Gamo , a fool and his money are soon parted.

[DCRthe3rd]

So anyhow , my brand new gamo big cat 1200 on it's 4th shot had the inside of the scope fall to pieces. There are no open sights on this gun.......
I understand these guns can be hard on scopes , but I thought  the scope that CAME with the gun would be ok
Well of course these things happen , ok , call gamo .......... once the human voice  found out I got a busted product , I can only get recordings now to leave messages and this is after I wait on hold for about 10 minutes each time, the messages have not been returned at this point , perhaps I need to wait a week or so , give them some time , they probably are busy.
End result 140 dollars later , I got to fire 4 rds , spend a great deal of time on the telephone waiting , just to leave a message they don't seem to be in a hurry to return.
I knew there was a reason I was feeling odd about spending this much $$ on a bb gun.
Go with the gut next time.
On a good note , those 4 shots were good ones , gun has potential if I learn to point shoot it, that is

[Graybeard]

Sure different than my experience with GAMO. When I bought mine there was a problem with the rings it's been so long I can't recall now what the problem was but they shipped me new ones at no cost to me immediately then called back a few days later to be sure they arrived and solved my problem.

[DCRthe3rd]

Well up to this point no one has returned any of my messages from Gamo.
I had called again and despite the ladys best attempt , I would not let her put me on hold and patch me threw to someone else. She ended up telling me to contact the store where I bought it , thats funny , they told me to contact you, I said. But she stuck to her story. End result the store decided they would swap me guns. Currently the new gun and scope are doing well.
Happy so far I guess.
I did post my story on the Gamo website in the reviews. I was not mad or using bad words or carrying on , just the facts as they happened.
So far my review has not shown up , but other reviews posted after mine have , of course they are all glowing reviews , some of which sound like they were written by 13 yr olds.
My 1st scope broke , but these things happen , I am more concerned about how a company deals with their mistakes than the mistake itself , and in Gamos case , I don't think it looks good.
End of report.

[A177]

DCRthe3rd,

Head over to Straight Shooters website and look at some good scopes (that can handle heavy recoil).  They are expensive, true but better than what Gamo saddles their own line with.

[kix]

  I have a 220 Hunter that I bought 4-5 yrs. ago and have had excellent results with of all things, a Bushnell Sportview 3x9 (I know, about as low as you can get) that I purchased in 1982. It consistently holds zero but I leave it at 6x because way back when,mounted on a .22, it would change p.o.i. if you changed power. As a "variable" it was a pos but "fixed" has done remarkedly well. Have yet to try the new Raptor ammo but it's coming. Now I just hope my gun doesn't break for some reason!  Kix

[lamerabbit]

This is all my fault, believe it or not.  I guess I never said this enough!  NEVER SHOOT A NEW SPRING GUN WITH A SCOPE ON IT!  Cause they will fall apart most of the time, or worse they will seem fine and then they will shift zero every other time you shoot the gun.  Some scopes will do this regardless, because the spring gun shakes their insides too much. 

Many of these guns will destroy the best of scopes, and the one they sell with most of these gun aren't the best.  The truth is you get what you pay for, and that is part of the why European air guns cost so much more. 

I am not a fan of spring piston guns cause I owned them all, or at least shot them all, many times.  I only shoot pcp's, because I am more than a bit lazy.  It is not the cocking effort, but keeping them shooting straight form week to week that bugs me!

I must admit that they can shoot darn near as well as a pcp; my rx would shoot under a 1/2 inch a fifty yards after being tuned by Dave Slade.  The cocking force kind of made my heart rate around 200 or so..... 

My Webly made my teeth hurt, and the Crow Mag gave me whiplash! and then some wonder why their scopes fail..........

You are not a fool, cause you will learn form this mistake.  Even the very best tuned gun can kill the best of scopes.  In fact, I would say that any high powered spring piston gun will kill any rifle scope, made for it or not!  It is only a matter of time.  Some will last for years, other for hours, and some for 4 shots.....

