First Time PCP Buyer's Thought and Questions on Gamo Urban & Chinese Hand Pump

[Antwuan Maxx]

I purchased the Gamo Urban about three weeks ago on eBay for cool $199.  I didn't want to shoot the gun until I actually had a way to fill it, and I didn't want to invest a whole lot in doing so, initially.  I ended up ordering and receiving one of those Chinese PCP hands pumps recently.  So today I went out back to finally shoot the Urban for the first time. 

The gun is temporarily mounted with a Nikon Buckmasters II 4-12x40 optic, which is non adjustable objective centerfire scope that I used on my Kidd 10-22  (before moving to the more appropriate Nikon Prostaff EFR).  Obviously not ideal for close range shooting, but it'll get the job done until I get my hands on the Hawke Vantage I've settled on.   

First impressions on the Urban...

The bolt is incredibly gritty.  Cycling the action was so rough I actually felt like I was going to break something when I cocked it for the first time.  I'm hoping this eventually smooths out once it's broken in.  Perhaps I can smooth things out a little with silicone oil?  Once again, I'm a first time PCP buyer so I'm not clear on a lot of these things.

The magazines are decent...but I don't think $50 decent. Seems like a rip off.

I love the feel of the stock and the way the gun shoulders.  I'm right handed, but left eye dominate...so I shoot lefty.  As a southpaw shooter, I really appreciate the ambidextrous feel.  Also, I recall reading somewhere that the bolt can be swapped around to the opposite side of the action...is this true?

The trigger is fine by me.  It's light and somewhat creepy,but predictable enough for me.

As far as shooting goes...wow.  I was able to have the scope zeroed after three or four shots.  I fired three magazines of Crosman Premier Domes from a little over 20 yards and was able to shoot a few nickel size groups,some even smaller than that.  Surely with an optic that focuses in at closer ranges, those groups will be even tighter.   

The guns primary use will be dispatching squirrels in areas where I don't like using rimfire or shotguns.  Most shots are taken at 30 yards or less, so this particular rifle seems to be the perfect fit for my uses.  Not to mention it's extremely quiet. 

Now for the bad part...after firing my 30 shots, I noticed my pressure gauge was still reading 2900 PSI.  The same pressure it read prior to me firing my first shot.  Obviously, the gauge is no good, which I read is a somewhat common occurrence with the Urban.  How much of a hassle is this going to be to get ironed out?  Will I have to send the gun back to Gamo or will they ship me a replacement?  I'll be calling them soon.

Also, is it safe to trust the gauge on the hand pump for the time being?  I really enjoyed the gun until I discovered that issue. 

[Xraycer]

Cocking the bolt shouldn't be gritty. Is the grittiness there when you cock it without a magazine? There are many cases where the magazine doesn't sit perfectly in position, causing the oring on the bolt to rub against different parts of the magazine while advancing the pellet into the chamber.

Accessing and removing the bolt is fairly simple. 2 screws holds the stock in place. Remove these 2 screws and a give it a bit of a tug to pop the stock off.  Be careful when removing the receiver, as there is a little metal cylinder that sits freely in between the receiver and air tank.

Unfortunately, there are also many cases where the air gauge is defective. Gamo typically will just send you a new air gauge.

With all that said, the Urban is my favorite gun right now.

[Fly]

After watching this video I,m not sure you have a gage problem at all. In his review he said you will not see much of a
drop in pressure till 50 shots. You said you only shot 30 shots. Watch video. Hope this helped.

 

                                     Fly

[Antwuan Maxx]

Cocking the bolt shouldn't be gritty. Is the grittiness there when you cock it without a magazine? There are many cases where the magazine doesn't sit perfectly in position, causing the oring on the bolt to rub against different parts of the magazine while advancing the pellet into the chamber.

Accessing and removing the bolt is fairly simple. 2 screws holds the stock in place. Remove these 2 screws and a give it a bit of a tug to pop the stock off.  Be careful when removing the receiver, as there is a little metal cylinder that sits freely in between the receiver and air tank.

Unfortunately, there are also many cases where the air gauge is defective. Gamo typically will just send you a new air gauge.

With all that said, the Urban is my favorite gun right now.

The bolt feels fine without the magazine.  It actually seemed to smooth out a bit the more I shot the gun.  Hard to say for sure since I didn't fire a whole lot of rounds to begin with.

Thanks for the info on removing the bolt.

After watching this video I,m not sure you have a gage problem at all. In his review he said you will not see much of a
drop in pressure till 50 shots. You said you only shot 30 shots. Watch video. Hope this helped.

                                     Fly

Thanks! Hopefully, that's the case and my gauge isn't a lemon.  I'll take the gun out back again later this evening once I get home to confirm.  I actually watched that video numerous times and don't recall that little tidbit.

[Xraycer]

Sounds like the magazine is not sitting squared in the receiver. You may to experiment with some shimming. If not, that oring on the bolt will be short lived.

FYI my Urban drops from 3200 to about 2800 after 20 shots.

