Umarex Emerge Air Rifle Test Review .177 Caliber

VALUE FOR MONEY

At a Street Price of $179.99, the Umarex Emerge is at the lower end of the multi-shot, magazine-fed breakbarrel air rifle market.

This means that it offers strong value from a price/features perspective. However, we also need to consider the other attributes that it offers, like power, consistency and accuracy. We’ll do that in this test review.

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Umarex Emerge Multi-shot Rifle 0.177

SPEED AND ACCURACY

The Umarex Emerge tested by HAM delivered a maximum Muzzle Velocity of 1,143 FPS with both of the lightweight alloy pellets in the standard HAM test suite.

Maximum Muzzle Energy approached 17 Ft/Lbs with the lightest pellets. Also – interestingly – with the mid-weight JSB 8.44 Grain domes, as you can see from the table below.

Generally, short-range accuracy was best with either light or heavy pellets! Also the test gun seemed to like H&N pellets, performing well with all HAM’s standard test pellets from the German manufacturer.

The Predator GTO and H&N Field Target Trophy Green alloys gave good groups, as did the 8.64 Grain, lead, Field Target Trophy pellets. Best accuracy was achieved using the heavy Baracuda Match pellets and so these were chosen for the 25 Yard test.

HAM Tester Eric Brewer considered this accuracy to be respectable for a breakbarrel air rifle of this price. Really, it was only that one shot at 7:30 breaking the outer ring that spoiled a reasonable group. However Eric did not call that as a “flier”.

TRIGGER AND COCKING EFFORT

The Umarex Emerge has a comfortable, curved trigger blade controlling a two-stage action.

The first stage is easily felt, although rather long and creepy. The sear release – actually firing the gun – is somewhat indistinct and with a slightly variable quality. It requires some practice to feel confident of when the gun will actually fire. Familiarity definitely helps here!

So the Umarex Emerge tested by HAM definitely does not have a “glass break trigger”. However, this trigger performance is appropriate for the price and the gun’s expected uses: plinking and close-range hunting. It’s likely to satisfy most owners in this price range.

The Umarex Emerge tested by HAM had an average trigger pull weight of 4 Lbs 11 Oz.

As always, HAM tests the trigger in “as supplied” condition. However screw adjustment is provided for both pull weight and length of pull, providing some adjustability potential for the interested owner.

The manual safety is conveniently-located inside the trigger guard. It pushes forward for “fire” and back for “safe” with an unmistakable click engagement. Note that this is described as an automatic safety in multiple online locations. This is incorrect, it’s manual: the safety is not set by cocking the action – the shooter sets and releases it.

There’s no doubt, however, that the Emerge is tough to cock. The gun tested by HAM required 35 Pounds of force to fully cock the action. That’s a lot and – being a gas ram, rather than a springer – the cocking effort is considerable throughout the barrel’s stroke, not just at the end.

COMPARISON TO MAKERS CLAIMS

The main performance claim made by the manufacturer is that it achieves the obligatory 1,000 FPS Muzzle Velocity with 7.0 Grain pellets in .177 caliber. The Emerge tested by HAM certainly met that claim. In fact, it exceeded it by producing 1.025 FPS with 7.0 Grain RWS Hobby pellets.

CONSISTENCY

The Umarex Emerge air rifle tested by HAM displayed good consistency of trigger pull weight. This varied between 4 Lbs 9 Oz and 5 Lbs 3 Oz, a pretty tight range for the trigger on a breakbarrel in this price range.

Muzzle Velocity was somewhat less consistent, with the average Standard Deviation across the range of standard HAM test pellets being 20.00 FPS. This is a high figure, however the values varied considerably across pellet types. The most-accurate H&N Baracuda Match pellets, for example, had a decent Standard Deviation of 9.74 FPS.

NOISE LEVEL

The Umarex Emerge is fitted with an integrated, molded-on silencer. This also incorporates the substantially-hooded front fiber optic sight post.

It has to be said that the Umarex Emerge tested by HAM was louder than we had expected. The silencer looks slim and attractive, but maybe it could use more internal space to mitigate the sound of the pellet leaving the barrel?

Also – needless to say – being a .177 caliber airgun, the Muzzle Velocity with light pellets can reach very close to the speed of sound. This inevitably results in a loud “crack” when firing that cannot be controlled by any silencer.

The answer is to shoot heavier pellets. This keeps the report quieter and – with Baracuda Match pellets – gave the best accuracy, too.

SIGHTS AND SCOPE

First off, some great news! The Umarex Emerge air rifle gives you an outstanding choice in how to sight it!

There’s iron sights, also a Picatinny rail for scope mounting. Plus, this rail is actually clamped-on to standard airgun dovetail rails that are machined into the compression tube. So, alternatively, you could also install a scope using those airgun rails, should you wish.

The Emerge is supplied with a bundled 4×32 scope with high Picatinny rings. Although these high rings allow you to use the iron sights with the scope installed, the HAM Team strongly advises you NEVER actually do this!

The result would be bad “scope bite” that could cause serious injury. Just say no to using the iron sights in this way. If you want to shoot without a scope, remove the thing first!

The 4 x 32 scope bundled with the Umarex Emerge tested by HAM was of the expected limited optical quality. There’s a basic duplex reticle with no mil-dots – essential for any serious field work with an airgun.

