GTA

All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Air Guns And Related Accessories Review Gates => Scopes And Optics Gate => Topic started by: CharlieDaTuna on October 21, 2010, 10:29:04 AM

Title: GAMO CFX - Diopter Sights
Post by: CharlieDaTuna on October 21, 2010, 10:29:04 AM
This was emailed to me from George Kohlman to publish on the GTA.


Some shooters, like me, would like to use Diopter Sights or a good set of peep sights
instead of either the issue sights or a scope on a GAMO .177 CFX.  I know it is
not as good as a Leaper Scope etc. etc. but one of the nice things, still, is we can
get what we want if we are willing to find out how and I like Diopter sights on certain
firearms for certain applications.
 
After well over a month trying to find some aftermarket sights and looking at a number of
forums, blogs, GAMO and PYRAMYD and other airgun dealers I finally got some real
help from Champion Shooters suppply. Of all the suppliers I tried they were the only one
that had a set (Not just the rear) but they also measured the front and rear rails and
compared them to a variety of Diopter Sight sets running from reasonable to very expensive.
I am not knocking all the others I contacted including an outfit in South Africa but most of them
only had the rear and gave the same caveat.....might have to change the front.
 
The outfit in South Africa had some original GAMO sets from way back and the
price was right but the location and paperwork etc. put me off.
 
We (Champion) settled on the Air Arms Diopter set which includes the rear sight and a front
sight with 5 inserts.   The CFX (At least the one I have) had the normal 11mm rear
and the front is a nominal 10mm.   The Air Arms set matched that exactly.  The
rear sight is all metal and the one I got is very good on repeatability with very
little backlash and positive clicks.   The front Globe sight is a very hard plastic
with 5 inserts.   The sights won't match my Anschutz for quality but for an air
rifle they are what I wanted.  I got a friend of mine that bought a set for his CFX
and the front was a little loose.  The mounting is what I am going to call a "claw"
mount with a single screw that tightens up both the mount to the Globe and the
rail.   The Globe is not part of the mount.  All he did was very slowely file off
a little of the center of the mount until it went on good and tight.   Easy to do since
it is hard plastic not metal albeit "Gorilla" tightening on the front would seem to
be a bad idea.  
 
I first mounted the rear sight with the only problem being removing the factory
sight.   On a blog I saw a number of people putting Loctite Blue on the elevation
screw because the issue sight has to come up quite a bit. I did that and when
I tried to take it out it stripped the brass insert and I had to soak it in Mineral
Spirits overnight to get it loose enough to remove.   I pulled the bushing and
JB welded it back in.   If I ever put the factory sight back on I think I will just
replace the original spring with a strong one so the elevation adjustment does
not wander.
 
In any case this is the rifle with the Air Arms rear and the original fiber optic
front.
 
The sights had plenty of adjustments for the original factory fiber front sight and in fact only needed 4 clicks up and 4 clicks right to
be on which amazed the heck out of me cause I was figure on spending most of the morning getting on target.  I tried em out with the resulting
grouping which came out 3/4" vertical by 1/2" horizontal off sandbags WITH GTX III TRIGGER.   Hitting empty excedrin bottles at 50
yards was no problem   Beyond that things got iffy although my 12 year old granddaughter popped a 2" swinger 4 times out of 10 shots.
 
I have my own range and shot competitively for over 40 years in a variety of handgun and rifle disciplines....never air rifles though.  My
children all shot in competition and my two oldest grandchildren are currently shooting in .22 and centerfire matches.
 
I pulled the front sight and replaced it with the Globe front sight for Air Arms and shot just as well albeit
adjustments to made to the rear to compensate some for the globe front. I like the globe better
but.......
 
Based on 5 grandkids votes the fiber optics went back on and will probably stay on since
I rarely get to shoot the gun anyway when they are here which is most of the day after
school.  Gotta admit though the red fiber is kind of slick.
 
We got about 200 rounds through the combo so far and so far if the rear sight moved I can't tell.
I measured with a digital caliper to the front of the mount from a scribed mark on the barrell
and so far the measurement has stayed the same.
 
If you did not want a Globe Front I would bet the rear sight which you can get a number of
places would work just as well with the fiber sights at $25 cheaper..
 
Just thought this might interest some folks.
 
George Kohlman