Someone call Steve Wilcos, we got ourselves another springer argument.
Sick rigs Thumper! Those wood stocks look spiffy as hell compared to the black hole of chunky nylon and steel PCPs that is my air rifle cabinet.
Honestly if I had to pick one air rifle to spend a couple nights in the woods with I'd walk past my absurdly powerful, suppressed, mag fed, accurate & expensive PCPs and grab my beat up Gamo like the gent with the FT-PCP and the chippy.
Can see 3 valid arguments against springers: barrel movement affecting accuracy, follow up shots and the pre-coil.
There's plenty of interlocks that are / could be applied for a true & repeatable lock-up. Only hurdle is cost and that the tighter the fit the more often you'll have to clean it. Or just get an underlever.
The speed issue is reasonable but when I was a lil fella with my rusty, trusty Gamo I'd just keep a pellet between my index and middle finger tips on support hand when taking a shot, back when I ran it all the time I was pretty quick. If you're going to outshoot your rifles tank and you're hiking you'll get wayyy more trigger time on a springer overall though.
On the pre-coil point...
The face you make when your springer hits you with those negative waves..
This is why I moved to PCP's because average springers around the 2000's vibrated more than luggage coming off the Lolita Express. Granted mine stood up like a champ to close to 20 years of abuse and as long as I hold it exactly the same and let it do it's lil jig while firing it's dead on. The shakedown is hell on scopes though, the group you take to prove your zero ruins it lol (tried scope stops, Gamo's crummy steel was too soft to clamp hard enough without mauling up dovetails). I competed in a youth 3-position .22 league with open sights on Saturdays and as a guest Sundays in adult open .22 rifle club, both at 50', me and my bud with single-shot, peep-sight Izshmash CM-2's always traded 1st/2nd place by a point or two against around 20 adults with scopes on souped up 10-22's. They didn't train like we did so they didn't win like we did, equip is a desert while skill's steak. (Might as well put your spotting scope right on the gun if you're wondering if you even hit the target immediately after every shot) Wasn't an issue running irons especially thinking about how many times I've had clear shots on game beyond 50 yards in the woods, not much. Just look up how to hold it and you'll be fine with the vibes, most of the time.. Again I spend all my $ on PCPs and the village of other equipment that rears them, so no trigger time on a true precision slinky yet, seems like they handle scopes better but it's probably still an issue after enough rounds with how horribly bad my Gamo & friends Crossmans / Beemans were with em.
My PCPs smoke my Gamo, any range any hold any position BUT again, never owned a precision springer so my opinion isn't worth squat when one Weihrauch is 10x what I payed for the Gamo 1000 lol. Have done plenty of squirrel, rat, crow, pidgin, even bee hunting with a low-end springer and was happy, kinda says a lot that a chap one did so much for so long. Seeing Thumpers rig & reminiscing actually has me kinda craving one now. They're durable, dependable, hit hard enough for .177/.22 game and reach as far as you can see in the hardwoods I live around. Plus aesthetically they have cleaner lines and don't look like some 1950's Buck-Rodgers fever dream of gauges, wood grain and steel tubing in wood stocks like PCPs do.
Springers are to PCPs as Subaru is to Lamborghini. One is durable, rejects expensive parts like a mismatched kidney but works like a champ for years with the basics. The other you'll buy and then realize you haven't even bought half the stuff you'll need to use it to it's full potential, you'll almost enjoy tuning it as much as using it or conversely you pay out the nose for repairs, but for those few minutes while there's still something in the tank it's an absolute monster and even the most hard core alterboy in the church of the spring has to watch the 1000 yard Airforce Texan shots on youtube in awe before they slip back into commenting on the hernia homeboy prolly got hauling all his gear out there hahaha
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All comes down to the individual rifle and shooter like Thump said.
Felt like I'd dip a toe into a topic not too controversial for my 1st post here. Any Ideas on high end preferably US made springer companies from anyone who made it this far? I just started finding more and more US PCP manufacturers lately, gotta be a springer or two made in Merica right?