[toddbrat]

If you happen to lose the O-ring from the mag, no big deal. Mine broke, along with the mag, and I called Gamo, they sent me a replacement magazine. I used the broken one for a couple of months without the O-ring until another piece of the cylinder broke off and the first 2 holes became one big one. It shot better without the O-ring. I took it off the new one as well. Just hold your finger under the hole while you load it to keep the pellets from falling out. If you are hand pumping and don't want to go all the way to 3k where it seems to start shooting the best (at least mine did), you can adjust the power with a 4mm hex key. Mine is turned all the way down to roughly 700fpe and I get 30 really good shoots from about 1500psi down to 1000. If I go to 2k psi, I can get almost 60 shots. I only punch paper with mine, but that's at 50 yards with not much POI change--roughly 3/4 of an inch. I've been feeding it a steady diet of the cheap CPHP from wally world, sometimes a couple of tins a week, but H&N FTT in 5.53 are its favorites. I shoot those when I want to make one-hole groups, otherwise it is just the CPHP's.

[Ribbonstone]

Haven't had a problem with the two Chinese air pump's gauges...they pretty much read what the gun's gauges read (at least the guns with gauges...or working gauges).  Basically, until you get a new gauge on the rifle, you have no real choice (and there were and still are many PCP's without gauges that we've some how managed to shoot for the last decade).



Almost all inexpensive PCP's seem to be a little stiff and gritty at first...are some exceptions, but most are.  I'd just shoot it for a couple hundred shots and see if it smooths out.  Even if it doesn't, those break in shots would be a help if you decided to take it apart and smooth the rough spots (the wear pattern from the break in will point you to the problem spots).

From what I can tell from reading posts, seems like that will be a very enjoyable rifle for you.

[hollowpoint1911]

Keep running pellets through the Urban and it will smooth out. When I first got my Urban, I complained of the same thing. It was gritty enough that I was also worried something was wrong and made a post about it. I got the same advise as you've received (shoot it more), and somewhere within a tin of Crosman hollowpoints, it smoothed out.

Enjoy!

[gamoshooter]

  My shooting buddy had a bad guage on his urban also
 
  Made a call to gamo customer service and told them we had two urbans one with a bad guage

  They requested our shipping info and 4 days later two gauges showed up in the mail 👍🏻👍🏻

  One thing to keep in mind if u do change your own guage
  With a completely empty urban the replacement guage won't register any pressure until the gun is filled to around 2500 psi  after the first fill it will work normally but the first fill from empty will havie u thinking u have another bad guage lol

Just an FYI

Gamoshooter

[olbill]

My Urban's pressure gauge just stopped working. It won't go above 2000psi. I'll give Gamo a call and see if they will send me a new one. What's the procedure for changing out the gauge?

[gamoshooter]

  Urban guage is easy to change

  Shoot the gun until it's completely empty 

  Remove action from stock

 Remove bad guage using 7/8 in wrench or socket 

 Teflon tape threads on new guage and install on urban

Reinstall action in stock

Fill and check for leaks    That's it 👍🏻👍🏻

Gamoshooter

[olbill]

  Urban guage is easy to change

  Shoot the gun until it's completely empty 

  Remove action from stock

 Remove bad guage using 7/8 in wrench or socket 

 Teflon tape threads on new guage and install on urban

Reinstall action in stock

Fill and check for leaks    That's it 👍🏻👍🏻

Gamoshooter

Thanks!

[olbill]

I just called Gamo about my non-working pressure gauge and the broken o-ring on my clip. The said both would be shipped to me at no charge.

[toddbrat]

With any luck they'll send you the entire magazine and not just the O-ring. I use mine without it and it is much smoother to cycle and increased the accuracy a bit as it wasn't pinching the pellets when chambering them. You will hopefully have your parts by the weekend, mine came really quick.

[olbill]

Yep, the new parts arrived today and they sent a complete new mag.

[olbill]

So two weird things happened. When I unscrewed the old pressure gauge I found that it wasn't tightly screwed in. When I put the new one in I turned it down until it stopped turning but I didn't try to put any additional torque on it. When I pumped up the Urban the new gauge didn't register at all. I loosened the gauge a tiny bit and it started working.

Then I loaded up the new clip to shoot some targets and test whether the gauge was really working. The bolt wouldn't close. When I pulled the mag out slightly the bolt closed. I put a layer of white plastic tape on the end of the mag and it started working. I put a second layer of tape on it for good measure and shot a full clip without any more problems.

This is the third mag I've had and the only one I've had a problem with.

I didn't see any need to remove the action from the stock when changing the gauge so I didn't. I used a 7/8" open end wrench.

[Ribbonstone]

I've a tube for a Hatsan that has had it gauge stuck at 2200psi forever....even taking the gauge off, it still reads 2200psi.  But I know the pump's gauge is accurate with the other rifles I fill, so while it was broken, I just ignored it and went with the pump's gauge.   Could have just left it alone (or taped up the gauge face) and kept using it like the PCP's that never did have a gauge, but eventually I replaced it.

May not be odd, but with the gauge reading 2200psi, I pretty much trusted it and tried to shoot that rifle (which will normally keep it's sweet spot down to about 1900psi).  Figured I was good to go, lined up on a back yard varmint, and was reqarded with a "piff' and a shot at about sling shot speed.

If it had not had a gauge, I'd have hooked it up and filled it to be sure it had pressure.