I've had a pump pistol for years (Crossman or Daisy?) and decided it was time for a rifle.  I have a small pest problem at home and this will take care of that, in addition to being fun target practice at home.

The rifle comes with a scope that's obviously pretty cheap.  I have spare optics from other rifles.  I don't have the Gamo yet, so I'm curious what others' experiences have been with mounting "real" scopes to your rifles.  

Are the mounts / rings different for the rail on the Gamo (Weaver?)?  If rings, do you have a height recommendation?  

I'd like to mount my older Vortex PST Gen 1 1-4 on this.

Thoughts?

IIRC, the impulse (recoil) is different than a rifle and can cause some normal optics to fail. You need to look for an optic that will handle and airgun's recoil.

ETA - I can't say if the Vortex is airgun rated.

Thanks - a google search only revealed that the "product expert" at Optics Planet claims all Vortex scopes are airgun rated.  I just sent Vortex an email to ask about this.  I appreciate the feedback!

No kidding? Can't say I've ever heard this. It would absolutely shock me if a legitimate rifle scope can't hold up on an air gun.

(Not saying your wrong, it just surprises me to hear that theory as I never would've thought it'd be a problem). Tag for more input out of curiosity.

Gotta love how fast they respond!

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Once upon a time, scopes were not reinforced to withstand recoil (rimfire scopes) or only to withstand rearward recoil (centerfire scopes).

With a spring piston airgun, the piston goes forward, stops hard on a column of high pressure air, and the pellet goes down the bore. The piston slamming part produces heavy forward recoil.

I once put a sub-$50 rifle scope on a piston gun. Within 5-10 shots the crosshairs were no longer level, the recticle was unscrewing from its mount.

The recoil is in the opposite direction, because it results from the spring slamming forward.  My Gamo rifle has dovetail scope mounts, and I could never keep it from moving.  It would hold for a while, but eventually it would move.  The "recoil" is much harder than an internal combustion rifle, because the spring slams to an instant stop, vs a bullet accelerating along the entire length of the barrel.

It's true, especially with spring guns. That forward impulse can mess up scopes that can handle the regular rearward recoil of .50BMG.

PCPs OTOH, are fine for any scope meant for firearms (no piston slamming forward).

Pump guns are good to go too.  The Crossman 760 is a good example.  It takes several pumps to energize it, instead of a spring pushing a piston hard in one direction.  So you only get recoil in one direction.

Interesting! Learn something new every day.

@gotfish, shoot me a PM with your address & I'll send you a couple of the small metric screws to lighten up the trigger pull on that gun. In the mean time you can search YouTube for the videos that show you how.

That's fantastic - thank you!

Springer air guns is where you find the problems with using optics. The spring has both fore and aft recoils as the spring bounces around within the air tube. It wasn't the rearward motion that was causing the problems, as even with centerfire rifles have rearward recoil after firing. It was the glass in the optics wasn't glued or secured well enough to handle the forward stoppage and reverbations of the spring that was causing the problems. Leupold and other top optics from years past got reamed from their "better than your's" optics when hunters and conpetition air gun shooters wanting to use better brand of scopes on their guns.

Today, most all well-named optics are now rated for use on springers and other air guns, but it's always better to ask the scope manufacturer about that particular model of scope, as maybe some scopes from that manufacturer might NOT be springer air gun rated.

PCP and Co2 air guns don't have the recoil problems that the springers have, so even the cheapest $2 scope can work with them. If the seals are ok and scope is holding the gas, those old Japanese Tasco scopes are actually a very good scope.

 For rings, it depends on what type of receiver mount it has, to work with the rings needed. Both styles will be 11mm base mounts.

One will be a very small grove on the receiver that calls for "Dovetail" mounts and the other will be a molded in riser on receiver that looks like a Picatinny/Weaver rail, but without any cross slots.

For scopes, it depends on the Adjective lens(front lens) and whether it uses an adjustable yardage focal ring or side focus. A/O's from 40mm to 50mm will require "x-tall" rings. Scopes up to 32 should get by with "tall" rings if they have A/O. Side focus can get by with medium to tall rings using same 40-50 adjective lens scopes.

For an air gun, you mount the scope as if it's a centerfire/rimfire that's not made to look like an AR15. Low as possible to barrel of rifle.

 

^^ Thanks for the info - much appreciated!

https://www.airgundepot.com/beeman-scope-stop.html

Thanks.  Mine actually came with one of those.  It moves, too.  If I ever fool with it again, I'll just weld that in place, or put a little tack in the dovetail slots.  That will stop it.

ETA: The best luck I had with it was an old machinist's trick - a little chalk dust under the clamping surfaces.  That held it for a long time, until it moved again.  

One more question -
The attached diagram is the rail that is factory installed on top of the receiver.  The (included) scope and mount attach to this rail just like any pic rail does on an AR, except it doesn't have the typical cross-mounting capability of a pic or weaver rail.  I assume this is called a dovetail rail.

The width of this rail is 12mm as marked by my red arrows.  

The included scope is awful when I'm used to decent quality optics.

The included mount seems like it's barely even connected / mounted when it's tight.  

Can I buy rings that are intended to mount on a dovetail and will they work here?  

In the end, I know this is only a pellet gun, but I'm having a little fun with it and would really like to put a 30mm 1-4 optic (or potentially something longer) on this.

Attached File

Westhunter

I use these on my Brocock. they work very well. A lot of Airguns use the smaller dovetail grove.

I like that setup for scope rings. I needed something like these when I was setting up a scope on a centerfire carbine where I wound up ordering 3 different scope ring heights just to get the scope to clear where it needed to.

Does the height adjustment have grooved ridges that lock together to keep from sliding up or down when adjusted? Never mind. I saw a closeup pic that they do have grooved ridges to lock in place when adjusted where you need.

What kind of cost?

Yes, serrated to keep height locked in, I paid $35 on Amazon. has been holding up fine.

After taking care of the issue this was bought for, I decided to let it go.  I'll likely never use it.  It's on the EE now:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/equipment-exchange/Gamo-Whisper-Fusion-Mach-1-22-Caliber-Pellet-Rifle-w-Scope-Be-My-500th-Feedback-/141-2302950/