Video: Insyder Insyght: Breakbarrel Air Rifles vs Underlever Air Rifles

We are always combing through the comment section for questions and YouTube user TacticalToast wanted to see what happened when you put breakbarrel airguns up against underlever airguns.

Video Transcript Below:

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Pyramyd Insyder Insights, today we're gonna be talking about break barrels versus under levers. Our question today comes from Tactical Toast Two - great handle by the way, his question is you should compare break barrels to under levers. PCPs just aren't an option for me, so I'd love to see some good Springer videos. Well, Tactical Toast, we got you covered.

So, today's video, we're gonna be trying to answer two questions. Number one, is a break barrel more or less accurate than an underlever? So, that's obviously a question that gets asked all the time here at Pyramyd. We hear it on the phones a lot, see it in emails. It's a very commonly asked question that a lot of people want to know and the common consensus is that a break barrel is going to be less accurate than an underlever because of the fixed barrel factor, and I would tend to agree with that, but today we're gonna put it to the test.

Now the second question I have though, and this is a personal question, is can a lower priced underlever outshoot a higher priced break barrel. So, today let's go over the guns that we have to do this test with. So, for today's testing, all the guns in front of us here are .177 caliber to keep things consistent. For our under levers, we have a Gamo CFR Whisper and this gun has their CAT trigger so it's a pretty solid trigger for a budget gun. It is an underlever, still very, very lightweight, but with that thumbhole stock and adjustable cheek piece on that lower side, as an underlever it's a really nice option with some good features to it, and it does come with a three to nine by forty adjustable objective scope as well so that's a definite plus.

On the higher end, we do have a wire rack HW 97k. A world-renowned gun as far as under levers go, this and the Air Arms TX 200, whatever you want to call it, two of the best out there. So, the 97k is gonna give us a good accurate representation of what a very high-end under level rifle can do, and on the break barrel side we have a Gamo Hornet Maximum. Now this, again .177 caliber, has a lot of the hallmark features we're seeing on a lot of Gamos, you know, big shroud, very quiet gun, does have their CAT trigger as well and the triple R recoil reducing rail on it, so got a lot of features packed into this gun. We've done a review on it if you guys want to check that out in the past. And on the high end we have a Beeman R9, my opinion straight up the best break barrel you can buy for the money, actually not for the money just regardless, best break barrel on the market my opinion is that Beeman R9 .177 caliber. I've owned one of these. I owned one in .20 caliber and .177. They're phenomenal guns, really, really hard to beat.

So, what we're gonna find out today on the range is can we compare the accuracy on the high-end side between the underlever and the break barrel and can we do the same on the low-end side, and then does this CFR match up to the accuracy of this R9, and those are the questions that we're going to be taking a closer look at out on the range so let's go ahead out.

Alright, guys, so for today's test for all of the guns we're gonna do 10 shot groups for everything at 30 and 45 yards, so pretty decent distances for your average spring gun, especially for these Gamos, but we're gonna see how they do. Now I do want to point out one thing on this Hornet Maximum. Obviously, had to replace the factory scope, it's not a parallax adjustable scope, and I was having some trouble getting good accuracy out of it in my preliminary testing, so I've actually used a couple different scopes on this gun, kind of got settled in. We'll see how it does on camera though. Let's get to shooting.

Alright, guys, so we just got done shooting the two Gamos. We'll take a look here at the Hornet Maximum first. Now obviously the group of 30 yards was not that great at slinging those eight forces about nine hundred and thirty feet per second, but the biggest issue I'm having here, guys, it's not the fact that this is break barrel, okay, it's the fact that it's a six-pound gun. It's quite difficult to maintain good accuracy with that light of a gun in my opinion, especially at a decent distance like thirty yards.

You will notice we had about six shots there in about a one-inch pattern, but overall you're looking at about a two and a half inch group for ten shots, and quite frankly not very good, but again, you know, your mileage might vary, might like a different pellet, but I tried, you know, eight, nine pellets in both of these guns and the 8.4s were the best I could muster and obviously we didn't even, it's not even worth it to push out to forty-five yards. Guys, with the Hornet Maximum, it the group's only gonna get bigger, but the CFR is pretty impressive. I'm actually quite surprised. You're talking about throwing those 8.4s at about 850 feet per second just a hair under, but a one inch 10 shot group here at 30 yards, this gun is certainly capable and with the factory scope as well, so pretty impressive, and then stretching it out to 45 things opened up a little bit, but we still some nice clustering, you know, you're talking about an inch and a quarter inch and a half group here at 45 yards with a sub $300 under lever spring gun so you know Gamo definitely has a winner here in the CFR, and obviously in a head-to-head of, you know, Gamo break barrel versus a Gamo underlever, you're definitely going to want to go with the underlever.

