I like things simple as possible, nothing extra to lug around I don't have to, no pumps to pre-charge, no co2 cartridges. One stroke, load and shoot! That brings us to two types of pellet rifles, traditional spring piston, and newer gas piston. I'd like opinions and a discussion on the good and bad of both.
I'm fairly new to airgunning, but have one of each, (so far) a Crosman Nitro Venom and an RWS-34 springer.
Things I like about the RWS-34 springer, a fantastic trigger foremost, a clean slim profile and integral grooves for scope mounting, the gun feels good and fits well, it's been accurate so far, comes with good open sights.
Here's a few things I don't care for about the 34, the automatic safety, (hate the thing) cocking effort, while not brutal it does give you a work-out for long shooting sessions, loud report mostly due to the spring...and they say you can't shoot these springers in the cold! Gee, I like walking out the back door and perforating things in the winter!
Here's what I like about the Crosman Nitro Venom, smooth easy cocking effort, manual safety, good fit to the shoulder, plenty of power, came with a pretty good scope on a Weaver rail, supposed to able to shoot it year round, quiet.
What I don't like about the Nitro Venom, the trigger sucks, it's a real piece of junk, adjustable, but no where near the clean crisp trigger on the RWS, (or even the worst milsurp I have) no open sights, clumsy gun to carry, and it takes around 20 shots to "warm it up" (no matter what the temp.) and shoot to POA, once it does it's accuracy is pretty good with pellets it likes.
And there you have my opinion of the air guns I have experience with, the Crosman I would consider an "entry level" gas piston while the RWS-34 is one of the better "basic" springers.
Looks like, since I want to shoot in cold weather, I probably want to get a better gas piston rifle. What's your opinions of gas piston air rifles?