Video: Umarex Gauntlet PCP Air Rifle

PCP airgunners long for affordable guns that are consistent as well as powerful, and Umarex has answered the call!

Video Transcript Below:

Welcome to the Pyramyd Insyder. I’m Tyler Patner. Today, we have probably the most highly anticipated product of 2017, the Umarex Gauntlet in .22 caliber. Let's get to it. Alright guys, I'm really excited we're bringing you the Gauntlet here in .22 caliber, and this is a production gun. We've seen a lot of other content out there on pre-production models. I've had the opportunity to shoot a couple iterations of the pre-production guns, and they've all been phenomenal. They set a very high standard and we had the opportunity to put one of those guns on video for you guys, but we chose not to release that content because, quite frankly, I don't care about what a pre-production gun can do. It all matters if the production gun that's going to get into your guys' hands can do it too so that's what we're doing today. We're gonna take a look at the Gauntlet in .22 caliber here and see if it lives up to the high standard that the pre-production models have set. 

Alright guys, starting at the front of the Gauntlet, of course, one of the hallmark features of the gun, fully shrouded barrel, it's a 23 and a half inch barrel. Underneath this full-length shroud, it's about a 28-inch shroud unit and we do have kind of a mono course style baffle system, so it's not like some guns we've seen where their individual baffles are inside. There it's actually a two-piece unit that comes together which means you really shouldn't have any problems with clipping or anything like that. So, overall that should be a very good design and the gun is very quiet. We're gonna, of course, sound test it for you guys, and see how performs there, moving back under the barrel, we do have a 13 cubic inch bottle. Now, this bottle translates to about 200 plus CC's, just a little over that actually 200 CC mark of air capacity, and it's a 3,000 psi fill, so a standard fill in a very similar air size to what you have on like your Benjamin Marauders and guns in that kind of range. You do have your gauge on the right-hand side of the gun and then we do have a male quick disconnect fitting on the left-hand side of the gun. This is really nice, really convenient. You have plenty of space to fit your female QD in there on the end of your hose. Whether you're pumping or filling with a tank, this is going to be super easy to connect to. This cage portion actually does remove so you can remove the bottle and you remove it via the swivel stud. So, you take this full stud completely out and then you just kind of squeeze the cage portion and bring it off, the bottle is actually integral to the regulator, so you can actually purchase regulated bottles for this gun to fit right on here, and our Air Venturi 13 cubic inch bottle does fit right onto this gun. You can purchase it right now if you wanted to have a spare cylinder going with you. One thing I do want to note though is that it does come with this degassing tool and you do have to degas as the cylinder to go ahead and remove it. So, to do that you would just insert the degassing key right here and then twist all the way around. You'll hear it go, it vents out the barrel, so make sure your unloaded with the magazine removed when you go ahead and degas that cylinder, and of course, you guys will note that I did say it is a regulated bottle which does mean the Gauntlet should have regulated performance. What that means is that we should get very consistent shot-to-shot velocities as well as a lot of shots. They're claiming about 60 shots on a 3000 psi filled down to that 1150 psi regulator pressure. We're gonna obviously put it over the chronograph and see if that holds true. We'll find out the pre-production guns that we've shot all hold up to that claim so we'll find out if the production guns do as well. 

Taking a closer look at the breech, guys, we do have a repeater action, so you do have a 10-round magazine in .22, same in .177. I have confirmed that the Marauder magazines will work in these, very nice magazine. We know it's a reliable system. They've been used for a long time and overall I've had no problems around in this magazine, no jams, anything like that. The guns do also come with a single shot tray which is nice if you want to get just, milk a little bit more, accuracy out of the gun and the way you load those is via a side bolt action so a nice big bolt here to go ahead and grab onto, simply goes up and back and then you're gonna slide it down into that rear position to go ahead and insert your magazine or your single-shot tray. They have a nice audible snap in when you go ahead and put them in and then when you're ready to go you just simply push the bolt forward and you're all set, really easy to operate system. The gun decocks like just about any other PCP does. You simply hold the bolt back, go ahead pull the trigger, you hear that click and then you can slowly slide it forward, you're all good to go. 

