Umarex Octane

[Trent]

So I got my boys a Umarex Octane for Christmas. The "1450 fps" spec made me giggle inside when I saw it in the store (holy CRAP that's fast; with alloy bullets, with lead it says "1250". Haven't chronographed it yet).

Anyway I set up a 10 meter range in the basement, we go over the instructions. I cock it and fire the first shot.

IMMEDIATELY wished I'd put on hearing protection. Either the built in silencer don't work that well, or the supersonic crack of the pellet is a lot louder than I thought it'd be.

This air rifle has recoil! It recoils about the same as an AR-15.

It penetrated over 300 pages of a phone book using those light alloy pellets.

I then took an old ballistic vest I had laying in the gun room. It's 18 years old and been collecting dust for the last dozen of those years.. so I don't trust it to stop a bullet - not worried about ruining it. I put it up and shot the corner of it. The little high velocity alloy pellets went through 12 layers of kevlar. Talk about some zing.

I haven't shot it for accuracy yet. I have three different weights of pellets for it to try out. Need to build a better back stop before I shoot it much more - the thing made short work of the phone book I had down there.

Anyway, air guns sure have come a ways since I was a kid.

 

[Chevota]

That was probably dieseling, or a combination of that and going ss. It should settle down to about 1100fps with std 7.9gr pellets, and be much quieter. I'd buy some 10.5gr Crosman, JSB and/or H&N which will bring it closer to 900fps and tame the gun in several ways including better accuracy. Be sure to crony it once it's settled down, maybe 50 to 100 shots? The Crony will tell you the condition of the gun, basically how much it's leaking, if there is excess friction, or a weak spring like what happens with nitros a lot. That gun is, or is very much like a Ruger Air Mag which have a terrible reputation of power problems. The first one I tried was about 40% low in power due to a major internal flaw, the second I tried was flawed as well, but much better in power, and I hear all kinds of power and accuracy problems. The Octane is either the exact same, but hopefully a better quality version, but still I'd check right away so you can fix or return it.
And have fun with your new toy!