Thing about springers is you can get into a top tier rifle with excellent craftsmanship and a great trigger, built to last for generations, for under $500 brand new. You could shoot the best of the best for under $1k.
PCP’s in the same price range are still guns built to sell at a price point, until you get to around $700 and even then, you give up a lot in terms of quality and craftsmanship.
In the past i have bought and sold a gamo urban, bsa buccaneer, and benjamin discovery punp combo. Off the bench my R9 could probably never touch the urban or the buccaneer with the right pellet in the sweet spot. But i had magazine cycling issues, and in the urban, different pellets clipping the baffles at different power settings or fill pressures, i said to heck with it. Off hand the Disco was better than both, but my R9 off hand is like an extension of myself. And at the time I paid less for the R9 than any of the others. And the R9 was built in the free world by what some regard as airgun artisans, while the PCP rifles near the price were likely connected to slaves and/or a dictator overseas in some way.
If it were honestly, purely about function over form and a means to an end drilling pesky critters near and far, i’d give the R9 up for a gauntlet on a bipod and embrace the tedium hand pumping. But it’s more than that, it’s about the whole experience.
If i had more fun money i would give a high end pcp a go and probably never look back lol. Or appreciate them both, in phases, like you
