Review of the Benjamin Titan GP .22 caliber air rifle

The Benjamin Titan GP is an excellent foraging tool for small game.

Some of you may remember reading my last air gun review, in that review, I found the Crosman Titan GP to be lacking in dependable on target accuracy. As stated in my review, the results could have been due to a poor quality rifle from the lot, and not a representation of the rifles themselves.
Because of my first experience with the Crosman Titan GP, I was excited when Pyramyd Air offered to send me the Benjamin Titan GP Nitro Piston .22 Caliber Air Rifle for review. As far as I can tell the Benjamin Titan GP is the exact same rifle as the Crosman Titan GP except for the name.
Reviewing this new rifle would give me a chance to compare the two and perhaps vindicate this line of air rifles. Let’s get started…
Shipping from Pyramyd Air was prompt with the product being delivered in under a week. The rifle came well packaged with the rifles factory box discreetly placed inside a plain brown cardboard box.
The first thing I noticed when opened the box and removed the rifle was that the Benjamin Titan GP sported a darker finish on the stock than the previously reviewed Crosman. I prefer a darker finish on all of my rifles, so the Benjamin Titan GP was already one up on the Crosman.
In my experience air rifles of this type tend to be on the heavy side and the Benjamin Titan GP was no exception weighing in at 8.50 lbs (a standard Ruger 10/22 weighs 5.00 lbs.) It would be great if air gun manufactures could get the weight down on this rifle to less than 6.00 lbs.
Perhaps they could do this by shortening the barrel and redesigning the stock (the rifle has an overall length of 47.00″) but then, I’m not an air gun designer or manufacturer so I don’t know the technical specifics to such changes or the effects they would have on the performance of the rifle.
Cocking the rifle was easy in one smooth motion of the single shot breakbarrel after tapping the barrel with the palm of my hand, and required little physical effort. The technical specifications listed by pyramydair.com on their product page states; that the rifle takes 31 lbs of effort to cock, which isn’t a problem for most people, but it could be problematic for someone with advanced age or a disability.
The Benjamin Titan GP .22 caliber air rifle features a 19 inch fully rifled barrel and a muzzle brake, both with a nice looking deep blued-steel finish. I also have a Ruger .177 caliber air rifle and comparatively the finish on both the metal and stock is much nicer on the Titan GP.
As with most air rifles of this type, the Titan GP has no iron sights but the rifle is grooved for mounting an optical sight and comes packaged with a CenterPoint Optics 4×32 scope & mount kit. I think the addition of a good set of metal sights would greatly add to the overall functionality and dependability of the rifle.
But as a rule, I prefer all of my rifles to have the choice of iron sights as well as scope mounting with see through mounts. Scopes can break, become fogged, lose zero etc., and the ability to quickly change from one sighting option to the other without losing the target aids greatly to the utility of any rifle.
The Titan GP features an ambidextrous thumb-hole stock with dual raised cheekpieces, and while well designed, I found the reach from the grip to the trigger to be a bit long. But, this would not be a problem for shooters with larger hands or longer fingers. Even with the longer reach to the trigger from the grip, I had no problem pulling the trigger or shooting the rifle.
The rifle also comes with a 2-stage adjustable trigger for fine tuning to the needs of each shooter, however I found the factory setting to be very good for my needs so I left the settings as is. But, adjustment is an option and a welcome addition that I’m sure many will find very useful.
One of the main selling points of the Benjamin Titan is the Nitro Piston system and a velocity of up to 950 FPS. The Nitro Piston offers a several advantages over rifles with a metal mainspring system, such as smoother cocking, no spring fatigue, reduced vibration, functions better in cold weather and the Nitro Piston system is also much quieter.
In fact, the Titan is noticeably quieter than my other air rifles, and is much quieter than my Ruger air rifle which is the loudest of the lot.

Sighting-in and accuracy

I shot this target from 15 yards - it measures just less than 1 inch including the flyer.

After plinking away the first one hundred shot break-in period that is recommended by the manufacture, I tacked up a target at 25-yards from my shooting table and went to work fine tuning the CenterPoint Optics 4×32 scope to match the precise point of on target impact. After several shots and a few clicks of adjustment, shots where center of zero with 5 shot groups averaging 1 1/4 inches.
After sighting the scope to match the rifles point of impact, I decided to do a couple of tests to see what the penetration capabilities of the rifle are. Using Crosman hollow point hunting pellets (the only type available at my local Wal-mart) the penetration was better than I had expected, with the pellet penetrating through both sides of a full can a cream corn at 15 yards.

A hunting we will go

Last weekend, I decided to take the Titan GP small hunting in the woods that surround my property. After walking about 75 yards, I spotted a nice gray-squirrel on a tree branch at about 20 yards. I slowly moved the rifle up to my shoulder into a shooting position and pushed the safety forward and off-safe with my index finger.
After centering the CenterPoint Optics 4×32 scope on the squirrels neck, I gently squeezed the trigger releasing the shot. The animal jumped and fell to the ground dead with the pellet completely penetrating the body and exiting through the other side.

Final Thoughts

The Benjamin Titan GP .22 caliber air rifle is a great survival tool that will allow you to quietly and effectively take small game out to 25 yards, without alerting neighbors or giving away your location.
I would replace the CenterPoint Optics 4×32 scope with a better and more versatile air gun optic such as the Leapers Golden Image  and add a sling such as the Gamo Gun Buddy air rifle sling.
For less than $170 the Benjamin Titan GP .22 caliber air rifle is hard to beat and is a recommended addition to you survival preps…