Umarex Broadax - Review

[DIYengineer235]

Its been a few months since I was on here last. Was busy with other projects. To keep getting some trigger time, I went and bought a $40 CO2 bb revolver at TSC, the Umarex Broadax and the only thing I have to say is WOW! This is $100 worth of fun in a $40 package.

What is it?:
It is a double action revolver, powered by CO2. In addition to the pistol, you get three (3), ten (10) round magazines. It is a smooth bore and BB only as the magazine cannot hold pellets. To my knowledge, no pellet magazines exists for the Broadax. It takes a 12 gram CO2 in the grip. The left grip comes off and even has an allen key to tighten down the screw to pierce the CO2. No having to keep a separate allen key handy. It has a set of non-adjustable iron sights, though there are rails for mounting sight aids.

Looks and feel:
The pistol is modeled after the 357 magnum. It is mostly nylon-plastic, but it does have a nice, hefty feel to it. It feels very comfortable in my admittedly large hands. It honestly feels like the cartoon gun from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", but a lot more fun. Trigger is stiff, but smooth and releases with a nice CLICK when the hammer drops. Double action has a long pull, as expected, but as mentioned, it is smooth. Single action is even better. A short pull with very little weight. Not a hair trigger, but not far off either.

Accuracy:
Surprisingly good. At around 15-18 feet, I can put 30 rds through the 3 inch swatch using single action. Its a bit rougher in double action, but thats to be expected from the longer trigger pull. When I take my time, I can usually keep the same 30 rds. them in a 4 inch group. In rapid fire double action, I can keep them within 6 inches. I do get the occasional flyer, but not often enough to keep me from enjoying it.

Capacity:
The pistol comes with 3, 10 round rotary magazines. I've found the easiest way to load the BBs is to fill a small bowl or similar container with the BBs and then scoop the magazines into the bowl of BBs. The BBs should fall into the holes and all you need to do is press them into the magazines. Takes only a few seconds to fill all three magazines. When shooting, you can usually get at least 90 rds per 12 gram CO2 before you see a loss of power. That means 3 loads for each magazine. Makes it easy to keep track of when to change CO2.

Sound:
Surprisingly quite. I use it in my small pole barn all the time and don't feel its overly loud. I wouldn't shoot it in the backyard of a crowded neighborhood though. It may upset the sheeple out there. No means to mount a silencer that I am aware of.

Durability:
As I mentioned, this gun has a nice, hefty feel to it and I have no doubt it would take a few good knocks and keep on shooting. I can also reliably say that I have put more than 2000 rds through mine with no noticeable problems. You can easily put a few hundred few rounds through in a sitting simply because its so much fun.

Did I mention that this thing is just plain fun!

If you want something cheap that you just shoot for fun or use for general pistol practice, I highly recommend this.