UMAREX Gauntlet 2 .30 or HATSAN Hercules Bully .30

[Buzz]

Hello Airgun Nation, trying to choose between the UMAREX Gauntlet 2 .30 or HATSAN Hercules Bully .30. Other than the big price difference there are some other differences that have me leaning towards the UMAREX but I wanted to hear from some of you who have shot them or own them. Maybe some pros and cons of each.

Thank you in advance.

 

[TxMaligator]

Like it or not the AEA .30's are smoking both of those platforms.

Proof is there for the looking

 

[darylm]

Kral Bighorn .30 might be better than both.

 

[Bigragu]

Own a bully in 30 cal. Bought it three years ago when it first came out. Mine doesn’t do the groups like a famous youtuber was getting and I doubt it I returned it in exchange for another 20 times id get one that shot like his. At best at 50 yards it’s a 3/4” group gun. It’s a down and dirty hunting platform and there all it’ll ever be. Still have it, and I’m on round two on modifying the barrel to accept the FX STX liner system in hopes of bettering the accuracy. I will post up my results when that all happens.

here are the pluses and minus’s with a bully in 30 cal-

+ solid, no frills, no dainty parts

+ very powerful- out of the box it shot 44.75g pellets at 1075 FPS 

+ The magazines- you get a generous three with the gun, each hold 10 rounds, and the mags for the bully are wide enough to take the longest of pellets. Easily will take the predator polymags and not have to trim the plastic tips

+ the bully has an awesome anti double load feature and a lock to always keep the pellet concentric with the breech and pellet probe.

- very heavy gun. With a 6-24 x 50 scope and a shogun moderator it’s almost at 15 lbs

- it is very very loud. Loudest gun I’ve ever shot, and the shogun I use had to have the internals worked on with more sound dampening to even tame the rapport a small bit. An emperor would’ve been better, but that adds length to the gun. With the shogun it’s approx at 43” in length

- unregulated so the advertised 16 shots I went from 1075 to 885. You get about three shots in the upper 900’s to 1000, then it takes a cliff dive with the remaining 13 shots. I’ve since tuned it to shoot in the mid 885-890 and I get 19 shots now and the lowest it gets is at 860 FPS on the 19th shot

- the design of the long scope rail tied into the barrel shroud clamps and then onto the bottle holder is a very poor design. If you mount it on a bipod or rest the bottle on a rest it will move that composite plastic scope rail. I’ve since got rid of that design and mounted an aluminum scope rail from the Hatsan Bullmaster model and now the scope is not affected whatsoever with the twist it got from being tied in with the bottle cover


That’s the major pluses and minus’s with the gun. I still own mine as I can see the potential in it. If all your planning to do is hunt with it it’s a good mid priced hunter with a lot of power. Just don’t expect to see dime sizes or cloverleaf groups at 50 yards. 

 

[ScottEnglish]

Own a bully in 30 cal. Bought it three years ago when it first came out. Mine doesn’t do the groups like a famous youtuber was getting and I doubt it I returned it in exchange for another 20 times id get one that shot like his. At best at 50 yards it’s a 3/4” group gun. It’s a down and dirty hunting platform and there all it’ll ever be. Still have it, and I’m on round two on modifying the barrel to accept the FX STX liner system in hopes of bettering the accuracy. I will post up my results when that all happens.

here are the pluses and minus’s with a bully in 30 cal-

+ solid, no frills, no dainty parts

+ very powerful- out of the box it shot 44.75g pellets at 1075 FPS 

+ The magazines- you get a generous three with the gun, each hold 10 rounds, and the mags for the bully are wide enough to take the longest of pellets. Easily will take the predator polymags and not have to trim the plastic tips

+ the bully has an awesome anti double load feature and a lock to always keep the pellet concentric with the breech and pellet probe.

