MedWheeler
Member
I arranged for Santa to leave one of these under my Christmas tree, and he followed through. I had previously handled one at a Bass Pro store in another county north of me and was very impressed with its appearance, feel, and heft.
Christmas dinner was at my cousin's house, well south of me, on a bigger piece of property than I have. That's where I broke this out.
Wow, am I going to enjoy this one! Umarex has definitely done their homework here. Though the gun weighs in at right about a pound under the weight of the original German weapon, it's still remarkably beefy and well-balanced. As a BB gun, it does not have a rifled barrel, but I was too busy laughing to try any real accuracy tests that day. In hand, with the fun switch in double-on, the MP40 rocks and rolls, with a realistic jackhammer-vibration added by the reciprocating bolt. The bolt covers the fake ejection port, so when it cycles, it looks real on both sides (bolt handle and ejector port.)
The heavy metal stick magazine holds both the ammunition (about 50 BBs) and the power supply (two 12-gram CO2 capsules.) Reviews on the MP40 indicate about three magazines to each pair of capsules, and that's pretty consistent with what I got. In addition, the gun stops on an empty magazine, so there's no waste of CO2 before the shooter realizes it's run dry. Spare magazines, which can be pre-loaded with both BBs and CO2 for quick reloads, are a bit on the pricey side, running about $50, but they do contain more than just a spring, follower, and floor plate.
I found the gun to be pretty loud, and one test I read on it indicated a sound reading of about 9db louder in FA than in SA. All the more for realism, but it means this gun will definitely attract some attention, perhaps unwanted, when run in city limits. In S-A mode (a shooting mode the real MP40 did not offer), it's noticeably quieter (though not nearly as fun.)
Both the Umarex and the original cartridge MP40 "maschinenpistole" come from Germany. Ironically, though, German gun laws prohibit the possession or use of full-auto BB guns, so that country's citizens cannot even enjoy their own product the way we can (they get the semi-auto-only version.)
I was shooting into a small pond on my cousin's property, using an open field beyond it to handle any ricochets, and the lily pads in the water as potential targets. In full-auto, at about 40-45 feet, the BBs tended to impact in an area about the size of a basketball, though I really wasn't trying to hold it still. Another guest came along to use the pond to try out his new rod and reel, and challenged me to shoot the rubber worm off his line each time he reeled it in. There's no way to know if I ever hit it, since a BB won't shoot a hole in a rubber worm from that distance but, when he unexpectedly pulled a fish out, we did check it for holes before tossing it back (no, there weren't any!)
Anyone who thinks BB guns are just "kids guns" or "toys" needs to stop by and try out some of what the makers are putting out these days. I'd recommend the MP40 as a good, solid convincer.
Christmas dinner was at my cousin's house, well south of me, on a bigger piece of property than I have. That's where I broke this out.
Wow, am I going to enjoy this one! Umarex has definitely done their homework here. Though the gun weighs in at right about a pound under the weight of the original German weapon, it's still remarkably beefy and well-balanced. As a BB gun, it does not have a rifled barrel, but I was too busy laughing to try any real accuracy tests that day. In hand, with the fun switch in double-on, the MP40 rocks and rolls, with a realistic jackhammer-vibration added by the reciprocating bolt. The bolt covers the fake ejection port, so when it cycles, it looks real on both sides (bolt handle and ejector port.)
The heavy metal stick magazine holds both the ammunition (about 50 BBs) and the power supply (two 12-gram CO2 capsules.) Reviews on the MP40 indicate about three magazines to each pair of capsules, and that's pretty consistent with what I got. In addition, the gun stops on an empty magazine, so there's no waste of CO2 before the shooter realizes it's run dry. Spare magazines, which can be pre-loaded with both BBs and CO2 for quick reloads, are a bit on the pricey side, running about $50, but they do contain more than just a spring, follower, and floor plate.
I found the gun to be pretty loud, and one test I read on it indicated a sound reading of about 9db louder in FA than in SA. All the more for realism, but it means this gun will definitely attract some attention, perhaps unwanted, when run in city limits. In S-A mode (a shooting mode the real MP40 did not offer), it's noticeably quieter (though not nearly as fun.)
Both the Umarex and the original cartridge MP40 "maschinenpistole" come from Germany. Ironically, though, German gun laws prohibit the possession or use of full-auto BB guns, so that country's citizens cannot even enjoy their own product the way we can (they get the semi-auto-only version.)
I was shooting into a small pond on my cousin's property, using an open field beyond it to handle any ricochets, and the lily pads in the water as potential targets. In full-auto, at about 40-45 feet, the BBs tended to impact in an area about the size of a basketball, though I really wasn't trying to hold it still. Another guest came along to use the pond to try out his new rod and reel, and challenged me to shoot the rubber worm off his line each time he reeled it in. There's no way to know if I ever hit it, since a BB won't shoot a hole in a rubber worm from that distance but, when he unexpectedly pulled a fish out, we did check it for holes before tossing it back (no, there weren't any!)
Anyone who thinks BB guns are just "kids guns" or "toys" needs to stop by and try out some of what the makers are putting out these days. I'd recommend the MP40 as a good, solid convincer.
