Gun test: Umarex Trevox

The editor has a blast with a magnum break-barrel

When it comes to choosing a pistol there are many factors to consider. Firstly, what do you want it to do? Are you an accuracy fan, where six-metre group sizes are king? Are you a speed-shooter for whom getting lead downrange is the point? Or are you a happy plinker who just wants to relax and shoot whatever kind of target seems fun? Match pistols cost a fortune and are not a realistic option for most people, so forget the 6-metre stuff. Rapid fire is the domain of CO2 BB guns, which are great fun, if a little needy in terms of TLC. So for the rest of us, a simple break-barrel pistol makes a lot of sense.

Big pistols

When I was a kid, the BSA Scorpion was the stuff of dreams. It was a big, wieldy handgun that to our young minds seemed incredibly powerful. It would shoot right through a bean can every time, but just why I thought that was good is lost in the passing of time. However, the simple appeal of a large and powerful gun cannot be ignored. Umarex clearly understands this, so please meet Trevox! Okay, not the best name. We all have a mate called Trevor, and he’s not likely to be the coolest one in the gang, but putting that aside, the Trevox fulfils all the promise of the old Scorpion. It’s big, impressive and has some serious wallop to back it up.

In a major change to the pistols of my youth, the ubiquitous and well-proven, coiled steel-spring power supply has been cast aside for the newfangled gas-ram. In essence, a gas-ram is a cylinder that holds high pressure gas and when compressed, it works as a spring. It doesn’t suffer from the vibration issues coiled springs do, and has no lubrication worries either. However, there are voices mumbling that they’re harsh and difficult to shoot well, so some serious range time would be needed to understand how the different power-plants affect our shooting.

Lots of smoke

Straight from the box, the Trevox produced the most impressive dieseling that I can remember from a pistol, so I knew that it needed some time to settle down. Over-lubrication or inappropriate oils can make piston-powered guns rather smoky, but usually a little trigger time burns off the worst of the problem and that was the case with my test gun. After half a tin of pellets, no more smoke was seen, so I thought a chronograph test was in order. With the top-class H&N Field Target Trophy .177 pellet, my test gun averaged 464 fps, for a muzzle energy of 4.1 ft.lbs. A tin-can killer was in my hands.

There are lots of claims made about handgun power, but in my experience, if you want power, you want size. At 18” long and 3½lbs in weight, this is a proper handful of a gun, and over 4 ft.lbs. puts it into the ‘magnum’ handgun category. The balancing consideration is that more power can also mean a pistol that’s harder to shoot accurately. The other big factor, especially with inexpensive guns, is the quality of the trigger’s action, so it was time for a range test to see just what I was able to get from this beast.

Heavy but smooth

The trigger’s pull is quite smooth and consistent, but breaks at some 7lbs, so there’s no worry about inexperienced hands firing the Trevox by accident. It needs a good strong pull to set it off. The key word in that last sentence was ‘consistent’ and because it was, I found I was able to shoot sub 1” groups at 10 yards from a rest. Now, this has to be seen in light of my ever-worsening eyesight and the fact that I was using the open sights. They’re good clear sights with fibre-optic enhancement, but they don’t enhance my poor eyesight, so if this were my gun I would add a low-power pistol scope, or even a high-quality red-dot sight. That would eliminate the sighting problems and I feel certain that it would release the full accuracy potential of this interesting gun. There’s a scope rail machined into the cylinder, so fitting one would be simple.

Whilst accuracy testing I noticed how quick and firm the firing cycle was, supporting the advertised absence of vibration, although there’s a decent push of recoil that feels quite satisfying. The ‘Silence Air’, 3-chamber silencer also showed its worth by eliminating any muzzle noise that I could detect. All these factors come together to make a thoroughly enjoyable pistol in the hand. This is a highly enjoyable gun to spend time with and certainly lives up to its promise. If you want a high-power pistol for plinking and casual target shooting then I recommend a look.

Specification

Manufacturer: Umaerx

Importer: John Rotherary Wholesale

Web: bisley-uk.com

Model: Trevox

Type: Break-barrel

Power source: Gas-ram

Length: 460mm

Weight: 1.45kg

Trigger: Two-stage

Calibre: .177

RRP: £99.95

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