Umarex has come out with some cool stuff lately. We’ve been able to let the kids shoot Umarex Uzis and Mauser Broomstick airgun pistols at the Marksmanship Camps this fall.
Recently they sent me their new APX air rifle.
Points for awesome marketing. This is how it arrived in a box, gift wrapped, Christmas card, and targets.
I haven’t shot a multi pump air rifle for years, and the action and loading took me back to my younger years when I would pelt my grandparents’ farm trees with thousands of BBs.
But the APX has a bit more features than the Daisy I grew up with. The most obvious upgrade is the M1 Garand trigger guard style safety, which automatically engages when you first pump the rifle:
You can pump it up 5-10 times, but be warned “folks who never read the owners manual” and think “more is better”: pumping more than 10 times can damage your rifle, and will NOT produce more power. I remember several times as a kid friends telling me how they pumped their rifles up 100x to shoot something far and crazy.
The APX brags of 800FPS with premium lightweight pellets, but with the included standard lead ones I was getting a steady 615FPS with 10 pumps. Not bad, and perfectly adaquate for an all round plinking air rifle. I had no problem hitting any pinecones within view. Shooting only 5 pumps dropped speed down to 520FPS, which is plenty for punching paper and cans. Unless I’m shooting over 25 yards I’m going to save my strength in the future.
Accuracy was good with pellets, at 20 yards from a sitting position I was getting around a 1.5″ group with irons. BBs were a different story producing more of a shotgun pattern. Great for plinking, but if you really want to hit something load up a pellet. I was hitting cans with pellets out to 40ish yards with a little bit of holdover.
Loading BBs was incredibly easy. The internal hopper feeds well and BBs jump right onto the plunger via a magnet. When I wanted to shoot a pellet instead I’d just push the BB back inside the hopper drop a pellet on the feed ramp.
The Umarex APX is a great all-purpose pellet/BB rifle for responsible youngsters who are lucky enough to have a safe shooting area. It’s modern looks and safety features make it a winner in my eyes. And I saw it in stock at Walmart for only $50. You’ll want to look into this for Christmas.
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