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BPDave · Member

How do you folks view the current "Power Chase"?
Most every economy manufacturer produces a high power rifle many claaim 1000fps+ and for so little of an investment?
-OR-
do you favor high priced European high power Magnums that almost guarentee preformance near the 1K mark butdon't need immediate work or soon break?
Personally I am a high end rifle guy.
I've tried the economy route and had a lot of frustration and ended up with several door stops that'll never work right.
I've found that you can control a lot of performance with good pellets, varying weights and shapes to suit different conditions and situations.
The basic airgun platform needs to be as stable and consistent as possible and you'll only get that with a high quality rifle or pistol. Yes. the lesser guns will get by but you need stability to get max performance.
The hard part is the lesser guns are so tempting with low pricing and temporary high velocities.
JMHO
BPDave

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

As you say lesser guns are so enticing but the thing is you have to try a top end European rifle to know what you are comparing, then you can make your mind up if it is worth the extra cost.
Cheaper guns can shoot well but if you do go down that route you will always be thinking “if only”
I know the cost is a big thing but it’s nice to have one top of the range gun to fall back on.

Al

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Even some of the lower-end units can be brought up to some very good performance- with the right skills and parts.

That being said, tuning solely for power on a springer is very nearly always a poor idea. Years before "1200fps" and up became the "standard" for exaggerated advertising (and '1000fps' was the higher end) people chased this path and often ended up disappointed.

If we look at the higher-end springers from a few years back, they all tended to sit around 750-850fps (although it seems some of them have more recently gotten caught up in the number game as well). If someone tuning any springer keeps that output range in mind and not tuning/modifying to go above it, I think they will be far more satisfied with the end result.

robert w · Senior Member

Mentolio · Veteran Member

All of my guns are "cheap" guns, and all needed work to some degree or another. It might be nice to buy a gun and just pull it out of the box and shoot it, but I'm not so sure that spending the dough for a higher end gun would ensure that. Where I live, there is no "try before you buy." I'd have to mail order any higher end gun, and the process is such a pain that returning a gun I wasn't satisfied with wouldn't really be efficient. While I'm not a "pro-airgun tuner," I've had enough of them apart to know how to get them apart safely, and that I'm probably going to do it for ANY springer I buy, regardless of price. That said, I'll stick with the cheap-os for now (my Hatsan Striker Edge is surprisingly well built and engineered, and was super-cheap). Also considering that most bundled optics are crap, add to the cost of admission a decent piece of glass, and suddenly the cheaper guns are a lot more attractive.

I would suggest to anyone who has any interest, internet access, sense, and mechanical ability to buy a cheap gun, strip it down, and experiment with it to see how good you can make it function. If nothing else, you'll be better prepared for maintaining your new higher end gun when you decided to upgrade. Or worst case, you trash a cheap gun to find out you don't want to maintain your own airgun...at least it wasn't your Walther LGV, Diana 460 Magnum, or Beeman R1 that got ruined.