Has the Gauntlet dam finally broken?

[anti-squirrel]

Meh, seen it in software, computer hardware, the automotive industry, movies and video media, and even in bicycles.  Hype is just that: hype.  Leading people along is part of sales marketing, and pushing back dates this many times tells me Umarex screwed up on something bigtime.  Whether their parts infrastructure, a fundamental design flaw, or an accountant left off or perhaps added a zero.

Either way, the fact no official message on their website has come out tells me they are either embarrassed and/or hiding something.  And since I already have a home-brew "Gauntlet" and have been mentioning how easy it is to make one for barely any more than the OEM price of the Gauntlet, I'm curious why others who are complaining about the pushback haven't built their own.  And given how many other legit performers are available to the public for purchase in the $300-and-under price range, I wouldn't even bother waiting 6+ months (since April!) when I could buy any of those other fine PCPs.

[WesBob]

Nvreloader has been trying to do just that, mod a qb79 and unfortunately got two &^^& barrels in a row. Hopefully he gets it sorted but for a lot of guys doing that kind of work, recrowning barrels, modding valves and ports, to ever get up to velocity specs and accuracy of the gauntlet just isn't going to be practical. Not that I don't jive with you on making your own, that's what I love best about my airgun hobby, lol, modding is more than half the fun for me😊

[Ribbonstone]

Why bother..I've no order in, and not likely to put an order in.

But the only thing I can see that would be worth it would be the multi-shot part of the gauntlet. Nothing else can't be done cheaper to a QB79 (or a gas block converted QB78).


If you "just gotta" have a repeater  for cheap, await the Gauntlet....if you want a HPA powered QB, start with a QB 79 or a cut off QB78.
Adjustable stocks are easier...but have found that once adjusted, they tend to be untouched....so adjusting a non-adjusting stock maybe a little harder, but once it is adjusted to the right height, it also stays that way for years and years.



Am reminding of a "joke" my father used (from my grandfather..so call it 100years ago).....he'd wait until I was unexpecting the simple jest and say (paraphrasing for this situation):


" They aren't making QB 79's any longer."

If I fell for it....I'd ask, "Why?"


"Because they are long enough already."

[KnifeMaker]

 

As far as a repeater for lower funds, there is the Urban. Wish it had come out a bit  earlier. Have quite a bit of money in the Maximus with all the mods and BNM Breech, Huma Reg., and will be adding one of Travis's valves to it as well. Making it much more expensive than a Gauntlett.

Why? Why not an MRod, simply weight. Back injury. And the Gauntlet fails the weight test there as well. Can't find a justification in my case for it. 

Now I just need a drop box and a bottle for it. In hind sight, an FX Streamline  or Brock Bantam. would have probably been a MUCH better buy for me. 

Knife 

[anti-squirrel]

As far as a repeater for lower funds, there is the Urban. Wish it had come out a bit  earlier. Have quite a bit of money in the Maximus with all the mods and BNM Breech, Huma Reg., and will be adding one of Travis's valves to it as well. Making it much more expensive than a Gauntlett.

Why? Why not an MRod, simply weight. Back injury. And the Gauntlet fails the weight test there as well. Can't find a justification in my case for it. 

Now I just need a drop box and a bottle for it. In hind sight, an FX Streamline  or Brock Bantam. would have probably been a MUCH better buy for me. 

Knife

Good points.

For a non-regulated lightweight repeaters under $300, there's 2 real choices: the Varmint/PR900 and the Gamo Urban/Chacal. 

The Gauntlet isn't a lightweight, nor is it compact.  It is regulated, but the thing is: we have no idea how the barrels will perform.  NVReloader's experiences with @rcher and several bum barrels would have bothered me, but non-SPA Chinese barrels are unknowns.  SPA has treated me right on both occasions.  Given the pricepoint of "$300 or less for a PCP" with a known good barrel, I'd say the Gamo Urban cannot be beat thanks to the BSA barrel. 

I hope all the folks waiting on those Gauntlets end up happy, but after waiting so long- in some cases 6+ months and climbing- it will be hard to justify so much anticipation for what may in fact be a very mediocre airgun. 

