Umarex unisex adult Ruger Blackhawk .177 Caliber Pellet Gun with 4x32mm Scope Air Rifle, Black, Large US

The Gift:I bought this rifle as a gift for my son on Christmas. First off this is not a Red Rider BB gun, nor is it designed to shoot BBs. This is relatively high powered .177 caliber spring air piston rifle. It is powered by retracting a very heavy spring inside the gun by snapping the breech of the barrel open where the barrel meets the stock of the air rifle. You fully compress the spring inside which becomes your stored energy, load a pellet into the breech and then reorient the barrel in line with the air rifles stock with a positive lock.Hold gently for accuracy:When you pull the trigger it releases a spring, the energy from this release generates a recoil action very similar to a .22 rifle (firearm), that recoil is the spring directing energy into a air compression piston, that piston action rushes forward to compresses air and then sends that shot of air to propel the pellet out of the barrel.This is important because spring air rifles require finesse to keep your pellets on target. The felt recoil happens prior to the pellet leaving the barrel. Which is why it is ever so important to learn how to hold this air rifle so that is essentially resting on your support hand instead of being actively held and pushed back into your shoulder, which is something you would normally do for a firearm or other types of air rifle. A very light touch is all that is needed while you let the air rifle gentle pat [recoil] into your shoulder. This method is called the "Artillery Hold" and I highly recommend it.First Impressions:This is NOT a toy. The black composite body feels very good in the hands and has an excellent weight to it. The balance favors the back of the air rifle which is just fine in this application because you will be resting the rifle on your body instead of pulling it into your shoulder. Speaking of shoulders the butt plate has a nice oversized rubber stopper on the end. The break barrel mechanism holds the barrel true and provides a positive un/locking action. The piston spring locks positively in place at the end of spring cocking travel.Out of the box I had a very straight shooting rifle using the adjustable fiber optic sights. Zero on windage was actually zero. I always like to do skill shots with the iron sights [fiber optic] before I put the scope on. The shots went exactly where I pointed them and within the accuracy I was willing to strive for in my excitement to get this air rifle setup for my son to shoot.The Scope:The 4x32 scope that came with it was DOA. I contacted Ruger / Umarex for a RMA and they sent out a brand new scope with rings after I shipped the broken scope back to them. That all happened within 2 weeks of Umarex receiving it (insured / return receipt). Once I received the functional brand new scope I set about to getting it zeroed. Zero is when the gun and the scope point at the same place on the target. Anytime you remove or place the scope it MUST be zeroed while mounted on the gun to the range you plan on shooting in.Since the new scopes arrival I have been driving tacks with this thing at 100 Feet. And by driving tacks I mean that I am able to consistently group shots through the same hole (or a hole about the size of a plastic thumbtack) in my targets.Some people will tell you to ditch the scope for something better. I don't necessarily agree with that. This air rifle system is extremely accurate for a off the shelf air rifle. But it is NOT a Match level air rifle. Putting a huge scope on this rifle would be like putting high performance tires and a spoiler on a economy car. You will see very little benefit for the cost and you may wind up with too much scope for the ranges you will be shooting.Pellet Selection:While wad cutters (flat nosed) pellets will work just fine in this rifle at close ranges as you move your target out longer distances you may find that the wad cutters are breaking the sound barrier. If you hear that distinct crack or you are not getting neat round holes punched into your targets you will know that your pellet is tumbling instead of flying straight. Tumbling affects accuracy. So keep that in mind.Unless you are specifically hunting rodents / varmints you will gain no advantages in accuracy or range from pointed and / or hollow point pellets.I would highly recommend dome shaped pellets for maximum accuracy, as well weight and being able to handle the velocity created by this air rifle. I am not going to endorse a specific brand. But I will encourage you to get samplers for each brand and run 10 shots groups and see which ones perform best for you. Every gun is different.Final Thoughts:All in all if you are an amateur looking to get into a nicely powered spring air rifle, or looking for something to handle varmints / rodents, or simply looking to get more trigger time. This is a great beginner - intermediate air rifle and the price with scope is a pretty good deal ~$120 through amazon prime when I purchased it. This air rifle is great fun to shoot, consistent and accurate.Personally I have dusted off the daisy of my youth and purchased this rifle for my son so that I can teach him marksmanship, gun safety and created an opportunity to have quality family time for the whole family.Finally if like me you can't find ammo for your firearms or can't afford to shoot your firearms as much as you like then air rifles are a great tool to improving your skills and correcting flinch, grip and recoil habits.

really well made .steel barrel, very accurate but heavy. i am happy with this plinker.

Works great , very hard to sight in , and still not right on target but close enough to get the aqttention

Over Fathers Day I finally got to zero in the scope and now I can do this review and share my opinions.The delivery time was quick and when the UPS driver delivered it he just set it by the front and rang the door bell and my first opinion was formed when my wife answered the door and I heard her struggling with something. When I got up to see what was going on I found her dragging this package across the floor because she couldn’t lift it. I relieved her of the chore and unpacked my new pellet gun. I was very surprised as to how heavy it was. It is heavier than my 12 gauge shotgun and my 20 gauge pump shotgun. When my friend who has 3 AR-15s picked it up he noted that it is heavier than any of his ARs as well as well as any of his other long guns and he has a large gun cabinet full of guns.I wanted to test fire it immediately and that is when I formed my second opinion. I tried to cock it with one hand I was surprised at the difficultly of compressing the spring. After about five minutes I figured out that I could do it by sitting down and putting the stock on the floor between my feet and using both hands out near the end of the barrel I could finally cock it. I will note here that when I was younger I had very good hand and arm strength but now I am 77 years old.Ok, now it was time to shoot it and I set up a 3”X3” yellow post-it note on a big tree about 35’ away and using the iron sights my first shot was a bit low and to the left about 1” from my aiming point. My wife who is a good shot went next and her effort was low and to the left also about 1.5” from her aiming point. I decided that I would make some adjustments to the sights later but start installing the scope now.My third opinion was formed when I saw the size of the instruction for the Ruger and details provided for the scope. I read the instructions for the scope and took notice that the scope manufacturer makes more than one model of scope and the one included instructions was obviously the higher end model. The scope included with the Ruger was the low end model. The photographs provided shows that when assembling and mounting the scope the windage adjustment was on the left side of the scope and the elevation on the top. I printed out some bulls eye targets on 11.5’ X 8.5’ paper and set it up at 10 yards. My first group was high and to the right and 6” from the bulls eye. I started making my adjustments and I worked on it for a week as I watched my results walk all over the target and finally ended up off the bottom of the target. At this point I was getting very frustrated and I finally decided that I had misinterpreted the scope orientation and the scope was installed 180 degrees rotated to the right. I corrected that error but now the scope adjustment was screwed up as a soup sandwich.My daughters gentleman friend came over for Father’s Day and I explained the problems I was having and he said that he would give it a try. Now this guy is 6’3 and 245 pounds and he was really having to strain in order to cock the gun. He was grimacing and frowning on his first attempt. He kept at it and after a few efforts was able to cock it with one hand but it still required some effort. We continued with the scope adjustments and after checking my notes, the scope was out about 150 clicks onwindage and about the same on the elevation.We spent the rest of the day just having fun and making a few fine adjustments to the scope. Now my daughter is the best shot in the family and enjoys going to shooting competitions and shoots hand guns, shotguns and AR-15s. When she took a turn she put 98% of her shots in 1” groups right in the center of the bulls eye.So from my experience annotated above I gave the Ruger Blackhawk combo a four rating.