Posts Tagged ‘pellets’
Stoeger X5 – Youth Airgun Review
The Stoeger x5 is s .177 gun targeted to the low end youth market. At just under $100, I believe you get more than you pay for. It may not quite match our Air Venturi Bronco for accuracy, but it’s certainly worth considering if you are looking for a quite, accurate, easy to shoot, airgun for shooting indoors or target practice in the back yard.
Products we use in this video are:
- Stoeger X5
- Leapers 3-9×32 AO Scope
- Leapers High 1″ Accushot 11mm dovetail mounts
- H&N Hunting Pellet Sampler
Gamo’s new CFR Whisper Combo
Ok.. let me just say this right now.. Run.. Don’t walk to your computer and just get one. In fact, here’s the link: To Order your Gamo CFR Click here! Read more to know why!
Gamo CFR Whisper - First Look
When I first took the CFR out of the box I was very UNPLEASANTLY surprised. It felt like a cheap copy of the CFX that I’ve grown to love and respect. It was clunky and felt rough to operate. BUT, knowing that all spring guns take a little time, I started shooting some pellets down range. After about 50 shots or so the roughness started to smooth out and the rifle settled down.
Gamo CFR Whisper - Adjustable Cheek Piece
The rifle is really a “mashup” of several guns; The SOCOM Tactical, The CFX, and of course the Gamo Whisper. I’m not sure where the pistol grip came into play, but it is a great fit for this rifle. This rifle has the normal Gamo fiber optic sights with the rear sight being fully adjustable.
Gamo CFR Whisper - Front Sight and NDS
Gamo CFR Whisper - Fully Adjustable Rear Fiber Optic Sight
Gamo’s bundled scope was a cheap 4×32 scope that had noticeable distortion and was an insult to this gun’t potential. I tossed it and added a Leapers 4-16×40 MD, IR, AO scope. What a difference. Of couse I always have to run into at least one snag and this was it. My CFR had noticeable barrel droop. That was quickly handled by shimming the rear rest and I was back in business.
Gamo CFR Whisper - With Mounted Leapers 4-16x40 AO, MD, IR Scope
Being that the rifle was a fixed barrel design like the CFX, I expected good accuracy and I was not disappointed. Before we get there, let me mention the trigger. The trigger is still Gamo’s “new” trigger which is much smoother than Crosman’s counterpart, but still has a very long 2nd stage. Too long really. Gamo does this for liability reasons and really who can blame them. There are options out there if you really want a better trigger and then the liability is on you. Just a note, the adjustment in the rear of the trigger adjusts the length of the 2nd stage. IF the screw were LONGER, you could reduce the length 2nd stage down to something more reasonable. Again, liability and safety issues are why Gamo doesn’t do this already.
I tossed the “PBA Platinum Pellets” aside and went straight to a pellet that worked wonders in my CFX, the Gamo Red Fires. What a dream to see each pellet hit one after the other almost tearing a perfect hole in the bullseye. The shots bellow were from 10 yards and shot indoors.
Gamo CFR Whisper - Red Fire Pellets, 10 Yards, .137" CTC
Velocity with the CFR is less than the rest of Gamo’s line up. That is just fine with me. With its accuracy and an average of 848 FPS equaling 12.98 ft-lbs (with the Gamo Red Fire pellets) anything inside 20 yards would have a very short life expectancy. I achieved a tiny .137″ CTC 5 shot group at 10 yards.
Gamo needs to do a few things to make this gun a little better.
- Stop shipping that crappy PBA ammo.. Ship it with Red Fire pellets that can do the job
- Smooth out some of the rough edges before shipping.. I shouldn’t have to waste 200 or 300 pellets for the gun to stop feeling “crunchy.” A $300 dollar gun should not start out feeling like an $80 Wal-Mart special.
- Include a decent scope. BSA makes some nice variable powered scopes with AO and Mil-Dot features. Include one of those with the CFR and not a disposable 4×32.
- Lastly, how about an IGT version with just a touch more power?
