I put my .25 Marauder on a diet….

In former posts, I showed the OEM .25 Mrod with a 15″ barrel and shortened shroud. It really improved handling and weight.

Yesterday, I took dremel in hand, got out my electric hand planer, both my belt sanders (hand and bench mounted), and began to cut, cut, cut…sand and sand and sand.

I lopped off the protruding front of the foregrip. I planed off the ambi-cheek rests from the stock. Then I reshaped the foregrip to a thin, straight, flat sided air cylinder hugger, and flattened out the rear top and bottom of the stock, put a more pronounced hand grip style on it, and put a drop off in front of the air gauge so I could straighten out and thin out that massive foreare.

This is the result….initial truck bed liner paint, but I’m not quite done yet.

Side view:

Side view:

From the top view:

From the bottom view:

The difference in “feel” is akin to the AA S510 now. It is pounds lighter, 37″ OAL, easier to handle/hold, quick to bring to point, and no apparent major loss of function that I can tell.

I cold-cocked a 12lb nuisance fowl yesterday, in the chest, 75 feet high in a hardwood tree that stood 100 feet from my deck. One shot with an H&N Barracuda Sport, domed, 31.02gr. He dropped like he had been stricken with a heart attack. He didn’t even twitch…just “THUD”/drop!

Hundreds of these nasty, stinking birds had been roosting and crapping all over my roof and dock at dusk, so I have been butt shooting them, and they stayed away for a few weeks. They began to return, so I opted for the termination with extreme prejudice this time. No more birds for now. They perform a worthy function in the forest, but no one enjoys being shit on by the work staff…so measures had to be taken. I don’t think they have a union.

Anyway, the .25 Mrod doesn’t have to be a pregnant cow to handle. This carbine now weighs in a little over 8.5lbs, with a Mueller 8 X 25-44 scope. That scope is big and heavy, I’m assuming 1.5lbs. That’s rough math, so don’t quote me, but I’m saying that Mrod is now a different gun in every way.

I’m no wood finisher, but truck bed liner is very forgiving and I have a couple of spots I want to sand a bit closer. Once the final bed liner coat goes on, then I will top it off with polyurethane, probably semi or flat finish. That really helps the bed liner stay unscratched.

Kindest regards,

Saintly ‘Ol Uncle H 😯 😯 T

PS: Kinda makes you wonder who designs Benjamin stocks, as in the .25 Marauder, and the sad looking Rogue? I swear I could make those guns look good without trying. Then all you would have to whine about is the performance…Mrod excluded, of course.