[WesBob]

Knife, were you referring to  a reverse drop block for your Maximus that you were thinking of going for? If so, since you are already regulated and I assume only using 2000psi, (maybe I'm wrong on that?), you could do like I did with my Qb78 and do a reverse 88g co2 cartridge with adapter. It's good for over 2000psi, 2200 is what I figured the safe working pressure, so you could give yourself another 130cc or 8ci and get a lot more shots. That's if I understood your drop box and bottle comment. ☺️

[Dbez1]

As far as a repeater for lower funds, there is the Urban. Wish it had come out a bit  earlier. Have quite a bit of money in the Maximus with all the mods and BNM Breech, Huma Reg., and will be adding one of Travis's valves to it as well. Making it much more expensive than a Gauntlett.

Why? Why not an MRod, simply weight. Back injury. And the Gauntlet fails the weight test there as well. Can't find a justification in my case for it. 

Now I just need a drop box and a bottle for it. In hind sight, an FX Streamline  or Brock Bantam. would have probably been a MUCH better buy for me. 

Knife

Hey Knife, when you’re done, you’ll probably have the best Maximus in existence. The only thing left to do to it would be to add a LW barrel.  LOL that would probably cost more than you paid for the original gun.

[Marc In Iowa]

Have quite a bit of money in the Maximus with all the mods and BNM Breech, Huma Reg., and will be adding one of Travis's valves to it as well. Making it much more expensive than a Gauntlett.

Why? Why not an MRod, simply weight. Back injury. ... . In hind sight, an FX Streamline  or Brock Bantam. would have probably been a MUCH better buy for me.

AOA says the Streamline is 5.8 lbs.

What weight do you figure your Maximus will be?

[dave cole]

Products like this always make good forum fodder….

I find the hysteria about the Gauntlet fascinating. Some shooters are beside themselves about the gun.  Some in excitement and others in loathing.

The only reason I can determine the excitement is the price point. It doesn’t claim sub MOA at 200y, 500 shots per fill or even a 30 shot magazine.

So it’s got to be the value of the price point…… That’s all it can be.

But the repugnance surrounding Umarex as a result of delay of release. Wow…  That’s the part I’m having trouble getting my head around.

It’s not just here. It’s everywhere.

And it’s not like they have your money and you don’t have the gun. Trust me; they want your money. But they also want you to be happy with your purchase. And you want that as well, right?

They don’t want or need to have 5000 of these things with issues and getting returns by the freight car load. (Remember the Gen 1 Marauder .22?? That stigma STILL lingers in the halls of the internet.)
(I tried to find the post I had read during the summer on a different forum without any luck insinuating Umarex’s Gauntlet is a ruse and a conspiracy theory. Seriously?? Troll…..)

Personally, I have a Gauntlet pre ordered from April of this year. It does not bother me the ETA changes. I have other guns to shoot. (For those of you who this will be your first PCP, be patient. We will all be much happier in the long run.)

My thoughts are, Umarex knew it was going to be a home run; everything and a bag of chips for under $300.  But not in their wildest dreams did they think/plan for the sheer order volume it would produce. And as stated previously, there may be other underlying hiccups in production.

I’d also bet you dollars to donuts the dollar sales of the Gauntlet will eclipse the dollar sales of the FX Crown in 2017 and they are going to do it in less than 60 days. They absolutely, unequivocally, have to get this one right. (i.e. reason- see paragraph above)

But if I’m going to play my “You’re screwing up Umarex” card, I’d have to say they are really missing a huge, huge opportunity not packaging it with a re-badged hand pump and marketing it to the big box stores. Include a tin of pellets. Big banner plastered on the front of the box; “Everything in the box. Nothing else to buy!” and all of the other nonsensical air gun propaganda labels you find on packages these days. 

I’m confident many who scorn the gun and Umarex will be closet Gauntlet owners. We will just have to wait and see.   

[Ribbonstone]

Think you are right....there will be a Gauntlet sooner or later.  Anticipation is just driving some folks a little crazy.   

Mag. fed repeater PCP's (from China) are certainly possible at sub $200....QB's are pretty tried and true (considering the Crosman 160...it's certainly a well known rugged design).  Decently cheap 13ci regulated bottles that work...plastic stocks...etc.



Gets on the market, and I suspect it will become a standard.   Few years down the road, and it will be a comparison -type rifle.....other rifles will have to be compared to it because of the price.  Will likely think, "More good shots than a Gauntlet?" at some point in time.


