Some of you have been tracking my saga to get my hands on a - what now seems to be a very hard to find - Gamo Viper Express Air Shotgun. After months of looking and failed purchase attempts of second-hands, I've finally found one leftover stock at Youngs Airguns in Auckland. When I received the item though, I found out I'd actually got the Gamo Shadow DX Express, not the Viper Express as intended. Upon some research, I've found that aside from some differences in the guarantees and the stock, both are pretty much the same, and decided to keep the gun, but take it for what it's worth.

Today I've finally got the chance to test it out, and I've decided to share the first impressions with you guys. I've not taken photos of the targets, but in all honesty, since this isn't a review, but just a 'first impressions' thread, I don't think it's a big deal.

For those who don't know, the Gamo Shadow DX Express and Gamo Viper Express are break-barrel air shotguns manufactured by Gamo, that had their market peak about 8-9 years ago (2013-14). They shoot Gamo's proprietary .22 shotshells, each with 25 no. 9 lead shots in it, and regular .22 pellets using a bronze adaptor. Differently from most air rifles, it has a smoothbore instead of a rifled one. It's not currently being manufactured - not to my knowledge at least, and rumors are that Gamo stopped making them because they couldn't really find their way into the market, and people simply didn't buy enough to justify them making it in the first place.

Gamo says it shoots the shotshells at 750fps, and the .22 lead pellets at 700fps. I don't have a chronograph, but I shoot air rifles a lot, and at least to the hand it doesn't feel it has the power one would expect when shooting lead at those velocities. It surely doesn't feel like a "hunting" air rifle, but more so something for you to use with backyard varmints like house rats, very small birds at short range, or even better, flying clay targets. With that said, it was exactly what I was expecting given the information I've found in my research prior acquiring the item, so no disappointments for me there.

I'd say that the shells fly well up to 15 yards, but at that distance I can't see it retaining enough bang to take down any animal. I'd say for ratting and small birds the optimal distance would be between 5-10 yards. The pellets travel far, but don't expect much accuracy after 20 yards. Did well with my usual heavy BSA Max 21.75gr but I could feel that the FPS dropped right down compared to the 15.8gr Hades, with a more pronounced arch, but more accurate after all.

With the shells, I got very tight grouping at 5 yards - less than 3" - good grouping at 10 yards - about 10" - but it really loses it after that. Got only 7/25 shots at 15 yards, so I'd say that after 10 yards your odds of really hitting anything with enough shots to justify it, would be quite low. I was surprised with how accurate the pellets were at short distances, given the barrel isn't riffled. Without any optical aide - just the front bead - I was hitting all right up to 20 yards - sometimes 25. Quite good if you ask me.

The gun is very well-made, feels solid, and definitely comfortable to shoot. Because I did a lot of research before buying it, there was not much surprise while using the item. It's definitely one of my most fun guns to shoot, and I don't regret a single bit having bought it. I have purchased it more as a novelty item than anything else, and it surely ticked all my boxes for that purpose. With that said, it's definitely not a hunting beast, and you can do better simply using much cheaper options both for long and short ranges. The shots are also very hard to find and very expensive - about $1 per shot as of today, compared to less than $0.08 for a regular .22 or $0.04 for a .177 - and because it's not really supported by Gamo anymore, you're very limited on replacement parts. I'd not recommend this as a main gun, but surely something you got to try if you're an airgun aficionado.

In all honesty I haven't really noticed it. Will have a better look tomorrow and let you know! Have you had any problems with it when you had the older model?