Benjamin Sheridan 392: When your favorite .22 is a pellet rifle
I absolutely love this rifle. Is it my favorite .22?
I first started looking into this rifle after I read a blog about survival weapons.
As I’ve stated elsewhere and as been stated ad infinitum elsewhere, the Ruger 10/22 is a great weapon for a survival situation. So there I was, reading this survival blog about how great the Ruger 10/22 is when I came upon another entry that was talking about what a great survival weapon a pellet rifle can be. I won’t bore you with the details (quiet, cheap cheap cheap ammo, can take squirrels, rabbits, ducks). You can check them out here: http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/featured-wilderness-survival-blog-entries/4-reasons-to-add-a-pellet-air-gun-to-your-survival-gun-arsenal/
Anyway, I pondered the purchase for a couple of weeks (which is pretty good for me). However, an Academy gift card pushed me over the edge and I got one (they go for about 120-130 dollars). “120 dollars for a pellet rifle?” You say. I say “Yes, and worth every penny!”.
If you can’t tell from the picture above, this thing is beautiful. Beautiful wood stock and brass barrel (all wood and all metal…quite an anomaly these days) and if taken care of it should be the kind of rifle you can hand down to your kids.
This thing is accurate and packs a punch. You need to put some rounds through to get it broken in as well as get your arms used to pumping the thing. I promise you it’s worth every pump and every hand callous. You should also clean out the black paint overspray at the end of the barrel with some nail polish remover or acetone as this will keep the black paint from messing with your accuracy.
I have found that 4 or 5 pumps is perfect for backyard plinking. I haven’t been out squirrel hunting with it yet but I’ll be sure and provide a report.
Did I mention it’s a .22? You can get a 500 count tin of the .22 Caliber Crosman Premier Hollow Points for 7 bucks at Wal-Mart. Academy has the Benjamin pellets for 10 dollars.
This thing is a real hoot, especially if you live within city limits and can’t walk out on to your back porch and shoot your .22 rifle….legally. That being said, this rifle is not a toy. If you are going to be shooting this rifle in your backyard, build yourself a thick back stop and get yourself a good pellet target/trap. Be careful!
So…is it my favorite rifle? Right now it’s definitely in the hunt. I took it out to the Lexington WMA and walked around with it. It was too late in the 108 degree day to see much, but I had a blast shooting cans and it was fun as hell to be walking around in the woods with a kick ass pellet rifle. I can’t really explain with words why it was so cool, it’s just something you’ll have to try out yourself.
All Things Shooting and Hunting 
December 28, 2011 at 5:29 am
This really made me want this rifle. Post more often.
August 15, 2012 at 5:55 pm
you have stumbled into a whole new world with the air rifle… the 392 is a great hunting gun, good enough for all small game out to 30/35 yards with head shots. I have used it and its sheridan brother (superior punch because of the use of a .20 caliber pellet that weighs just as much as a .22) for very succesful hunts all over New York. And mine are all zeroed to shoot at only 5 pumps, which will push that pellet at about 600 fps. The fact that you may adjust the velocity with the number of pumps allows this particular type of rifle to be used in your backyard without recurring the wrath of the uninformed public… But as a survival gun you can not beat it. It will last from now til kingdom come, (make sure you store it with 1 pump to seal the valve and protect seals) and 2 tins of crosman pellets will feed your family for a while. (at 15 dollars expense). the whole setup can be easily transported in an old quiver (stash pellets in old prescription bottles) and practice, practice, practice. But if you do not own one, the 397 will do the same and use more commonly available .177 pellets, while shooting flatter (or u can use less pumps). But in that case just buy a crosman 1377 pistol… easier to carry, good rabbit and squirrel hunter, and more easy to conceal as a survival gun.
December 24, 2012 at 1:41 am
I purchased a refurbished 392 for $100 and let me tell you this thing is very accurate I use Predator poly mag’s & some JSB Exact pellets either one will shoot into the same hole at 50′ at 50 yards they all group about 2″ I had to scope it so I used the excellent and sturdy Inter mount system with the picatinney rail and mounted a 6x24x50 AO scope with the red and green reticle because I can no longer see all that well and Iron sights are worthless to me and my 67 year old eyesight .Then I had to replace the sear with the super sear the damn trigger pull was horrendus out of the box and lightened the sear spring the trigger is now excellent at 2lbs I also had to do something about how hard it was to pump so I put a 7/16″ outside dia washer in the valve chamber cut the intake valve in half and put a smaller lighter spring in behind valve in front of the washer so the valve will let the air into the chamber easier and retained the regular spring behind the exhaust valve in front of the washer. Then I drilled out the intake port to .20 dia and ported the exhaust port also This is easier to do than it sounds go to you tube and type in how to mod a 392 valve.The gun is much easier to pump now and has more power to boot.I get 575 fps with 5 pumps over my Alpha Chroney with 16gr poly mags at 8 pumps I get 725fps good enough for me and a lot easier on my arm pumping it. I get my best accuracy at 5 pumps though.
November 4, 2013 at 12:11 am
no this gun is very accurate even up to 75-100 yards i was poping squirrels out the tops of my uncles neighbors yards 2 lots down in the tip top of the tree it was at least 80 yard shot and dropping the squirrels put a bsa .22 special air gun scope on it and its awsome i would reccommend tho to find a mildot rifle scope thats made for it will be better
April 19, 2014 at 11:10 pm
I
April 19, 2014 at 11:25 pm
I have had 3 Sheridan .20 rifles in my time ( 58 yrs. young ).
Hands down and barrel up these guns out kicked the Benjamin
sister guns all day. Crosman had the plastic ones. In sun or on a rainy day in South San Jose everything was shot up. Back in the late 60’s we would walk down the city streets and go shoot pesky crows or cows ( sorry ) or passing cars ( really sorry ) or frogs or lizards.
Once in awhile we had gun wars and we’d get shot at.. I used to shoot squirrels for food as our family was middle class ( not like the upwardly mobile G4 Iphone5S Audi types that live in Almaden now.
No one turned us in and the Police/Sheriffs mostly knew we were OK…I used to pump 10 pumps in the darn thing with a pellet and pour in some BB’s and while pointed up would ” shotgun blast ” a tree full of birds or whatever was up there makin’ racket Pa !
That whole area where the Almaden Country Club is and Castellero
is was our hunting ground, but now society is safe @ their neighborhood Starbucks……..the rifles are still 200 %, the pistols
are no where near the punch.
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