Despite my above wish list.. I’m in love with the CFR. Like Goldilocks and the three bears.. Not to hard, not to soft, just right. We will have a more in depth look at the CFR coming up next month!
Until then, Thank you reading.
Keeping it honest, keeping it Real – With Rick Eutsler & AirgunWeb.com
Gamo’s New pellets fall short on accuracy.
Do you all remember the “new coke?” Frankly I thought the old Coke was just fine the way it was. Well, very quietly, last year Gamo re-tooled and subsequently redesigned their pellet manufacturing. The first batch of pellets that left the factory were horrible.. cast lines, some pellets actually had “wings” where the two halves met. They were terrible. Take a look at the photos below:
These are the "old" Gamo Hunter pellets.. pretty ugly, but uniformly so...
These are the "new" Gamo hunter pellets.. Notice the horrible casting lines.
I finally got a call back from Gamo explaining that there were issues in the retooling and that some bad batches shipped out.. No kidding.. So Gamo agreed to send me a fresh supply of the “corrected” pellets. I patiently waited for them to arrive.
Well they came in about 2 weeks ago and I’ve been working with them on and off since. Much to my disappointment, the “fixed” pellets are just a cleaner version of the “new” design. See the photos below:
The highly noticeable cast lines are gone and while cleaner, they are not the original.
As you can see, the new pellets are NOT the same as the old Gamo Hunters.
Now all of this would be a “much of a muchness,” as my South African wife would say, if they were as accurate or more accurate than the original pellets. But like “new Coke,” they are just not as good as the real thing.
For the shot tests below I used a Gamo CO2 Extreme shooting at 10 yards. I used the CO2 extreme because it is very accurate and being that it is not a spring gun, recoil issues would not play a role in our accuracy tests. The original Hunter Pellets shot a nice, respectable .334 CTC group from a rest. See photo below:
The Original Gamo Hunters gave me a .334 CTC grouping at 10 yards.
While not match accuracy, I’m happy with those results. When I moved over to the “new” Gamo hunters I had very different results. I used the same position, same conditions, same rifle, the only thing different was the pellet. The groups opened way up. the best group I got was a unimpressive .775 CTC at 10 yards. I’m not a math major, but if it opens up by over .5″ at 10 yards, what will it be at 20? See the photo below:
A .775 CTC at 10 yards is really unimpressive when the original Gamo Hunter Pellets shot a .334 CTC group from the same distance.
So what do we do now? Well, my hope is that enough folks let Gamo know that we want the old pellets back and they return to the old style pellets. If not, we’ll just move to another brand like JSB, Crosman, H&N, or RWS. Don’t get me wrong, I respect Gamo as a company and understand that they need to earn a profit as much as I need (and want) to earn a pay check. But, I think they did a little switcharoo here and I don’t think that is right to do to your customer base.
If you are concerned that you’ve purchased pellets that were not what you were expecting, call Gamo at 954-581-5822 and let them know. You can give them the link to my website and they can see the article or contact me with questions. In the end the Customer is always right, or they should be.
Keeping it honest, Keeping it Real..
Rick Eutsler
Editor AirgunWeb.com
Remington Vantage 1200
Airgun Review Written By,
Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
editor@airgunweb.com
Review Product & Supplies
Provided by: www.pyramydair.com
Today we are going to look at the new Remington Vantage. At first glance the Vantage looks like any other simple break barrel rifle. In fact it looks very much like the Crsoman Quest but with a much nicer looking stock. Fortunately, the similarities between the Crsoman Quest and the Remington Vantage end there.
The stock of this rifle is a beautifully rich hardwood that is far removed from the “yellow” wood stocks seen on many Chinese imports. It is very simple and fully ambidextrous with a slight raise to the cheek piece that works for righties and southpaws alike. The rifle is not very heavy, but also not too light, it is just right. The majority of the gun is all metal and wood. The few exceptions are the trigger guard and the front and rear sights. The bluing is even and looks very good for a rifle in this price category. The barrel of the Vantage is very ridged and unlike many break barrel rifles, actually worked really well with our Dragon Claw Bi-pod.
