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I bought a Gamo .22 break barrel pellet gun a couple of weeks ago that I've been using to try to thin out the rat population that have made a home in my back yard and under my ground level decking at the end of my patio, thanks to the neighbor behind us that decided to raise chickens a few years ago and they have migrated across the fence into our yard. Since our Bouvier Ratters haven't been able to keep up with them, the older wiser ones ignore my traps and I do not want to use poison because of our dogs, I decided to try a pellet gun.
The first one I got was the Gamo and first day I had it, I got several. Very accurate and does the job. The problem is it's louder than I like and the scope it came with is fuzzy and I can't get it focused. I can still hit with it during the day but at night with just the porch light on, it's just to fuzzy to get a good aim. I bought a new scope and it's great, nice and clear... the problem is I can't zero it in. I run out of up MOA before it's zeroed in by about an 1" at the 30' or so I'm shooting. I tried shimming but I was afraid I was putting to much stress on the scope tube and I didn't want to spend another $60 or so and buy a slanted rail or the Burris Signature ring kit with multiple +MOA ring inserts. After all, I just wanted to buy a inexpensive (not necessarily cheap) pellet gun to kill rats.
After messing with it and missing rats when I stayed up after dark, I decided to get a new pellet gun. Since the break barrel was loud I decided to try a CO2 rifle this time. After doing some research I decided on the Beeman QB78 .22 caliber CO2 rifle without a scope. That put it under $100 and I already had a good scope to use and I was hoping I'd be able to zero it in on this rifle.
I got the rifle in today and got it all ready to test fire per the instructions. I mounted my scope and went to try it out for the first time. This is when the unsafe part comes in. I had dry fired it a couple of times to make sure it charged up and then I put the first pellet in. I flicked off the safety and took aim at the target and pulled the trigger. Except it didn't fire. The trigger felt like the safety was still on so I turned it on it's side and took a look. I found the safety had only gone half way and stopped even with the trigger rail and not up against the stock like it was supposed to (I found what it was supposed to do later).
So I pushed the safety lever the rest of the way and the rifle fired the pellet without any of my fingers near the trigger or even in side the trigger guard. I was so glad I still had the rifle pointing in the general direction of the target. It didn't hit the target but it didn't go much past it either. I couldn't believe that pushing the safety would cause the rifle to fire. And even though it is only a pellet gun, it's still dangerous and someone could have gotten hurt. I also felt the same way had it been one of my real guns that had gone off like that and I had to put the rifle down for a bit.
A little bit later with no pellet in it I took a look and saw where the safety lever was suppose to snap all the way up against the stock when it was pushed but it was stopping about 50% of the time at the trigger guard.
I was able to repeat what happened dry firing. What I found was that with the rifle cocked and the safety on I could bring it up to aim, flip the safety up pull the trigger and it not fire if the safety was half way. If I pushed the safety forward the rest of the way (all fingers clear of the trigger) it would fire. I did this 5 times in a row. If I didn't pull the trigger before making sure the lever was all the way to the fire position (if it stuck half way), it would only fire if I pulled the trigger like normal, If the safety was on and I pulled the trigger it would not fire and it didn't fire if I flicked the safety all the way to the fire position.
Evidently there is a spot that when the safety level lands there and the trigger is pulled but it doesn't fire, moving the safety level the rest of the way fires the rifle. Very scary.
I did find when I dry fired about 20 times to empty the CO2 canisters so I could box it back up that it stopped sticking at the half way point and even if I stopped it at the half way and pulled the trigger, it did not fire when I pushed the lever the rest of the way. I do not know if this means it has to have two fresh CO2 canisters for this to happen or if the safety lever needed a lot of moving from safe to fire and back during my tests and dry firing it to loosen up so it didn't fall on that one particular spot. To me it doesn't matter, I consider the gun unsafe and it's going back to Amazon after shooting just one pellet out of it. I didn't even go ahead and see if my scope could be zeroed in on the new rifle.
