Hey there Roadking, I'm going to chime in my 2 cents worth here. Thing to consider, use, cost, resale.....
Is the pistol for FT or backyard plinking? you mentioned you want to expand into FT Pistol so I assume you shoot FT rifle. How many clubs are in your area and how often do they have pistol matches ? Here in Texas we don't have that many regular pistol matches so they usually are part of a Grand Prix weekend. My two closest were the Cajuns and the ROT so I bought the AR FT Marauder for those events. Heck, If I'm going to travel for the rifle part, I might as well have some fun and shoot pistol too, Right ?
Having no experience with FT pistol shooting ( am a avid rifle shooter ) I choose to look at cost. Agreed, the elusive 1720T are rare to find, but, as stated, Rich at Airgun Revisions basically build them out of the Marauder pistol and they are ready to go out of the box AND AVAILABLE" I figured if I didn't like the pistol competition I could always put it in a Marauder pistol "carbine " stock and have an awesome backyard .177 plinker.
If you have the ability to go to FT pistol matches on a regular basis and are willing , AND HAVE TIME , to practice with the pistol, then any one of the higher end pistols might be the way to go.
My thoughts on that are if a person has spent the time to learn good ranging and shooting skills, then a higher end gun will probably up their game, but if a person decides to buy the most expensive gun they can buy thinking it will put them on the podium and they DON'T have the ranging and shooting skills that come from experience then they have just bought an expensive gun to loose with. ( pistol and rifle )
If you buy a AR FT Marauder ( lowest cost entry level that I know of) and start winning, then you decide to upgrade to a better gun, you can allways sell a winning gun.
OPTICS - the range of pistol is 10-35 yds. I like Hawke scopes as a entry level scope, particularly the Airmax series. In my opinion, they have good glass out to 35-40 yd's. The don't have the best resolution from 40-55 and I think it because the are are a 10 yd to infinity scope.They are good but there not a Sightron FT scope. But, I have 4 and they come with an illuminated reticle and different side wheels are available. I hear Athlon also make a good series of scopes at the same price point but I have no personal experience with them.
With all that said, my rig cost about $1500 to set up, complete. That's about the cost of the mid range pistols out there by themselves. Derrick Wall at Tenacious Airguns here in Texas is a dealer for a couple of brands of airguns offered in pistol and is a real nice guy. Some of my fellow shooter use pistols from him that they can go back and forth froM HFT to EXTREME FT but they are in ..22 cal . He can set you up with one of these multi role pistols. Now of course you can go all out, a Thompson pistol with a Kayles ( spelling )scope and it will set you back a bunch.........and you'll be waiting 1 1/2 yrs. for it, but you will LOOK GOOD ! ! !
Well, thats my 2 cents. Good luck in your quest
Scotty
