Budget (not cheap) intro pcp gun ideas

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Remember this, Pumps need to cool off, they need to take a break now and then, best to get one for each gun since they can be purchased very cheap on Ebay, Amazon and Walmart.com, compressor will also need cooling after each fill, unless it's water cooled like the Yong Heng, 

as for the guns, the Flash is a very affordable, dependable, powerful gun, but hard to cock when new, the new Flashpup is side lever and easy to cock, yes the magazines are sloppy fit but you can get use to it, I'm not a Gamo Fan, but the Urban is a good choice too, the DAR is a Very affordable gun too, I hear they are very accurate and dependable, I'm sure if you called any of the dealers, they could give you a Bundle deal and save even more, when I bought my HW100BP and Uragan at the same time, I got $150.00 off, so don't forget and Call the dealers and ask for a Bundle deal.......
 
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I recently got a ruger impact max elite for some backyard fun and wouldn't you know the whole family wants to get in on the fun now, including my elderly father who can't handle the cooking effort of a springer. I was looking into buying a relatively inexpensive, but still quality, pcp for each family member. Thus the effort to keep costs down as much as possible. I was eyeballing the Beeman chief 2, and up to as expensive as a Benjamin Fortitude, Diana Stormrider, or Gamo Urban but I would like to spend as little as possible per rifle since I will be buying at least 3. I would also like them to be manual pump friendly, also for budgetary reasons, as I have heard some are and some aren't. Any suggestions? 

Edit: I would also like to stay in .22 since I have a few thousand already.
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I also agree that the .22 is best for the family, as they are easier to load in the gun, and knock tin cans and stuff around more satisfyingly. But, if you want a really great rifle that will last long enough for more generations, I strongly recommend an HW50, and or HW30, and these are usually harder to find in .22 cal. The HW’s will cost a bit more, but will likely appreciate in value rather that lose resale value, should you ever need to sell (few owners want to, but sometimes a need occurs).

Anyhow, the Ruger isnt blessed with a great trigger, and is generally not tack-driver accurate and smooth like the fabled HW break-barreled guns usually are. The HW30 is generally known as the R7, and is suited more for smaller folk like women and kids, while the HW50 is more adult size. The older HW50, or R8, is a smoother, lower powered version I prefer, but many owners prefer the newer, and face it, you can buy a new one tomorrow, but pristine older ones need to be pried from owner’s hands for double what they paid. 

I know there are several inexpensive precharged guns thar are fun , powerful, and easy to shoot, but for just backyard plinking with the family, the filling process and costs are. A bummer for many new shooters.

I mostly shoot precharged guns, but have a stable of fun breakbarreled guns to break out for fun plinking contests. We also love the pumpup style guns for plinking, but since the demise of the “good pre-2000 bluestreak” versions, I don’t know if there are are new pumpups as fun as an R7 or R8.
 
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I also agree that the .22 is best for the family, as they are easier to load in the gun, and knock tin cans and stuff around more satisfyingly. But, if you want a really great rifle that will last long enough for more generations, I strongly recommend an HW50, and or HW30, and these are usually harder to find in .22 cal. The HW’s will cost a bit more, but will likely appreciate in value rather that lose resale value, should you ever need to sell (few owners want to, but sometimes a need occurs).

Anyhow, the Ruger isnt blessed with a great trigger, and is generally not tack-driver accurate and smooth like the fabled HW break-barreled guns usually are. The HW30 is generally known as the R7, and is suited more for smaller folk like women and kids, while the HW50 is more adult size. The older HW50, or R8, is a smoother, lower powered version I prefer, but many owners prefer the newer, and face it, you can buy a new one tomorrow, but pristine older ones need to be pried from owner’s hands for double what they paid. 

I know there are several inexpensive precharged guns thar are fun , powerful, and easy to shoot, but for just backyard plinking with the family, the filling process and costs are. A bummer for many new shooters.

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This is what I was thinking from the beginning but I wanted to find out more about what kind of shooting, who was shooting/pumping etc because it didn't make good sense. 

If your wife is more medium to small'ish 140lbs or under and maybe 5'7 or less you might get an HW30S. Make it hers but have Dad check it out and he might be able to cock it no problem and like the light recoil, light weight, has open sights as well as scope friendly. They are $300, bulletproof and as accurate at 30 yrds as most good PC's. Better trigger than pretty much any PCP under $1000 (Rekord). You can also put a lighter spring in the HW30S if Dad still needs a little lighter cocking. Keep in mind that Ruger you have is a horse to cock and really bulky compared to an HW30S more like a bunny.

Just throwing out ideas given the tight budget. Buying and keeping three PCP's filled and shooting is going to cost you some money. You could probably swing one for your self and a $50 hand pump off ebay.


 
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If Crosman had not gone WAY up on the Fortitude Gen2 (I think it was about a 37% retail price increase!), I would recommend it in .177. I can get ~30 shots at ~750fps using CPUM 10.5 pellets and it is accurate (my gun).

I could shoot at least twice that number or more (same accuracy) before falling off the regulator, but I always pump it back up at ~2500psi to save me and the pump from undue stress.

I only have to pump about 30+ strokes to get it back to 3000psi and another consistent/accurate 30 shots.

I don't plink or target shoot. I only shoot pests, so this may not work for your plinking/target shooting needs if you plan to shoot LOTS of rounds at a session.

Perhaps you can get a discount if you call them and ask? I got mine for $232.49 including shipping (with now defunct AGN 25% discount and "free Friday shipping") from Crosman in June 2020 when they retailed for about $309. Now, they retail for $423.80 and even if the same discounts were available, you still would not get it for the old retail price of $309, before shipping.

Good luck with your choice!

p.s.

If pumping to 3000psi is too hard for some family members, you could simply pump up to 2500psi for at least 30 shots (at my tune) and pump back up at ~2000psi . The pumping would definitely be easier.

If shot count is all you want, you can turn the hammer spring to minimum and probably get over 100 shots (from 3000psi), but the consistency will suffer and it is a lot more pumping if you run it until it falls off of the regulator.


 
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I moved to WA from MT and have found it so much less convenient to plink with my rimfire. Used to shoot off the back porch :) I thought pretty hard about getting into air guns...the cost and added complexity of filling guns with air is so daunting. Hand pumps, tanks, compressors, water separators...I decided to jump in and start ordering stuff, but I miss the simplicity of my .22lr :)
 
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