An American made Breakbarrel?
I received a press release a few days before SHOT 2014. It was an answer to a long overdue wish for me and many other airgunners. Crosman, located in New York, has been quietly moving more and more manufacturing and assembly processes to the states. This is good news for airgunners, Crosman, and the American workforce. This move is most dramatically seen in their new airgun, the Benjamin Trail NP 2. Let’s take a few moments and talk about what this new airgun is going to bring to the table.
Nitro Piston 2 – A New Era in American Air PowerNitro piston Take 2 – Built in the USA
The old Nitro Piston, regardless of your like or dislike for gas rams, was a game changer for break barrel airguns. The initial implementations were effective at improving the traditional spring guns. But, I don’t believe the benefits were fully realized, as the Nitro Piston was simply a replacement for the metal spring. Frankly, not much else was different about the guns other than what pushed the piston. Let’s focus on what makes the Trail NP2 and the Nitro Piston 2 different from the old technology.
Built for NP from the ground up.
The new Nitro Piston 2 was built from the ground up to handle Crosman’s new NP ram. There’s a newly designed piston that sits in a larger 30mm compression chamber. The NP itself is now reversed with the gas chamber sitting inside the piston. The previous models held the “rod” of the ram at the head of the piston. This meant that the piston would “ride” around the ram as the rifle was cocked and fired. If there was metal to metal contact, this would create friction and reduce the effectiveness of the power plant. By reversing this, i.e. the gas chamber of the NP ram stays in the piston, you can’t have any loss of energy due to the piston rubbing on the ram. The newly designed piston also utilizes teflon guides that keep the ram centered and guarantee that you won’t get any metal to metal contact from the ram movement. The last feature of the piston is that there’s an integrated dampening system that further reduces recoil and vibration, specifically the dreaded “reverse” recoil that gives so many new airgunners a fit. I’ve not had the pleasure of shooting one yet, but talking with the folks that have, they are VERY impressed comparing the smoothness to that of a PCP airgun. During my talk with Crosman today, I believe we’ll have one in for testing pretty soon. (stay tuned for that!)
Chip from Crosman Holding the New Trail NP2The best is yet to come…
The plague of almost any of Crosman’s breakbarrel airguns has always been the horrible trigger. It was always too long and rough as a country dirt road. There was a ray of hope there for a while when the NPSS was on the market as Crosman introduced a new trigger variation that was markedly better than the stock Chinese trigger. The new Trail NP 2 takes the NPSS trigger one step further. The new trigger is supposed to be adjustable for position AND pull weight, producing a clean 2nd stage break. I was a fan of the old NPSS and if they’ve accomplished what they’ve claimed, then the days of the abysmal trigger may soon be a think of the past.
Other features and options that make up the Trail NP 2
The Trail NP 2 will be available sometime in March or April and will sport 3 different stock options. There’s the black synthetic, the traditional hardwood, and Realtree™ camo. The new stock design is different from the original Trail and is well suited for the new NP 2. There’s also an integrated sound suppression system that’s vastly improved over the original Trail NP, a weaver rail, and a 3-9×32 MD Centerpoint Scope. And the best part, is that the new Trail NP is being assembled right here in the USA. The critical performance components such as the piston, NP2 Gas Ram, trigger mechanism and more, are being manufactured here as well.
Stay tuned to the blog and our youtube channel for more updates and information about what’s new at Crosman and the new push for “Made in the USA.”
