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The Gamo CF-20 Air Rifle
By Brad Troyer
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Airgunning in America has been on the increase over the last few years. I feel this is due in part to a reduction in places to shoot firearms and an increased airgun presence on the internet. More firearm shooters are discovering the quality and power of today's modern airguns. Many new airgunners are looking for a moderately priced airgun that is accurate and of good quality to start their endeavor into the world of airguns. The fixed barrel Gamo CF-20 fits nicely into this category.
Industrias El Gamo has been making airguns in Spain since the early 1960s. The company had its origins in the lead smelting business. In 1950, as the European airgun market grew, Gamo started producing airgun pellets. Ten years later they started producing airguns that they introduced to the Spanish market in 1961. Their goal was to produce high quality airguns at a medium to low price. Today they produce a wide line of quality, affordable adult airguns like the Hunter 440 rifle and the Compact pistol. They also produce airgun scopes and a wide line of pellets. The CF-20 has been around for some time. The American Rifleman even reviewed it back in 1991.
Pulling the CF-20 out of the box for the first time, I was impressed with the fit and finish of this low cost airgun. The metal work has a nice blue finish. It is not as deep and lustrous as some of its European competitors and there are some light swirl marks on the barrel that are only noticeable if you look closely. The full size beech stock has a smooth matte finish to it. The CF-20 incorporates a few plastic pieces to help keep it affordable. I have never cared for the use of plastic in an airgun but the plastic pieces used on the CF-20 doesn't effect the performance one bit.
Like most new spring piston airguns, the CF-20 dieseled heavily out of the box. It settled down some after about 50 shots. It was rather rough shooting for the first few hundred rounds with considerable spring twang and vibration. I didn't want to start any serious testing until I had put about 1000 rounds through it.
So I started doing a little plinking with it. I sighted it in at 50 yards and found that I could consistently hit the bottom of a soda can laying on its side. I was rather surprised to find how well I was able to shoot with its iron sights.
The rear sight is positioned on the front end of the receiver just in front of the loading port. It is all metal assembly, no plastic here. It is micro-adjustable for windage and elevation. The rear sight blade rotates so that you have a choice of four different aperatures, two round and two square. The windage adjustment had very solid, positive clicks when adjusted. The elevation didn't have any clicks that I could feel. It also did not have any markings on the dial to show the adjustments. The front sight is a standard square post that is made from composite plastic. It is an integral part of the barrel hood and underlever latch assembly.
I soon became tired of straining my eyes with the iron sights, so I mounted a Tasco 2-7x scope on it. The receiver has a scope rail machined into it. There is also a nicely placed scope stop positioned at the rear of the scope rail. The rail isn't especially long but I didn't have any trouble mounting my scope. As I continued to shoot the CF-20, the trigger and action smoothed out considerably.
The trigger on the CF-20 is their standard two stage, adjustable trigger unit. The only adjustment afforded on this trigger unit is for the pull weight. It is easily adjusted by turning a slotted screw that is located behind the trigger blade.
The trigger blade is made of pressed metal that is nicely curved to fit the finger. The trigger started out kind of creepy but it smoothed out considerably as the gun broke in. I reduced the pull weight down to about two pounds. This made the trigger much better but the length of the second stage travel was entirely too long. This is one area that Gamo needs to address. I felt like the I couldn't extract the guns full accuracy potential because of the trigger and that is a shame. Still, for an affordable airgun, the trigger worked very well.
The safety is conveniently located just in front of the trigger inside the plastic trigger guard. The safety is applied by pulling it back towards the trigger. This positions it so that with a quick flip of the trigger finger it is disengaged and you are ready to fire. The safety is manual so it isn't set each time the gun is cocked.
I was surprised how easy this underlever seemed to cock, especially when I measured the cocking force at 35 lbs. The cocking stroke is very long, the end of the cocking arm comes all the way down even with the trigger. It is held in place with a spring loaded latch that is on the end of the arm. The arm is release by pulling the latch back towards the gun. With this done, the cocking arm drops about an inch below the end of the barrel. The latch is made of plastic that I was rather uneasy with at first. I figured it would break before I had 100 rounds through the gun. However I was wrong. I intentionally subjected it to some rather rough treatment it held up very well.
When the gun is cocked, a loading port pops up right behind the rear sight. The Pellet is loaded from the rear of the loading port in the direction of the barrel. Once the pellet is loaded, the port is pushed down and the pellet is then in-line with the barrel. I had some trouble with loading a pellet if the gun wasn't held level or angle slightly downward. The pellet tended to slip out of the loading port if the gun was held with the barrel pointing upward.
