Other Best .22 PCP for the cost, avoiding buyer's remorse...

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Another Taipan fan here, I’ve bought 5 used ones for myself and friends and all five have been rock solid, trouble free and as accurate as anything out there. There have some really good deals on the classifieds over the years, don’t let the rear cocking scare you, it’s not that big a deal. And the anti double feed of the Veteran 1 is fantastic for hunting.
 
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There is an abundance of riches in air rifles these days, so there are lots of sure bets. I don't have wide experience with different airgun manufacturers, only because I started with Air Arms a decade ago on the advice from someone on this board, and have stayed with them--not out of brand loyalty per se so much as self interest: Pro Sport in .22, s510 in .22, and Ulimate Sporter in .25: all have been superb--beautiful to look at, problem free, and and a pleasure to shoot.
 
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ohull1246 said:
I’m not sure if it would be the best for woodchucks or raccoons
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Certainly not ideal, but a Notos is capable.
Yesterday I encountered a groundhog.
Something was definately wrong with it...
For 5 minutes, I watched it walking in circles.
It would repeatively fall over, get back up, fall over again, and repeat the process.
At one point, it attempted to "climb" up, the base of a tree, before falling over onto its back.
It got back on its feet, and continued walking in circles, with no clear intended direction of travel, yet also getting even closer to my fenced in dogs, who were barking visciously at it, from 15 or 20 yards away.
Obviously, there was something seriously wrong with it.
My prefered rifle, a much more powerful and larger .25 FX Crown, has a brand new, recently installed scope on it, and the scope is not exactly dialed in yet.
My Notos on the other hand, was readily available, and I was confident that the scope on it was indeed dialed in.
One 15 yard head shot from my stock (no mods) .22 Notos, dispatched it quickly and humanely.
A follow up shot, insured it was out of its misery.
I live by railroad tracks, so groundhogs are quite common.
I usually do not shoot them without justification...., but in this case, it just kept getting closer and closer to my fenced in dogs, and I was very concerned about it being sick (rabies?) or something???
Far from an ideal situation, but my stock Notos, was indeed capable.
 
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Airgun Al said:
Certainly not ideal, but a Notos is capable.
Yesterday I encountered a groundhog.
Something was definately wrong with it...
For 5 minutes, I watched it walking in circles.
It would repeatively fall over, get back up, fall over again, and repeat the process.
At one point, it attempted to "climb" up, the base of a tree, before falling over onto its back.
It got back on its feet, and continued walking in circles, with no clear intended direction of travel, yet also getting even closer to my fenced in dogs, who were barking visciously at it, from 15 or 20 yards away.
Obviously, there was something seriously wrong with it.
My prefered rifle, a much more powerful and larger .25 FX Crown, has a brand new, recently installed scope on it, and the scope is not exactly dialed in yet.
My Notos on the other hand, was readily available, and I was confident that the scope on it was indeed dialed in.
One 15 yard head shot from my stock (no mods) .22 Notos, dispatched it quickly and humanely.
A follow up shot, insured it was out of its misery.
I live by railroad tracks, so groundhogs are quite common.
I usually do not shoot them without justification...., but in this case, it just kept getting closer and closer to my fenced in dogs, and I was very concerned about it being sick (rabies?) or something???
Far from an ideal situation, but my stock Notos, was indeed capable.
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he probably found the still.
 
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Many good suggestions, I'm curious, I don't think anyone (except me) has mentioned Karma. These are a new line of PCP guns (I think backed by DonnyFL / Sabor Tactical) that have been doing very well in the competitions. I realize they are new and normally I wouldn't bring them up, but they are releasing a new gun in September 2024 called Karma EQ (https://karmaairguns.com/pages/karma-eq), it's going to be a $900ish purchase and claims to have the features of the $2k+ priced competitors. Does anyone have any firsthand experience with the brand or just an opinion as to if they think this would be worth a look?

I think the predominate opinion so far are Taipan Veteran. With Daystate and Krait getting many mentions. I'm currently leaning towards an Impact M4 Sniper but also thinking that I'd like to eventually have a Taipan Veteran (why not the II version?)...
 
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OldSoldier118 said:
Many good suggestions, I'm curious, I don't think anyone (except me) has mentioned Karma. These are a new line of PCP guns (I think backed by DonnyFL / Sabor Tactical) that have been doing very well in the competitions. I realize they are new and normally I wouldn't bring them up, but they are releasing a new gun in September 2024 called Karma EQ (https://karmaairguns.com/pages/karma-eq), it's going to be a $900ish purchase and claims to have the features of the $2k+ priced competitors. Does anyone have any firsthand experience with the brand or just an opinion as to if they think this would be worth a look?

