UmarexLegends M712 Blowback Automatic .177 Caliber BB Gun Air Pistol

I just happened upon this while looking at CO2 pistols for my son and was immediately drawn to it for its realistic appearance and blowback operation. I watched a few videos and showing it shooting on full auto and decided it was definitely a fun option - especially for 14 year old!When I got it I was surprised at how heavy it is. It is constructed of all die-cast metal, and I guess that's the thing in air guns. It's got that big, blocky, bold feel of the original, and I really like touches like the selector switch and safety lever, both designed way back when all this stuff was just being figured out. The magazine is also sturdy die-cast metal except for the threaded CO2 plug! One would think that would be the one part they would make out of honest steel, but not so. Maybe it's because the system needs a little "give" to avoid over tightening and the metal magazine body is unyielding. As with all these blowback BB guns, the heart of it is really the magazine. That's where the BBs go and where the CO2 cartridge goes, and where the firing valve is located. Looking closely you can see the large external hammer really impacts a solid steel "firing pin" located below the bolt and this transfers the impact to the magazine mounted CO2 Valve.I decided to do a test run so I added a drop of 3-in-1 oil to the top of a CO2 cartridge, inserted it into the magazine body and tightened down the plug being careful to not over-tighten it after I heard the hiss of gas being expelled, suddenly silenced as the O-ring sealed. I loaded up the magazine with some Zinc coated steel BBs and touched off a few shots in semi-auto. It worked perfectly! The bolt cycled back just like an original (BB adaptation of course) and re-cocked the hammer. The BBs easily penetrated two layers of Amazon shipping box cardboard from about 12 feet out. I then rotated the selector to full-auto and sure enough, "BbbbrrrrrapP! It spewed out a half dozen BBs instantly with a quick squeeze. I double-checked the magazine to see I still had ammo and loosed another short burst, and another, and M712 performed flawlessly! I didn't want to waste CO2, so I flipped back to semi-auto to shoot the last few BBs. Even when the gun runs out of BBs, as long as there is CO2 it will continue to cycle which can also be fun.Then a strange thing happened. I racked the bolt and saw I had one more BB in the barrel, and when I pulled the trigger nothing happened! The hammer dropped, but nothing happened. I pulled the magazine to inspect the valve, checked out the long firing pin and hammer and was totally perplexed as to why the gun suddenly refused to function! All the controls looked good...I even used the end of a large Allen wrench to press the CO2 valve and was rewarded with a powerful hiss of escaping gas so I knew the gun should work. Well, it took me a few minutes to figure out that I had manually lowered the hammer after checking the chamber. Apparently the bolt must cycle back to cock the hammer to properly "set" the firing pin and since I had been trying to shoot it by manually cocking the hammer without cycling the action nothing happened. As soon as I racked the bolt back to cock the hammer and saw the stainless steel firing pin protruding out I knew what I had been doing wrong. Sure enough, a pull on the trigger and the gun shot and cycled as designed! The problem was not the pistol but my lack of familiarity with how it works and not following the proper sequence.Time will tell how well the M712 will hold up, but it looks pretty sturdy and because it's marketed by Umarex I know I will be able to find replacement parts if and when I need them.

I got this one for Christmas from one of my kids and it’s a lot of fun once you take it apart and lubricated you realize it’s a very well-made end. The looks very classic. It’s lots of fun to use in. It shoots and fully automatic very very well.

This is a nice air gun to add to your collection of reproductions. It is easily scratched, in fact when it came and I opened the box I could swear there were no scratches, but taking it out and looking at it several times I noticed a scratch on the barrel, one nick on the top and a nick on the trigger. I used a black permanent marker to touch up those. I like the heavy metal construction. Umarex makes good reproductions in their Legend series. I have their Model 94 Cowboy rife, it is great.Couple things I noticed was when I put the CO2 in and tightened it I couldn't get the gun to fire. I backed off the cylinder until I heard a small hiss then tightened it some more, then it fired. This happened twice. When you pull back on the slide to load the first BB in you need to make sure you pull it all the way back or the BB will not load properly. The safety works OK, but the gun must be cocked to put it on safety.You need to hear the click when you switch the lever to full or off full. I moved it off full and didn't notice it and it was still on full. The gun uses a lot of air, especially if you are on full. It will empty a clip and the cylinder in less than a second. Finally shooting the gun at a target from 35ft it was shooting about 6 inches high. This was even though I had the sight adjustment set to 50. I got the best results at shooting about 8 inches below the bullseye. I shot about 85 - 90 BBs with two CO2 cyclinders and once emptied the clip on full. Loads of fun.

Really good-looking, quality full-metal replica with blowback and full auto mode. The handle is very solid plastic that feels almost like wood, unlike, let's say, the handle of the Umarex P.08 that feels thin and plasticky.Had two small issues with it: 1) the fire mode selector was stuck in semi-auto mode, so I had to take the gun apart partially and file a part of the selector down a bit until it could move 2) the outside of the barrel was wobbling slightly (this has no effect on the actual barrel through which pellets travel) and the little screw that is supposed to tighten it didn't help. My solution was to wrap the place where the barrel meets the frame with a bit of teflon tape and now it doesn't wobble.Another possible drawback is that the gun doesn't stop shooting when it runs out of ammo. Overall, this is a very fun replica despite these drawbacks.