RWS (Umarex) Model 850 Magnum Reviews

cole5169's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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This particular air rifle is manufactured by Umarex, and distributed under RWS and Hammerli brands as the 850 or 850 Magnum (no difference beside the nomenclature).

The 850 is a CO2 rifle, and is designed to use "AirSource" type bottles as the reservoir. There are many adaptors available from sources on the internet that will allow one to use standard paintball tanks or remote lines, if desired. There are also instructions for converting an 850 to run on high-pressure air (HPA), as an alternative to using CO2.

I have the .22 calibre version, which came with 2 8-shot magazines. The revolver-style mags are made of hard resin with an alloy indexing "gear" inset into the center, surrounding the spindle hole. They have oversized holes to accept pellets, with an easily replaceable O-ring used to retain the pellets in their holes. The magazine of the 850 is indexed automatically when the shooter cycles the bolt action. Each pellet is fully seated into the bore by the bolt which has an integral O-ring seal behind a generous probe. Some pellets (overly long ones like Beeman Kodiaks or wadcutters with very sharp faces and hard composition like Gamo Match) can be a little problematic to load, but not to the point of detracting from the overall experience. In the main, this is a fine weapon to shoot, and loading is very smooth, especially with round nose pellets.

The trigger is very smooth and predictable. I don't think it is two-stage, but it is very nice.

When Umarex designed the 850, they took great pains to ensure that the CO2 tank would be completely hidden inside the forestock. For this reason, the action and barrel of the gun seem to sit very high on the stock, which already has a tall profile. Aesthetically, it makes the finished product look a little, well, ugly. The stock is a hollow, polymer sporter stock with a high, Monte Carlo style comb and a very decent "anti-recoil" style ventilated buttpad.

My RWS 850 was equipped with "fibre-optic" open sights. The front sight is a non-adjustable ramp and post style affair, and the rear sight is a nicely adjustable notch with positive, micrometer clicks for windage and elevation. I don't like fibre-optic sights, so I removed mine and mounted a Simmons 6-24X50mm scope. There is an available muzzle brake for dressing the end of a scoped 850, but mine would not work with the .22 (holes were too small, pellets struck the brake). No worries, I'll find something else to use for the muzzle.

This really is a terrific rifle, despite the ugly-duckling looks. Very accurate, not too awfully loud. Mine shoots 14.3 grain pellets at around 675fps (14.47 fpe) -- these are really easy guns to detune to below 12 fpe, if you need to do so (just changing some springs will do the job). Mine is also very economical with the gas, giving hundreds of shots per fill.


Why did I give the rifle a rating of "4-stars" for handling:
3 Reasons:
( 1 ) Well, the stock is too light, especially in the butt, and this makes the rifle very front-heavy. Add to this the plastic forestock, which has a less-than-firm connection to the rest of the gun, although it is the natural place a lot of shooters will intuitively grasp to pick the gun up.
( 2 ) The barrel is too long. This extra length does yield a few more fps in velocity, but it is really not necessary.
( 3 ) The automatic safety. I really dislike automatic safeties... Luckily, this is a pretty easy feature to defeat, and the safety can still be used manually when desired.

Why did I give the rifle a rating of "4-stars" for value:
Simply because the retail price is so high. Phenomenal shooter, just a little too pricy for a backyard CO2 gun;

I totally recommend this to anyone. Get the .22, it's more suited to CO2 useage.

Guest's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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The RWS (Umarex) Model 850 Magnum is a great gun

shooter dave's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Nice rifle, but the only downfall is the one typical of all co2 weapons....temperature.
When used during the summer, performance is top rate.
Recommend using accupells for best results.
The bolt action is smooth, yet gives a positive feel when loading, and the magazine is easy to insert.
Overall, this is a good performer in both target and field shooting, giving satifying results in both areas.
Will recommend to all to buy one, as the the price is right.

Air Gun Labs's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Great rifle. I use Bushnell Legend 5-15x40 scope on it. I get 1 cm groups @ 20 meters with JSB Exact pellets, maybe 1 out of 10 shots goes out of the group. Muzzle speed is amazingly constant.If you shoot too fast, the CO2 tank chills down and the muzzle speed drops.The only problem is that you do not know what you run out of CO2 until you observe deteriorated accuracy.

eric1200's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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The RWS (Umarex) Model 850 Magnum has good accuracy, Build quality and overall value. I think that this gun is attracting allot of attention. Lots of modifications available and easily bulked or converted to HPA. This gun is pretty amazing. I was blown away with the accuracy of this gun. I can shoot shot for shot with my buddies $1000 + PCP gun. Now he does shoot faster and has more FPE but for targets I am just as accurate. I have converted mine to a 9 oz PB tank and can get almost 400 perfect ...

mnshoot's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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I have the .177 version utilizing it for 10 meter target and field shots utilizing the most inexpensive pellets I can obtain (RWS 7.0 Basic) with very consistent and accurate placement.
I have "bulked" the gun, making a quick disconnect adapter from an old AirSource bottle neck and, with a 24 OZ bottle, have (what I feel to be) the most powerful and economical CO2 rifle made.
The consistency (of pressure) and duration of shots that bulking affords helps the accuracy.
I can still unscrew the b ...

JimBianchi's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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I've been using a single shot .22 cal. Mountain Arms 2250 for about a two years, and while I love the accuracy, I wanted a repeater that wouldn't break the bank.

The RWS 850 Magnum in .22 cal seem to be the only game in town for under $300.

Other than the Logan at $800 and a PCP setup, what's out there?

I bought the gun from Pyramid Air, and the packing and shipping were excellent! This bolt action repeater comes with two 8-round circular clips, and in the month I've had it, this seem ...

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I was looking for a pellet rifle for pest control and settled on the following criteria: The rifle must be "always ready", powerful, accurate, and capable of reasonably fast follow-up shots. While springers offer the most power for the money, they require an awkward cocking stroke, as well as single pellet loading which I do not find appealing in the field. "Older" eyes don't enjoy futzing around with trying to fit individual pellets into a barrel or chamber without reading glasses, so the abi ...