I finally found a PCP I liked. Air Venturi Avenger. I got a 25 cal version with the plastic stock. $350! it's available in .177,.22,.25 with either a plastic or wood stock. $429 with the wood stock. I got to shoot one a friend had bought and it seemed heavy so I went with the plastic stock. I will play with it until it works perfectly for me. The gun weighs 6 lbs.12 oz. and will be right at 7 lbs. with the moderator installed.
I didn't just fall into this choice. I had talked to one of the guys at Pyramyd Air about PCP's and he recommended this gun. Not being one to believe everything I was told over the phone by a salesman I set out to research this thing.
WOW!! I have never seen so much positive feedback on anything. There is a bunch of vids on YouTube and some of them were downright impressive. One guy had a .22 cal. one that was putting every pellet thru the same hole at 50 yards. He had a camera set up on the target and you could see the pellets actually going thru the hole! None of my .22 firearms will do that!
I was buying this gun for hunting small game. I have 4 other Spring Powered guns that are very nice but none of them, even my Beeman R1 are remotely as powerful as this gun. I was blown away! This thing is firing 35 gr pellets at 900+ fps! It is also a Repeater with 8 rounds in the magazine and the action works like a Biathlon Rifle, fairly fast on follow up shots.
The gun had some air in it when it arrived. (best to keep air in them when stored) So i fired off a few rounds just to see how loud it was. It is! I ordered a Moderator for it for $24.
I mounted a 2-6X small Czech Made scope on it and with the scope the gun weighs 6lbs 12 oz.
I then went to the shop and set up my pellet trap with phone books and other cardboard to stop pellets. It shot thru a 2" thick Phone book! Took 4 rounds to get close at 10 yards. I have a rock in my front yard that I shoot at sometimes. It has little black mark on it . First 2 shots at 50 yards were about 3" high so i came down, and now they are about 1" high but further refinement had to wait as I was out of air.
My Compressor came last week It is a Spirit Tech brand I got off Amazon @$300. Very nicely made device and it took about 5 minutes to pump the guns reservoir back up to 3500 psi. This gun has a Regulator on it and it is set at 3000 psi and I will probably change that once I figure it out.
I got two types of pellets with the gun. Both are JSB one is 25 gr and the other is 34 gr. I went directly to these as they were the most recommended on the net. I have had my best luck with JSB and H&N pellets thru out my Air Gunning Career. It looks like the gun is a Laser with the 25 gr pellets.
One of the things that has kept me away from PCP guns was the cost of the gun and the need for a compressor. Both of those have now come down to the point that it is affordable for me and no doubt many others. I am into this setup $700. MY R1 cost me $600.
This was my Birthday/Christmas present to myself and it's already a lot more fun than Slippers. Pretty happy so far,,, More Pics to follow.
Randy