Is the MCX air rifle a true semiautomatic?

At our monthly indoor shoot everyone who shot the SIG liked it. The ability to have a shot on demand every time the trigger was pulled was a new airgun experience. The rifles they brought all required some kind of a loading procedure. Even though their 10 meter rifles could put shot after shot through the same pellet size hole, of each shooter enthusiasm was evident.

Is the MCX a true semiautomatic? It seems like a combination of trigger movement and gas pressure that advances the belt  and cocks the hammer. So it is not like a semiautomatic firearm where energy from the shot does the loading and the cocking.  However, it does not feel exactly like a double action revolver where everything is keyed to the trigger’s movement.

The recommended trigger pull is one that starts with the trigger all the way forward and then returns it to the forward position after the shot is fired. The chamber that is lined up with the barrel is not the one that’s empty after the shot is fired. If the trigger stroke is interrupted then the next shot is from the next pellet in the belt leaving a saved round in the belt as it moves around.

The gun jammed twice in 4 magazines (120 shots). Each time the trigger was locked, the magazine would not come out, and the charging handle would retract but there was no felt resistance. These jams were cleared with a cleaning rod. The rod’s tip found the front of the pellet just far enough forward into the barrel to jam the gun, and pushed it back into the belt. Once again, a cleaning rod proved useful accessory for the MCX.

We each shot a magazine and a lot of that was spent getting familiar with the rifle. Several pellets were tried and our groups were about the same. Our target was an international air pistol set at 10 meters.  Ashe’s 30 shot group is shown below. We all had flyers, and I think they were related to loading the belt. With some practice loading the belt and the trigger, this gun ought to shoot inside the nine ring at ten meters.