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Peska · Member

I love my Benjamin 392, but the old eyes aren't 17 years old any more and the open sights suck anyway. I always wanted to scope the thing, but everyone knows what a problem that is for a Benjamin.

I bought the B Square mount (Weaver) that attaches to the right side of the Benji's receiver but no matter how much I tightened the allan screws holding it down there was still play. Not good at all. Finally I tightened it the Sailor way and stripped one of 'em. heh heh.

I noticed that the underside of the B Square mount was concave in nearly the exact curvature that the topside of the Benjie's receiver was convex.
Out comes the Dremmel tool. I cut off the side of the mount that attaches to the Benjie. Then shortened the mount by abuot 1.5 inches.
Found a great red dot sight for it (the tube is 42mm to let in the light for these old eyes) that has Weaver clamps attached. I got the sight (to Guam, in 7 days, from airgunsusa.com. These guys are terrific. You can see the sight here: http://airgunsusa.com/desc/tasbkr42.html)

Then, measured things carefully.
I welded the B Square (what was left of it) to the top of Benjie's receiver and mounted the red dot.

Went to sight it in and started at 10 feet just to make sure I'd hit the paper. Two shots, fairly close to the bull, so I moved back to exactly 30 feet. (The center of the sight is exactly 1.5 inches higher than the center of the barrel, so it's like a scope in that respect.)

At 30 feet, took two shots. Both in nearly the same hole. 3 inches high and 1.5 inches to the right.
According to the sights instructions, it takes one click to move the POI one HALF inch at 100 yards. I figured to get into the bull, I'd need 60 clicks down and 30 clicks left. I decided to try exactly half that much and see what happened.

Next three shots, in the 10 ring! I suspect that the instructions should read 1 inch per click at 100 yards, or I'm really doing something wrong!
I moved back to 60 feet and put three about one half inch above the bull which is exactly what "chair gun" says should happen if I am dead on at 10 yards. I should be 'dead on" again at 87 feet but I don't have the room to test that in the yard.

Here are the drawbacks. The sight is 3.75 inches long. That means I need to put it back as far as possible and still be able to open the bolt. Then, it STILL covers about half the breach opening on the front end. I thought this would be a real problem at first, but once I got the hang of how to hold and place the pellets, it became really easy. (I have small hands and slim fingers for a grown man. Most others would have problem loading.)
I love this sight. It's easy and extremely quick to acquire and my old eyes just relish in the light. I've had it out at night, and the big 42mm tube really let's the light in.
My only regret right now is that my camera is busted and I can't provide pics of this setup. (It actually looks pretty good.) I'll see if I can get my daughter to come and take a couple of shots for me tomorrow and I'll post.
Till then,
Cliff

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Interesting. Post the pictures. Did you not try out the intermount kit that's available for Benjamin guns from Crosman? Bob tried this for a scope and apparently it work out very well (the newer mounts that Crosman claims are only for newer Benjamins apparently worked fine on his 1981-era gun).

Peska · Member

Hi Eric,
Yes actually, I considered the intermount. You are talking about the set that clamps around the barrel, right? If that's what you mean, I did consider it, but read someplace that if you aren't careful, you could separate the barrel from the tube. I didn't want to take the chance, also, the scope needs to have a long eye relief for that setup to work, right?

I'll see if I can get pics up in the next few hours.

Cliff

Peska · Member

Ok. Finally got some pics.

You can see how someone with big hand and fingers would have a problem loading a pellet into the breach. Being small handed, I don't have much of a problem at all.

This arrangement really works well for me and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Cliff