Jim

[Casull]

This is all my fault, believe it or not.  I guess I never said this enough!  NEVER SHOOT A NEW SPRING GUN WITH A SCOPE ON IT!  Cause they will fall apart most of the time, or worse they will seem fine and then they will shift zero every other time you shoot the gun.  Some scopes will do this regardless, because the spring gun shakes their insides too much. 

I don't know about that.  I bought a 220 Hunter about 7 or 8 years ago that came with a POS BSA scope that is still holding zero.  Other than being able to hold zero, the scope is crap (yellowish tint to everything, dark, not very sharp on detail).  BUT, after several hundred rounds and a number of years, it has yet to change zero or fall apart.  FWIW.

[Graybeard]

My Gamo came with a cheap BSA 2-7 scope and it's still holding zero and still killing black birds and cowbirds just like it did the day I sighted it in. I think some folks are just too tough on their equipment.

[lamerabbit]

Maybe, but some shake a whole lot worse than others when new.  Its like anything else you pay your money and take your chances.   The larger, and heavier the scope, the more likely it is that it will fall apart.  My R9 nevr shifted, despite having put several scopes on it, and none ever failed, while on that gun, but I am sure that was just a matter of luck, that an a good tune job.

Jim

[S.S.]

When taking a rest before firing a spring air gun, you are not supposed to take
a rest directly against a solid object with the gun. A rest against a solid object greatly
magnifies the vibration to the gun/scope. Put your fingers againt a tree and stick your thumb straight up.
then rest the gun against your thumb, not the tree.

[JD]

DCR, ya started at the bottom and that is fine as far as it goes.
 As SS said, you need to provide a soft rest such as your hand and keep it away from a hard surface.
 My 1st air rifle was a .20 Beeman RX2; topped with a Bushnell 3200 4x12x40, this was a $900 setup 5 years ago. This scope also does double duty on a .25 Webley Patriot. it is just as tight after 7-8000 pellets as when new.

Point is, money spent on good optics is never wasted. Bushy 3200, leupy's, and the better Burris are all proven performers.

I won't hype websites but the best way to really increase your knowledge will be to find air specific forums
 I think my address is there or I can PM you? if you would like specifics.

[JPShelton]

I guess I never said this enough!  NEVER SHOOT A NEW SPRING GUN WITH A SCOPE ON IT!  Cause they will fall apart most of the time, or worse they will seem fine and then they will shift zero every other time you shoot the gun. 

You are not a fool, cause you will learn form this mistake.  Even the very best tuned gun can kill the best of scopes.  In fact, I would say that any high powered spring piston gun will kill any rifle scope, made for it or not!  It is only a matter of time.  Some will last for years, other for hours, and some for 4 shots.....

Jim

If "springers" really are as tough to shoot as Jim suggests above, one wonders how we managed to hit what we were aiming at back in the day when the hottest thing going in a small game hunting air rifle was the FWB 124/127?

In nearly thirty years of shooting adult air rifles and hunting with them, I've only had one scope failure on a spring-piston air rifle -a Gamo Shadow that ate up a Simmons Pro-Air optic that was SUPPOSED to be "airgun rated" and cost more than the rifle did. That rifle totally destroyed that scope in less than 50 shots.

Not wishing to have my weeked of shooting interrupted, I made my way down the mountain from the family hunting camp on the border of the San Bernardino National Forest to the town of Hesperia, where, for the princely sum of $69.99, I purchased a Bushnell Sportsman 4-12 A.O. from Wal Mart.  I went back up the hill, sighted the rifle in for maximum point blank range with Kodiaks, and I haven't touched the scope adjustment since.

That rifle, by the way, is well over the 15,000 shot mark on its original mainspring and seal.

When I bought my wife a Shadow, we used the same Wal Mart scope on hers as I used on mine, from the get-go.  No issues with hers, either, several thousand shots later.

When I traded off my .20 R-1 for the smaller, lighter, .20 R-9, I mounted the same Wal Mart scope to it, too, before discharging the first shot.  It is also over the 10,000 shot mark now, and I haven't messed with the elevation or windage since sighting the thing for max PBR with Beemn FTS pellets.

