Nothing beats the convenience of a pre-charged pneumatic. There’s no pumping. No barrels to muscle over to compress a spring. Fill up the tank, and you’re ready to rock. But who can afford them?
Just about everyone, now. The Gauntlet provides reliable performance and uncompromising accuracy with a retail price under $300.
Let’s break down the features. The baseline numbers will be guided by caliber. The Gauntlet is available in .22 and .177. I’ve shot both, now, and have insight into each.
The Gauntlet’s consistency is provided by regulated airflow. This holds true for shots all the way to the very end of the charge. Umarex is averaging 1200 FPS for .177 alloy pellets. The .22s run over 900 FPS and hit harder. I know, none of you are going to shoot alloy pellets out of the Gauntlet.
That consistency results in equally consistent shot placement. Accuracy is solid. The Gauntlet isn’t equipped with iron sights, and it doesn’t come with a scope, so how you decide to top it will be up to you. The Gauntlet has an 11mm rail that makes mounting optics easy.
The single-stage trigger is adjustable. This one I’ve adjusted and was breaking just over 2 pounds and the break was clean. Though it isn’t a pistol grip, the grip angle is similar. It is an excellent feel for a rifle that weighs in at 8.5 pounds.
The rifle itself is 46.74” long. 28.5” of that is an integrally suppressed barrel. The system is ingenious. The sleeve that covers the barrel is about the diameter of a typical rifle barrel. Inside that protective sleeve is an even thinner rifled barrel. There’s enough air space between the two to quiet this rifle down. Plus is has a mono core baffle system. It is much more than hearing safe, and the .177 I had (especially on the open range) was as quiet as a suppressed bolt-action rimfire running subsonic rounds. The sound of the pellet striking a steel spinner was louder than the shot itself.
The gun’s 13 cubic inch tank (tucked below the barrel) will hold 3,000 psi of pressure. With the .177, that equates to 70 plus shots.
Once loaded up, the 10 shot magazine slides into the action in front of the bolt. A cut out shows how many more pellets are available and can be seen easily from the right side of the gun.
For those that want some greater insurance for accurate performance, the magazine can be replaced by a single-shot sled, which came with the rifle.
When you look at these features and the practical performance, all in one package, the Gauntlet is a stand-out. It helps that it looks good, too. The rifle has some subtle sweeps in the frame that make it more attractive than some PCP guns.
When you consider that the sticker price is going to be under $300, you can see just how daunting the Gauntlet must be to those selling comparable rifles at three times the price.
The Gauntlet: Game-Changing PCP Performance For 1/3 the PCP Price
- May 17, 2017
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