Alright, guys, so now we're gonna take a look at the higher end guns. We got the AR 9 and the 97k ready to go. They're both scoped up with three to twelve four to twelve scopes so we have the same magnification levels. Both are holding zero fine, tested a bunch of pellets. You got the R9 like in the 8.4s and the 97k leg in those JSB 10.3 is the best so we're gonna stretch them out 30 and 45 yards again, 10 shot groups for both, and see how they do.

Alright, guys, so immediately you're seeing better groupings looking at this R9 group at 30 yards here. You got those 8.4s going about 890 feet per second and you're talking about a 3/4 inch group, guys, at 30 yards. This is squirrel’s head every time if you do your part and that is why again, my opinion, the R9 is the best break barrel out there. That said, some key differences though that make the guns easier to shoot both in this case; both of the guns are a little bit heavier and that little bit of weight mitigates some of the recoil which makes it a little bit less hold sensitive and more friendly to shoot, and obviously, the record trigger on there from Why Rock is absolutely phenomenal on both guns and probably one of the best triggers on a spring gun or gas ram gun out there that you're gonna find, so definitely a big factor here in making these guns easier to shoot, but again 3/4 inch group and then stretch in that are nine out to 45 yards one inch for ten shots, damn impressive. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that with a spring gun. I'm very pleased with that and the 97k of course did not disappoint at all. Now with the JSB heavies, you're getting a little bit more knockdown power right about 15 foot-pounds in the 177 right at 800 feet per second or so this is basically a half inch group for ten shots at 30 yards, not very hold sensitive, but of the 97k is a absolute joy to shoot. You're gonna see similar results out of your TX 20 LT use, you know, the higher end under levers are all going to produce results like these, but this 97k obviously a pleasure and then stretching it out to 45 yards, you're looking at about a three-quarter inch group here for 10 shots, so again the 97k just like we saw with the CFR versus the Hornet Maximum, the 97 k and that under lever outperformed the R9 just a little bit, not a whole lot, but definitely enough to make a difference, especially on those longer range shots.

Alright, guys, so those results pretty well confirmed kind of what we were saying in the beginning as well as, you know, what I thought personally and what a lot of folks think in that a underlever is typically going to be more accurate than a break barrel. Now what this test is not is a comparison of a high-end spring gun versus a low-end spring gun. Sure, you could take it as that, but bear in mind the statement holds true, especially with airguns, you get what you pay for. If you are gonna be spending the money on a higher end spring or underlever gas RAM whatever, you know, up into the five-six hundred dollar range, yes, you can expect better performance, and that's, there's a multitude of reasons for that. You're gonna get a better trigger, you're gonna get a better fitting powerplant, it's gonna be smoother, it is gonna have a better barrel, all of these things are gonna go into making that a better gun overall. Now that's not to say you can't give very good groups out of a lower end brake barrel or even a lower end underlever. I think we've shown that, you know, something like this Gamo CFR as a more moderately priced underlever air gun can do quite well at distance, so it's it certainly puts the first question to bed as to the underlever, yes, is more accurate than a break barrel, no doubt about that. As for the second question though, is a lower end underlever more accurate or less accurate than a high end break barrel; they're about the same. You're talking about roughly a little bit over, I think a one inch group on the Gamo CFR at forty five yards and right around a one inch group with the R9, some of that's going to have to do a trigger, you know, trigger control is going to be way better on a record trigger than it is on the CAT trigger, although the CAT trigger for what it is and the price point it's in is quite good, so the bottom line here, folks, if you're looking at a springer or gas ram or whatever you might be looking at, if there's an unde lever in your price range nine times out of ten that's gonna be the way you want to go. Now if weight’s a concern, certainly a break barrel is not a bad option, but make sure you're buying a quality break barrel, you know, that's not to say that that all Gamos are gonna shoot exactly the way this Hornet Maximum did or exactly the way that the CFR did, that's not the point here, guys. It's that buy the biggest thing, is buy the best you can afford, alright, that's the number one thing that I tell folks. The best gun you can afford from a quality perspective is gonna be the way you want to go whether that is a brake barrel, an under lever, a side lever, it really doesn't matter if you can afford getting yourself a fixed barrel gun, it's probably gonna do better in the accuracy department down the road, but even if you don't want to go for that and you want something that's maybe a little bit more convenient to load and lighter weight, a good quality break barrel certainly not a bad option, and there are plenty of them out there. So, Tactical Toast, thank you very much for the question. It was a great question and a great topic. We'll see you guys back again for the next Insyder Insights video, I'm Tyler Patner, check you later.

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