While setting-up our new Umarex Gauntlet II air rifle, I discovered a number of details that will help you with your new air rifle. This is experience that’s additional to the information published in the Gauntlet II Owner’s Manual. I hope that you will find it useful. But don’t forget that this is a pre-production sample, so a few things may change before shipping…
Install The Regulated HPA Bottle First
The Umarex Gauntlet II is supplied with its regulated HPA bottle as a separate item in the box. So the first order of priorities is to install this.
To do so, it’s necessary to remove the forend of the stock. This is done by unscrewing three small screws, one on either side and one underneath. For this task, head to the tool box and find a 2.0 mm Allen (hex) key.
Note that clearance for the top screws is very tight alongside the barrel shroud. It’s easy to mark the shroud through incautious use of the Allen wrench. In fact, this gun already had such a tiny mark, direct from the factory in just the right place…
As is explained in the Owners Manual, I added a drop of non-petroleum oil to the threads and O rings of the bottle before screwing it into place. Umarex recommends RWS Chamber Lube.
The bottle is then screwed into place – without overtightening – until it stops with the gauge on the right and the fill nipple on the left. This will allow access to these parts once the forend is replaced.
These small screws are retained in small brass inserts that are a press fit into the plastic of the forend. On reassembly, be very careful to line-up the screws and inserts precisely, or an insert could be displaced from it’s fitting in the forend and lost – if you were to be fat fingered. (I found mine, phew!).
Then Install The Scope
The scope can be mounted using either Picatinny or airgun/.22 scope rings. I chose the latter, because that’s what I had, and it worked fine.
If you have a long scope – such as I used – you’ll find that there could be insufficient clearance to access the top forend screws with the scope in place. (Been there, tried that!). That’s the main reason to install the bottle first…
To match the scale and appearance of the Gauntlet II, I chose a Leapers 8-32 x 56 scope from the UTG Precision Series (Model SCP3-UG832AOIEW, to be precise). This 30mm tube scope combines a mil-dot reticle with side paralllax correction for focusing down to 10 Yards.
I mounted this scope using another Leapers product – UTG PRO Rings. (30 mm tube, Medium height).
Due to the height of the Gauntlet II breech, you can mount a scope with a large objective bell – like this scope – that drops below the line of the rail without touching the shroud. As you can see…
In fact the Picatinny scope mounting rails are a separate part. If you want just to mount a smaller diameter scope using airgun/22 rings, the scope rails can be removed using that 2.0 mm Allen wrench. There’s a second set of airgun rails underneath. (But you would probably want to fill-in the resulting screw holes).
Why do that? Well, you could obtain a lower eye line for the scope if that’s important to you and you don’t need Picatinny mounting.
Adjust The Cheekpiece
With the scope in place, it’s easy to adjust the cheekpiece to obtain a comfortable cheek weld. This time you’ll need to use a 2.5 mm Allen wrench to loosen and re-tighten the screws.
I found it possible to obtain a very good height to the cheekpiece that worked well for me.
Shooting From A Rest?
With its extremely long HPA bottle, the Umarex Gauntlet II definitely tends towards front heaviness. (All-up weight of this rig is 10 Lb 15 Oz, although that big UTG scope and substantial rings account for over 2 Lbs of that total).
So I looked around for some way to provide front-end support for the gun…
The Gauntlet II has M-Lok slots in the sides and underside of the handguard. So I attached a Leapers UTG M-Lok/Picatinny adapter to the underside slots and then fitted a UTG TBNR bipod.
Now we have a solid rest for benchrest shooting – or prone in the field with the Gauntlet II. That’s another big improvement over the original version!
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