For months I have been reaching out to Gamo to review the Winchester model 70 .35 caliber big bore as I thought it might be something of interest and I had not seen many reputable reviews. Through a very difficult amount of back and fourth discussion they decided to send me one to review but asked me to review the Gamo Swarm magnum Gen2 in .22 caliber. I don't typically like reviewing piston guns (especially magnums) but felt that it would be a good entry level review project for me to produce in video form. I do have a good amount of experience shooting piston guns but have for the most part stayed away from them as PCP's are more of my interest. Piston guns are a lifestyle choice and do require a ton of practice to be proficient in shooting them.
The rifle arrived packaged very well and included a 10 shot magazine as well as a 3-9x40 scope and one piece mount.
Gamo Swarm Magnum 10X GEN 2 Multi-shot Air Rifle G2
I had to film for a few different projects so loaded up my motorhome and headed into the mountains for several days where I planned to do some shooting with the Swarm. The biggest difference between the Gen1 and Gen2 are the configuration of the 10 shot magazine and the Gen2 has anti double load feature and some robust fiber optic open sights. I mounted the 3-9x40 scope with the provided one piece mount and was immediately disappointed with the fact the scope had no mildots. The Swarm retails for roughly $320 and includes a scope as part of a package, a scope with no mildots is simply worthless to me. Including a scope we can't highly removes some value considering WE have to replace it with something proficient enough to use in the field. Moving on from that I proceeded to do some shooting with the gun to check it's function, performance and overall ergonomics. I was very pleased with the weight and balance, it felt very ergonomic with the thumbhole stock.
The gun is extremely difficult to cock, to be expected from any magnum piston gun. The buttpad was thankfully very soft and did help a bit to cushion the recoil, it had a ton of it. I spent a few hours hiking around with the gun and took my time shooting at a few targets to break it in and get familiar with how it shoots. Having a 10 shot magazine on a piston gun is really cool and definitely a very desirable feature for small game hunting. The magazine is very easy to load and has numbers that you can see through a window to easily keep track of shots.
I really like how the magazine on the Gen2 sits flat and is far less intrusive to line of sight than the Gen1 design as well as the anti double load feature. The majority of all the components are plastic so I will question the longevity of function. I did test a variety of pellets from 14gr all the way up to 25gr and got very similar results between them all. I settled on using the 18gr JSB's and found them to be producing about 21 fpe, much lower than I had been told but still a good amount of power. People in some of the comments on my video said they were getting close to 30 fpe, this simply wasn't my experience. The trigger on the Swarm was very nice and I was pleased with it's feel and can see bringing the weight down a bit would definitely help improve accuracy. It was set to 1.8lbs, a reasonable weight for a box store gun IMO. As part of a review I never like to adjust things, better to test them straight as they come and allow the performance to speak for itself.
The accuracy at 50 yards was terrible, I think partially due to the gun not being broken in. I tried many different holds and still....very consistent terrible results. I decided to move the target in to just 25 yards and even those groups were awful and that junk scope certainly didn't help things any.
Moving on I decided the gun needed to be used a bit more before I gave my final conclusion to be totally fair with my results. As I had the gun on the table I looked down found that the grip cap had popped off the gun while I was shooting it.
This apparently is a place to store a spare magazine, this is a wonderful idea if it actually stayed on the gun. I can't help to think about hiking around on a hunt, going to grab my spare magazine only to find out the cap popped off and it as well as the magazine are long gone. Looking towards to barrel we have something they call the "Whisper Fusion noise suppression" To me this sounds like a fancy word for a moderator.
This is a big bulky unit that fixed to the end of the barrel with the front fiber optic sight on top. I honestly couldn't tell you if this works or not as I can't remove it. To me the gun doesn't sound any quieter than any other magnum piston gun but I think the majority of the noise is the piston slamming the airtube. The fiber optic sights on the Swarm really are very nice and work well in low light conditions.
After some obvious frustration with the gun I decided to give it a break and to move onto another project for awhile. I ended up going home, shooting a bunch of cheap CHP's through it, cleaned the barrel and made sure everything was nice and tight before heading out again. We went to the desert for a few days where I planned to shoot it some more and to finish up my review of the gun. The accuracy at 50 yards definitely improved and I think that was because I was a bit more familiar with the gun and it had a chance to really start breaking it in. Keep in mind that I don't do 5 shot groups, I do 10 as this to me is a more realistic showing of what a typical end user can expect.....
I think with more practice the gun can shoot ok....I use ok very lightly.
PROS
CONS
I really appreciate Gamo sending me this gun for review but I have to be honest, I was very disappointed with the gun at a price point of $320+,not worth it considering we will have to invest in a scope. Let me know what you guys think, am I being to hard on them? Enclosed is the full experience with this rifle in video form I hope some may find helpful.
https://youtu.be/4NZ6ONVv_Qw
The rifle arrived packaged very well and included a 10 shot magazine as well as a 3-9x40 scope and one piece mount.
