2004 shadow1000

[lillysdad621]

I have never been an FPS kind of guy, in fact the lamer the speed the most challenging the hunt, but i got a 2004 gamo shadow 1000 (still has the sticker over the breech, not the 1200 fps tattoo that new gamos have) that seems to be pushing lead at lame speeds...
rws hobbies: 886 fps
gamo hunters: 816 fps
crosman hp: 791 fps
beeman FT: 758 fps
crosman sm: 804 fps
crosman heavies: 666 fps

this is an untuned, stock, 500 pellets thru, cleaned and mantained .177 cal air rifle. Don't get me wrong, it is plenty to drop tree rats at 40 yards with a head shot and cpls, but i thought that the average gamo pushes about 75 to 100 fps more average with the same pellets...
If you think it is slow, what can i do to help it? otherwise it is an unbelievable rifle. with a 3-9x40 i can hit pennies at 40+ yards 4 out of 5 shots.
also i notice that the lightest pellets (rws hobbies ) are the easiest to hunt with. the heavies need a lot of compensating... is more like soft ball than baseball...
any help is appreciated...

[Dave1899]

It does sound like it's shooting fairly good...here's what mine is doing.

[lillysdad621]

I see that with similar or same pellets there is a 100 fps difference between our rifles... would tuning it give me that? how did you get those results??? basically if i can send 7.9 at around 900 fps i'll be happy. it would be enough for larger game at long range, say rabbits at 50 yard minimum... i dont think my gamo could send a pba at over 1000...also i am struggling to get 12 fpe. ... i thought the shadows were 14 fpe rifles easy... are the new ones better? is the whisper a better powerplant?or the varminhunter?

[Dave1899]

The tune would help as well as just shooting more pellets.  I used a chrony to check the fps.  I think this one was tuned by Charlie-Da-Tuna a couple years ago.  It also has  one of Charlie's GRT III triggers which makes an extreme difference in the rifle over a stock one.

[daved]

Yeah, I think it's shooting slow, too.  And if you've been feeding it a steady diet of CP Heavies, that could be why.  All the Gamos I've ever shot preferred pellets in the 8.5 gr. area.  The heavy pellets CAN result in velocity loss due to spring collapse or breakage.  The Shadow is a nice gun, I've shot one a lot.  With the right pellet, it should be right at 900 fps or so.  A tune might help, Gamos are notorious for damaged piston seals right out of the box, and that could be the cause for your low velocity.  It could also be a partially collapsed spring, I had that happen in a CFX with a JM spring in it.  Breech seals are wear items in those guns, too.  Now, it the velocities you listed are consistent, it could be that you ended up with a gun that has a Canadian spec spring in it, and has nothing wrong with it.  And with that, I'm all out of bright ideas :-).  Later.

Dave