The walnut stained beech stock is well proportioned and comfortable. It doesn't have any checkering or stripling that isn't a surprise. The cheek piece is full and high enough to give you a good sight picture when the CF-20 is pulled up to your shoulder. The slot under the forearm measures about 4 1/2" from the front of the stock. The forearm is somewhat square at the bottom rather than round. I found that I liked this a lot. I felt that I attained a level, steady hold with the squared forearm. The rear of the stock is finished with a black plastic butt pad. I did find a problem with the front stock screws when I took them out to clean them. Normally the stock screws have a flat washer between the stock and a lock washer. The CF-20 I tested didn't have any flat washers and the lock washers were scraping into the stock.
As most airgunners know, advertised and real velocity ratings are seldom equal. Normally the velocity achieved usually is much less than the advertised. Gamo advertises the velocity of the CF-20 at 787 fps. Out of the box, my gun was shooting 820-830 fps with Crosman Premiers. After 1000 rounds, it increased to around 855 fps. I was pleased to see that for once, the actual velocity exceeded the manufacturer advertised figure.
| Crosman Premiers 7.9 |
Beeman Kodiak Match |
Crosman Pointed 7.9 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Velocity | 858 | 750 | 832 |
| Standard Deviation | 5.69 | 3.96 | 12.30 |
| Highest | 865 | 758 | 854 |
| Lowest | 844 | 742 | 802 |
| Extreme Spread | 21 | 16 | 52 |
| Weight | 7.9 | 10.5 | 7.9 |
| Energy | 12.92 | 13.11 | 12.15 |
At the higher than expected velocity, the CF-20 performed well. What is becoming a test standard for me, the Crosman Premier 7.9 shot the best groups from the pellets tested. Not all of the pellets I tried shot well from this gun. The Crow Magnum and Daisy Pointed pellets would not group at all at 40 yards. The other pellets all shot pretty well, averaging around 1" at 40 yards. Not bad for a low cost airgun that uses a plastic loading port. Gamo also makes all of their own barrels. The CF-20 has an all steel, 12 grooved rifled barrel.
| Crosman Premiers 7.9 |
Beeman Kodiak Match |
Crosman Pointed 7.9 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Accuracy | 0.9625 | 1.1625 | 1.475 |
| Smallest | 0.75 | 0.75 | 1.0 |
| Largest | 1.375 | 1.5 | 2.0 |
I had a lot of time to evaluate the CF-20 as I shot through the break in period. It took about 750 rounds to before I felt things smooth out sufficiently. The trigger really improved as it broke in. Overall the gun handled well. Being only 6.4 lbs, the CF-20 is one of the lightest fixed barrel airguns around. If found the light weight made it very pleasant to haul around the woods on a hunting expedition. The balance if pretty good, being just a tad bit front heavy. The muzzle report is pretty normal for a spring gun in this power range. There is quite a bit of spring twang which could easily be reduced with a bit of spring gel. Shooting on the range, I found I had to really concentrate on the trigger pull to get really good groups. Sitting in the classic field target position, I could hit the bottom of soda cans and a 1 1/2" spinner at 50 yards quite readily.
I tried my hand at a local field target match with the CF-20. One thing I noted right off was that there is a built in limitation of the size of the scope because of the loading port. You couldn't put a very long scope on the CF-20 since the loading port pop ups right in front of the scope. Another limiting factor is the triggers long second stage. I found that the gun tended to move as I squeezed the trigger through the second stage. I stilled managed to shoot about 60% of the targets at the match.
I decided to test the CF-20 because I have been looking for a low cost, quality fixed barrel airgun that could be used for pest control, hunting, plinking, and entry level field target shooting. The CF-20 has the enough power and accuracy to handle all of these jobs. It is a quality air rifle that would be satisfying to both a beginning airgunner or the experienced veteran.
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Gamo CF-20 Specs
| Model | CF-20 |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer |
Industrias El Gamo, S.A. Barcelona, Spain Phone: 34-3-640-02-54 http://www.gamo.com/ |
| Importer |
Gamo USA, Corporation 3911 SW 47th Ave., Suite 914, FT Lauderdale, FL. 33314 Phone: 1-954-581-5822 http://www.gamousa.com/index.aspx |
| Type | Underlever Spring Piston |
| Caliber | .177 & .22 |
| Velocity | 787 & 623 fps |
| Cocking Effort | 35 lbs. |
| Length | 43.3" |
| Weight | 6.4 lbs. |
| Sights | Micro Adjustable |
| Stock | Beech |
| Safety | Manual |
| Trigger | 2 stage adjustable |
| Retail Price | $150 |
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© Copyright 2006 by Brad Troyer & American Airguns