| Shooting the Benjamin Rogue |
| Jim Chapman |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I'd been shooting the Nosler eXTREME 145 grain bullets with the polymer tip, and been having good results. This has consistantly been the most accurate bullet out of the gun. I went down to a Vogel 116 grain HP as this is the most accurate .357 bullet out of a couple of my Korean big bore guns. While producing acceptable 75 yard groups for predator hunting, they were not quite as tight as the eXTREMEs. I then tried the the Vogel 135 grain thinking they would give me an increase in velocity over the 145 grain and better accuracy than the 116 grain bullet. In fact they did neither, so I've continued to use the Nosler eXTREME 145 grain bullets as my primary Rogue hunting load and saved the 116 grain bullets for volume shooting such as prairie dogs. |
 |
 |
| Other Hunting Ranges |
 |
| Chronograph Results |
| Of four bullet configurations shot over the chrony, it is not surprising that the highest velocities were obtained with the lightest (116 gr) projectile. However the difference in velocity between the 116 gr and the 145 gr bullet was not that great, and the 145 gr produced higher velocities than the 135 gr hollow point. As expected, the velocity of the 167 grain bullet was substantially lower. With respect to energy generation, the 145 gr bullet out performed the other bullets with substantially higher levels across the 6 shot string. I don't know if this is because the ballistic coefficient of these bullets is better, if it's because the bullet and rifle were disigned to work together with the rifle tuned specifically for this bullet, or if it is a combination of these factors. The other thing that I found interesting was that the difference in energy output between the 116 gr, 135 gr, and 167 gr bullets was less pronounced than I would have expected, especially on shot number 4, 5, and 6. I mostly use this gun for predator hunting, and am therefore content to stick with the 145 grain Nosler eXTREME bullets. If I was going to use the gun for target shooting or plinking I'd actively search for a less expensive bullet with better accuracy. |
| manufacturers as well. It seems like these guns will be based on the soon to be released JSB .303 pellet, this being a very popular caliber in the parts of the world that were once members of the British empire. The Rogue is a PCP that is charged up to 3000 psi, which in the initial release could only be charged from a high pressure tank. The newer model can be charged with a hand pump as well. The gun is controlled via an onboard microprocessor that allows various parameters to be optimized for a specific bullet weight. In the current software revision, the bullet weight and the desired power settings of, low, medium, and |
| I shot a few groups at 50 yards and 100 yards with the Nosler eXTREMEs and acchieved good results. Above are two targets obtained at these distances, and while not a target gun, all shots sent down range at 50, 75, and 100 yards would have easily been in the kill zone of a coyote. This performance is in line with my other big bore rifles, some are a bit more accurate and some a bit less. I'll be trying out a few other bullets and pellets over the coming months, and will add those results to this page as dtata is collected. |
| Where Does the Rogue Fit? |
| I've been asked many time since the release of the gun "what do you think of the Rogue, really"? My answer is this; I like the performance of the Rogue as a 100 yard coyote rifle. I think it has marginal power as a big game gun, though some may choose to use it for this application. If I was to use the gun on bigger game it would be inside of 50 yards so that the bullet would be more likely to pass through completely.and leave a better blood trail in case the animal needed to be tracked. But at 100 yards most shooters could place bullets consistantly into a coyotes kill zone, and the gun has the power to anchor a pig at the right distances and selective shot placement. |
 |
| My Thoughts on the Rogue |
| I believe that the Rogue combines good accuracy, moderate power, fast cycling action, and a solid 6 shots for most hunting applications. In fact with some projectiles you can get a couple of extra shots, but the POI shift is more pronounced. In terms of sound signature, this is the quietest of my big bores, certainly lower intensity than any other big bore gun in out-of-the-box trim. The ergonomics of this rifle are good, the pistol grip provides a consistant hold and the trigger access is good. The retractable AR style buttstock allows the length of pull and fit to be adjusted to the shooter, or for the same shooter using different positions. The threeway safety controls are easily accessed, and the forestock ergonomics are also good. The ability to set the onboard microprocessor for a specific bullet is a great idea, however in my experience the low setting was not of much use, and I didn't see the big differences in external ballistics between medium and high settings with the individual bullet types, other than that the shot count went up with the medium setting leading me to suspect there is air being wasted and provides room for further optimization. Crosman has recently programmed the gun with new operating parameters, which is said to reduce the number of options yet improve the performance characteristics of those provided. I am sending my gun back to be reprogrammed in the next couple weeks, and will retest on these and other bullets once the gun returns. If asked about the downside of this gun; I feel that it is much too big, not only in terms of overall length and height, but weight. When shooting coyote from a rest these dimensions make it very stable, but if you need to manuever through heavy brush, tight spaces, or carry it long distances it is somewhat awkward. There have been reports of problems with the magazine sticking, I have four different magazines that have been used extensively. one hung up pretty consistantly from the beginning so was replaced without further incident. I've noticed that there can be misfeeds with the shorter lighter bullets, but for the most part when using the 145 gr Noslers the gun feeds reliably. |
| I've been shooting and hunting with the Benjamin Rogue for sometime now, and it's found a place in my big bore gun rack, which houses guns from several manufacturers in .308, .357, .452, .457, and .50 caliber models. I did some early velocity meaurements just to get a ballpark estimate on the power generated, but mostly shot the gun for groups under hunting conditions and took it to the field. |
| Recently I was asked to provide some more quantitative information on the gun, so I've pulled up few of the targets and velocity measurement that I've collected. As most shooters know, this is the first mass produced big-bore manufactured by an American company, though there have been quite a few US semi-production and custom guns, and a number of excellent production guns coming out of Korea. There are also new big bores about to be released by the major European |
| high can be selected. When I intially tested the gun, I didn't notice much difference between medium and high settings, other than obtaining a higher shot count on medium. The power levels generated with the medium and high settings were similar, leading me to believe that air was being wasted at the high setting. For this reason I do most of my shooting at the medium velocity setting when hunting. I'd always planned to use this gun primarily for predator hunting, with a self imposed limit of 100 yards and usually trying to set up the 50 yards shot. I zeroed the gun at 75 yards and even though my scope is a variable I almost always leave it set at 7x magnification, enough to see my target well, but not so much that every shake or movement is intensified. |
| 75 Yard Groups with 116 grain, 135 grain and 145 grain Bullets |
| Rogue Nosler 145 grain 5 shot (#1 was a flier) 75 Yards Rested |
| Rogue Vogel 116 grain HP 4 shot 75 Yards Rested |
| Rogue Vogel 135 grain HP 4 shot 75 Yards Rested |
| Nosler 145 grain 6 shot 50 Yards Rested |
| Nosler 145 grain 6 shot 100 Yards Rested |
| If hunting in noise sensitve locations, the Rogue is hands down the quietest big bore around, and is my first choice. I also like shooting it off a platform such as when going out on night hunts for predators in Texas. But when hunting the same game on the Midwestern farms near where I live, we cover a lot of distance on foot and are often in thickly forested areas where noise is not an issue, so I'll typically carry one of my more compact guns. It depends on what you need and what type of gun you like, but if the requirement is for a 100 yard predator gun that might be used to drop a pig at 50 yards when the opportunity presents, keeps the noise down, and offers a quick second, third, or even forth shot, the Rogue deserves a spot on your short list. |
| Velocity (fps) |
| Energy (fpe) |