More Umarex Gauntlet 30 Shooting – Slugs And Polymags
Hard Air Magazine reviewed the Umarex Gauntlet 30 in June 2022. It was a Gold Award winner, with a score of 90% on test. Now we have some more Gauntlet 30 shooting to add to the HAM performance data for this model.
For this additional testing, we had available 44.75 Grain Predator Polymags, together with two slugs from Northern Precision Custom Swaged Bullets. The Northern Precision slugs used for this test were in 60 Grains and 70 Grains weight. Northern Precision slugs can be purchased directly from the manufacturer – phone is best.
Northern Precision also manufactures 130 Grain slugs in .30 caliber. However these were not included in this test as they are too long to fit into the Gauntlet 30’s breech.
This additional Gauntlet 30 shooting session was undertaken with the same gun, same scope and same shooter on the same range as the previous testing. So it’s comparable in every way, except for a higher temperature – a sweltering 92 degrees F rather than 80 degrees of the first test.
Without doubt, this new Gauntlet 30 shooting reinforces the conclusions already drawn for the Gauntlet 30. At the entry level for big bore air rifles, this air rifle offers outstanding value. It delivers power and accuracy downrange at a great price.
And yes, it shoots slugs very well. That alone will recommend it to many shooters!
BUY FROM PYRAMYD AIR
Umarex Gauntlet 2 PCP Air Rifle 0.22
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Umarex Gauntlet 2
MUZZLE ENERGY
Here’s a summary of the test data:
[table “618” not found /]If we chart this data, we can see that the Gauntlet 30 tested by HAM gives 95 – 100 Ft/Lbs Muzzle Energy with 45.9 Grain ammo. With projectile weights from about 50 to 70 Grains, the gun delivers approximately 110 Ft/Lbs. Peak Muzzle Energy would appear to be about 112 Ft/Lbs.
Note that this testing was undertaken – as usual – with unsorted projectiles, direct from the tin. Using precisely-weighed pellets and slugs would inevitably lead to the individual data points being closer to the trend line.
ACCURACY
First let’s compare the accuracy achieved at 25 Yards in this HAM testing.
[table “619” not found /]The obvious conclusion is that the Gauntlet 30 is very tolerant of different ammo. With the exception of the Polymags, all the pellets and slugs in this test gave groups in the 0.3 – to 0.5 Inch CTC range for 10 shots at 25 Yards.
The Northern Precision 70 Grain slugs produced the best accuracy at 25 Yards of all the projectiles tested. However, I didn’t shoot them out at 50 Yards because they were very hard to load. The bolt handle had to be thumped-down every time to chamber these slugs. The other slugs all chambered much easier in the Gauntlet 30 tested by HAM.
Now let’s see the results at 50 Yards…
[table “620” not found /]This time we can see that the three types of slugs tested all gave sub-1 Inch groups for 10 shots at 50 yards. Very creditable!
The pellets were still good, but slightly behind with 1.3 Inch groups for 10 shots at 10 yards.
So it’s pretty clear that slugs are the way to go with the Gauntlet 30 – at least with the gun tested by HAM!
Note that HAM uses 10-shot groups for accuracy testing, this will inevitably means that our groups will be larger than those testers who shoot just 5-shot groups.
25 YARD TEST TARGETS
50 YARD TEST TARGET
BUY FROM PYRAMYD AIR
Umarex Gauntlet 2 PCP Air Rifle 0.22
BUY FROM AIRGUN DEPOT
Umarex Gauntlet 2
This entire article including scoring, test targets etc is Copyright Hard Air Magazine and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the publisher.
