something a little drifrent (air rifle reveiw)

got a air rifle last week (1st one since i was a kid) and thorght id try my hand at a reveiw (excuse my spelling i know its fucked)

Gamo whisper IGT review
Ill stat out by saying I’m not really an airgun guy and normally stick to firearms however I decided I needed an air gun as at home here on a very flat 3 acre block you can’t safely use a 22 long rifle we have pest birds nesting in our roof and fireplace and need a safer way to knock back the numbers also for practice here at home…..

*Choosing the rifle
I had 3 main wants/needs
1st it needed to be quiet as I have stock and neighbours and although the neighbours know what im doing as I always let them know and they are happy for me to shoot I still don’t want to spook the horses or stock

2nd had to be as accurate as possible as im an ex target shooter and every rifle I own needs to be accurate

3rd I had a strict budget $550 I couldn’t justify a PCP air rifle just yet
After reading plenty of reviews on different air rifles including co2, pump up , springers and gas piston the Gamo whisper IGT seemed to tick the boxes for me And I brought a package with an 4-12x40AO scope in .22 cal

Attachment 41256
*1st impressions

The rifle seems very well made. Feels very nice to hold and shoulder with is thumbhole stock. It’s a very light rifle and will be super easy to hold and shoot off hand and would be a very nice gun to carry long distance it is very well balanced. the safety is very handy and easy to operate while the rifle is shouldered its nice and easy to load and cock I test fired using H&N crow magnums the trigger is around 2lb and feels reassemble .. its got a fair amount of creep but breaks nice so im sure you could get used to it, and the noise is about the same my suppressed 22 long rifle shooting subsonic ammo…..

*Range testing & accuracy
During zeroing I had issues with the scope so while waiting for the replacement to arrive I thought id test out the open sights. These are hi vis type V sights with windage and elevation adjustments both in the rear sight. These sights proved very useful im the 1st to admit im not the best with normal v open sights but I was still able to shoot ok groups at 15 yards
Heres a copple of groups that were about normal using the open sights shot with the h&n crow magnum… someone who is better with open sights could do better
Attachment 41257

The scope sorted moved onto testing a few different pellets for accuracy at 15 yards and will try the contenders at a longer distance when this wind calms
The 1st 5 groups were with the h&n crow magnums each group is 5 shots
Attachment 41258



The 2nd 3 groups were with gamo Pba (left) top group is 5 shots bottom is 3 shots (the last of the pack)

the right hand 4 shot group was with skenco heavy long range pellets I stoped at 4 rounds as it was quite obvious they won’t shoot in the gamo they were a very lose fit in the barrel which is probably the reason why they don’t shoot

Attachment 41263

i have more types of pellets on the way and will contunue testing when they arrive

updates to come

Good stuff so far, I am sort of looking at an air rifle looking at the same reasons as yours and the noise side of things was of interest for me too.
One question, how do you find the stock? It looks a bit gay for my liking but they all seem to be going that way.
I will be interested to see how it groups at say 25m.

I had a Gamo air rifle, cant remember the model, but i found my hand was too big for the 'thumbhole' and it was uncomfortable to shoot....sold it, very light though as you say....

We used to sell a few air rifles for rabbits in similar situations to what you describe. We found one point in particular, when you start to get into the more powerful spring rifles like a 1250fps 177 or 1000fps 22 then you end up with a new problem. The recoil vibrations from the spring can destroy most scopes very quickly so accuracy is often better with the open sights. The jolt rewards is on par with some centrefires and that is not the problem. The issue revolves around the vibrations of the spring still shaking the scope. We tested a Webley Dominator with a Airgun scope designed for these effects and the recoil actions were so savage that the scope fell to bits after about 12 or so shots. And I mean the bell end came OUT of the turret join. I have seen that same scope used on 45/70 and a 7mmRemMag and no problems but 12 shots with an air gun and it was toast.

