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The Gamo Varming Power .25 may not be a magnum springer as the name would suggest, but that does not mean that it’s not a great airgun. In fact, it’s an awesome airgun. The Gamo Varmint .25 is a throwback to a simpler time. Let’s get into it.
The Varmint Power is a traditionally styled breakbarrel with a full synthetic ambidextrous stock. It’s one of our favorite Gamo stocks, with a modest cheekpiece that allows proper alignment with the open sights, should you be interested in using them.
While we are on the subject of open sights, these are great. Gamo has always had some of the best fiber optic open sights. The front sight is hooded with a very thin fiber optic element. The rear sight is metal, with microclick adjustments for windage and elevation, and is fitted with very fine fiber-optic elements. This combination has been around for decades, and we are glad to see Gamo continuing to use this design.
At the rear of the stock, you’ll find an orange band. The orange band caught our attention as we are used to seeing either a red band, signifying that the product is for plinking and pesting, or a green band, signifying that the rifle is for hunting. We believe the orange band is meant to identify Gamo’s .25-cal line of guns as the new.25 Cal Swarm Mangum (review and article coming soon) also has an orange band.
As we move forward to the trigger, Gamo has fitted the Varmint Power with their CAT trigger. The CAT, or “Custom Action Trigger,” is somewhat adjustable. You can adjust the position of the first stage and can increase sear engagement. You can’t adjust the pull weight or decrease the sear engagement. While we understand that limiting adjustments is due to safety concerns, we would love to see a fully adjustable trigger from Gamo in the future. That said, the trigger was pleasant to use. It breaks at around 2.5 pounds and is very smooth. Lastly, the manual safety is located in front of the trigger.
Inside the compression chamber, you’ll find a traditional metal spring. It’s not Gamo’s most powerful offering, making it very easy to cock and pleasant to shoot with minimal recoil and vibration. The Gamo Varmint .25 is definitely an all-day shooter. We shot for hours during testing and never got fatigued or felt the need to take a break. Shooting the Gamo Varmint .25 reminds us of what made breakbarrel airgunning so enjoyable before everyone became obsessed with “more power.”
While the trend has been to use more composites, Gamo chose to stick with a steel breach. We are very excited to see this. There’s a distinct soundness to the action when you return the barrel to the locked position. It really feels like it “locks” into place securely. It’s hard to describe, but for those familiar with old-school spring airguns, you will certainly understand. Barrel lockup is one of, if not the most important, mechanical considerations on a break barrel airgun. If you don’t have a firm, consistent lockup, then you can’t have repeatable accuracy. The lock-up on our sample is exceptional.
Atop the receiver, you’ll find Gamo’s 11mm Recoil Reducing Rail. The “RRR” acts like a buffer between your scope mounts and your airgun. The intent is to mitigate the harsh reverse recoil caused when the piston hits the front of the compression chamber during the shooting cycle. We’ve found it to be a useful addition to any Gamo breakbarrel. There’s a hole for a stop pin, which is critical for keeping the scope from slipping. Be sure that you use a mount that incorporates a stop pin, or you may find your scope sliding off the back of your gun.
Gamo includes its basic 4×32 scope with the Gamo Varmint Power .25 Kit, and it’s adequate for getting you started. The Varmint Power does not use Gamo’s Swarm system, so adding an upgraded scope will be fairly straightforward. You will need to consider the overall scope length so as not interfere with the action, but you should have plenty of room to work with here.
The barrel is a steel rifled barrel, and there is a nice composite muzzle that aids your grip when cocking. It’s not shrouded and does not have a fixed moderator. It’s also not threaded to accept an aftermarket moderator. The lack of a moderator is not a problem, as the action is louder than the shot noise. Even without a suppressor, the Gamo Varmint Power is still very much a backyard-friendly airgun.
Now it’s time to talk about operation and performance.
The Gamo Varmint .25 is a traditional, single-shot, breakbarrel airgun. To cock the gun, grip the muzzle and pull it down until the piston engages the sear. While there is an anti-beartrap system, we always recommend securing the barrel with your off hand while loading the pellet.
Before you start the loading process, be sure to engage the safety. To load a pellet, press it firmly into the breech, ensuring the skirt does not protrude beyond the breech. Tighter pellets may require a little extra effort. If any part of the pellet remains exposed beyond the breech, it will be deformed when closing the barrel and will have a very negative effect on accuracy.
Once you’ve loaded the pellet, firmly close the barrel. As mentioned above, Varmint Power’s lockup is very riged, with a satisfying “thunk” when fully closed. There’s nothing like steel to steel lockup on a breakbarrel.
With the pellet loaded and the barrel closed, it’s time to send lead downrange. We won’t get deep into the weeds here talking about technique, but we will share the basics. Breakbarrel airguns recoil, and they recoil a lot. You can’t hold them tightly enough to control them, so you need to let them do their thing and work to be as consistent with your hold throughout the shooting cycle.
With the forearm of the rifle resting in your off hand around the center balance point, bring the rifle to your shoulder. Don’t grip it too tightly. Acquire your target, release the safety, and gently squeeze the trigger. It may take time, but once you’ve developed muscle memory, repeatable accuracy will come easily. It’s important always to keep your off hand in the same position, or you may experience vertical shifts in your point of impact. Trigger control and cheek pressure can cause horizontal variations. If you find your shots wandering, be mindful of your technique. We also suggest that you start up close, say at 10 yards. Once you achieve consistent accuracy up close, then start moving your target back.
We didn’t know what to expect out of the box. With a name like “Varmint Power,” we assumed we’d be shooing a magnum class model. We assumed wrong. The Varmint Power is equipped with Gamo’s standard spring and compression chamber found in the 1000 FPS .177 (with alloy pellets) class of guns. This was a very pleasant surprise. While we are not breaking any power records, we are getting very consistent results for velocity and accuracy.
The kit includes Gamo’s .25-cal Magnum pellets, which weigh 21.8 grains. These pellets averaged around 500 FPS and generated around 12 food pounds. 21 foot pound is more than enough energy for backyard target shooting and pesting. We’ve taken many squirrels and rabbits with 12 food-pound airguns. We’d love to take this down to Florida to see how it handles iguanas. You don’t need a lot of energy; you need accuracy.
We also tested the 25.39-grain JSB pellets. They also averaged around 500 FPS and, with the additional weight, gave us a nice bump in energy, up to about 14 foot-pounds. The extreme spread averaged in the single digits during our testing. Accuracy with the JSBs was markedly better than with the Gamo Pellets. We also tried the JSB Hades pellets, which averaged 14 foot-pounds but were less accurate. They grouped about as well as the Gamo pellets included in the kit.
All our testing was done at 20 yards, from a rest, using the included 4×32 optic.
While we went into this article assuming the Varming Power was another “ultra magnum” class airgun, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t. It’s so easy to cock and shoot accurately, and it reminded us of the good old days of traditional, single-shot, steel breech breakbarrel airguns.
It may “only” shoot around 500 FPS, but it’s slinging a 25.39 grain pellet versus a 7.9 grain .177 pellet or a 14.3 grain .22 pellet. Velocity is not the end-all and be-all when it comes to airgunning. You want stability and consistency. The Gamo Varmint Power .25 Kit delivers excellent consistency and accuracy through stability.
If you would like to learn more about this exclusive airgun offering from Gamo USA, please visit their website at this link: https://gamousa.com/product/varmint-power-25-pellet-rifle-kit/
Written by Rick Eustler – AirgunWeb