I think the predominate opinion so far are Taipan Veteran. With Daystate and Krait getting many mentions. I'm currently leaning towards an Impact M4 Sniper but also thinking that I'd like to eventually have a Taipan Veteran (why not the II version?)...
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I don't believe you could go wrong with a Taipan as a 1st or 2nd pcp. I've only been doing it for a year and now understand what a good rifle Taipan makes after playing with many others. I've had the Vet 1 standard and still have a Vet 2 tac 550mm in .25 cal. Both are accurate, solid rifles. I didn't care for the rear cocking on the V1 but LOTS of folks here don't mind it a bit. My shoulders suck and didn't work well with manipulating the lever at the rear. The V2 is a bottle gun and drives Hades with wonderful squirrel popping accuracy. The forward cocking is smoooooth and easy. Legendary triggers on all of them. Talon Tunes still has some new V1's and of course the newer V2's. Tony is great to deal with in my experience. Have fun!
 
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It's been months since I've posted here, but was thinking it was worth sharing where I ended up and how I got there. The Taipan was the most recommended gun in the thread but not something that I felt comfortable with, just didn't feel right to me, I did keep going back, watching reviews and reading about it but in the end decided not to go with it. Most of the other recommendations are (how was it one of you put it, spendy?)...

Overall, I felt like a good choice was the FX King, but I'm not a fan of the GRS stock, actually I hate it! It's an expensive item that grossly increases the cost of the gun and not an option that I have any interest in. What I really wanted was the FX King with the Sabre Tactical stock without having to pay for the GRS one that came with it (I know about the new synthetic version but wait for it). The Karma EQ was looking more like a good choice, I really liked the price point ($900), the shot count and other features, but it didn't release when it was scheduled last September... so I didn't make any purchase.

Eventually FX offered the King with a synthetic stock which I almost pounced on, but still $1850ish price tag caused me to wait, after all is it really twice the gun as the Karma EQ (which still hadn't released). By December I had taken to checking weekly for Karma to release the EQ, at some point along the way Karma did release the hyped SLS modals but not as originally indicated (caliber and barrel combinations were different from originally announced).

I was getting pretty discouraged and in late February decided to pick up a Hatsan Jet II , a gun that is a lot of fun to shoot and I love except... getting a scope mounted on it with the 11mm rails... such a short coming for a such a fun affordable gun! I ended up with a Discovery Optics 3x 24 scope mounted with a single ring which fits the gun but isn't ideal. Out to 35 yards it does well (as far as I've tested so far).
1744257879554.png

To end this discussion and because the Jet II isn't an answer to my original ask...

Finally, this past week (2nd week of April 2025) the Karma EQ release and I'll bet that everyone reading this knows how the story ends, it should be here the day after tomorrow.

I intend to post and let anyone that's interested know if the Karma EQ actually does the job, a new thread or here, I'm not sure, but something soon.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who weighed into this discussion, not taking the offered advise / recommendations doesn't mean that I didn't seriously listen, sincerely thank you all!
 
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Dairyboy said:
Personally I think the older Eastern block bullpups are still hard to beat for the value. Taipan Veterans, Kalibrgun Crickets, and Vulcan/Uragans. Can find them used in the $1000 range. If looking for a good 30fpe .22 pellet shooter they are just plain hard to beat and very reliable guns. Or the Daystate Huntsman line are also great for the cost.

I miss the days of lots of great choices in the $1000-$1300 range then if you really wanted to step up the most were topped at $2000. Now the decent range is $1600-$1900 with others topping well over $3000.
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This answer is the correct one. A Taipan or a Uragan or a Cricket. Buy used, they are good guns and one previous owner isn't going to change that.
 
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OldSoldier118 said:
It's been months since I've posted here, but was thinking it was worth sharing where I ended up and how I got there. The Taipan was the most recommended gun in the thread but not something that I felt comfortable with, just didn't feel right to me, I did keep going back, watching reviews and reading about it but in the end decided not to go with it. Most of the other recommendations are (how was it one of you put it, spendy?)...

Overall, I felt like a good choice was the FX King, but I'm not a fan of the GRS stock, actually I hate it! It's an expensive item that grossly increases the cost of the gun and not an option that I have any interest in. What I really wanted was the FX King with the Sabre Tactical stock without having to pay for the GRS one that came with it (I know about the new synthetic version but wait for it). The Karma EQ was looking more like a good choice, I really liked the price point ($900), the shot count and other features, but it didn't release when it was scheduled last September... so I didn't make any purchase.