Gamo Swarm Magnum 10X GEN 2 Multi-shot Air Rifle G2
- 10X GEN 2 Quick-Shot inertia-fed magazine
- Breakbarrel
- Max. velocity (.177): 1650 FPS with alloy
- Max velocity (.22) 1300 fps with alloy, 975 fps with lead
- IGT Mach 1 gas piston
- 2-stage adjustable Custom Action Trigger (CAT)
- Recoil Reducing Rail (RRR)
- Whisper Fusion noise suppression
- Automotive-grade glass-filled nylon all-weather thumbhole stock
- Shock Wave Absorber (SWA) recoil pad
- Checkered grip and forearm
- Barrel length: 21.3"
- Overall length: 49.2"
I had to film for a few different projects so loaded up my motorhome and headed into the mountains for several days where I planned to do some shooting with the Swarm. The biggest difference between the Gen1 and Gen2 are the configuration of the 10 shot magazine and the Gen2 has anti double load feature and some robust fiber optic open sights. I mounted the 3-9x40 scope with the provided one piece mount and was immediately disappointed with the fact the scope had no mildots. The Swarm retails for roughly $320 and includes a scope as part of a package, a scope with no mildots is simply worthless to me. Including a scope we can't highly removes some value considering WE have to replace it with something proficient enough to use in the field. Moving on from that I proceeded to do some shooting with the gun to check it's function, performance and overall ergonomics. I was very pleased with the weight and balance, it felt very ergonomic with the thumbhole stock.
The gun is extremely difficult to cock, to be expected from any magnum piston gun. The buttpad was thankfully very soft and did help a bit to cushion the recoil, it had a ton of it. I spent a few hours hiking around with the gun and took my time shooting at a few targets to break it in and get familiar with how it shoots. Having a 10 shot magazine on a piston gun is really cool and definitely a very desirable feature for small game hunting. The magazine is very easy to load and has numbers that you can see through a window to easily keep track of shots.
I really like how the magazine on the Gen2 sits flat and is far less intrusive to line of sight than the Gen1 design as well as the anti double load feature. The majority of all the components are plastic so I will question the longevity of function. I did test a variety of pellets from 14gr all the way up to 25gr and got very similar results between them all. I settled on using the 18gr JSB's and found them to be producing about 21 fpe, much lower than I had been told but still a good amount of power. People in some of the comments on my video said they were getting close to 30 fpe, this simply wasn't my experience. The trigger on the Swarm was very nice and I was pleased with it's feel and can see bringing the weight down a bit would definitely help improve accuracy. It was set to 1.8lbs, a reasonable weight for a box store gun IMO. As part of a review I never like to adjust things, better to test them straight as they come and allow the performance to speak for itself.
The accuracy at 50 yards was terrible, I think partially due to the gun not being broken in. I tried many different holds and still....very consistent terrible results. I decided to move the target in to just 25 yards and even those groups were awful and that junk scope certainly didn't help things any.
Moving on I decided the gun needed to be used a bit more before I gave my final conclusion to be totally fair with my results. As I had the gun on the table I looked down found that the grip cap had popped off the gun while I was shooting it.
This apparently is a place to store a spare magazine, this is a wonderful idea if it actually stayed on the gun. I can't help to think about hiking around on a hunt, going to grab my spare magazine only to find out the cap popped off and it as well as the magazine are long gone. Looking towards to barrel we have something they call the "Whisper Fusion noise suppression" To me this sounds like a fancy word for a moderator.
This is a big bulky unit that fixed to the end of the barrel with the front fiber optic sight on top. I honestly couldn't tell you if this works or not as I can't remove it. To me the gun doesn't sound any quieter than any other magnum piston gun but I think the majority of the noise is the piston slamming the airtube. The fiber optic sights on the Swarm really are very nice and work well in low light conditions.
After some obvious frustration with the gun I decided to give it a break and to move onto another project for awhile. I ended up going home, shooting a bunch of cheap CHP's through it, cleaned the barrel and made sure everything was nice and tight before heading out again. We went to the desert for a few days where I planned to shoot it some more and to finish up my review of the gun. The accuracy at 50 yards definitely improved and I think that was because I was a bit more familiar with the gun and it had a chance to really start breaking it in. Keep in mind that I don't do 5 shot groups, I do 10 as this to me is a more realistic showing of what a typical end user can expect.....
I think with more practice the gun can shoot ok....I use ok very lightly.
PROS
- Lightweight
- Ergonomic Stock
- Nice trigger
- Magazine
- Anti double load
- Good Power
- Included one piece mount
- Nice fiber optic sights
CONS
- Hard to cock
- Loud
- Cap comes off grip
- Junk Scope with no mildots
I really appreciate Gamo sending me this gun for review but I have to be honest, I was very disappointed with the gun at a price point of $320+,not worth it considering we will have to invest in a scope. Let me know what you guys think, am I being to hard on them? Enclosed is the full experience with this rifle in video form I hope some may find helpful.
https://youtu.be/4NZ6ONVv_Qw
