by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier

The Cometa Fusion is a powerful breakbarrel with nice styling.

Today, we’ll start looking at a .177-caliber version of the Cometa Fusion air rifle. This is a powerful breakbarrel spring-piston rifle and the test sample is serial number 13636-10.

The Fusion is made by Cometa of Spain and imported by AirForce International. As this report is written, the list price is $334.50, so this gun is positioned against the medium-priced springers. Therefore, it needs to be accurate, have a nicer trigger and deliver on its power promise of 1,080 f.p.s. with light lead pellets. There’s an upgraded version of the rifle called the Fusion Premier Star that retails for $392.50. It has an adjustable cheekpiece but seems to be identical to the Fusion in all other ways.

The Fusion comes in both .177 caliber and .22 caliber. I have rifles in both calibers and will test one of each for you, but this is the .177. It’s a larger air rifle, at 44.80 inches overall. The pull length is 14 inches on the nose, so it’s going to fit a lot of adults. The barrel is 18-13/16 inches long, but the last 7-1/4 inches are counterbored, so the actual length is 11-9/16 inches. The silver piece on the end with holes is included in the overall length.

At about 7.5 lbs., the Fusion is a medium-weight breakbarrel. It’s light for the power and overall size.

The stock of the test gun is a dark-stained beech with a textured pistol grip and forearm. The textured areas are actually stippling, put there by a pressure-treating process.

Instead of checkering, the Fusion has stippling inside swirled sections on both the forearm and pistol grip.

The stock is close to fully ambidextrous, with just a vestigial raised cheekpiece on the left side. It’s so low and blended that it doesn’t show well in photos. The automatic safety comes straight out of the rear of the spring tube, making the rifle as ambidextrous as possible. The butt has a Monte Carlo raised comb.

The forearm has, what I would call, a field target profile, in that it’s squared-off at the bottom and flat — to rest on your palm. Though the Fusion is a large rifle, the forearm is slender enough to make the gun feel light and handy when held.

The butt is a thick matte black pad with no holes. It’s quite grippy and will hold the rifle firmly to your shoulder or when you stand it in the corner. The overall fit and finish of the wood is impeccable — rivaling the best spring guns of today.

The metal parts are finished an even matte black with silver lettering lasered on. There are just two plastic parts on the exterior of the gun — the trigger blade and the triggerguard.

The trigger is adjustable and two-stage. It currently has a lot of creep in stage two, though the pull weight is very light. I will measure it and adjust it for you in Part 2.

There are no sights, so some kind of optical sight will be needed. The scope rail is a pair of 11mm dovetail grooves machined directly into the spring tube. There are four small holes that appear to be for a vertical scope stop pin, and for reasons I haven’t figured out, either the sear or a lever it affects, can be seen through a window cut in the center of the scope rail.

Four holes atop the scope rail are for a vertical scope stop pin. There’s also a window to see the action of the sear (or the lever that restrains the piston when the gun is cocked).

When I cock the rifle, I almost get the feeling that it’s a tuned gun. The detent that holds the barrel shut is a ball-bearing, so you don’t need to slap the muzzle to open the barrel. Except for some spring noise during cocking, the rifle cocks like it’s been tuned. It’s extremely smooth and relatively light to cock; and when the sear engages, you cannot feel or hear it. The barrel just stops, and you know the rifle has been cocked.

It’s possible to uncock the gun, so there’s no anti-beartrap device in the cocking mechanism. Just take off the automatic safety and squeeze the trigger while holding the muzzle, then ride the barrel closed. Whatever you do, do not let go of the muzzle when you load this rifle, because you’re the only safety device should the sear slip.

Overall impressions
My impression from just holding the rifle and shooting a few shots into a backstop is that this is a high-quality airgun. It isn’t so difficult to cock that it challenges me, but I can tell when I shoot that it has a lot of power.

I dislike the silver muzzle piece with the holes! I think it hurts the overall look of the rifle. I do enjoy the extra few inches of leverage it affords, though, because that’s what makes the Fusion so easy to cock.

When I shoot the rifle, it feels very calm — much more than most breakbarrels of a few years ago. I can’t wait to see if the Fusion delivers the goods!