Gamo Silent Cat Air Rifle

Extremely Accurate - minor tweaks desired
I've shot a few hundred rounds through the Silent Cat. Accuracy is AMAZING, essentially same hole groups at 20yds**. With the muzzle velocity chronograph at 1030 +/- 10fps, it is as loud as a standard "10 pump" pellet gun which has a velocity around 650fps. Essentially, sounds like a BB gun!

The suppressor does NOT quiet down the shot when using the PBA ammo, which gives Muzzle Velocities of 1280-1330fps, jumping into supersonic. With PBA ammo, a report like a ladyfinger firecracker going off is heard due to the "mini sonic boom" of the projectile. The suppressor DOES protect the muzzle, which is a good enough reason to get this model. The last 1mm of barrel effects accuracy more than the rest of the length! The muzzle crown (where the pellet exits), must be cut perfectly at 90 degrees with no nicks or dings so the air pushing the pellet exits uniformly.

I have a Gamo Big Cat, and an RWS, the Big Cat is .177, and it is quite a bit louder than the Silent...
Accurate and light, but the trigger isn't very good
Generally pleased with this air gun. Have been shooting a variety of pellets, but like the Gamo Tomahawk pellets, and Beeman Hollowpoint.

Though the trigger is adjustable, I was rather disappointed at the hard pull which made accurate shots difficult and didn't bother trying to adjust it out. Instead replaced with a GRT III which made the trigger very close to the stock trigger on my Air Arms s410 in performance, and now it's quite nice and allows much better accuracy. Once the trigger was replaced, the accuracy has really improved in terms of tight shot patterns. But frankly it did ok with the stock trigger as long as I used a good artillery hold with some added stability such as sitting and using a leg for added support. Standing and shooting with the stock trigger was difficult as the hard pull made shot patterns dispersive. However, the light weight of the gun, surprisingly light, generally makes this gun easy to handle.

Scope is good enough, way far from top...
Accurate and quiet
After sighting the scope this pellet rifle is very accurate at 200 feet. Invasive nusiance squirrels have vacated. I first bought the GAMO Whisper VH Air Rifle with 3-9x40 Scope, Laser, Light and PBA (.177 Caliber) but it jammed after 10 shots and had to be returned. The Silent Cat was coincidentally released that week so I bought it instead. I've shot the Silent Cat for several months with no problems. The Silent Cat is slightly shorter and lighter than the Whisper which makes the Silent Cat easier to handle.

2012-02-21 Check out [...] for a discussion about 0.177 vs 0.22 cal. The 0.177 cal pellets have removed all squirrels from my yard.
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