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Three years ago the first Gauntlet PCP air rifles hit the shelves of airgun retailers and a new frontier for Umarex Airguns had opened. No, this wasn’t the first PCP air rifle Umarex had made, far from it. But it was the first consumer friendly, hard hitting, and tunable air rifle we had made. All of the previous PCPs were set up for knocking the X-ring out of targets in competition and had a price tag to match. When we threw down the Gauntlet, we took serious performance and made it accessible with a price of just under $300.00--something that its competitors at the time couldn’t touch.

After Church a few weeks ago a buddy, Naghmeh asked me if sometime we could take her and her kids shooting. Well, it just so happened last week that I needed to run out and test out a Mossberg shotgun and SPARC red dot scope for a Turkey/Varmint Hunting article and sight it in for an upcoming hunting trip. I also wanted to test out some Air Venturi Exploding Golf Balls so we invited her along.

The number of female shooters has done nothing but go up in the last decade, particularly in the last few years. And in case you weren’t aware, ammo for those firearms has gotten really expensive and really hard to find. So what’s a good husband or kid to do? How about look for some shooting alternatives for mom? One such alternative are Umarex Airguns officially licensed blowback action air pistols. Depending on how and where she chooses to practice or train, all of these are available in either .177 steel BB or 6mm airsoft.

There was a ripple in the space-time continuum a few years back. Actually, it was more like a shot heard ‘round the world. Umarex and GLOCK partnered in a license agreement to authorize the first officially licensed airgun replicas from the GLOCK brand. Immediately we here at Umarex USA were bombarded with questions about which models would be produced and when could customers expect new GLOCK .177 airguns and 6mm airsoft guns to appear at retailers. Ever since that announcement we have been working on filling customers’ expectations for both quantity of product and diversity of product. It has been no small task, but slowly we are expanding the number of GLOCK models available.

One of the first Umarex products I purchased when I started here was the H&K USP non-blowback 6mm airsoft pistol. This version is a hard hitting CO2 powered airsoft pistol that has been a hot seller for us for years now. While the velocity is a little on the hot side for most airsoft fields, it was still a great option for those looking to pick up an accurate 1:1 replica of the classic Heckler & Koch wondernine.

I have to take a trip down memory lane today. A long time ago, in a career far, far away, I had a shooting buddy that was also a fellow teacher. Brett taught math and I taught (at the time) math and literacy remediation classes. We were down the hall from each other, but we made the most of the five minute transition periods between classes to shoot the bull and exchange anecdotes on various topics de jour. We often spoke of concealed carry guns, holsters, and ammo availability. Yes, this was in the days leading up to the election of BHO in 2007. I had just picked up my concealed carry license and a new 9mm handgun from a well recognized brand. Brett also had a CCL and his latest purchase for concealed carry was the Smith & Wesson M&P 9.

Some of the most popular sellers in the Umarex Airguns catalog of things are our blowback action pistol replicas. And it makes a lot of sense that these would be super popular since we can and do produce replicas, under license agreement, from such esteemed names in the industry such as Beretta, Colt, GLOCK, Heckler & Kock, Smith & Wesson and Walther. This past year has seen the demand for already popular models go to absolutely insane levels. Yes, not only were the local gun store shelves depleted of inventory, but air gun retailers were selling replica airguns as fast as they could get them.

If you walk into ten gun free zones, you are likely to see eight silhouetted Beretta Model 92’s underneath the red angled bar. For some reason the anti-gun world loves the esthetics of the Italian design while simultaneously hating the object itself. Well, if it weren’t for double standards, these people would have no standards at all, but all politics aside, the full size Beretta 90 series handguns not only look really sweet, they work equally sweet.

PCP air rifles have sucked up a lot of air these past few years. Maybe “consumed” a lot of air would be the better way to say it, but nevertheless, Pre Charged Pneumatic rifles, as handy as they are, are just not everyone’s cup of coffee. One distinct advantage that high pressure airguns (HPA) have had over traditional spring and gas ram piston powered pellet rifles is their bolt action activated rotary magazine. PCP shooters have been sitting in the lap of luxury only needing to work the bolt action to advance to the next round.

In all of my time working in the service department here at Umarex USA, the number one question I received regarding CO2 powered airguns was, “Can I take the CO2 out of the gun?” The questioner was really wanting to know if the CO2 remaining in a cartridge could be saved for use later. The unfortunate answer was a simple “No.” While this isn’t such a big deal when you are talking about a $0.50 12 gram cartridge, but when the subject is a $10.00 88 gram cartridge, the inner economist gets real concerned all of a sudden.