The Umarex Gauntlet. An exercise in frustration mixed with amazing performance.

[DanielL]

I've gone worked through so many issues with my Umarex Gauntlet that I've started to lose count. Bad trigger. Horrible cocking efforts. Exceedingly hard to engage safety. Pellets damaged during loading. Probe o-rings snipped. But the HUGE bugaboo has always been the POI shifts. Shoots tight groups...you just never know where the next tight group will be.

The last few days I may have licked the POI shift problem but I still need to run a few tests to be sure. In the process I've been running it up against a certain high dollar PCP I also own and amazingly, the Gauntlet has been owning it...with tighter groups and more consistent shot to shot variance from its cheap Ninja regulator.

For example, here is a typical shot string from the Gauntlet, in this case with H&N Barracuda's. 819, 817, 819, 817, 820, 814, 817, 813. For you statistics fans that is a mean of 817 fps with a standard deviation of 2.45 and an extreme spread of all of 7 fps. This regulator performance is pretty typical of this Gauntlet...most quality pellets (H&N, JSB, AA...etc) have about a 2.5 standard deviation. That is with the gun filled up inside and left sit outside for at least half an hour in below freezing weather before shooting it. No creep. No slow regulator performance. All the pellets in the same ragged hole at 21 yards.

Still can't recommend the Gauntlet to anyone who isn't the type who doesn't like to tinker...but for those that do, it can be very rewarding.

FYI. This is a .25 caliber Gauntlet making between 46 to 53 fpe depending on the pellet, out of the box. I haven't done a single performance modification. It loves JSBs (what airgun doesn't) but also does a nice job with NSA 26.8 gr. FT-HP slugs.

Negatives? Besides all the tuning and fixing? It doesn't get a lot of shots per fill from it's stock 13 cu.in bottle (about 20.) Having said that a 23 cu.in bottle upgrade is cheap and if you really want to go nuts you can add a 300 bar 500 ml carbon fiber unit that will shoot all day (but that is a bit like putting Brembo brakes on a Hyundai.)

 

[Springrrrr]

The cocking effort can be cured by taking the bolt out and polishing everything that touches.

The trigger can be made as good as your high dollar gun, no matter which one it is, by polishing everything that touches and changing the spring to a cut to proper lenght one from a ball point pen. It will become a single stage trigger after adjustment, but with a clean break and light pull. Mine is as good or better than any other gun I own including a very high dollar one and that is after doing trigger work on Mr. Big Bucks.

The "O" rings can have a light coat of silicon grease or oil applied to smooth out the pellet loading.

The magazine can be modified as per Hajimoto's instructional video on You Tube.

And the buggaboo can be assisted by adding a strong spring in series with the one at the muzzle that already is there. I can't give you dimensions of the spring, but I can tell you it took all I had to get the end cap to screw back on when I did mine in that manner. That extra spring tensions the barrel albeit in the opposite direction than the JSAR Raptor is tensioned. It pushes the barrel back instead of pulling it forward, BUT IT WORKS!

I also added two pieces of flat stock to the shroud at the receiver end, glued and screwed, to further lock things in place. I don't care how it looks, just how it performs.

The addition of a JSAR hammer spring kit and poppet saves air and makes the gun an even better shooter. My chrony numbers are as tight as yours with my 177 model.

I hope this helps if you choose to take the advice. It will make your Gauntlet a much better gun. The 25 cal. has a barrel band, but I found they only seem to do partial good. Barrel tensioning helps more because that barrel is pencil thin and the shroud has a lot of movement because, it too, is thin.

 

[Scotchmo]

I ended up making a barrel/shroud band that ties to the main tube (rather than the less stable air tank). It helped some with the day-to-day shifting. I ended up selling the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is a great value but has a few design deficiencies/compromises.

