After a fight with FedEx, the 850 arrived from UMAREX today. (another long story)
It is in .177 and is a "special edition" that comes with:
1. A fake "wood grain" stock
2. Scope - Walther 6X42 AO
3. The Compensator
4. A Plastic Bi pod that attaches to a removable rail which is fitted to the underside of the fore-stock.
Out the box first impressions:
1. The stock is very "plastic" with visible casting lines. It also has a cheap sound when tapped.
However, I stuffed it with some old rags and it sounds acceptable now. I'll replace the cloth with
foam (like the CFX) and it'll be fine.
likeI said, this is a "special" stock and is not as nice as the composite stocks. They tried for a
Silver / Greyfake wood grainand didn't quite pull it off.
2. The Bi pod is made of plastic and is cheesy.... no better way to describe it. It sticks out of the bottom
of the fore-stock and only the two little feet fold up into the shaft, which remains sticking out
as a sort of a handle? The feet are spring loaded and deploy with the push of a button at the
top / backof the shaft. It is easy to detach. It mounts using a rail that is attached to the bottom of
the fore stock.... could also use the rail to mount a flashlight or a laser...
3. The action / metal parts are very nice. The bluing is perfect and it has a very solid feel to it without
feeling heavy.
Getting it working:
1. The magazine is great and easy to load (it comes with two) the pellet holes are deep enough to take
any sized pellet you choose. It also is easy to remove / install. It has a little slide-lock that locks
it in place.
2. The Bolt action is a bit “sticky” but has already smoothed out after about 50 shots.
3. The scope is very nice, despite the fact that it is fixed at 6X. the 42mm objective is adjustable and lets
in a good amount of light, giving a bright clear FOV.
4. The rifle shoulders very nicely and the steep pistol grip makes it very comfortable to hold.
5. The 88g CO2 cylinder screws on easily and tightens up good and snug, with a tiny psst as the
seal breaks. I backed it off ¼ turn as per instructions. With it on the gun, the whole feel changes to
one of a very nicely balanced rifle
6. The rifle is also pretty light, not sure yet but I’d guess under 7lbs. gassed up.
7. I removed the fiber optic sights before even mounting the scope, you can see them laying on the
table in one of the shots.
Shooting it:
1. The trigger is nice. Very crisp, can use a bit of adjustment to reduce the first stage travel a bit though.
2. As expected, zero recoil and pretty loud! (compensator not taped up yet)
3. After about 12 shots the scope was zeroed and it makes one hole groups at 22yds very easily. I can see
that it’ll get boring shooting it at close ranges pretty quick.
see the pic of a 16 shot (2 mag full’s) dime sized group.
4. The cheesy bi pod..... works very well. It's also usefull when working on the gun or just to put it down
it keeps it off the ground and is pretty stable.
Chrony results:
I have long since stopped shooting 10 shot strings and doing all the math around the shots, so I
filled up one mag (8 shots) and chased them through the chrony, here’s what I got using CPL’s
unmeasured, cleaned or weighed.
749.6 (low)
757.4 (high)
Note, the CO2 was at "house" temperature,which is at 77deg F.I'm sure it would speedup a tadonce it
warmed up a bit.
Not too shabby. It’s amazing….. a UMAREX gun that actually shoots as fast as they say it does. ;-)
Hunting potential:
Well I figure it’s easy to carry and does 750fps… so it’ll be good for small fry. To prove it I shot a
sparrow that was harassing the other birds at the feeder at only about 15 yards…. It died instantly.
see last pic.
So….. I like it! It’s nice, handles and shoots great, I’m very pleased with it. I’ll be taking it up to John’s
place this Sunday to see how it does out to 40 yards. I have shot my friends 850 at 40 yards and
know that it does very well out to there. I do think though that it is pretty close to it’s maximum “useful”
range at 40yds.
The best of all is that I only paid $165.00 for it directly from UMAREX…… well worth every penny.
Roald.