Eventually FX offered the King with a synthetic stock which I almost pounced on, but still $1850ish price tag caused me to wait, after all is it really twice the gun as the Karma EQ (which still hadn't released). By December I had taken to checking weekly for Karma to release the EQ, at some point along the way Karma did release the hyped SLS modals but not as originally indicated (caliber and barrel combinations were different from originally announced).

I was getting pretty discouraged and in late February decided to pick up a Hatsan Jet II , a gun that is a lot of fun to shoot and I love except... getting a scope mounted on it with the 11mm rails... such a short coming for a such a fun affordable gun! I ended up with a Discovery Optics 3x 24 scope mounted with a single ring which fits the gun but isn't ideal. Out to 35 yards it does well (as far as I've tested so far).
View attachment 554340
To end this discussion and because the Jet II isn't an answer to my original ask...

Finally, this past week (2nd week of April 2025) the Karma EQ release and I'll bet that everyone reading this knows how the story ends, it should be here the day after tomorrow.

I intend to post and let anyone that's interested know if the Karma EQ actually does the job, a new thread or here, I'm not sure, but something soon.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who weighed into this discussion, not taking the offered advise / recommendations doesn't mean that I didn't seriously listen, sincerely thank you all!
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Good morning! You sure did a lot of waiting, I sure hope that you don't feel the same way everybody else who had listed their karma in the classified has. It seems everyone who go theirs listed them shortly after.

For the money, the zelos is probably the best bang for your buck under $1k specially since you have pros here that can customize it to how you may like from bottle conversion to porting for more power, as well as making it more compact.
 
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Old soldier 118, I have read through this thread and done a lot of cut and paste to get information. You have done a great job of gathering this information and am sure you have it cataloged. Could you put together a list of the recommendations. Cost <$500, $500 - $800, $800 - $1500, >$1500. Along with the correct name and model. I have sent you a PM.
 
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WNYBill said:
Old soldier 118, I have read through this thread and done a lot of cut and paste to get information. You have done a great job of gathering this information and am sure you have it cataloged. Could you put together a list of the recommendations. Cost <$500, $500 - $800, $800 - $1500, >$1500. Along with the correct name and model. I have sent you a PM.
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I did a rough review on the opinions from this thread. I was not very scientific, just made a list and tried to count how many recommended what. This was muddled a bit because sometimes someone would say "Daystate or Taipan" so I'd count them as .5; in one case the person said one of these and listed 4 or 5 different guns. The rough prices included are from wherever I could find the guns listed, PyramydAir, Utah AG, Talon Toons, etc

At least 10 different people flat out recommended the Taipan Veteran (most specified I vs II), 2 recommendations for the Taipan Mutant with many recommendations for very similar guns (Kilibrgun Cricket, Vulcan, Benjamin Akela, even the FX Wildcat MK3). The Taipan guns run between $1495 to $2350 depending on options. Also worth a mention, more than half of the people that recommended something other than the Taipan, at least mentioned the it as an alternative.

The second most recommended brand was Daystate with the major modal being the Revere, there we at least 4 (maybe 5 as some people said either this or the Taipan). The Revere runs $1470 and up.

The third most recommended was the Brocock Ghost, I counted it as 3 but one could argue for a 4th. They run ~$2200

AirMaks and Air Arms ran evenly split as the fourth most recommended brands with AirMaks recommendations split between the Krait (2) [1500 - 1750] and the Katran (1) [<$1500], others also mentioned these as alternatives. Air Arms S410 / S510 [<$1500] had a similar sampling with at least 3 people talking about one of these two models.

There are a lot of 1 and 2 recommendations, FX Impact, MX Wildcat, Dreamline, Notos, Gauntlet, to name some that have not already been mentioned.

Two big take aways from this, most people recommended a bullpup style gun and consider the ideal price point of about $1500.

A parting shot, IMO, the Brocock Ghost deserved a better look on my part, I breezed past it and I don't think I gave it a fair look, however considering the price point of ~$2200, I think I would have bought an Impact for about the same cost.

If you've read my previous post, you already know that I bought a Karma EQ, my primary reasons for that choice came down to price (and to some extent shots per fill) vs my first pick which was the FX King Synthetic (which wasn't available when I initiated this thread).
 
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