Last Updated on July 14, 2022 by Albert Smith
Umarex Octane Gas Piston .22 Caliber Air Rifle Combo Review
This is Umarex first reaxis gas piston driven break barrel air rifle, and as you can realize from the brand name and high tech engineering involved, this is one hell of a good rifle. It looks a lot like the Ruger Talon break barrel rifle, but really represents a higher level of design than the Ruger.
Reaching 1050 fps with 22 cal lead pellets, and 1250 fps with lighter pellets, this rifle packs a punch, about 25 pounds of it. This affects the recoil. Before you have learnt how to grip the stock in the perfect way, the recoil will jump the rifle about quite a lot. These powerful forces at work could also loosen the screws a bit after a couple of hundred rounds, so getting some Loctite or similar product is highly recommended. The Umarex Octane weighs a sturdy 9.5 pounds, it is 48.5 inches long. You need to use about 38 pounds of pressure to cock it. It has a Umarex patented SilencAir 5 chamber silencer, that brings the noise level down to a low 95.1 db when shooting outdoors. The silencer has the tru-glo front sight attached on top of it. This is a great sight, but you need to take care not to slam down on the silencer / front sight assembly when cocking the rifle, that could damage it. The rear sight is also tru-glo fibre optics. You probably won’t be using the iron sights that much though, since the rifle comes equipped with a nice 3-9×40 AO scope, that gives a more solid impression than most other air rifle combo scopes. The scope is not a mildot, it is a duplex reticle. This might be a problem for you, depending on what you are used to. The scope attaches with rings to a Weawer rail, that for some reason lacks a stopper.
The stock is a very nice and futuristic looking skeleton style synthetic stock that features a thumb hole. One would assume that this kind of minimalistic stock would make for a light rifle, but this is not the case. I am chalking that down to sturdy build of the rest of the mechanism.
The trigger assembly includes trigger and safety all placed within the trigger guard. The safety switches on automatically every time you break the barrel. Unlike other Ruger and Umarex safetys, this safety is reversed. The safety is on in the forward position, and off in the rear. This is not a problem, but might be confusing if you have several air rifles in the arsenal with different kinds of safety positions. The trigger itself is a very nice and accurate 2 step trigger. The first stage is very light and the second stage is heavier but with no creep and very crisp. You always know when the rifle will fire this way.
After unboxing I noticed that the rifle was quite dirty in the barrel, and the stock to receiver pivot screw needed tightening. I had to do that stuff myself. Just a minor annoyance but of course it reduced the “unboxing feeling” and I expected more from a manufacturer like Umarex with a rifle in this price range. After that I encountered no problems though, so this might have been a random occurence, and not a sign of something being wrong with this model of air rifle.
As for precision, it is very good indeed. Seeing half inch groups at 20 yards. I’d be happy with twice the size of group, so I must say I was pleasantly surprised.
A lot of people think that the Umarex Octane is the most powerful break barrel on the market, but that is not the case. It does however pack the most powerful punch in this price-range. And this together with the high quality Umarex build, the precision and better than average optics, the groovy looking futuristic stock, the silencer, the nice trigger, means that this is the recommended buy in the $200 price range. With a 25 pound of impact energy, you could put down racoons and small wild hogs. All in all, the Umarex Octane Gas Piston .22 Caliber Air Rifle Combo is a very good survivalist, hunter and plinker rifle. And for the price it is unbeatable.
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