Benjamin Target pistol.

[Coach]

On Saturday we had to clean out the basement of my Dad and Mom’s house. They sold it and moved to a little single floor house about a 100 yards away on the little lake front.

My Dad 93, was a bit of a depression era hoarder. That generation can’t help themselves and never want to throw anything away.

We boxed up his basement room with his work shop and filled up a huge dumpster.

In the bottom drawer of a cabinet I found my long lost Benjamin air pistol. I thought I lost it in my college days with all the moving I did. Obviously I brought it back to him but for the life of me I thought I had just left it behind somewhere.

Long story short, here it is…Model 130

[Sir Henry]

You found gold!

[RetiredSeabee]

Sweet!

[BrokenolMarine]

Might have to replace some seals, but then it should be good as new. I had one in my youth that looked very similar to that one, but used standard CO2 cartridges inserted in the front of the lower tube under the barrel. Very accurate right up to the last shot. No idea who the manufacturer was.

When I traded for it at work, one grip was cracked all the way thru. I made a new pair from a bottom slat from a crate for coke bottles... They were returnable then and the crates were heavy and real wood.

[North Country Gal]

Love those old Benjamin pump pistols. Probably a 130 series gun on that one. Great find.

Those original Benjamins went through various changes over the years but the basic gun as far as size, design and operation stayed pretty much the same all the way through the Benjamin buyout of Sheridan and finally, the Crosman buyout of Benjamin-Sheridan. Here's my Crosman vintage Benjamin H9A, probably a 90s gun.



These Benji pumpers can be very accurate. One disadvantage to this design, though, is that short pumping handle. Makes pumping a bit of a workout, so I stop at 4, which is plenty for target work.

[Coach]

Dad gave me the Benjamin when I was in 6th grade.

I spent a summer between 7th & 8th grade up at my Grandmas 300 acre ranch shooting the heck out of it. I hardly ever hit anything I was aiming at because I had no idea that I was left eye dominate while shooting righty.

Finally after 100’s of shots I hit a redwing black bird and it fell out of the tree.

I was finally victorious and excited. When I went to see my victory and got to the little bird it didn’t make me feel good that I had killed it. It was just dead and I felt bad about it.

Oh well… a little story from my youth.

[daytime dave]

Very, very cool Coach. I'm excited for your find.

[Nam Vet]

WOW what a great find.

[markiver54]

I had forgotten about it until this thread, but I had one back in the very early 70's. At least a variation of that one. I loaned it to an acquaintance who got in some trouble with it and never saw it again. Bummer!