Umarex Morph 3x Co2 Airgun – Part 1

Boy it’s hot outside in Arizona in the middle of August! I think it’s time that I take a short break before taking the NP2 out into the desert for some longer range tests. So, I thought I’d take a little diversion and shoot one, maybe a couple of airguns that are suitable for indoor use.

Who doesn’t like 3 for the price of 1?

I’ve been asking Umarex for one of these since I first saw it at Shot Show in Vegas back in 2013. The good ol’ boys out in Fort Smith Arkansas (Home of Umarex USA) sent me one a while ago and I’m finally taking the time to have some fun with it. What makes the Morph 3x so special is that it’s essentially 3 airguns in one.   What really impressed me is how closely it resembled my wife’s Beretta .22LR pistol. This is going to be great for her to use when she wants to get in a little trigger time and can’t get out to the range.

Umarex Morph 3x – Pistol

The pistol

The Morph 3x starts out as a simple, 30 shot, co2 BB pistol so that’s where I’m going to start this series. As a pistol, the Morph is very lightweight and feels pretty sturdy. There are fiber optic sights that are not adjustable. If it’s not shooting straight, I’ll have to use old Kentucky windage to get my shots in the bullseye, or mount some sort of optic on the weaver top rail.

Morph 3x – non-adjustable rear sight Morph 3x – non-adjustable front sight

On the right hand side of the pistol is the safety. It simply slides forward to engage and backward to disengage the safety on the gun. There’s an access port on the left side of the pistol where you put BBs into the 30 round magazine. Be sure to only use premium BBs. My preference would be the Umarex Precision Ground BBs or the Daisy Zinc coated BBs. I’ve had both sitting on the shelves for over a year and they still look and shoot great. I’ve had other brands that lose their coating and rust fairly quickly over time, especially in humid environments. Trust me on this one, use only quality ammo if you want consistent results. One way you can tell quality BBs over subpar BBs is simply look at them close-up. If you can see pitting and flaking, then you want to stay away from those.  If you want to get more radical, simply measure some of them. Good BBs will only vary slightly if at all from BB to BB.

Umarex Morph 3x – Safety

Loading and safety

Getting the Umarex Morph 3x ready to shoot is really easy. First set the safety on the right hand side of the pistol to safe. You’ll need some 12 Gram CO2 cartridges, some RWS Chamber Lube, and some good quality BBs.   To start, release the button at the bottom of the grip and slide it off. This opens up the CO2 area. Now simply dab a drop of RWS Chamber Lube on the top of the CO2 cartridge and drop it in the grip with the point towards the top of the gun. Next, snug up the bottom screw until it starts to put pressure on the CO2 cartridge. In one motion, tighten the screw and keep going until the cartridge is properly sealed and there’s no CO2 escaping.

Loading the CO2 into the Umarex Morph 3x Lube the CO2 Cartridge before you load it into the Umarex Morph 3x Turn the screw with one motion to complete the process.

With the CO2 loaded and the safety on, lay the gun on its right side exposing the BB magazine. Pull back the tension spring and begin loading BBs into the opening. When full, release the tension spring and the Morph 3x is about ready to fire.

BB Loading – Umarex Morph 3x

I’m using a BB trap vs my regular pellet trap. It has curtains behind the cardboard that trap and dramatically slow the BBs before they can hit the steel plate and bounce back out. It’s a good idea to use a trap like this when shooting hard projectiles. An unfortunate ricochet could cause injury or property damage. This type of BB trap really helps reduce the danger. Of course you should always wear eye protection just to be extra safe.

Performance and accuracy

The printed materials state that the Morph 3x should get up to 600 FPS. That’s with the extended barrel installed and at the right temperature. In pistol mode, I’m getting about 485 with a fresh CO2 and it will stay there for a while as long as I don’t pull the trigger too quickly. Realistically however, 400 is probably a good average across the useful life of the CO2. It’s going to vary on ambient temperature and how quickly the pistol is cycled. I’m getting about 2 good mags before it’s really noticeable that I need to dump the rest of the CO2 and install a fresh cartridge.

Accuracy was better than I expected. At about 15′ I can put all the BBs, with the exception of a flyer here and there, in the same area on the target.   At some level, it starts to become more like a carnival gun trying to cut out the entire bullseye. For a BB pistol I’m pretty happy with the accuracy. If there’s anything that’s got me worn out, it’s the hard trigger pull. There are 30 BBs in the magazine. That’s a lot of trigger pulling!

Umarex Morph 3x Accuracy at 15 Feet

What’s next?

Next I’m going to move on to the “long” pistol version and then onto the rifle variant. Have questions or comments? Make sure to let us know! We love to hear from our blog readers!