Thursday, March 17, 2005
Gamo Airguns
Gamo has for years produced value priced air rifles and pistols. They cater to the average guy who wants a low cost air rifle for shooting in the back yard or hunting tasks. I started my adult airgunning life with a Gamomatic 2000 back in the early 90's. I have had several Gamo products over the years and I have to admit, even though they were mass produced, they were pretty good quality. I have heard that Gamo tests their rifles designs by taking them and dry firing them for some high number of shots and then test fires the rifle to verify proper operation. I don't know if that is try but if it is then that really say something for the ruggedness of their rifles.
I have been able to test the CF20&30 and a Hunter 440 and found that they are accurate rifles, certainly more so than most of the shooters who buy them. The accuracy didn't measure up to the more expensive British and German rifles but for the money it wasn't that far off. The biggest downside with the Gamo rifle is the recoil&vibration and the trigger unit.
With the rifles I have tested the one biggest problem to getting repeatable tight groups was the recoil and vibration. The Gamo rifles I have shot recoiled more than they needed to. The recoil caused a lot of flyers in groups that would have otherwise been quite good. It also rattle a few of my fillings loose which I had to have tighened later, well not really.
The trigger is the other weak point of the Gamo rifles. Although Gamo advertises their trigger as having two stages, it really is only a one stage trigger. The "first" stage doesn't actually move the sears as the the trigger travels through the stage. The sears only move during the second stage. They also have a abnormally long first stage, so long that the trigger actually starts to roll upwards which causes the blade to contact the top of the trigger finger instead of the pad. It is a shame to since I think that if they would just fix the long first stage the trigger wouldn't be half bad. Theoben used the same trigger design without the long first stage and it worked really well. I had a Gamo rifle when I was testing a Super17 and took the two triggers apart to compare them and found that Gamo cuts a half moon out of the sear that contacts the top of the trigger blade and it causes the long first stage travel. The Theoben trigger had a short first stage and a nice letoff and the Gamo didn't. They could fix is just by not cutting material off of the lower sear arm. I have email and called them over the years about this but they pretty much ignored me.
I have also shot some of the Gamo pistols too and really liked the Gamo PR-45 and Compact. Both are fun to shoot and have reasonably good accuracy. I don't have my Compact any more but I do have the PR-45 and it shoots great. It is easy to cock and I think it has as good a trigger on it as the Compact I owned. I bought my used from Anthony Storey and get it out to plink from time to time. The Gamo products are bad for the money. I would still advise most serious shooters to buy a Beeman R9 as the best value 0n the market butfor a guy who wants good quality and accuracy for a bit less money they are hard to beat.
Gamo Homepage
I have been able to test the CF20&30 and a Hunter 440 and found that they are accurate rifles, certainly more so than most of the shooters who buy them. The accuracy didn't measure up to the more expensive British and German rifles but for the money it wasn't that far off. The biggest downside with the Gamo rifle is the recoil&vibration and the trigger unit.
With the rifles I have tested the one biggest problem to getting repeatable tight groups was the recoil and vibration. The Gamo rifles I have shot recoiled more than they needed to. The recoil caused a lot of flyers in groups that would have otherwise been quite good. It also rattle a few of my fillings loose which I had to have tighened later, well not really.
The trigger is the other weak point of the Gamo rifles. Although Gamo advertises their trigger as having two stages, it really is only a one stage trigger. The "first" stage doesn't actually move the sears as the the trigger travels through the stage. The sears only move during the second stage. They also have a abnormally long first stage, so long that the trigger actually starts to roll upwards which causes the blade to contact the top of the trigger finger instead of the pad. It is a shame to since I think that if they would just fix the long first stage the trigger wouldn't be half bad. Theoben used the same trigger design without the long first stage and it worked really well. I had a Gamo rifle when I was testing a Super17 and took the two triggers apart to compare them and found that Gamo cuts a half moon out of the sear that contacts the top of the trigger blade and it causes the long first stage travel. The Theoben trigger had a short first stage and a nice letoff and the Gamo didn't. They could fix is just by not cutting material off of the lower sear arm. I have email and called them over the years about this but they pretty much ignored me.
I have also shot some of the Gamo pistols too and really liked the Gamo PR-45 and Compact. Both are fun to shoot and have reasonably good accuracy. I don't have my Compact any more but I do have the PR-45 and it shoots great. It is easy to cock and I think it has as good a trigger on it as the Compact I owned. I bought my used from Anthony Storey and get it out to plink from time to time. The Gamo products are bad for the money. I would still advise most serious shooters to buy a Beeman R9 as the best value 0n the market butfor a guy who wants good quality and accuracy for a bit less money they are hard to beat.
Gamo Homepage