Nice review Rambo. I almost got one myself. Supposedly these should be not so bad on a scope as they use a gas strut instead of a spring but they do still have a fair jolt. Try some Acupells they work best in my PCP and Weihrauch pistol.

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Originally Posted by timattalon

We used to sell a few air rifles for rabbits in similar situations to what you describe. We found one point in particular, when you start to get into the more powerful spring rifles like a 1250fps 177 or 1000fps 22 then you end up with a new problem. The recoil vibrations from the spring can destroy most scopes very quickly so accuracy is often better with the open sights. The jolt rewards is on par with some centrefires and that is not the problem. The issue revolves around the vibrations of the spring still shaking the scope. We tested a Webley Dominator with a Airgun scope designed for these effects and the recoil actions were so savage that the scope fell to bits after about 12 or so shots. And I mean the bell end came OUT of the turret join. I have seen that same scope used on 45/70 and a 7mmRemMag and no problems but 12 shots with an air gun and it was toast.

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What is a good air gun scope? Got a humoungous Daina in the safe that still hasent fired a shot.

I must admit that I'm enjoying my new air rifle too. I finally bought the Cannon 737 (copy of a Sharp Innova) that I've been pondering getting since before I decided to get my firearms licence. Being a multi pump, when you squeeze that trigger it is just opening a valve to let the air shift the pellet so there is pretty much no recoil. With one type of pellet it was a ragged hole at 25m, and although it's not an expensive or flash bit of kit it still puts a smile on my face.

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Originally Posted by Timmay

Good stuff so far, I am sort of looking at an air rifle looking at the same reasons as yours and the noise side of things was of interest for me too.
One question, how do you find the stock? It looks a bit gay for my liking but they all seem to be going that way.
I will be interested to see how it groups at say 25m.

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I find it good for me.. if you have big hands it might be a tight fit and yes it dose look gay i agree but then i dont worrie about looks to much if it works if you dont want a thumbhole look at the bone collector it was only 177 when i was looking and i wanted a .22 also the guy in the shop said they were louder (slightly) than the normal whisper igt not supprized at 1400fps!!

Ive run out of ammo for now lol more arriveing monday hopefully so should get some 25m testing done early next week

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

What is a good air gun scope? Got a humoungous Daina in the safe that still hasent fired a shot.

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needs to be a air rifle scope they a bult driffrently inside if it dont say air rifle it wont hold zero hawke make a nice scope and they are air rifle rated

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

What is a good air gun scope? Got a humoungous Daina in the safe that still hasent fired a shot.

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@veitnamcam What model Diana have you got? The more expensive models (eg 54) are not like traditional springers and are virtually recoilless and a "normal" scope preferable with 10 yds minimum parallax correction will survive on them quite happily.

From the look of your group I'd say you have trigger pull problems or you need to test a few more slug types.
But yes I really enjoyed reading your review! You stated what you wanted!
Are you right handed by any chance?

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Originally Posted by zimmer

@veitnamcam What model Diana have you got? The more expensive models (eg 54) are not like traditional springers and are virtually recoilless and a "normal" scope preferable with 10 yds minimum parallax correction will survive on them quite happily.

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Edit: Mmmm looking at air rifle forums there still seems to be some cases of "recoilless" Diana 54's eating scopes. Not sure what quality scopes they were though. My HW80 has worn a very old Leupold 3x for years without problems. Mind you the old 3x Leupold has minimal guts and for years was the go scope for dangerous game rifles.

Leapers are the go for springer air rifle scopes. Digit used to sell them, not sure if he still does

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Originally Posted by Sideshow

From the look of your group I'd say you have trigger pull problems or you need to test a few more slug types.
But yes I really enjoyed reading your review! You stated what you wanted!
Are you right handed by any chance?