- very heavy gun. With a 6-24 x 50 scope and a shogun moderator it’s almost at 15 lbs

- it is very very loud. Loudest gun I’ve ever shot, and the shogun I use had to have the internals worked on with more sound dampening to even tame the rapport a small bit. An emperor would’ve been better, but that adds length to the gun. With the shogun it’s approx at 43” in length

- unregulated so the advertised 16 shots I went from 1075 to 885. You get about three shots in the upper 900’s to 1000, then it takes a cliff dive with the remaining 13 shots. I’ve since tuned it to shoot in the mid 885-890 and I get 19 shots now and the lowest it gets is at 860 FPS on the 19th shot

- the design of the long scope rail tied into the barrel shroud clamps and then onto the bottle holder is a very poor design. If you mount it on a bipod or rest the bottle on a rest it will move that composite plastic scope rail. I’ve since got rid of that design and mounted an aluminum scope rail from the Hatsan Bullmaster model and now the scope is not affected whatsoever with the twist it got from being tied in with the bottle cover


That’s the major pluses and minus’s with the gun. I still own mine as I can see the potential in it. If all your planning to do is hunt with it it’s a good mid priced hunter with a lot of power. Just don’t expect to see dime sizes or cloverleaf groups at 50 yards.

Bigragu is right on target! Hatsan makes airguns for hunting, not shooting groups. I have the Hercules Bully .45 that will knock down any big game in North America. The nice surprise was that it likes Speer roundballs!

 

[silvershooter589]

Like it or not the AEA .30's are smoking both of those platforms.

Proof is there for the looking

Just watched Shooting Gear Reviews on the AEA Challenger .30

He was getting 1005 FPS with 44.75's and 973 FPS with 50 grainers.

That's 100.3 and 105.1 FPE, respectively.

Those are within margin of error to what Umarex is saying the Guantlet .30 will do. They both also get about the same shots per fill.

Now, I have a couple AEA guns and really like AEA. But I also have a Guantlet 2 in .25 and it's my most accurate gun. The price difference here is a few hundred bucks. Sidelever is nice, but I'm fine with the bolt. AEA is a nicer form factor (I have an AEA SS 30+ that has some similarities), but I suspect the Gauntlet will be more durable. I'll be picking up a 30 caliber Guantlet, personally. The foster fill instead of fill probe is a big plus in my book too.

Hatsan I have trouble getting them to shoot tight groups. They probably have the best triggers though.

 

[hunter69]

i have gone through 3 hatsan hercules bullys in .45 , i have returned all 3 for various defects, all 3 had good power but was horribly inaccurate, at 20 yds it was tight groups but by 40 yds they were all over the place, would not recommend.

 

[robdunsing]

Im considering a .30 cal as well. Guantlet seems well made dependable. The weight of it is whats making me think. With a scope its like 10 lbs is that to heavy to be carrying around in the woods and freehand shooting game? Its not balanced well Ive heard. anyone know from experiance. Im also considering the aea challenger standard .30 its around 400 dollars 100 + fpe. With the 32 inch barrel he was getting 160+ fpe. On this rifle there is only 1 bolt holding on the wood stock, this concerns me a bit. I had trouble with my hatsan airtact, it shoots everywhere cant sight it in so I wont consider another hatsan I want dependability not some thing that will break all the time. Definately I think the guantlet is made to last but its the weight of it that im concerned about, is 10 lbs to heavy to carry around and freehand shoot game I heard its top heavy? Im asking. I may go with the aea challenger standard. In the aea challenger standard the .25 cal has 80 fpe .30 cal 120 fpe

 

[robdunsing]

i have gone through 3 hatsan hercules bullys in .45 , i have returned all 3 for various defects, all 3 had good power but was horribly inaccurate, at 20 yds it was tight groups but by 40 yds they were all over the place, would not recommend.

Yes Im staying away from hatsan products I dont like to keep fixing things I want dependability. I wish benjamine had a good .30 cal. Benjamines last forever with no problems from what ive seen.

 

[robdunsing]

I wish the umirex origin came in .30 I love the style of it.

 

[TMH]

I don't know whether this is still applicable for the O.P. as he may well have already purchased his gun since his February thread. But apparently some others have the same question.

The fact that thammer apparently had significant input into the new Gauntlet .30 is significant in my mind. In a very positive way. Troy knows his stuff in a real world way, and something where he has had design input from early in the development process is going to be good/great. As long as the manufacturer didn't have to make too many compromises in order to get into serial production with the gun. And it sounds like they didn't with the Gauntlet .30 project.

I've had my Hatsans in the past, and they were only O.K. to me. If I were making this decision today, I would definitely go with the Umarex & Troy Hammer Gauntlet .30.

 

[Trucker3573]

G2 every day of the week and 50000000000000000 times on Sunday.