Below is a link to the STL file for anyone else that wants to try it. I have had some issues with PLA when leaving my gun case baking in the sun. So I have been switching to ABS which is more temperature resistant. I went with tight tolerances, so you may have to scale it up about 1% if you want a looser fit. Or you can sand it out a little after printing - that is what I did. You will also need (2) M3x16mm SCH cap screws and (2) M3 nuts. Installation requires that you degass the gun and remove the tank block.

http://www.scotthull.us/3Dprint/Gauntlet/Gauntlet-breech-brace-00.stl

 

[TNT19]

I turned my 25 cal to shoot at 930 fps with the 25 gr jsb. I polished the bolt cuz yeah it was bad lol, did the reg to 2100 psi, polished the barrell, adjusted the trigger to get as best I could with what I was given. Should have dropped a trigger upgrade in but it's ok as is, dropped a 400 cc can on it to increase shot count but it also increased the weight of the gun which was a deal breaker for me as I hunt alot in the woods. Have to say though it was sub moa at a 100 yards. 

 

[DanielL]

I've polished the trigger and lightened the trigger spring. Chamfered and polished the breech. Cut material from the clear magazine window and smoothed all it's edges. Removed the plastic barrel band retainer ring which biased the barrel and shroud from it's natural position. Tightened and loctited the shroud and barrel retaining set screws. Heavily greased the barrel air stripper o-ring so the barrel would not resist returning to center when deflected. I agree more spring would help and it is on my list.

All that has made it a better to shoot gun.

It is still heavy and long. I'm used to heavy guns but the length increases the propensity to bump the barrel.

I have the valve and lighter hammer spring to install sitting on the shelf.

My wife says, "Shouldn't things just work when you buy them.". It is hard to argue with that.

P.S. Today I took another pesky bird feeder raider with a 26 gr. Predator Polymag launched at 905 fps. When it's POI hasn't shifted it is quite effective.

 

[dannya1a]

Just cured my poi shift as well on my .25. I'm guessing the nsa slugs are .249. What did you do to be able to shot them? I'd like to get my shooting slugs and pellets. Odd that you don't get 3 full mags. I get it with mine before I come off regulator. Going to shortly put in jsar kit, high travel valve stop and 22cu in tank at 2100 psi. My stock 50 yard performance is lacking with jsb 25,39. Air arms 25,4 give me almost identical performance to jsb's. It definitely is a hard hitting pcp in stock form. I go clean though 2x6's at 38 yards. Squirrels hide in fear when I enter the woods. Lol

 

[DanielL]

Yes. The NSA's are 26.8 gr. .249's with a BC of .088 (which is about twice as good as the best pellets...the JSB King Heavies.) They do 891 fps (47.3 fpe) from the Gauntlet with a standard deviation of 2.95. They are not the tightest grouping but plenty capable for hunting and they should win that battle at extended ranges...plus the power battle too because of their much better BC. For example, at 50 yards they already carry more energy than the JSB King Heavies (40 fpe vs. 39.7). At 80 yards they carry 36.5 fpe vs. the KH's 33.8 fpe and have 2 inches less drop (6" vs. 8").

I suspect my air gauge is off and that is contributing to the lower shot count. If I fill it to 3,200 psi I can get that third full magazine.

Another project in the works is installing a 500 ml carbon fiber bottle. Got one but need to tune the Ninja reg. 

Finally I'm going to 3D print a new fore end that will allow me to run a regulator with a 90 degree oriented foster fitting and have a built in picatinny rail. I hate that it fills on the opposite side as the gauge. Makes it more difficult to fill and read the gauge at the same time.

 

[DanielL]

The most accurate pellet so far has been the heaviest and most powerful, 33.95 gr. JSB King Heavies. They do 840.4 fps and 53.3 fpe. 

 

[dannya1a]

nice. my next step is to check and see what my output pressure is on my stock bottle. I was surprised to get a full 3 clips and still be on regulator. I did loosen my set screws and realign the barrel in the port.. Barrel is centered in the port currently. Not sure if i should push the barrel fully back into the breech ( there is a few thousands from full seat to the end), but this would cause the port to be slightly off set to the transfer port.

Oh and also to get a chrony so i can see what my fps currently are.