American Pneumatic Air Rifles!!!

 I had the opportunity recently to take this photo of my 70 year old  Benjamin Model 317 alongside a friend's Crosman 1400 Pumpmaster & Sheridan CB Blue Streak.
Left to Right:
Crosman model 1400 Pumpmaster .22cal. (1976), Sheridan CBW Blue Streak .20cal/5mm (1972), Benjamin model 317 .177cal/4.5mm (1940-56)

Since I bought my Benjamin Model 317 from Mr Marvin "the AirGun Guy" last year, I have thoroughly cleaned and oiled the exterior metal & stock, as well as that, I cleaned and lubed the pump arm,pump cup and seals that I could without fully disassembling the air rifle.

Benjamin model 317 multi-pump pneumatic .177 cal. Air Rifle

Thanks to Mr.Marvin "The AirGun Guy", I will have this vintage multi-pump pneumatic .177 caliber pellet single shot bolt-action air rifle sometime next week 😎

UPDATE: my new vintage .177 caliber Benjamin model 317 arrived yesterday!
It shoots well, and looks great, but might shoot better with a good cleaning & polishing as well as some pellgun oil treatment for the pump seals and external moving parts.

Northwest AirGuns demonstration with a cutout Benjamin model 312, which is the .22 caliber variant of the 317, or vice versa:

                                     

In another Northwest AirGuns video, a model 312 air rifle is disassembled. The 312 is the .22 caliber pellet variant, the 310 is the "BB" caliber model and the 317, which I have, is the .177 caliber pellet model:

"Trev's AirGun scrapbook" had jpeg's of the original user manuals for these old Pump pellet & BB rifles, as well as other vintage advertisements & photographs.

Below, is a near mint condition Benjamin 317 with most or all of the black nickel finish on the brass parts:

The original Benjamin Airgun factory in St.Louis, Missouri:

Baker Airguns, in Ohio, is a super resource for vintage AirGun parts, like this Benjamin peep sight, and seal & pump repare kits: Baker Airguns

I have been cleaning up and shooting this Benjamin 317 for a few weeks now and it functioning as well as it did over 60 years ago when it was new!

Since I am working on the air rifle indoors, I am only using lead free ammo, to avoid any trouble with lead.
This has given me a chance to try out the various lead free "sabot" style AirGun pellets that I have.
I have found that lead free H&N excite Prometheus pellets and crosman PowerShot penetrators perform marvelously with this pneumatic air rifle.
The 6 grain H&N Prometheus pellets are tight fitting in the breach, and the crosman 5.4 grain & 8.5 grain penetrators both have a loose fit.
I have ordered a thousand rounds of H&N Apollo pellets, which are the heavier version of the Prometheus pellets.

The 6 grain H&N Prometheus pellets look cool with their black polymer skirts:

I have spent quite a bit of time cleaning the exterior of the air rifle with oil, rags & q-tips and the AirGun is looking Sharp!

                                      

The Benjamin 317 next to a Sheridan "Cowboy" BB gun!