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@slideshow i wonder what makes you say that i have trigger pull issues the groups are off center coz i hadnt finished zeroing the scope and i was zeroing at the time which is why they are in slightly drifent spots every time did you see this one just noticed it wasnt in the 1st postAttachment 41316 dont see any issues with that apart fromm being off center sept fot the last one which had no aiming point so i used the 1st shot as an aiming point

im honestly intrested what you have to say as if i do have an issue with anything id like to fix it

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Originally Posted by zimmer

Edit: Mmmm looking at air rifle forums there still seems to be some cases of "recoilless" Diana 54's eating scopes. Not sure what quality scopes they were though. My HW80 has worn a very old Leupold 3x for years without problems. Mind you the old 3x Leupold has minimal guts and for years was the go scope for dangerous game rifles.

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Yea its a 54 (i think) the "recoiless" isolates the action from the stock in a sliding fashon so I imagin it would be even harder on scopes as the action is not damped by the weight of the stock and shoulder.

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Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

@slideshow i wonder what makes you say that i have trigger pull issues the groups are off center coz i hadnt finished zeroing the scope and i was zeroing at the time which is why they are in slightly drifent spots every time did you see this one just noticed it wasnt in the 1st postAttachment 41316 dont see any issues with that apart fromm being off center sept fot the last one which had no aiming point so i used the 1st shot as an aiming point

im honestly intrested what you have to say as if i do have an issue with anything id like to fix it

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Yep no worrys I was only going off of the first pics.
Was not trying to troll you, as I really appreciate the test review that you have taken the time to write up.
Once you find the sweet spot and right pelts that thing will kill most rodents within range.

No worries dude i know you didnt mean anything bad infact i like pepole to point that stuff out which is why i asked for more info on your opinon Thorght you might of been going off the shit group with the plastic/brass pellets once i noticed that photo hadn't uploaded but im very happy with how its shooting both the gamo pba and the h&n crow magnums at 15 yards 25 yards next week

VC said:

Yea its a 54 (i think) the "recoiless" isolates the action from the stock in a sliding fashon so I imagin it would be even harder on scopes as the action is not damped by the weight of the stock and shoulder.

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Correct. They can easily murder scopes

done some testing with cheep gamos at 15 yards not the best but ok practice ammo 5 shot groups
Attachment 41438
will be setting up 25m tomorrow or Friday hopefully

@Timmay heres some 25m groups there is a couple of good ones but the wind is still up like 25-30k gusting :pissed off: and Ive run out of good pellets for now so could be better a lot better
Attachment 41449

I have done a bit to my air rifles which is worth posting on a seperate thread at some point. I have avoided the scope eating thing but just sticking to pump up and co2 cartridge air rifles - no springs for me.

I brought this off trade me:
CrosMan 2250 - .22 Air Rifle | Trade Me

It was a bit of an impluse buy but I mainly wanted it for the barrel which I intend to swap over to my 2289 (pump up version of the same gun).

I pulled both apart and put the metal breach and threadded barrel from the 2289 on the 2240b so I could play with it. I have dropped the 2240b barrel off to gunworks to get the sleeving and threading treatment.

I have taken the 2240b out for a hunt and it's a mixed bag. Not having to pump between shots is great and makes follow up shots easier. The 2240b also has a metal barrel band with a set screw so holds the barrel more firmly.

The cons of the 2240b are that the stock foreend is shorter and skinnier which makes it less comfortable to hold than the 2289. The big con is once the gas gets a bit low your shots start hitting low.

I spend a bit of time tiding up the 2240b barrel before dropping it off to gunworks. Redid the crown and then polished the chamber. I still have to rework the trigger on the 2240b as it's far worse than the one on the 2289 which I have already polished.

Great review mate - some of the Gamo's performed right up there with some of the best accuracy a springer can put out. Especially an underlever like a CFX with a theoben gas piston installed. Nothing out there as accurate though as the diana '54 except perhaps the new 56th in .22 using 21gn h&n pellets. Yes they murder scopes, especially non fixed, even Hawkes. Been there and done that. Leapers don't make the 8-32x56 that I used to have on it but it survived. Not much clarity but it will do the job out to 100m