It's just gone on too long...and usually BS is dispelled much sooner than this (Crosman's "turbo-pump" or regulated M-Rod both come to mind).

[cryptoad]

I am a happy Umarex customer.
I have bought several Umarex guns.
I have been very happy with most of them.
The ones that I did not like were returned to Pyramyd Air or Walmart or Amazon.
I pre-ordered the Gauntlet from Pyramyd Air.
Pyramyd Air does not charge my credit card until items are shipped.
I will shoot the Gauntlet a lot in the 30 day return period that Pyramyd Air allows.
If the gun does not perform as expected I can return it to Pyramyd Air.

Gentlemen,
This is an excellent system.
Be happy.
Have fun.
Shoot safely.
Shoot a lot.

I beg to differ!  If you order an out-of-stock item from Pyramidair and check out using paypal, you will be charged upon check-out!  I know!  It happened to me.

[Nomadic Pirate]

I am a happy Umarex customer.
I have bought several Umarex guns.
I have been very happy with most of them.
The ones that I did not like were returned to Pyramyd Air or Walmart or Amazon.
I pre-ordered the Gauntlet from Pyramyd Air.
Pyramyd Air does not charge my credit card until items are shipped.
I will shoot the Gauntlet a lot in the 30 day return period that Pyramyd Air allows.
If the gun does not perform as expected I can return it to Pyramyd Air.

Gentlemen,
This is an excellent system.
Be happy.
Have fun.
Shoot safely.
Shoot a lot.

I beg to differ!  If you order an out-of-stock item from Pyramidair and check out using paypal, you will be charged upon check-out!  I know!  It happened to me.

Correct !

.....When ordering a Pre-order item use the Credit Card and will not be charged, if you use PayPal you will be charged.

[Nomadic Pirate]

But the repugnance surrounding Umarex as a result of delay of release. Wow…  That’s the part I’m having trouble getting my head around.

It’s not just here. It’s everywhere.

And it’s not like they have your money and you don’t have the gun. Trust me; they want your money. But they also want you to be happy with your purchase. And you want that as well, right?

They don’t want or need to have 5000 of these things with issues and getting returns by the freight car load. (Remember the Gen 1 Marauder .22?? That stigma STILL lingers in the halls of the internet.)
(I tried to find the post I had read during the summer on a different forum without any luck insinuating Umarex’s Gauntlet is a ruse and a conspiracy theory. Seriously?? Troll…..)

Personally, I have a Gauntlet pre ordered from April of this year. It does not bother me the ETA changes. I have other guns to shoot. (For those of you who this will be your first PCP, be patient. We will all be much happier in the long run.)

 

Thank you for writing that, my thought on the matter are similar but I would not be able to articulate them so well .....Thanks

[Ribbonstone]

Searching my uses/needs, there may be a Gauntlet in my distant future.  Distant, because it will be a "right now" kind of buy, and even then, will retro-mod it to run on co2 (and a small sized tank...even if I have to put a co2 valve on a 13CI tank and call it a 5 ounce tank).

Yeah...an airgun nut...looking to make "X" into "Y" for not other reasons than it suits my personal use (or my "evil plan" if you are anti-gun).

[anti-squirrel]

My beef with Umarex is the lack of courtesy to the buying public.  Even cruddy software companies will make Official Statements saying, "Delayed because of Blah-Blah-Blah reason"... not this BS in-the-dark garbage of delay after delay without any comments.  In other words, caring about customer sentiment is not the pinnacle of their business.  And saying, 'Oh they wanted to get things right" is likely hogwash.  More than likely, it is "We want to minimize the chance of litigation and minimize the return rate".  The thing is, it would prevent me from buying an Umarex because affirms what i've experienced with shoddy customer service, not because they delayed it due to making it better/more reliable.

I have zero problem with delays.  My own company (employee-owned software company) has made official statements saying, "We delayed the release because of such-n-such reason", but we actually give a rat's rear about our customers, not just sales.

I doubt I'll own one- I already have a "Gauntlet", IE: repeater-breech QB-79.  Breech assembly even looks the same. externally, and cocks on open, and uses MRod magazines.  Probably the same thing, in all actuality.  At this point, my next PCP will likely be another single shot or perhaps an airgun a couple tiers up in value.  Thus I just sit back, laugh a little, and enjoy watching people get dramatic about something they have no control over. 

