Hi Patrick,
I haven't owned a ton of pcp guns yet, but the ones I have, I've spent a lot of time really getting to know them. I had a Marauder in.22 for a couple years. I removed the trigger spring and did the bstaley mod. Both easy to do, inexpensive and produced great results. It's super quiet as well. It was fairly big and heavy.. I could never find a pellet that shot as accurately as i hoped, so I ended up selling it.
I currently have both a prod and a 1720. I did the bstaley mod on both of them. Again, easy and provided great results. The 1720 is in pistol form. Out to 40 yards, it shoots lights out with a variety of pellets. It's a single shot in .177. It's tuned at about 10.5fpe. It also is quiet enough that a moderator isn't needed. Although it could be used for pessting and small game out to 40 yards, it wouldn't be my first choice.
The prod is perfect in my opinion for light shooting and pesting. I have it in carbine form with a Barska 2-7 $50 scope that works great.. I have mine tuned rather light.....12fpe for 40 good shots. With bstaley, it's simple to turn up the power to 16 or 18 fpe if you want.. It's borderline backyard friendly. Definitely louder than the mrod and 1720. A $30 moderator from eBay and it's now the quietest gun I have. I only found one pellet that it shoots very well. H&N field target 14.66 in 5.53 shoots minute of squirrel head out to 40 yards, zipping along around 625fps. Both prod and 1720 have nice triggers right out of the box. The prod is the most enjoyable gun I have and the one that gets shot the most, including the couple high end pcp guns I have.
My nephew has the Fortitude. It's a great gun for what it's intended for at the price point. Stock trigger is a hard single stage. We did the trigger mod, which improved it, but not to the point that it's as good as any of the other guns mentioned. It's also very quiet as is. Accuracy is pretty good with jsb 16 and 18s. I prefer my prod, but the Fortitude would suite your needs just fine.
I can't speak to the Artemis brand as I've never owned or shot one. Some points worth mentioning about the Crosman/Benjamin brand is the simplicity to work on, easy to get and cheap parts, tons of info and support and the fact that they're designed and assembled in the USA. Have fun making your decision and welcome to the rabbit hole.
I haven't owned a ton of pcp guns yet, but the ones I have, I've spent a lot of time really getting to know them. I had a Marauder in.22 for a couple years. I removed the trigger spring and did the bstaley mod. Both easy to do, inexpensive and produced great results. It's super quiet as well. It was fairly big and heavy.. I could never find a pellet that shot as accurately as i hoped, so I ended up selling it.
I currently have both a prod and a 1720. I did the bstaley mod on both of them. Again, easy and provided great results. The 1720 is in pistol form. Out to 40 yards, it shoots lights out with a variety of pellets. It's a single shot in .177. It's tuned at about 10.5fpe. It also is quiet enough that a moderator isn't needed. Although it could be used for pessting and small game out to 40 yards, it wouldn't be my first choice.
The prod is perfect in my opinion for light shooting and pesting. I have it in carbine form with a Barska 2-7 $50 scope that works great.. I have mine tuned rather light.....12fpe for 40 good shots. With bstaley, it's simple to turn up the power to 16 or 18 fpe if you want.. It's borderline backyard friendly. Definitely louder than the mrod and 1720. A $30 moderator from eBay and it's now the quietest gun I have. I only found one pellet that it shoots very well. H&N field target 14.66 in 5.53 shoots minute of squirrel head out to 40 yards, zipping along around 625fps. Both prod and 1720 have nice triggers right out of the box. The prod is the most enjoyable gun I have and the one that gets shot the most, including the couple high end pcp guns I have.
My nephew has the Fortitude. It's a great gun for what it's intended for at the price point. Stock trigger is a hard single stage. We did the trigger mod, which improved it, but not to the point that it's as good as any of the other guns mentioned. It's also very quiet as is. Accuracy is pretty good with jsb 16 and 18s. I prefer my prod, but the Fortitude would suite your needs just fine.
I can't speak to the Artemis brand as I've never owned or shot one. Some points worth mentioning about the Crosman/Benjamin brand is the simplicity to work on, easy to get and cheap parts, tons of info and support and the fact that they're designed and assembled in the USA. Have fun making your decision and welcome to the rabbit hole.
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