There’s no AO (Adjustable Objective) for close focusing, (But let’s be realistic, how good can a scope that’s bundled with an air rifle at this price ever have really high quality optics)?

This 4×32 scope has a fixed focus, however it could be focused for one specific distance if required. Although not all fixed-focus scopes have this capability, the end ring around the objective lens could be unscrewed. This reveals the objective (front) lens in its mount. (See the photo below).

Note that some front rings are glued in place and will not unscrew. If it won’t move, don’t force it!

Now, if you rotate the objective mount carefully, you will find that you can set the scope to provide its sharpest focus at one particular distance. Simply screw the end ring back into place to hold the scope at this focus while holding the inner element in place using a screwdriver in the slot shown.

This means that – if you normally shoot at a specific range – you can set this 4 x 32 bundled airgun scope to give its best performance at that distance. This can be an useful benefit for this scope, although not all bundled scopes can do it (and maybe not all the scopes bundled with the Umarex Emerge).

Note that Umarex USA is very unlikely to approve of this modification. So you didn’t hear about it from HAM, especially if you mess-up the adjustment!

However, for our shooting tests, the HAM Team installed an old, but trusty Leapers UTG True Hunter 3-9 x 40AO scope and rings. Combined with substantial rings, this stood up well to the recoil of the Umarex Emerge.

This is just the sort of upgrade HAM recommends for any Emerge owner wanting to improve the practical accuracy and durability of his or her air rifle.

As you can see, the Umarex Emerge has plenty of room to accept installing even a fairly long scope as this, without causing loading issues. That’s a benefit that is not shared by all breakbarrel air rifles.

The rear open sight is mounted on the rear of the barrel, very close to the magazine assembly.

One thing that may be worth noting is that that the rear of that rear sight leaf is VERY close to the front of the magazine assembly!

The HAM Team suggests checking that no contact occurs there over time, as either the magazine assembly, or the rear sight – or both – could make contact, with less-than beneficial results.

SHOOTABILITY

The Umarex Emerge is a long air rifle. It’s 47-Inches overall length. At a shooting weight of 8 Lbs 11Oz – with the 4 x 32 scope – it’s reasonably heavy but not unmanageable.

This is because the Emerge is well-balanced for off-hand shooting. The HAM Team found that it shoots well using the “Artillery hold”, with a minimum of grip on the forend. (See the photograph below).

Shootability is also enhanced by the comfortable, solid-feeling stock. It incorporates an ambidextrous comb and “grippy” rubber butt pad.

However the length, weight and high cocking effort combine to mean that the Emerge is best-suited to a physically large and strong shooter. This is not likely to be an air rifle that all the family can manage.

Generally, the 12-shot rotary magazine worked well. We’ll cover this in more detail in the “Buying and Owning” section below.

APPEARANCE AND FINISH

The Umarex Emerge conforms to the current popular “black gun” look. There’s no wood stock version for traditionalists.

Finish of both metal and synthetic parts is good, however. In fact, it’s very good for the price point of this air rifle.

The visible metal parts are well finished and blacked, while the synthetic stock has crisp, sharp molding. The word “sharp” is meant here in a good way, there’s nothing to cause injuries, but clear, high quality molding, as can be seen on this close-up of the pistol grip below.

BUYING AND OWNING

The Emerge is supplied with a typical Umarex owner’s manual. It’s well illustrated, good quality, multi-lingual and with plenty of illustrations.

The Emerge is covered by the company’s standard “return to base” three-year warranty coverage and is widely available in stores due to Umarex USA’s excellent distribution coverage.

Surprisingly, the Umarex Emerge tested by HAM showed no tendency for the stock screws to work loose during our test period. This is fairly unusual and a a definite positive mark for the gun!

But the main area we’ll cover here is the magazine loading system…

There’s no doubt that the metal magazine unit is pretty bomb-proof – not at all flimsy as with some plastic magazines. The steel face plate is tough, too. Furthermore the magnet system for holding the magazine in place is a high-tech feature in a gun of this price.

An additional advantage is the availability of spare magazines at the very fair price of just $19.99 each.

Other benefits are that the magazine itself is very easy to load, so long as you have a flat table (or similar) to do so. Plus, the face plate is provided with useful apertures that allow the number of pellets remaining to be seen.

One downside is that the Emerge owner needs to keep careful note of their shot count. The magazine provides no way to stop the gun being fired when no pellet has been loaded. Too many “blank shots” of this type will definitely be detrimental to the long-term performance of the gun.

In addition, the HAM Team did find a couple of issues associated with using the magazine in the test gun.

The face plate is provided with a printed market to help the user align the plate correctly with the magazine body. Unfortunately – when this was done with the sample magazine – the result was mis-alignment of the face plate with the pellet below it.

Once identified, this issue was easily corrected by deliberately mis-aligning the markers when re-attaching the face plate, as the photograph below shows.

This is the sort of minor issue that can cause issues when new. However the owner would soon compensate naturally when loading the magazine. We did!

A second issue noticed on test was that the gun failed to fire the first pellet from the magazine on two separate occasions. We were not able to isolate the cause of this issue. Nor to repeat it thereafter.

Maybe this was a simple case of operator error. Maybe it was part of the learning curve associated with the magazine loading system? We don’t know. However it’s definitely something for the new Emerge owner to watch out for.

TEST TARGETS

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Umarex Emerge Multi-shot Rifle 0.177

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