I do like the CO2 better than the break barrel though. At least I found that out. So I'm going to return the Gamo as well and look at some of the German pellet guns Hammerli. They cost more, but hopefully I will get a lot better gun as well. So the rats get a reprieve for a bit. I just hope the dogs can take up some of the slack of controlling them.
Mike
The first one I got was the Gamo and first day I had it, I got several. Very accurate and does the job. The problem is it's louder than I like and the scope it came with is fuzzy and I can't get it focused. I can still hit with it during the day but at night with just the porch light on, it's just to fuzzy to get a good aim. I bought a new scope and it's great, nice and clear... the problem is I can't zero it in. I run out of up MOA before it's zeroed in by about an 1" at the 30' or so I'm shooting. I tried shimming but I was afraid I was putting to much stress on the scope tube and I didn't want to spend another $60 or so and buy a slanted rail or the Burris Signature ring kit with multiple +MOA ring inserts. After all, I just wanted to buy a inexpensive (not necessarily cheap) pellet gun to kill rats.
After messing with it and missing rats when I stayed up after dark, I decided to get a new pellet gun. Since the break barrel was loud I decided to try a CO2 rifle this time. After doing some research I decided on the Beeman QB78 .22 caliber CO2 rifle without a scope. That put it under $100 and I already had a good scope to use and I was hoping I'd be able to zero it in on this rifle.
I got the rifle in today and got it all ready to test fire per the instructions. I mounted my scope and went to try it out for the first time. This is when the unsafe part comes in. I had dry fired it a couple of times to make sure it charged up and then I put the first pellet in. I flicked off the safety and took aim at the target and pulled the trigger. Except it didn't fire. The trigger felt like the safety was still on so I turned it on it's side and took a look. I found the safety had only gone half way and stopped even with the trigger rail and not up against the stock like it was supposed to (I found what it was supposed to do later).
So I pushed the safety lever the rest of the way and the rifle fired the pellet without any of my fingers near the trigger or even in side the trigger guard. I was so glad I still had the rifle pointing in the general direction of the target. It didn't hit the target but it didn't go much past it either. I couldn't believe that pushing the safety would cause the rifle to fire. And even though it is only a pellet gun, it's still dangerous and someone could have gotten hurt. I also felt the same way had it been one of my real guns that had gone off like that and I had to put the rifle down for a bit.
A little bit later with no pellet in it I took a look and saw where the safety lever was suppose to snap all the way up against the stock when it was pushed but it was stopping about 50% of the time at the trigger guard.
I was able to repeat what happened dry firing. What I found was that with the rifle cocked and the safety on I could bring it up to aim, flip the safety up pull the trigger and it not fire if the safety was half way. If I pushed the safety forward the rest of the way (all fingers clear of the trigger) it would fire. I did this 5 times in a row. If I didn't pull the trigger before making sure the lever was all the way to the fire position (if it stuck half way), it would only fire if I pulled the trigger like normal, If the safety was on and I pulled the trigger it would not fire and it didn't fire if I flicked the safety all the way to the fire position.
Evidently there is a spot that when the safety level lands there and the trigger is pulled but it doesn't fire, moving the safety level the rest of the way fires the rifle. Very scary.
I did find when I dry fired about 20 times to empty the CO2 canisters so I could box it back up that it stopped sticking at the half way point and even if I stopped it at the half way and pulled the trigger, it did not fire when I pushed the lever the rest of the way. I do not know if this means it has to have two fresh CO2 canisters for this to happen or if the safety lever needed a lot of moving from safe to fire and back during my tests and dry firing it to loosen up so it didn't fall on that one particular spot. To me it doesn't matter, I consider the gun unsafe and it's going back to Amazon after shooting just one pellet out of it. I didn't even go ahead and see if my scope could be zeroed in on the new rifle.
I do like the CO2 better than the break barrel though. At least I found that out. So I'm going to return the Gamo as well and look at some of the German pellet guns Hammerli. They cost more, but hopefully I will get a lot better gun as well. So the rats get a reprieve for a bit. I just hope the dogs can take up some of the slack of controlling them.
Mike