Remington VTR 725 .25 cal magnum, anyone?

[jlp920]

I actually bought one the other day then cancelled my order. under $200 for a 30 fpe break barrel in my favorite configuration (simple!) was (almost) too good to pass up. What I notice, however, is a serious dearth of actual hands-on reviews (other than the reviews found at the retailers sites). Can anyone weigh in on this beast? the sense I'm getting is...Trail NPXL power in a no-beeps and whistles format. If it's accurate and shoots well I may pull the trigger eventually. I like to see a little bit of buzz first though, and I see almost none.

[Ronno6]

Gander closing them out for $152.00 w/free shipping.

I woulda pulled the trigger if their 10% off offer didn't exclude this critter.
Vendors tick me off when they offer a discount, but doesn't apply to what I want.....

Oh,what the heck..............ordered one anyway..........

[jlp920]

Oh shoot, yer gonna make me do it 

[Ronno6]

Oh shoot, yer gonna make me do it 

BANG !!   

[ghostdncr]

I ordered one of these rifles from Gander about a month ago at the closeout price. They were showing several pellets in stock at really good prices so I ordered some of those, too. I've never ordered anything from Gander before and noted that their sign up process was quite mess, but clearly designed to harvest as much personal information as possible and to sign me up by default for all manner of email, promotional mailings, "partner offers" and the like, which was a real turn off. After working through all that, I completed the order and my CC was charged almost immediately. My order remained marked as "in process" until ten days later when I finally got through to customer service using their chat function (no luck with calls and email) and was told that every item on my order was backordered and they had no idea when any of it would be back in stock. I canceled the order, went through my email unsubscribing from everything I could, tagged all the emails as spam, and moved on with my life.

I was unable to find much in the way of reviews either, but what I did see suggested the rifle is indeed a simplified Trail NPXL. Should make for a decent rifle if you can actually lay hands on one of them.

[Ronno6]

Thanks for the heads up, Mr. John.
I may begin inquiring about inventory today.....

update...I called and talked to a gut who sounded as if he'd just woke up.......
I asked if he could check inventory,
He was very terse and grumpy......he huffed that it said showed as being in stock.
So, I related that I'd heard reports to the contrary, and asked if actual inventory could be verified.
He audibly HUFFED....and started in that it was a clearance item and...........
I wished him a nice day and ended the call.

VERY impressive customer service indeed !

[jlp920]

They’re back in stock at Pyramyd, just $10 more. Just ordered one. And yeah, it was Gander that I first ordered from and then immediately cancelled. Glad I did, from what I’m hearing.

Just made room in the safe for it :-). Hopefully it’s a Crosman trigger and I can do the RC Bearing mod to it. That worked a treat in my Vantage.

[ghostdncr]

VERY impressive customer service indeed !

I can see anyone having a bad day, missing a cue, shipping late or something else along those lines. When a company seems to do everything about an order wrong, I'll find another company to do business with. Ten dollars more at Pyramyd will be money well spent. They've been having difficulty with on-time shipping, but they've been very forthcoming about that all along and have a good track record of excellent customer service.  I hope you guys that want one can snag one!

[Ronno6]

Yup.
I ordered from PA this morning........10% discount, but then added freight....Saved about $2.00...........

[3crows]

There were three in stock at the local Gander. So, I grabbed one being a glutton for punishment. So I get it home and open the scope bag which was factory sealed and find that the scope seems to have been mounted before because it has wear/slip marks. I could think that the scope being loosely set in the rings, it is just shipment wear all the way from the Big Box Factory in China, could be? Rifle looks fine other than that save for another odd thing. The break barrel pin/bolt protrudes and contacts the left side of the stock relief causing it to bow outward! I guess I can cut a neat relief here for the screw.

I am returning a Crosman Vantage for off center scope dovetails, now this $%^&***$#! And I do not have any .25 caliber pellets to test fire it. I think I am going back tomorrow and complain some and try to get a further price reduction or exchange (which I will further inspect). So, why did I not look better, well, the scope bag was factory sealed! And I did not have my glasses, I had forgotten them because I had on my sunglasses .  The rifle looks fine, really, I think, I can fix the stock.

