I have been into airguns since I was a kid and got into PCP's around 5 years ago because of Ted Biers, it is his fault. Ted has cost me thousands of dollars of pure joy. I initially bought a .25 Benjamin Marauder, but didn't keep it for very long as the shot count was only 16 per fill and I didn't like the bulky feel of it to me. I also ordered a small tank and it would run out of air so fast shooting the marauder that I decided to send it back to PA and ordered an Air Arms S510. Wow what a difference. The accuracy was phenomenal and I was getting 50 shots per fill, but I was still emptying the 90 cu in tank quickly. My next purchase was a large tank after the valve broke on the small tank, so I ordered an 88 cubic foot Air Hog tank and now I could shoot for several weeks without having to fill it. Thanks to AGN I noticed a nice .177 cal Regal XL for sale on its site and bought it. It was a very nice gun and I really liked having a .22 and 177 for versatility. About this time I got my first permission at a local dairy farm that was infested with starlings, so on my first visit I took the .177 and my very first shot took down a nice pigeon, boy was I hooked. That summer I whacked a lot starlings with both rifles, but found the .177 was not quite enough as I had a lot starlings fly off after direct hits. I also had a problem with the bolt moving to the up position occasionally due to contact with my clothing and getting a face full of air, which I think is a major flaw with the Regal, so I am thinking of getting rid of it. Now I am thinking about another .22. I went to an FT shoot in Kalamzoo, MI and while there one of the shooters let me shoot his FX Royale 400 in .22 and I fell in love with it and had to have one. Finally after watching lots of you tube videos on the Royale, I decided to make a 4 hour drive across the state to Precision Air Guns and took my Regal and a Beeman R1 to trade towards it. One thing nice about visiting Jim at Precision is that you can shoot whatever you want either in his indoor or outdoor range. While there I decided to try the new at the time FX impact, which I did not like at all and couldn't put it down fast enough. I ended up coming home with the Royale 400 and it became my go to gun. Then I decided to get another Regal XL in .22 so I bought that from Jim, and now I have three PCP's and I ended up having the same problem with the bolt on the .22 but I lived with it and shot a lot of starlings with it as well as small game. During this time I was watching a lot of videos, thanks to Matt Dubber and Ted Biers on the Impact and so another trip over to see Jim and I end up with an FX Impact in my safe. I literally could not put it down, I liked it so much that I was shooting it exclusively. This rifle was just an awesome airgun and I tore the starlings up with it. I also managed to pick up a BSA R10 MK 2 during this time when PA had them on sale cheap. The BSA shot very well, but I didn't like it because I felt the stock was too fat for my hands and it was 44 inches long. So now I got 5 PCP's. I am going through a lot of air and start to do a lot of research on compressors and eventually decided on a shoebox F10 which has served me well. It doesn't fill fast, but gets the job done and has been reliable. Now I start thinking I need a .25 cal for a little more knockdown power for squirrels. I didn't want it for my permissions which have grown to 4, because I worry about damage to equipment with the .25 and stick with .22 on the farms. So I order a Wildcat from Utah Airguns. Now I have too many PCP's, so I sell the BSA and the Regal and am content with what I got, but the money from the BSA and Regal is burning a hole in my pocket and the lure of slugs is just too much to ignore. I order an FX impact MK 2 and set it up for slugs. I also sold the S510 to make room for it in my safe. Now I am hooked on shooting slugs, due the the accuracy and knock down power and I blame Airgunner Bob_O for that as I went up to visit him and spent a day shooting with him and took a pigeon at 157 yards, which cost me another couple thousand dollars. So now I am happily married to a wildcat, royale 400 and two impacts. I plan to set my other impact up to shoot FX's new hybrid slugs. How have I paid for all this stuff? I work part time in my retirement for Pizza Hut as a delivery driver which is actually a pretty lucrative gig. As far as scopes go I have a Hawke Frontier on my first impact, which I picked up at DVOR for 400 bucks. I also have a Hawke Airmax side focus with the large wheel on my Royale that I also picked up on DVOR. My other two rifles have straight 10 power SWFA SS scopes on them and they are my favorite scopes. The other scopes are nice scopes and I like them, but I never change power and just love the SWFA's. So it was a long trip down a deep rabbit hole, but I have no regrets. Currently I am not drooling over any new guns and I am very satisfied with my FX guns and this is not an advertisement for FX guns, I just like them! I am excited about the new FX slugs. I also ventured down to the PA cup this past August and I am now thinking about maybe competing next year. Hope you enjoyed.
