Air Gun Home :: View topic - It's a Marauder B-day.

69Hotrod69 · Veteran Member

Well I bought myself a MRod for my birthday Very Happy

Went to fill it up and it wouldn't hold air. Mad

Thought about sending it back, but then thought "I like to replace the orings Crosman uses anyhow". I didn't want to wait to get one sent back that may have the same issues soo it came apart before I even got to fire it.

As I tore into it I discovered another issue that would have really upset me if I had tried to tune it before I ripped into it. It seems when they teflon(I think thats the coating on the hammer?)coated the hammer they didn't plug the hole for the stroke adjuster, it would not budge even with the nylon friction pin removed. Shocked

Lucky for me when I worked as a CNC programmer for the USN I had a tube of an incredible friction reducer. I slowly worked the stroke screw and applying the friction reducer as I went along, took forever but I was able to get it out and run a tap down the hammer and run the stroke screw through a die. Issue one smoothed out!

As I carefully inspected the orings I saw numerous shaved areas this is common when machine work is not deburred. For some reason now that CNC machines can produce almost burr free holes people seem to think they don't need to be deburred. If I was Quality Control Inspector(QCI) at Crosman this definately would not have passed. I'm sure someone will try to say something about companies not being able to afford these procedures but as a former QCI/Production Manager I can tell you a couple of extra tools and programing can take easy care of these issues. This is very frustrating to me! I know they can do better! Ok, second problem fixed with deburring and polishing of the tube. The orings, in my opinion, are to soft for the job thier intended to do, so all the tube orings were replaced with buna shore A90 orings. While I was in there I decided to open up the gage port through hole and stream line it a bit.

Problem number three appeared when I opened up the valve for inspection, the sealing surface for the valve was not machined, or the cutting tool was dull or broken. Either way it wasn't going to perform well or at all! So out comes my lapping compound. Ok, shinny sealing surface problem solved. While I was messing with the valve I decided to radius the bottom corner of the port and polish the interior to a mirror finish.

Now that the problems have been addressed it was time to do some things I just like to do to My Airrifles. I cut and polished the crown of the barrel, recountoured the feed area and polsihed it as well. Next I polished the bolt and the srews that slide in the tube and breech. Next I replaced the barrel oring with a Polyurethane oring shore A 90, they are very resistant to tearing and should reduce maintenace in that area. Put a little dab of moly grease in the breach and it is sooo smooth. Feels better than my old Remington 7mm Mag. Wink

Trigger is amazing out of the box, Smile

but I can't leave anything alone Laughing

soo I polished all contact areas cleaned it well and applied Molly grease. I also dearched(for lack of a better term) the secondary spring on the intermediate lever. It now adjusts from zero up to about 3lbs. I have it set for 1.3 average. Hair trigger but I like to leave a moderate amount of pretravel I take out the slack stop breath then I pull through. Twisted Evil

This method has allways worked very well for me.

I did initial tuning today I set it to shoot JSB Exact Heavies (18gr) at 850FPS at 2000PSI. Haven't done all the chrony work yet but it looks like 2600PSI Fill for around 35 shots at 90%. I'll post some graphs when I get all the data.

I also did initail sight in, at 25 yards rested on socks full of sand I can hold 1/4" CC. Cool

Now I only have one complaint, the stock is horrible. The trigger reach(thumb to trigger) is very long and I wear large gloves so I'm not sure who it was designed for. The cheek rest is too low for most scopes and the finish sanding is wavy as gravy. The reach is ok at 14 1/4 but I would prefer 13 3/4. All in all an uncomfortable stock.

Now I have a very respectable air rifle at a cost of $425.00 USD and some of my labor. Laughing

walter · Veteran Member

nice rifle, but its ashame fresh from the box it had some major issues for a regular person to have to deal with. Rolling Eyes

if i had purchased it i would be screwed. Shocked

pretty lame the average joe would have been stuck with a non functioning rifle with the inability to hold air even. glad you got it sorted. good for you that you have a clue. Mr. Green

69Hotrod69 · Veteran Member

I have dealt with Crosman Customer service in the past and they would have sorted it out. They are one of the best, I had a bad valve in a Disco and they sent me two just in case. I'm allways really pleased with their efforts. Now if Crosman would work on their production side a little all would be golden. I was just to impatient and I like to tune rifles. I think this had a little to do with the Holiday rush? Trying to fill orders during the hollidays can be chalenging. Just bad luck having a Jan b-day.

I do feel the Marauder is still a great rifle, and if someone without mechanical ability and knowledge purcahses one Crosman will make sure your rifle will function properly if they're given the chance.

walter · Veteran Member

thats good to hear. i only have a 1377 from them and although its nothing like your rifle its a sweet little gun for what it is. pretty bullet proof and darn accurate if not powerful. Crying or Very sad

but thats why i got the 97k for. Twisted Evil

accurate backyard hunting punch! Mr. Green

walt.