Gamo Whisper: Backyard Critter Gitter
Rocky Raab
When the sun fi nally came out, range setup included lightweight rest, the test rifle, and the author’s indefatigable Oehler 35P chronograph. Rakish look of the rifl e’s noise reducer brought several other shooters over to admire and handle the rifl e.
station where my attention was drawn to a group of guys and gals grinning and joking despite the miserable weather. Their ebullience seemed to stem from the soundless guns they were shooting. Curious, I wandered in and examined a few of the guns on display. Air rifl es are not my usual bailiwick so I declined the generous offer to shoot any and wandered off after leaving a business card. A few weeks later, to my complete surprise, I received an e-mail offering to loan me a rifl e for review. Intrigued, I went to their Web site and found several
D
modern rifl es with the suggested use of “pest and vermin control.” Well, that increased my interest. A few e-mails later and such a rifl e was on its way. I requested a .177 caliber Gamo Whisper model rifl e upgraded with a nitrogen gas “spring” instead of the standard coiled steel spring com- mon to most break-barrel air rifl es. The rifl e also came with a Gamo 3-9x scope installed and boresighted by the folks at Pyramyd. Inside the optional Plano rifl e case were the usual instruction books and the rifl e’s original steel mainspring – a surprising bonus. Physically, the rifl e weighs a bit over fi ve pounds with-
out scope, considerably lighter than most such guns. With scope installed, the rig runs a modest 6 pounds, 11 ounces. The full-sized black plastic stock comes with a ventilated rub- ber butt pad. Both sides of the stock feature a raised Monte Carlo cheek piece, making the gun truly ambidextrous. But what truly makes the gun striking at fi rst sight is the large
Page 126 Winter 2012
uring the rainy, chilly, windy Range Day at SHOT Show 2010, I passed the Pyramyd Air shooting
From left to right, the trigger adjustment screw, two-stage trigger, and the manual safety tab. Safety does not automatically engage during cocking and is ambidextrous.
noise reducer on the muzzle. This strongly tapered and fl uted device measures 7.5" in length and tapes almost 1.5" in di- ameter at the front. Three oblong vents on each side reveal a bluish foam material inside, presumably to attenuate the propelling gasses produced at fi ring in an effort to reduce muzzle blast. Gamo says sound is reduced by about half, but because the device is nonremovable, I have no way to verify the claim. The rifl e is surprisingly quiet to shoot, compared to other similar rifl es without such a device. The 18" barrel is listed as being rifl ed steel and is con-
tained inside a 0.7" diameter molded plastic outer sleeve complete with deep fl uting. The sleeved barrel probably has a lot to do with the gun’s pleasantly light weight. The entire gun is matte black. Sights include a click-adjustable rear and a hooded front, both featuring very bright fi ber-optic inserts. A separate scope-mounting rail is screwed to the receiver ready to accept an 11mm dovetail scope base. On the review rifl e, the rear sight seemed fl imsy and would not only move about ¹⁄₁₆" both laterally and vertically with fi nger pressure but would stick in a displaced position. That being the case, I did not shoot the gun other than with the scope installed. The firing controls include a two-stage adjustable
trigger and a non-automatic safety tab just in front of the trigger. The safety was easy to fl ick forward to the “Fire” position using the trigger fi nger. Again, this makes the gun fully ambidextrous. The two-stage trigger was far from what most shooters would be used to. A long easy take-up was followed by an almost-as-long gritty letoff and considerable overtravel. Total trigger movement seemed to be almost a
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