I'll add that Dave Cole has a point: bundle the dang thing with a pump, a tin of pellets, cheapo "shooting glasses", a cheapo Chinese 4X scope, and a spinner target, and sell it for $450 "MSRP" and on-sale for $400.  Make it truly compete with the magic pricepoint on "First-World Impulse buys" meaning the XBOX or PlayStation with bundled games, then do the Crosman-trick of "Get your family outside" thing.

 Here's another thought: with people lining up to blow a thousand bucks or more on the next Apple smart-phone, I wish I could get a subscription-plan for a scoped Mutant with pellets.  Just pay $65 a month for 2 years and have a couple tins of pellets show up automagically per month.  I'd much rather have the Taipan Plan over a silly AT&T or Verizon plan.    Yeah buddy!

[TL100]

Interestingly enough... AirgunDepot has removed the Gauntlet from its website (spare mags still there). Reason? Your guess is good as mine. Decency? Perhaps.
I pre-ordered mine in March (and used PayPal, "dang"!). I agree with you guys that the gun better be awesome after all this tinkering (but wasn't it already, from all the YouTube early-access gurus?).
Who knows, maybe Umarex will look at itself one day in the mirror and think: "Naaw, I'd better add a couple of spare mags and a few boxes of pellets as freebies to all those suckers that fell with the pre-order trick. Maybe I'll get (part of) my reputation back". 

P.S. PA still has it available with a mid-Dec. ETA, Yeah, right...

[anti-squirrel]

Interestingly enough... AirgunDepot has removed the Gauntlet from its website (spare mags still there). Reason? Your guess is good as mine. Decency? Perhaps.
I pre-ordered mine in March (and used PayPal, "dang"!). I agree with you guys that the gun better be awesome after all this tinkering (but wasn't it already, from all the YouTube early-access gurus?).
Who knows, maybe Umarex will look at itself one day in the mirror and think: "Naaw, I'd better add a couple of spare mags and a few boxes of pellets as freebies to all those suckers that fell with the pre-order trick. Maybe I'll get (part of) my reputation back". 

P.S. PA still has it available with a mid-Dec. ETA, Yeah, right...

The other Gauntlet thread has more info about what's going on.  As far as magazines being available, they are MRod magazines.  It's the exact same breech that was on my @rcher-repeater-breech QB-79, which used a Marauder magazine.

Over half a year; some folks now sitting at 8 months and still waiting.  LOL.

[TL100]

Thanks, Peter.
Yes, I visited different forums and got more educated on the issue. Did not want to leave the same comment in multiple places, that's all.
Your comment about the mags makes 100% sense.
Glad to see that eventually a couple of the biggest online retailers have stopped drinking Umarex's Kool-Aid and removed any reference to availability dates. Maybe now we'll get it sooner , who knows?

[immortl]

How many of you guys have ordered a barrel from a high end barrel mfgr or had a gun built by a high end gunsmith? Any ideas on what a real wait is?? My guess is that they told their vendors that they expect to produce XXX for inital sales of XX1/2 units and the suppliers , said, ok we will have XXX parts ready bu a certain date. Now they find out they have XXXX preorders, and they don't have the parts, and some of the outside suppliers can't produce XXXX parts. Companies go broke when they order XXXX units, because they "might" sell XXXX units, but most likely will sell XX1/2 units. I also think that with the margins on this gun, they don't have alot of room, to pay a different supplier, that knows they "have" to have said part, alot more than the original quote and still be profitable. They probably should have probably doubled the time for initial release, but if they did that, half of the people would say they are ripping them off, because their is no reason they can't do it faster.

Tending to agree with moorepower here.  Similar things happen with various manufacturers.  My Volquartsen 17WSM was ordered in January, scheduled for release the following summer, finally came out the following spring, so a bit over a year later.  I knew they made good stuff, I wanted that particular rifle and I was just patient.  On that rifle, they had an issue with the twist rate of the barrel and took the time to correct it with new barrels before shipping the rifles out.  Currently in another waiting game for their Scorpion 22 mag pistol.  Again, announced last December, I ordered it in February, it was tentatively going to be released this summer, and I just called the dealer to inquire when the next estimate is, I'm still waiting, patiently.  It is something I want, it will arrive, eventually.

Joe

[aluminumfetish]

Deerfly says he got his delivered. We would like to see it. Ask him about it.