Hello everyone!
New too the forum today and so far the help has been great and I really appreciate it. I'm looking for an air rifle that I can use for backyard shooting as well as medium to small game hunting. As I've researched into all the options I lean towards PCP but I'm not entirely sold. My budget is about $1000 which would need to cover pretty much everything. I don't know much about this stuff so any advice is appreciated.
How about the new DAR Gen3? Cost is 500 bucks. It will shoot standard JSB pellets .22 18,13 in a 3/4 inch group at 50 yards. Nice side lever action and 40 shots per fill and is regulated. No power curve to deal with. Fill is only 3000 psi, so a hand pump is manageable. Thing is a good hand pump is not cheap either so might as well go with a small compressor.
Air? Take a look at the TwoAuto compressor. 400 bucks and from Amazon or Walmart you can get a 4 year extended service for like 40 bucks. Of course it takes two months to get it fixed, so just buy another one when you have to. Overall this works out way cheaper than any other alterative. Air source and supply is the main consideration with a PCP.
So there went 900 bucks and you still need a good scope. A decent scope is also 4 to 5 hundred bucks. One that is not bad is the UTG line of scopes. They are OK, they do have kinda large crosshairs and crude mildots. So add 400 bucks and get a good Hawke or Vortex scope.
The JSB 18.3 pellet is now 20 bucks a 500 tin, soon they will equal rimfire price. The H and N Hornet is now already there. 28 bucks for 200, yep I can buy rimfires cheaper.
I am a springer shooter myself. However I appreciate a good PCP and I stay up with all makes and models and all new products. The DAR is all metal, has side lever action , nothing fancy just a good functional and accurate gun.
Now if you do not mind spending a week learning, go get an HW95 and a good scope and enjoy. That and a couple tins of pellets all just under 1000 bucks. Some enjoy springers, some get frustrated and sit them in the corner for good. However the 95 is a cut above, easy to master and some pellet suggestions to start are the cheap domed 14.3 Crossman, the H and N 14.66 Field Target Trophy and the expensive 11.75 GTO. No extra expense for air required.
This is a loaded question......lots of choices tried to point both ways the best route.
Cheers
Kit