Is this normal:



You know, maybe you guys would differ but I would truly pay 50% more for USA or other non-China sourced product. I might even go double the price if it were USA made or Japan made or Taiwan.

[jlp920]

That looks pretty asymmetrical from that angle. Perhaps something just came loose. No, doesn’t look right. I would not make any non-warranty moves on it, I’d send it back to Crosman first. Should be on their dime, 5 year warranty.

[SteveP-52]

Hopefully one of you has a chrony. I'm curious to see the real world fps numbers vs the advertised ones.

[3crows]

That looks pretty asymmetrical from that angle. Perhaps something just came loose. No, doesn’t look right. I would not make any non-warranty moves on it, I’d send it back to Crosman first. Should be on their dime, 5 year warranty.

Yeah, lol, the barrel retention/pivot screw was fully backed out and had been. The rifle has been used long enough for the screw to wear into the stock due to rotation so it is going back to the Gander store. Oh well, see what happens. Otherwise, it is a beautiful air rifle.

[3crows]

Okay, went back to Gander and switched out for another un-used rifle. This new one is actually new and seems just dandy. A few test shots  indicate it is a good shooter. Wow, this big boy really thumps those fat pellets with authority! I only have a dozen .25 pellets, more on order.



They also took another $8 from the price to match their online price. Good show.

James

[3crows]

The box with rifle. They will never make this beast as a carbine, jsssh:



An interesting thing, the scope rail is bonded to the receiver top. There are no holes or dove tails that I can see. I guess if it comes flying off someday I will have to drill and tap four big 6mmX1.0 screw holes. I worked in the aircraft industry. Mechanics, we like mechanical fasteners and belt and suspender approach to such things. Screws and bolts I can check, composites, who the Hades knows! But, now entire aircraft subassemblies are fully composite. Adhesives today are not what they used to be, there is some amazing stuff out there, hopefully this adhesive is one of them .

[Ronno6]

Maybe NASA sold them the leftover heat shield adhesive from the Shuttle......

[3crows]

Maybe NASA sold them the leftover heat shield adhesive from the Shuttle......

Perhaps though I imagine it is out of date for shelf life.

Nowadays everything nearly is made in China, but, perhaps children being born now will live to complain about those dang off-worlders manufacturing everything in outer space and it is all cXXp and they are putting us earthers all out of work.

Maybe it will stay on for a couple of years long enough to wear the new off and then I will not feel so badly about re-engineering, if need be arises.

My real concern now is my wife's reaction when she figures out I also came home with a Savage A17 thumbhole bull barrel, oh dear, woe is me. I have real problems going on.

[mikeyb]

The box with rifle. They will never make this beast as a carbine, jsssh:
...

An interesting thing, the scope rail is bonded to the receiver top. There are no holes or dove tails that I can see. I guess if it comes flying off someday I will have to drill and tap four big 6mmX1.0 screw holes. I worked in the aircraft industry. Mechanics, we like mechanical fasteners and belt and suspender approach to such things. Screws and bolts I can check, composites, who the Hades knows! But, now entire aircraft subassemblies are fully composite. Adhesives today are not what they used to be, there is some amazing stuff out there, hopefully this adhesive is one of them .

I don't have this specific air rifle, but others magnums like this usually have brazed metal picatinny rails. Even with the extreme double recoil from these rifles, I don't think a properly brazed mount will ever come off at normal operating temperatures.

[3crows]

It does not look like brazing. Maybe I need to inspect closer. It appears to be a grey adhesive. I see the same thing on the Benjamin Trail XL Magnum.

In any case, I only had a few .25 pellets so I have not been able to fully sight the rifle in. The manual says to allow for 100 shots for break in. So a ways to go. It does have a noticeable recoil but it is not harsh. The rifle is grouping off of my bench rest and that is encouraging. I need to get a new chrono. The rifle balances surprisingly well and I suppose due to different stock material and the NP power plant, it is about the same weight as my Stoeger X20 .177 though it dwarfs the Stoeger in length. Cocking effort is reasonable but not for the little folks, this is not a plinker, it is a hunter. And to be fully useful as such I will need to rig a sling after I get it all set up.

[Ronno6]

What pellets does it like ??