Just bought a Gamo Varmint Air Rifle - your thoughts?

I picked one of these up when they were on sale at Cabelas the other week, and just had a chance to test it out.

Some quick observations:
Everyone rags on the scope. Yeah it's cheap, yeah the scope housing is plastic.. but it's surprisingly clear, the adjustments are crisp and it's holding zero and up to heavy springer recoil just fine (so far).

My first test shot went through a can, and the two 2x4's behind it :sok2

It says "1250 FPS with lightweight aluminum pellets", so I assumed it would be below 1125 FPS with heavyweight pellets. I was very wrong and it's definitely going supersonic even with standard pellets: this thing is LOUD. Is anyone getting subsonic speeds with a certain brand of pellet or is there some other trick to quiet them down/get them subsonic?
 
Springers can be 'De-tuned' if you need to Quiet them, changing springs is the 'simplest way' but will cost ca $50 or more. Look on 'Airgunforum .ca' for likely detailed advice if you're into that 'fiddly stuff'. The springs have a lot of power so you need 'special tools' to avoid injury.
My suggestion for a quiet gun is to get a non-PAL springer. They can be good for 30 foot accuracy -even low-cost ones, but not advised for hunting anything further away or bigger that a pigeon. Some say they can use them on squirrels, but you'd need head shots I think.
 
It seems the first few dozen shots were dieseling on the factory oil, since it's quieted down since then. I was surprised since the first few pellets easily went through two 2x4s which is more penetration than I'd expect from even a .22 shooting subsonics.

I posted an issue with the breech in another thread but that doesn't have anything to do with it quieting down since it's been like that since the beginning.

Scope is still holding zero fine. Any accuracy issues people are having are likely due to the extremely heavy trigger pull.
For $150+tax it seems like a good deal.
 
I recently got this rifle as well, the 495FPS model. So far I am quite unimpressed. The scope it came with was a pos, but that was to be expected. The SAT trigger was heavy and long, even with the screw adjusted all the way in it did squat to lighten or shorten the pull. I don't know what the actual weight on the pull was, guessing around 8lbs, definetly not the 2.5-3lbs I kept reading about. I replaced the screw with a M2.5x10 but had to fine tune it by filing it down to get it to where the pull was light and short but still safe from bump firing with the screw all the way in. I replaced the pos factory scope and got a Center Point 1.5-6x32 as well as a 1-piece mount. I have finally had a chance to do some pellet testing and sighting and so far it is anything but accurate or consistent with anything I've tried. Shots are all over the place at 23 yards. Yes, I am using the artillery hold. I found some heavier pellets, Crossman Premier 'Piranha' 10.5gr pellets and thought I would try them to see if they would be any better. They aren't. I can't even get them to load, they are too big. The reason I got this rifle was for pest control in an area where I cant use the .22. I am not a big fan of air rifles and did not want to spend too much money on something that I would get limited use out of and the reviews I did read of this rifle seemed good, but it seems I made the wrong choice with the Gamo Varmint.

Update 30 Oct
I purchased the 1250FPS model this week and it is significantly better. I zeroed it at 25 yards tried a number of different pellets and accuracy is good and consistent using Crossman Premier Destroyer pellets and Gamo Tomahawks, minute of pigeon head anyways. And it worked quite well for knocking down feral pigeons at 30-40 feet whereas the 495 model did not.
 
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