My .177 Goldfinger came with a Banner.  That scope now resides on my Ruger 10/22 which I hardly ever shoot.  It functions fine.  In its place on the Goldfinger, I mounted the same Wal Mart scope that I use on all of my air rifles now -the Bushnell Sportsman 4-12 A.O. from Wal Mart.  12 tins of pellets later, it is  still going strong.

I used that same model of scope on a .20 Crusader, too, with equally positive results.

Oh, and the 66R on my old R-1 outlasted two mainsprings and is STILL trouble-free for the current owner.

So yeah, springers can wreck scopes.  Dosen't mean they automatically will.  Whenever I've used scopes that were properly double-braced to handle bi-directional recoil and have a sufficiently stout erector mechanism, I've not had any issues with inconsistant zero on my spring-piston guns.

-JP

[mannyrock]

  OK, time out.

   I'm new to the concept of mounting a scope on an air rifle, so I'm confused.

   Is somebody trying to tell me that the shock imparted by an air rifle to its scope is more than the shock imparted by a 7 Mag rifle, or a 12 gauge slug gun, to its scope?  Sorry, I'm not buying it!

   I haven't mounted a scope on an air rifle yet, but when I do, I would expect to have to buy a quality scope, in the $150 to $300 range, just the same as if I were putting a scope on a regular big game rifle.  Somehow, I doubt that a good leupold would simply fall apart on an air rifle.

  What's up here?  Are people trying to mount $40 scopes on their air rifles, and then act surprised when they break into pieces?   Does anybody think that the scopes that are currently supplied with air rifles (as "Combo Deals") aren't fairly cheap, and won't have a high likelihood of falling apart??

   What am I missing here?

Mannyrock

   

[Stateline]

I'm no expert, but I've always heard that it isn't the "force" of the recoil that breaks scopes on air rifles, it's the direction of it.

I've heard the same about crossbows, but I threw a regular old rifle scope on mine and it's still holding it's zero. I had a red dot scope on before this one, and it broke after about 100 shots. Didn't even make it through one bow season. 

My Beeman springer still has the original scope on it (4X32 that it came with), and it's still holding true so far. The scope failed on the Daisy I have, but the new one I bought for it is still going 300 shots later. It's not a springer though.

[Graybeard]

Is somebody trying to tell me that the shock imparted by an air rifle to its scope is more than the shock imparted by a 7 Mag rifle, or a 12 gauge slug gun, to its scope?  Sorry, I'm not buying it!

More no, different than designed for yes. Springers shock the scope in both forward and backward directions. Most scopes designed for centerfire rifles are designed only to take recoil in one direction as that's all a powder fired gun produces. Springer air guns tho due to the powerful spring recoil both forward and backward and according to real world evidence can ruin even high quality scopes if not designed to take their recoil even tho yeah at the shoulder it is much less than centerfire rifle recoil.

By the same token even cheap scopes can hold up to it if designed with it in mind.

[mannyrock]

  Okay, I understand the direction of force thing.

  So, what is considered THE high-quality scope, in the 4x class, around $150, that is specifically designed for air rifles, and is totally proven?   Hopefully, there is some agreement in this regard.  (From all of the prior and other posts I have read, its sounds like most folks are just reaching down into their equipment boxes, and mounting whatever stray scope they happen to have lying around. Some work, some don't.) 

Thanks, Mannyrock

[nodlenor]

I have a Gamo Maxima w/3-9 BSA. When I started using it I had trouble keeping it zeroed but found it was the mounts moving. Once I got the thing mounted solid enough to stay put it shoots great (well it shoots ok). It is a 25 to 30 yard gun at best.

[Graybeard]

Can't help with that Manny. Mine has a cheap BSA 2-7 that came with it. They also make a 4X for them. Bushnell makes scopes for them. I think Leupld rates all their scopes for springer air guns but you might want to check with them on that.