 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Air Rifles, Airsoft |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Founder | Frank Hahn |
| Headquarters | Bloomfield,New York, U.S. |
| Parent | Daisy |
| Website | www |
Crosman Corporation is an American designer, manufacturer and supplier ofshooting sport products, with a long-standing presence inairgun design and a tradition of producingpellet andBB guns. Crosman is also a producer of many varieties of airgun andairsoft ammunition and CO2 Powerlet cartridges. In addition, Crosman sells branded, licensed products as well as a variety ofairsoft guns.
Crosman was incorporated in 1924 asCrosman Rifle Company, after the sale of "Crosman Brothers" to Frank Hahn. The firm was based inFairport, New York, a suburb ofRochester (from the print on the bottom of free vintage targets available as a pdf on the company's website). In 1960 it was acquired byBangor Punta Corp.[1] In 1970, the company moved to a small town in the finger lakes region,East Bloomfield.
Crosman's first models were the traditional Americanmulti-pump pneumatic design, where 3 to 10 pumps would pressurize a reservoir for each shot. Descendants of these original models are still made, inrifle,pistol andcarbine form, and they remain quite popular. In 1992, Crosman acquired the Benjamin Sheridan company's assets.
From 1971 through 1989,Coleman ofWichita, Kansas owned Crosman. In 1989,MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings of New York acquired Coleman and sold Crosman to Worldwide Sports and Recreation. In 1997, an investment group headed by Leonard Pickett purchased the company. Pickett was namedCEO and held that position until his death in 2000. Ken D'Arcy served as CEO from 1997 to 2012.
In 2011, Wellspring Capital Management purchased Crosman and in August 2012 Phil Dolci was named CEO and served until May 2015. Brad Johnson was named as Executive Chairman and Interim CEO while remaining Chairman & CEO of United Sporting Companies, a separate company that is also part of the Wellspring portfolio.
In June 2017, Wellspring sold Crosman to Compass Diversified Holdings, INC (NYSE: CODI). Upon the sale of the company, Robert Beckwith was appointed the new CEO. Robert had previously been theCFO under Brad Johnson.
In May 2024, Crosman was sold toDaisy, which is a portfolio company ofBRS & Co.[2]
In 1882, Walter R. Benjamin ofSt. Louis,Missouri, introduced the first Benjamin air rifle. TheseBenjamin Pump guns were manufactured by the Wissler Instrument Co. of St. Louis under a U.S. patent that had been issued to Benjamin. Unlike many air guns of this period, the Benjamin was intended not as a toy, but as a high-power compressed air gun in which pressure was built up by pumping a built-in piston located beneath the barrel.
TheBenjamin Air Rifle Company was formed in 1902 when Walter R. Benjamin purchased the patent rights from the defunct St. Louis Air Rifle Company. Production from 1902 to 1904 and from 1906 to 1986 was in St. Louis. In 1977, the Benjamin Air Rifle Company purchasedSheridan Products inRacine, Wisconsin. Benjamin and Sheridan were acquired by Crosman in 1992. By 2015, Benjamin was positioned as Crosman Corporation's adult hunting and high performance line and Sheridan had its name on one model: the Cowboy, ayouth-orientedlever action.
In the 1930s, Crosman began to experiment with CO2 power. Like other CO2 guns of the day, they werebulk fill, which meant that liquid CO2 was loaded into a pressurized reservoir on the gun. Other manufacturers started to use 8 gram CO2 bulbs used insoda dispensers. Crosman capitalized on this in 1954 by introducing a new 12 gram CO2 bulb, called aPowerlet. The new Powerlet gave more shots per bulb than the soda bulb, and with the addition of a simple spacer, a Powerlet gun could use the shorter 8 gram bulb.
A Powerlet cartridge, commonly referred to as aCO2 charger, is a small disposable metalgas cylinder holding 8–12 grams (0.28–0.42 oz) ofliquid CO2 and often a small quantity oflubricating oil, used as apneumaticpower source for certainair guns,airsoft guns,paintball guns,carbonation, and for quickinflation of various devices such as apersonal flotation device.[3] Originally developed and the trademark owned byCrosman Corporation[citation needed] and introduced to the market in 1954, the Powerlet CO2 cartridge has become the dominant source of power for inexpensive, rapid fire air guns from many manufacturers.
Typically manufactured from the samesteel alloys and using the samemetal spinning fabrication processes as much larger refillablegas cylinders, a Powerlet cartridge typically provides 20 to 40 shots in an airgun, depending on the gun and environmental conditions. The first 10 shots from a newbottle are consistent, with subsequent shots losing power. For paintball markers, fewer shots are produced due to the greater weight of the paintball compared to anairgun projectile.
For modern paintball guns, this technology is considered outdated, as they cannot fire as many shots as a modern large-capacity CO2 tank can provide, though some still use Powerlet cartridges forstock paintball. They are also still favored for paintball pistols, for players wishing to run "light" with considerably less weight. Because liquid CO2 needs tovaporize togaseous form to be usable,latent heat is absorbed every time a shot is discharged, cooling the canister. When discharging repeatedly, the temperature within the Powerlet canister can drop low enough to affect thevapor-liquid equilibrium and reduce thevapor pressure significantly. The drop in output pressure (known as the "working pressure") not only can affect the ballistic performance, but also can cause the gun to "freeze up" and cease operating completely due to insufficientpneumatic force, until the canister warms back up again. This causes a problem due to the rapid-fire nature of many competitive paintball skirmishes, so thehigh-pressure air (HPA, or "N2") systems are more commonly used.
In 2004, Crosman introduced a new disposable CO2 power source, the 88 gram AirSource.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(October 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
- 766 American Classic 1-3
Includes Variants*
Crosman has manufactured and sold the Benjamin-Sheridan and Sheridan model airguns for many years. These models are still made to the higher quality standards of the originals, with wood stocks and primarily brass and steel components. The Sheridan line is strictly 5 mm (.20 caliber), while the Benjamin-Sheridan models are available in .177 (4.5 mm, .22 (5.56 mm), .25 (6.4 mm) and .357 (9.0 mm) calibers, depending on model.
•NRA Museums: Benjamin history•Blue Book of Airgun Values – BENJAMIN AIR RIFLE COMPANY (BENJAMIN) BENJAMIN AIR RIFLE COMPANY BACKGROUND Benjamin History