Last Updated on July 14, 2022 by Albert Smith
Benjamin Trail NP XL 725 Review
I haven’t been handling that many .25 caliber rifles, mainly because I like my rifles loud and fast, and… because, .177 was what I used to shoot when I was a kid. I bet the manufacturers have done research on sentimentality for the “bb-gun days” when it comes to air rifle purchases. People tend to stay with the brands that they liked in the old days, so that means German made .177’s have a special place in my heart. So I decided to test some .25 caliber air rifles to see if I could change my perception, and it was indeed a revelation. I am no longer focused on FPS and look more at impact power. And for pest control, of course impact power equals lethality, and I do like to keep my backyard vermin free.
What is new about the Trail 725 XL apart from other Crosman break barrel rifles is that A. it’s a .25 and B. It is powered by Crosman’s Nitro Piston. The Nitro Piston works by storing its energy in a gas filled container instead of a conventional spring. The result is a rifle that is more silent, more powerful, and more accurate, as well as gives you a very smooth cocking motion This sort of boils it down. Although I could spend hundreds of words more on the Crosman Nitro Piston, for the purpose of this article, all you need to keep in mind is that it makes your rifle quieter, more powerful, and gives you more precision. All good.
This is a large rifle. All of 48 inches long and close to 9lbs in weight. For some people this might be too big, for others it’s a selling point. I belong to the latter category. It makes the rifle feel like a rifle for mature users. Which in fact it is.
It has a very nice soft rubber butt stock at the end of the ambidextrous wooden stock. A stock that is equipped with a very cool looking thumb-grip. There’s a sling attachment at the very end of the stock as well at the very top, so that adds to the carryability. The long stock has a nice chequering at the top, which is a nice tough. The two-stage trigger has a decent triggerpull of approximately 5lbs. It is pretty much a standard Crosman trigger. Unfortunately the trigger guard is plastic, which makes me think more positively about the German guns I used to know and love, but I decided not to make a big issue of it.
This air rifle kit comes complete with a centre-point 3-9x40mm rifle scope that attaches to a Weawer rail. It is quite a decent scope, but if for some reason you don’t like kit scopes, then feel free to switch it out. For my vermin control purposes it does the trick.
As I previously mentioned, I use this rifle for vermin control and for that it is very suitable. You can easily put all pellets into a half inch circle at 25 yards, or in the kill-zones of a large bird at 50 yards. No problem.
So all in all, good, pretty rifle, that comes at a decent price, and is so far serving me very nicely for the purposes I bought it for. You have a range of Benjamin XL 725 variants available over at, for example, Amazon. Wood stocks or synthetic stocks as well as all the usual calibers, .177 .22 and .25.
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