Gamo Varmint Hunter
Jim Chapman
The Varmint hunter is based on the Gamos Shadow series of break barrel spring piston airrifle. The gun is dressed in a black synthetic stock, with a compliment of lights, lasers, and optics riding atop it. I have to admit, I’m a traditional kind of guy and have always preferred wood, however this rifles stock does give it a businesslike appearance. I’ll spend a few lines giving some of the relevant specifications and features before getting into my shooting/pest control experience with this gun.
The stock is an all weather synthetic material that is available in any color (as Henry Ford use to say of the Model T) so long as you want black. There is an ambidextrous cheekpeice that is situated to achieve good sight alignment when using a scope. The butt of the gun is equipped with a ventilated rubber buttplate, and the pistol grip and fore stock are checkered. The result is an easy to shoulder gun that aims naturally and carries well.
The varmint Hunter is a break barrel design with a 38 lb cocking effort, but due to the long sweep of the cocking action seemed lighter to me. The gun is advertised to generate velocities of 1000 fps, which is pretty close to what I achieved with some projectiles. In the accompanying table you will see the results I obtained using the Gamo Raptor, Hunter Roundnose, and Predator Polymag pellets amongst others. The precision rifling of the 28” barrel yielded up very good accuracy with several loads. There is a 2 stage trigger, with first stage being adjustable. I had the gun set up with very little initial creep and a clean break at about 3.5 lb.
The thing that makes the Varmint Hunter the Varmint Hunter is the accessories that are included in the package. The rifle has a grooved receiver that mounts a scope, onto which a flashlight and a laser are affixed. Both of these lighting systems are activated via a pressure sensitive switch and can be easily deployed from the shooters typical hand position on the forestock.
To get a handle on how the gun performed, several pellets were shot across the chrony and for groups at twenty five yards. All pellets yielded adequate accuracy for most hunting applications, and while I wasn’t surprised that the CPs and Hunters offered up tight groups, the fact that the Raptors grouped so well wasn’t expected. In several guns I’d tested this pellet through, the accuracy past 15-20 yards was so-so. But with the Varmint Hunter I got consistently good results at 25 yards. The targets shown are representative of typical groups obtained, and the chart in the figure was the average of five 5 shot groups, with the CP, Hunters, and Raptors respectively providing the best results.
The highest velocity was obtained with the Raptors, which was expected. The Match and the Hunter were almost equal in terms of velocity, closely followed by the Polymags, then the CPs with the heavy weight Exterminator coming in at under 600 fps. When combining the results of both the accuracy and velocity test, I opted to select the Raptors, Hunters, and CP as my field pellets.
I brought this gun along on a few pest control outings; to shoot sparrows and starlings around the feeders and outbuildings at a friend’s farm, to try to get rid of some rats around the barn, and clear out a few squirrels that were getting into the rafters and crawl spaces of the farmhouse. I shot Gamo hunters when culling the bird pests and rats as I was concerned about over penetration, but on the squirrels I used the new Raptor pellets as I was interested in seeing what the terminal performance on quarry would be. This pellet/gun combination was very effective, and I found that a 25 yard broadside on a squirrel would at least end up coming to rest on the offside skin line if not outright penetrating the critter side to side. This gun combined the power and accuracy to make for an effective small game/pest control rig.
So what did I think? As mentioned, I like wood stocks better than synthetics from an aesthetics point of view. However there is no denying that the stock felt natural and pointed well while offering good sight alignment. The cocking effort is low and not at all difficult. The trigger is not great, but is not too bad either and can be tweaked to suit the preference of most shooters. The combination of scope, laser, and flashlight lets you shoot under all light conditions. Gamo has a solid lineup of moderately priced widely available air rifles that have a large world wide following. I think that this is an excellent gun for somebody just getting into the sport, on a budget, or one that is used as a tool specifically for pest control. It does seem that the Raptor pellet does feed better through this gun than any other I’ve shot, though I am not really sure why this is. This gun lives up to its name of the Varmint Hunter, and is well worth consideration for anybody that needs a high performance pest control rig.
I use a portable shooting bench with a rest, pro chronograph, target box with a variety of targets, tools, and a spotting scope.
I did not get the tightest groups with this gun, but it is not a target rifle. It is a purpose designed hunting/pest control rifle.
A summary of my results shooting six different styles of .177 pellets, including three rather unique designs; the Raptor, the Predator Polymag, and a prototype of the Exterminator 15 grain pellet.
