What first caught your fancy?

I went through several high end guns. Eventually, the taipan vet long was that gun. Didn’t even really “feel “ it at first, but it grew on me and still does to this day. The epic 2 is the other. Same general mold. Others had serious quality stuff, just some didn’t grab me. I know “Leon” will be here with the BRK Atomic, and rightfully so! There is no judgement, what was YOUR gem?
 
My gem is my RAW I purchased from Ken Hick's in 2019 in .22 Chassis, shoots like a dream so consistently on a daily basis with a fantastic trigger and it shoots pellets and slugs. Puts a smile on my face each time I shoot it which is almost daily. I think Taipan's and RAW's are very similar in their approach one just being a bullpup.
 
I would say I’m kinda in your boat. I have gone a solid year without shooting my Taipan. Buying several high end or medium end guns that are supposed to the “it” gun. But when I bust it out, I appreciate the Taipan even more. I recently took it to my sisters for our pellet fest and it was hands down the favorite gun there. And I didn’t have just a run of the mill M3 there loaded with bolt on do-dads, I had one of my legit custom guns. They still liked the Taipan a little more. What’s ironic is if you could search back far enough, maybe 2017-2018 timeframe, you would find the dreaded what’s the best gun posts. My reply was always Taipan. Nothing but crickets for years. I couldn’t comprehend how these guys with FX on the brain never tried one. Finally the gun started gaining traction around the Covid thing. I was like it’s about time you dummies.
 
I have two favorites, my 2078A and my Anschutz. Both were bought for a specific purpose and both are excellent. The 2078A was my first match specific airgun and it still shoots better than me. The Anschutz came from another competitor who’s way ahead of me and is a huge improvement over the 2078A. The problem is that the lesser of the two is a great shooter. Not a bad problem to have.

Rick H.
 
I'm not cultured enough with a plethora of different airguns and brand experience, because I found my gem or contentment with the custom m-rod I built over the course of learning about pcps and how to refine/improve design...

The Marauder is definitely not everyone, or even many peoples cup of tea. I would be shocked to hear others feel equal as I on the platform, but I wouldn't trade it for any other gun out there, unless its value exceeds 2-3k then I'd simply just flip it, and rebuild my custom mrod lmao...and fwiw I wouldn't advise others to venture this path, I'd recommend many new platforms that have far exceeded what the ol' mrod offers, I'm just a loyal son of a gun and frankly the platform has very little nuances and I have enough o-rings to rebuild it 100 times over, and all the parts/pieces of the gun are easy enough to reproduce if Crosman Gamo/Daisy were to discontinue their availabilty.

-Matt
 
I hear you on the Taipan Vet Long—didn’t click right away for me either, but it’s become a favorite over time. For me, it was the FX Impact MKII. At first, I wasn’t sure, but once I got a feel for it, it was a game-changer. The precision and how customizable it is really made it stand out. What’s the one thing that made the Vet Long and Epic 2 work for you?
 
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Taipan Veteran standard .22. Was five years ago is today and won't change five years from now. Lot of honorable mentions in my collection but the Vet is was and will be my
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favorite...Trigger accuracy and build quility. I'm loyal to this brand...
 
Taipan also. I've tried many airguns over the years and while they might not have the most knobs and doodads on them, or even forward cocking, they plain shoot and do what they need to do everytime. Always a thought of is there something out there that would suit my needs better? Never come up with one.
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I hear you on the Taipan Vet Long—didn’t click right away for me either, but it’s become a favorite over time. For me, it was the FX Impact MKII. At first, I wasn’t sure, but once I got a feel for it, it was a game-changer. The precision and how customizable it is really made it stand out. What’s the one thing that made the Vet Long and Epic 2 work for you?
The ultra durable simplicity of design, rugged design. About as set and forget as possible. The Epic feels like a taipan vet/ Evol cross. The build quality just smacks you in face. Right down to magazine design.
 
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For me, it's a Brocock Bantam Sniper HR. Like some of you, I wasn't looking for it, or really impressed with what I was really looking for, didn't know it would fit me as well as it does, and no way did I know it was the tack driver it is.
I can't put my finger on it, but this gun just works for me, all the time every time.
 
When I was first looking for a PCP I was absolutely smitten with the deep bluing and gorgeous walnut stock of the AA S510. More research made it clear that the Weihrauch HW100 with a regulator and superior magazine system was a better choice and a pair of them (.177 & .22) were my first two PCPs.

I have a variety of fine springers and PCPs along with a few SSPs and muli-pump airguns. AA added a regulator to the S510 and I now have a nice .22 Extra in the cabinet.

The S510 was the first to get my attention. Now there's three cabinets full of airguns and they are all, in turn, my "favorite".

Guess that I'm just fickle and love them all equally. 😁

Cheers!
 
In 2012 my friend got a airsoft rifle to plink with in the back then 15 M or so long garden.
And scare off cats, having a ball fishing in his KOI pond, and that costing him a pretty penny in lost fish.
Seeing the MEH accuracy i went looking for alternatives, and i came back with a FX Cyclone, which i promptly set about shooting the plastic BBs at the same distance my friend had problems keeping shots within a tennis ball size.

Seeing my supreme accuracy and of course smacking power my friend procured his Cutlass, and the rest is history, though with massive not shooting holes in it.
Shooting picked up a few years ago when my friend got his farm.
 
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Any one of these rifles could be my "only" rifle if push came to shove. But that is not the case, so I enjoy them all for their purpose/

+My go-to suburban backyard Starling rifles: (1) .177 Daystate Mk4 (2) .177 BSA R10 (3) .20 Daystate Huntsman Regal

+My squirrel and rabbit field hunting rifles: 1) .22 Steyr H5 2) .22 Daystate Air Wolf 3) .22 Air Arms S510 Carbine FAC

+My varmint field hunting rifles: (1) .30 American Air Arms EVOL Paradigm (2) .25 FX Crown Mk2 (3) .25 AirMaks Caiman X

+My backup all purpose rifles: (1) .22 Benjamin Akela (2) .22 BSA Scorpion T10 (3) .22 BSA Defiant (4) .22 Zbroia Hortitsia Mk2