www.airgunnation.com 
Had a sortie and still have a nova star. Bar none, some of the worst machining/finish and use of materials I have ever seen on an airgun. I can list probably at least 20 things that were and some that are still wrong with my Nova Star. A $900+ gun. Not really an opinion. First hand experince. Glad yours have, and continue to serve you well, however.
They are all however springers. Owned a PCP once a few years ago. Had to see what all the hype was about. Have zero interest in them.
Yeah, it seems the overwhelming majority of their springers are decent or good. The pcps seem to be a whole nother story. While a large number of people do have good things to say about their pcps, there is also far too many that have serious issues. Far too many is an opinion, sure. But having owned two of their pcp's and noting some design flaws that are shared across every single one they built.... Not good. Seems earlier models use weaker alloys, and as reports of failures come in, they upgrade the component materials. Which, in some aspect, is a good thing. But proper R&D, or engineering would have prevented the entire scenario. My nova star's action looks like someone milled it using sheer guestimation. The magazine does not even come close to properly fitting the slot for it. The rails are far from standard to anything. The 11mm rail has to be larger than 13mm, the 20mm rail is seriously over-sized as well. Fair amount of scope rings wont even fit on it. And the spacing for the notches where the ring bolts slot thru are spaced sporatically. No standardized spacing. Reciever came with factory featured gouges on the side. Hole milled for cocking handle was crooked and off center. The cocking handle would just flop open on it's own cause it wasn't fully shutting the way it should. In additon, the gas block was much the same. It was milled many, many degrees out of square, causing the whole gun to assemble crooked so severely that you could either choose to install the barrel or the bottle. Not both. This among many other issues. How a $900 gun can be so, so bad is beyond me. And that's just starting to get into the issues with it. The barrel was bad, too. Had tight spots in the middle, so the pellets just kind of fell out of the muzzle. Just one thing after another after another. The trigger housing is plastic for god's sake. Nothing you do will take the sponge out of it aside from milling one from metal yourself. And more! I could understand having 1 or two, maybe 3 issues, but the list just goes on and on and on.
User error,...all you have to do to fill an empty gun is to cock it.
Not all pcp's require tinkering. Most FX's yes. But many to most pcp's are set and forget. my daystate hunstman revere and redwolf and brk ghost were fine out of the box.
thats sadly part of your problem. Especially with how anti gun they are. Box store staff rarely know anything about what they sell. Stick with a reputable airgun retailer as others have suggested.
cabelas or bass pro shop is far better. Dicks is very anti gun evidenced by their destroying all firearms they had vs selling them as they virtue signaled to the masses.
only $700 in? that also is part of your problem. Sadly you are experiencing a case of you get what you pay for. A decent pump will run you 300-400 at least but one that will last will cost more. the GX cs4 is a good choice.
you are lucky then as there are far far more here that will never trust or invest in their junk.
When looking to get into pcp's and doing my research I saw far far too many problems with hatsan. Even saw some videos about how bad they were. no way I would ever invest a dime in them. Theres a reason they are so inexpensive.
the brass part on the right, can you see through it or is it solid? If you connect it to the pump can you pump air through it? if not its a deadhead cap. If you can, Are you able to connect it to the fill adapter and push air through it with the pump or do you get the same result of it maxing out in a few pumps? If not then its the fill adapter thats the problem.
