- Review Centre
- Sport
- Shooting
- Air Rifles
- Gamo Recon .177
- hfs's review
Picture courtesy of Pat.
| Accuracy | 7.8/10  |
|---|---|
| Handling | 9/10 |
| Value for Money | 9.4/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 7.8/10 |
| Overall Rating | 6.5/10  |
By hfs
on 8th Jan 2008
| Accuracy | 9/10 |
|---|---|
| Handling | 9/10 |
| Value for money | 10/10 |
| Overall value | 9/10 |
 hfs's recommendation | |
The style of the Gamo Recon begs you to shoot it.
Better than a typical Daisy or Crosman pump gun.
The trigger guard rubs like sandpaper against the middle finger of your shooting hand when firing...
I bought the Gamo Recon for $75 at Academy Sports and Outdoors. I had no intention to use the included scope for such a short range plinker, so I bought and installed a BSA 30mm red dot sight to go with it for another $30. For a little pellet rifle, it just reeks of coolness set up this way. So much so that my wife actually likes to shoot it!
I chose this air gun because of how quiet 525 fps should be, and I only intend on firing it in my small backyard which has a maximum of 50 feet fence to fence. It is plenty quiet until you hit one of those fence boards!
The BSA red dot sight didn't fit so well on the Recon even though it was designed for air guns and .22s. I had to make 1/16" diameter pins out of small nails to space the top part of both sight clamps. This makes the sight angle closer to vertical when mounted, otherwise the sight angled too far to the right without the pins installed. I'm sure I could have sighted in the red dot without the pins, but it just didn't look right.
I'm no air gun expert, and I'm definitely not a precise shot by any means. However, at 40 feet when shooting groups of 5 shots, I could get 4 of those 5 within 1/2" of each other. The 5th shot would be within 1". This was using some 15 year old Beeman Silver Stings I had laying around. That accuracy is more than good enough for me using an inexpensive red dot sight (with a 5 MOA dot) on an inexpensive, well built little plinker air gun.
At 525 fps the Recon is pretty close to my old Crosman 1389 Backpacker that was rated as high as 560 fps. That Crosman could take out a small critter as needed, and I suppose the Gamo Recon can too. All without the "knock-knock" sound of pumping up the Crosman.
I've read other reviews stating that the steel barrel is covered with polymer. Well, kind of. Without cutting my barrel apart, I'd guess the barrel is ALL polymer except the smallest steel inner tube that is the actual rifled barrel that the pellet rides through. Doesn't seem to be an issue though. The polymer barrel is plenty stiff and locks up tight when ready to fire.
I recommend the Gamo Recon to anyone (either young or old) if they are in the market for a relatively inexpensive and really fun to shoot air rifle. Forget the pump Daisy's and Crosman's, pay a bit more and get something that is built better, looks better, has no pumping, and shoots plenty well to have some real fun!
hfs's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
Would you like to see a review that's not being listed?
hfs
on 10th Jan 2008