Umarex AirJavelin FishR Bow Fishing Arrow Airgun | Review

I’ve bowfished since 1979, so I was intrigued when I saw and shot the Umarex AirJavelin FishR airgun at the SHOT Show. Well, last week I finally got my hands on one. Umarex had some guns they wanted tested so they suggested that fellow airgunner Abby Casey and I get together for some hunts. One thing led to another, and she was soon smoking the highway down from Montana to meet up with me in Idaho.

Umarex AirJavelin FishR Bow Fishing Arrow Airgun

I lined up four hunts for us, but today’s Product Review will be on the Umarex AirJavelin FishR. Like I said above, I love bowfishing, so I was interested in testing the FishR. To ensure that we had a lot of shooting, I hired Travis, who runs the Grinz N Finz guide service on the Snake River.

Not only is Travis a good guide, but in his area, there are butterfly carp, which are a crossbreed of some exotic carp that escaped from private ponds that got into the Snake River and interbred with the regular carp. Bow fishermen from all over the country come here to bowfish for them.

The FishR operates just like your regular PCP airgun. Use a quick-connect air hose to fill the 9.5 cu. in. on-board tank up to 4,500 psi with a 3-stage hand pump, Umarex portable compressor or your external tank. The pressure is regulated to 800 psi and shoots out the 1,248-gr. fiberglass arrow at 1000 fps generating 28 ft. lbs. at the muzzle. What’s unbelievable to me is that it can get over 65 shots on one air tank. You’d think flinging out that heavy of an arrow would drain the air tank similar to when hunting with the big .50 cal. Umarex Hammer, but it doesn’t. I hunted for 5 hours and never refilled my tank.

You may be thinking, hold on, my deer hunting bow cruises along at 330 fps, is 100 fps fast enough? You have to realize two things:

1. A fiberglass arrow is a lot heavier than your hollow aluminum hunting arrow so it will be slower.
2. Even on my bowfishing bows I crank down the poundage to 40-50 lbs. Fish have soft flesh so you don’t want the arrow zipping clean through them. Plus, if you miss, it’s hard to retrieve your arrow out of the mud.

I asked Abby if I ought to mount on a scope or red-dot sight (She’d used the FishR before on a Florida trip) but she said she’d done fine just aiming down the barrel so I didn’t mount any sights on them before the hunt and we did fine. We didn’t waste any time target practicing. We just looked down the barrel and after maybe one miss we were hitting them pretty steadily. Although on my next hunt I may try a re-dot just for the heck of it but I don’t know if it’d work in the water.

Just like when bowfishing with your compound bow, it uses a solid fiberglass arrow except it is flat on the bottom and doesn’t have a nock. It uses a barb tip similar to a normal fishing arrow. It has a sliding wire harness that you tie your line to.

The guide was impressed with them and wanted to buy a handful for his clients to use. Think about it. The FishR is great for people who can’t pull back a bow. Such as older hunters, people with shoulder problems or small kids. Hand them a FishR, and they’ll be back in the saddle.

So in a nutshell, I loved the FishR. It is also more compact than a compound bow and would be easier to throw in the boat and pop a few carp while you’re out crappie fishing. One last point. I wish all bow fishermen had to first hunt for 3 years with the old Fred Bear spools that were the only thing we had 47 years ago. I can’t count how many times I’d throw up my old Herter’s recurve to take a shot and notice that the line had hung on a bush 10 feet behind me and was strung out and tangled.

We used a Cajun Spin Doctor for reels, which I’d never used before, but they worked fine. To attach the reel the FishR has a screw in clamp system somewhat on the same design as you use on a fishing rod.

The MSRP on the Umarex AirJavelin FishR is $499.99 and as is usual, we will close with the specs.

• 155cc 4,500PSI Tank
• 800PSI Regulated Pressure
• Salt Water Corrosion Resistant Construction
• 100 FPS with 1250 Grain Arrow
• 28 ft/lbs of Energy
• Polymer Body
• Stainless Steel Barrel
• Ambidextrous Bolt Action
• Adjustable Stock
• 9.5 Cubic Inch Tank
• Full Length Picatinny Rail
• M-LOK Accessory Slots
• 6lbs

About Tom Claycomb

Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”