it was time to hunt. The first prairie dog I saw was at a lasered 71 yards. The wind was directly at my back. No need to hold off for that, so I allowed some daylight to show between the top of his head and the horizontal crosshair, and dropped him with a heart lung shot. It turned out to be the long shot of the day.

With this type of hunting, you spend a lot of time in your binoculars looking for prairie dogs in the vegetation. Most of the time, you will only see their heads sticking above the lip of their mounds, or maybe a head and shoulders above the grass and other vegetation. 

I had been glassing and hunting along for about twenty minutes when I spotted a dog right at 55 yards. That's my sight in distance. Not a good thing for the p. dog. 

A little farther along, I saw a dog with just his head and shoulders showing over the edge of his mound at 61 yards. According to my wind meter, the wind had picked up to a steady 14 miles an hour but It was directly at my back. I settled the crosshair on the top of his head and lightly touched the trigger. The pellet launched, I saw his head snap back, and a fraction of a second later, I heard that tell tale THWACK come back across the prairie to me. That's the "sweet sound of success". 

By this time, I had been hunting for almost four hours, and it was getting even more windy and uncomfortably hot. I had dropped a lot of dogs, so I headed for "Command Central" to get some Gatorade, have a sandwich, and just generally marvel at my new Marauder. I've got some nice airguns to compare her to, and she's holding her own against them just fine thank you.

For me, with all of my airguns, accuracy is where the rubber meets the road. I like shiny metal, deep bluing, and gorgeous walnut as much as the next guy, but if the gun isn't a tack driver, it's out of here. 

The Marauder is a keeper. Excellent trigger, smooth bolt operation, and as accurate as I can ask for. She's driving the 18.1 grain JSB's at an average velocity of 867 fps.  That generates an average of 30 ft lbs of energy at the muzzle, and she does it for thirty shots with an extreme spread of only 20 fps. That is more than enough power to humanely take prairie dogs out to 100 yards and a bit more.

When hunting prairie dogs here in Arizona, the 30 shots will usually get me through a morning's hunt, and then some. I think she and I will go prairie doggin' again next week.

Mac1 Tuned - .22 cal. Benjamin Marauder - Now Running on 3000 Psi Fills.

It took some doing, and lots of shooting over my chronograph, but I now have my Mac1 Benjamin Marauder running on 3000 psi fills. One of the nice things about the Marauder is, it can be adjusted to run on HPA anywhere from 2000 psi on up to 3000 psi.

If you want to use a hand pump to fill the gun with air, no problem. It's a lot easier to pump to 2000 psi, than it is to pump a gun to 3000 psi. You also have the option of filling the gun from a SCUBA tank. There are a lot of places that will fill SCUBA tanks to 3000, or 3200 psi. You will still get a lot of fills from a SCUBA tank that's filled to 3000 psi, and is used to fill a gun that runs at 2000 or 2500 psi.

On the other hand, I have carbon fiber tanks that are intended to be filled to 4500 psi, so I want to run my Marauder at the max pressure of 3000 psi. Running at 3000 psi, I can adjust the gun to give me a higher velocity, and still maintain a decent shot count.

I spent Wednesday getting my Mac1 Marauder adjusted so she will run on 3000 psi. Then, I spent Thursday comparing her to some of my other varmint hunting PCP's, all shooting the JSB 18.1 grain Jumbo Heavy pellets. 

Since I'm mostly interested in long range accuracy for varmint hunting, I try to strike a balance between velocity, and consistency from shot to shot. This generally results in excellent accuracy, assuming the barrel and crown are good. I like to keep extreme spread to around 25 fps or less. Here are the results from yesterday's chrono session with the 18.1 grain JSB's.

Fill Pressure: Psi
Marauder,      3000
FX 2000,        2850
FX Monsoon, 3000
AA 410 ERB,  2850

Average Velocity: Fps
Marauder      867
FX2000         854
FX Monsoon 857
AA 410 ERB  884

Shots per string
Marauder      30-three mags
FX 2000        32-four mags
FX Monsoon 36-three mags
AA 410 ERB  30-three mags

Extreme Spread: Fps
Marauder      20
FX 2000        23
FX Monsoon 18
AA 410 ERB  28

I've only been able to shoot her at 20 yards indoors, but from what I'm seeing in the accuracy department compared to the other guns shot at that same distance, she will hold her own against them just fine. The first group I ever saw, that had been fired from a Marauder, was shot by Tim from Mac1, off a bench at 51 yards in a test tunnel. Ten shots could be covered with a nickel. 

This gun indoors at 20 yards, off of my portable bench with front and rear bags, is shooting five shot groups just over pellet diameter. My new stock should be here next Wednesday, I'm going to sight her in at 55 yards and introduce her to the local prairie dog towns. From what I've seen so far, this gun is as accurate as any gun I own.

Crosman has hit one over the center field fence with this rifle.

Groups shot standing from a Stoney Point Bipod. All groups 5 shots, 20 yards indoors.

Groups shot off of a bench, with front and rear bags. Twenty yards indoors.

 

Crosman, Benjamin Marauder .22 - With Mac1 Tune - Is In the House

I checked the tracking number and the UPS site said, "out for delivery", but when the package hadn't shown up by 6 PM, I figured it was going to be carried over to the next day. Right in the middle of dinner, at 7:30, the doorbell rings and it's UPS with my Mac1 .22 Marauder.

The first thing I did was to clean the barrel. It wasn't horrible but it did need a bit of a cleaning. I mounted an MTC Viper 4x16x50mm scope, in BKL 30mm high mounts on her, and filled her to 2500 psi for starters. 

First thing this morning, I set up my pellet trap, and shot some groups with 18 grain and 15.8 grain JSB pellets. After getting her close to the aim point, I shot the four 5 shot groups shown below. I also tried the JSB Exact Express, and the JSB Straton pellets, but neither grouped very well in this gun. A different Marauder might shoot them just great. The next pellet I want to try in this rifle is the DYNAMIC PCP-2 tin pellet. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to set up my chrono, and play around with setting her up to take 3000 psi fills and see what the shot string looks like. This is going to be an awesome hunting rifle. It is incredibly quiet. As a matter of fact, it's the quietest PCP that I own. $550 from Mac1 with his tune.

Tim at Mac1 Airguns, goes through the Marauders that he sells and re-cuts the barrel crown to make sure it is true, and perpendicular to the center line of the bore. He also polishes the leade into the rifling, removing any burrs that might shave lead from a pellet being chambered. He puts a high quality "O" ring in the breach, and sets the trigger to about one pound. He also checks to make sure that everything else about the gun is functioning as advertised. All of this is done for, what I feel, is a very small up-charge.

Anyway, here's the first four groups out of her at 20 yards indoors. These were shot standing, off of my Stoney Point bipod, with my right shoulder resting against the garage door. I'm sure she would do better off of bags on a proper bench. The green dots are .75 inch from edge to edge.