Other thinking about buying an avenger, for plinking and some occasional hunting. would a hand pump be reasonable or a compressor is a must?

A HPA compressor is undoubtedly better, but your assumption is correct you can “initially” get by with a HPA hand pump. Then after getting your feet wet you can better assess “your” needs. I own a HPA compressor and use it to fill my two SCBAs from which I fill my two “bottle” PCPs. My two smaller PCPs? I still hand pump for the heck of it…

P.S.: My first PCP was a Gamo Urban and a hand pump and the hook was set…
 
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A HPA compressor is undoubtedly better, but your assumption is correct you can “initially” get by with a HPA hand pump. Then after getting your feet wet you can better assess “your” needs. I own a HPA compressor and use it to fill my two SCBAs from which I fill my two “bottle” PCPs. My two smaller PCPs? I still hand pump for the heck of it…

P.S.: My first PCP was a Gamo Urban and a hand pump and the hook was set…

The main situation where hand pumping is a drag is filling a gun from zero with a large bottle. Topping off between sessions is generally not too bad.
 
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I started with a marauder and a hand pump. Unfortunately my plinking sessions tend to be a lot of shooting. The hand pump got old very fast. It worked fine, but I quickly realized I was pumping more than shooting.

plus with the hand pumps you have to wait for it to cool when pumping, so I couldn’t ever get the gun filled without waiting a bit before I could continue pumping to get a filll and get back to shooting.

I got good at rebuiling the hand pump from getting impatient and pumping it too fast.

if you can get a cheap hand pump at first to try it out to make sure you like the sport, then great. But it won’t take long before you will be wanting a compressor. I got a Yong Heng and have been happy with it. But I don’t shoot all that much anymore, so it still has a low amount of run time on it.

good luck with your shooting endeavors, and remember you are doing it to have fun.
 
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I hand pump all my PCP, most are easy, some are not easy,I find I do not shoot my "not easy" to pump ones much..by-the-way I do have a compressor,it all depends on your PCP , small cylinders are easy as is under 3000psi.Over that it better to have a compressor,.
I think you are asking whether I should invest or save money for a compressor. It is part of the package, like a scope.
 
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GX Pumps have simple compressors designed for filling PCP’s cheaper than a hand pump.
Here is one example