The Remington Vantage comes with an industry standard set of open sights. The front and rear sights are basically plastic with fiber optic inserts. The front sight sports a bright green rod, while the rear sight uses two red rods for contrast. If open sights are your thing, then you will love how these sights look. The rear sight is fully adjustable with easy micro-click adjustments.
Mechanically, the Remington stands out over other rifles in this price range, specifically with how they choose to hold the barrel in place. I’ve seen several different ways to “lock” the barrel back in place after cocking and loading. The three basics that I’ve seen are the (1) ball detent, (2) opposing wedges with one spring loaded to apply pressure (please forgive me for not knowing the technical term), and (3) one spring loaded wedge and a metal bar that the barrel rest on. The lesser expensive rifles use the last method. Some good examples are the new Gamo SOCOM Tactical as well as the Crosman Titan GP. The problem with this method is that they create a wear point at a critical part of the rifle. Eventually, something is going to wear out and there goes your accuracy. If the break barrel mechanism does not apply active pressure to hold the barrel in place, you will have movement and your shots will wander.
The Remington Vantage uses two opposing metal wedges with the one in the barrel spring loaded to “hold” the barrel tight against the receiver. Your better made, more expensive rifles, the Beeman R9 for example, use this method. While others like the RWS 34 and RWS 350, use the ball detent method. (Also a good method as there is pressure actively holding the barrel closed.) This is something to remember the next time you’re out shopping for your next break barrel rifle.
No rifle is complete today without some sort of optics, at least that what most airgun companies seem to believe. In the case of the Vantage, Remington included a simple 4×32 CenterPoint scope by Crosman. Unfortunately, the scope fell apart during the break in period. I’d rather they NOT put ANY scope on the gun and lower the price. Seeing as both the scope and the rings had issues, I replaced them with a one piece Crosman scope mount and a working 4×32 CenterPoint scope. I wanted to stay as true as I could to the “out of the box” Remington Vantage 1200. This scope worked pretty well and I was able to shoot some respectable groups at 20 yards.
The scope was not our only sour note. The trigger, oh the trigger… This is Remington’s “improved” trigger. Well, the trigger still needs more improvement. Because of the trigger, you’ll need a lot of practice to reliably shoot tight groups with this gun. The barrel and the power plant can do it, but the trigger pull is so long and rough, that holding a good sight picture through the 2nd stage takes a lot of work. It should not be this hard. The good thing is that you can replace this trigger fairly easily with a GRT III drop in trigger. If you want a better trigger, spend a few bucks and order one. You won’t be disappointed.
Performance wise, the Remington Vantage 1200 did reasonably well. Remington says it should shoot 1000 FPS with lead pellets and 1200 with lead free pellets. Well, our tests put it a little under those numbers, but we were fairly close. The RWS Hobby pellets at 7.0 GRN, averaged 937 FPS generating 13.65 FTLBS. The standard weight Crosman Premier Lights, at 7.9 GRN, came in at 873 FPS generating 13.37 FTLBS. The most accurate pellet in the Remington Vantage was the JSB Diabolo Exact Heavies which weigh 10.2 GRN, travelled an average of 741 FPS, and generated a modest 12.44 FTLBS.
The best groups averaged just under .5” CTC at 20 yards. With only a 4x scope, I was very happy with these results.
All in all, the Remington Vantage, regardless of the scope & trigger issues, may be one of the best values on the market today. At only about $137 from PyramydAir.com, you get an accurate, attractive, classic break barrel rifle. I really enjoyed shooting this with the Dragon Claw Bi-pod attached, which will run you about $22 more, as it really helped while shooting from the bench. The rifle’s mechanics are sound and the parts that bugged me are easily upgradeable. As a starter rifle or a back yard small pest eliminator, definitely consider the Remington Vantage 1200.
Written By, Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
editor@airgunweb.com
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