The safety dropping down here is a flip style safety so that is your safe position right there and when you're ready to go hot, you just simply flip that forward and you're set to go. We do have a metal trigger blade as well and Umarex says that via the manual that it is adjustable. We didn't adjust it for this video here. I can tell you guys it has a pretty long take-up, but it comes to that consistent stop for that supposed second stage wall, if you want to say it that way, although, again, with that long take-up, calling it a two-stage trigger out-of-the-box maybe not so true, but it doesn't break that heavy. It's right around three pounds and again very consistent when you get to that second stage wall so I don't have any problems with this trigger as it's set up. I do know it can go lighter as well as have a more defined first second stage, so that's good to know. It's capable of that and coming up to the top of the breech. We do have an 11 millimeter dovetail and it is a split breech design so you do have a dovetail section in front of and behind your magazine, all depends on the length of scope you're gonna be using because we're using a 3 to 12 compact swat-style leaper scope today, you really don't need to go ahead and mount it both forward and backwards to get that proper eye relief, and you'll note that we have plenty of room. I'll show you here to go ahead and get our magazine in without causing any contact between the gun and the scope, but that is something to consider. You're probably going to want to go with high rings with most optics on this gun just to make sure you can clear that magazine, and of course, we do have a fully synthetic stock on this gun with an adjustable cheek piece, which is an awesome feature to see, especially for a gun in this 300 dollar price range. Rubber butt pad on the back really cool, note by the way you simply loosen the swivel stud here on the bottom to go ahead and adjust this via the thumb wheel and this is actually your vertical up-and-down adjustment of the cheek piece and then when you get it locked in and in that position that's best for you in your scope height, you're going to want to go ahead and then crank this clockwise to tighten it down and that's going to lock you in place, really nice feature. Overall guys, the Gauntlet feels pretty nice and balanced, is quite well out there, I find that this kind of swooped out section is where balance is best for me. Offhand, you are talking about roughly eight, eight and a half pound gun without a scope and a 46 inch overall length which is on the long side, but it is very quiet and we do need that extra shroud length to keep it that way. Overall, really like the feel though it does have that kind of cheap plasticy feel that a lot of synthetic stock guns do, but so overall pretty impressed, but I'm really excited to get this out to the range guys and see what it can do on paper and over the chronograph so let's head out and check out those results. 

Alright guys, we decided to take the Gauntlet straight out to 45 yards. There's really no point in testing really any PCP closer than that for the most part and the results are pretty good. We tested about 10 pellets in the Gauntlet and we found that 3 did better than most so we're talking about 1-inch groups is what my personal wanting was in this gun, you know, if we could do a 1 inch 10 shot group at 45 yards, I consider that a pretty solid grouping, not great but pretty solid, and the predator GTO is delivered right at about an inch for 10 shots, not too bad, but we definitely can do better. The JSP 15.89s you got a 3/4 inch group. They're very tight, little spread there, the regulator is certainly doing its job keeping those shots consistent and the H&N field target trophy is also coming in right at about 3/4 of an inch so pretty good groups, again 10 shot groups. So, they're gonna be a little bit bigger than they would be if they were 5, but the Gauntlet could certainly deliver out a distance 45 yards sub 1-inch groups, pretty impressed with the Gauntlet. 

So, with our most accurate pellet the JSB exact jumbo 15.89 grain, we're looking at an average feet per second of about 790 789, which is right about 22 foot-pounds. Now, the important part here, Umarex claims 60 shots per fill and they hit that number on the money from a 3,000 psi fill down to that 1100 psi regulated mark with an extreme spread at 18 feet per second and a standard deviation of only 3.3 feet per second. The numbers are pretty impressive here, guys, it's a little on the large spread side for a regulated gun, but still anything under that 25 foot per second mark really isn't going to impact your accuracy downrange, out to about 50-60 yards so gotta say, these numbers are looking very impressive and exactly what Umarex is touting. 

Alright guys, there's not a lot I can say for the Gauntlet that it doesn't say for itself on paper, very impressive offering in a three hundred dollar package. Quite frankly, this is mind blowing a little bit to see where the airgun industries come to in such a short time and for Umarex is first offering into the PCP market. This is definitely one you're gonna want to have an eye on, again 300 bucks, you really can't go wrong here. You're talking about three-quarter-inch 10-shot group accuracy at forty-five yards. You got decent power. It's a little underpowered in my opinion for a .22 right about 22 foot-pounds with those 15.89s, but you're getting sixty shots on a fill, guys, that's unreal, okay, and of course, the fact that it's regulated means you're gonna have very consistent results as well which is why we have such good accuracy out of this gun. It's quiet. It's accurate multi-shot capability. The trigger can be adjusted. The stock's adjustable. There's a lot of features packed into this gun. Guys, definitely check this one out on pyramydair.com guys, when you have a chance to. You know, as always, comment down below, tell us what you think about the Gauntlet, what else you'd like to see going forward in the future, hit us with that like button, and don't forget to subscribe. As always, Tyler Patner for the Insyder, we'll see you guys at the next one.