Need help deciding on the one gun only best choice around $500

[rkmcvey]

1. $500.2. easy to transport 3. accurate.4. dependable.5. very low noise.6. in a pinch,work in a survival situation By picking 3 or 4 of the 6 you may be able to find what you're looking for but I don't think you'll ever find all 6 unless you are very fortunate.

 

[Emu]

Diana skyhawk.

Could be a good purchase for your needs. Just a little above in price. 

 

[Emu]

For survival situations always keep in mind the two golden rules:

a) The best problem is the one that you do not have; and

B) Try not to be where the danger can be.

An adequate implementation of those two rules will prevent from the need of depend of an air rifle for survining.

The best pcp in the world might not be enough to save your life if you disregard those two rules. 

 

[Raden1942]

I would buy a used benjamin bulldog. It has 357 bore, multishot 6 rounds, takes pellets and cast and arrows allowing you to kill deer with cast bullets under 100 yards or literally a grizzly bear or a cow with the arrow. Mine loved polymags and they really smacked the crap out of game. Also you could kill jackrabbit with it no problem. It's a bullpup and very handy. Only downside is that it is loud. Some pvc pipe and plywood would solve that issue cheaply or you could buy a donny or the 3d printed ldc which makes this gun absolutely silent. As I said I owned one and it was very accurate after I bought barrel stabalizers for 15 bucks. Soda cans at 75 yards were my favorite target. Hope this helps buddy. Oh yeah I was shooting polymags at like 820 fps for 1 mag and refilling. The last shot dropped off a little at longer ranges. 

 

[Emu]

Do not think that you are to brave and strong to face an African Lion with an air rifle. It will kill you, eat you and poop you.

And if you are not planning to go to Africa but to round the corner in Arizona, if you give them the chance, coyotes will do it also happily! 

 

[wyshadow]

Good advice everyone is giving here but one thing I dont understand is you say money is no problem and talk about all the expensive equipment you have but then say you have a low budget and would be happy with a cheap gun. In the pcp world, a 500 dollar bullpup is not going to happen unless you get really lucky and find one in the classifieds. You have to be quick though because just like me (and blackdiesel), several guys watch the classifieds like a hawk and if any .25 bullpup comes up for 500, its gone. 

 

[Vetmx]

The only cheap PCP I would buy in confidence is a Gamo Urban. Nobody seems to have issues with it. The Skyhawk is a gambling mans gun. The only advice I can give is there is a part of the world where really good guns come from and a part of the world where inconsistent guns come from. If I was buying a sub $1,000 Bullpup it would be a Reign. A sub $500 bullpup? I have no interest in hoping to get lucky or making parts for a junker. I have been down that road. That road can be fun and challenging but I have a bunch of good guns in my arsenal. So working on a problem child is not as aggravating. I have other guns to shoot.

 

[Vetmx]

I would like to add, if I was to gamble on a $500 bullpup I would get a Cometa Orion bullpup. My buddy has a Cometa Orion rifle and it is a shooter and well built. It is unregulated and will shoot right beside my Taipan all day at 100yrds. His sweet spot is around 30 shots hovering right around my Taipans speed. All I had to do with my buddies gun was install a short stiff spring to eliminate hammer bounce. I imagine the bullpup version would require the same. A $4.95 hardware store investment I can live with. The only unattractive thing is they are bolt action. But I can live with a good gun with a bolt over a crapper with a forward cocking side lever.

 

[boscoebrea]

Simple,spend more,get more ....wait and learn more is better advice...if I was you I would get the old Savage .PCP cost more than what you are thinking....would you sell one of your powder burners to get a PCP....and still be short...I know it Ain't right!...

See if someone by you has a PCP that you can try out.....on the cheap a Crosman Discovery and a good hand pump can fulfill your needs...for awhile..or a Gamo Urban....a Crosman 1720 pistol is another choice,plus you can put a stock on it and have a short,light carbine...

 

[JamieUK]

I think it is time someone was straight up with you....

Having owned, or still owning every calibre powder burner one thing is clear....you are already a gun addict.

You have a PCP already that will do what you want ( it only takes 5ft/lb of retained energy to head shoot a Jack rabbit or Hare as we call them in the UK) and around 8ft/lb to kill them with a chest shot ( I know this as prior to getting my firearms cert I was limited to sub 12ft/lbs)

As you already know it is accuracy that kills and not power.

It appears what is happening here is you are now extending your addiction into airguns which will only end up with you spending thousands....( would love to hear back from you in a couple of years to see how much youve spent on them )

Bottom line is you will struggle to find your perfect gun as you will always find a reason to change so you can keep feeding your addiction ( do you need every calibre of powder burner.....??! No, but you wanted them all )

You have money, buy what ever you like the look of as in reality there isnt much between them, and dont listen to the nonsense about a $500 gun being less reliable than a $2000 gun ( just look through the technical posts on this forum and see how many manufactures are mentioned, they are not all sub $500 guns by a long shot)

 

[wyshadow]

dont listen to the nonsense about a $500 gun being less reliable than a $2000 gun ( just look through the technical posts on this forum and see how many manufactures are mentioned, they are not all sub $500 guns by a long shot)

I should correct my statement. If he said he wanted a sub 500 rifle, there are plenty of options which rival any high-end gun. One would be the go to Mrod. But since he wants a sub 500 bullpup, I don't think he can get one new at that price. If he says he has money and is able to get some lens for a camera for 500, then he should at least increase his budget by just 2 or 3 hundred dollars more and then he will have something he wants. A used first gen .25 wildcat IMO is worth about 700 to 900 depending on the condition and the add ons.

 

[Boosted545]

I own a kral puncher jumbo, a puncher pro, hatsan flashpup and purchased a FX crown in December. The $1,800 gun leaked are after two weeks and it's been at FX USA for two weeks as of today and still hasn't been touched LOL. The flash pup was the first PCP I purchased and had zero issues with it. I just enjoy benchrest shooting and really never could get comfortable shooting that gun off of a bench, probably just me and I recently sold it. The puncher pro is probably a couple months old and shoots very well, trigger could be a little better. I've worked on it and it's acceptable but I absolutely love the puncher jumbo. I can't imagine how many shots I've put through that gun with zero issues and it's very accurate. so don't make the mistake I did and go out and spend almost 2K on a gun and think that that is the end all cure-all because I promise you it's not. I've had more fun shooting my $500 and $600 guns then looking at my $1,800 gun sitting in the corner LOL

 

[JamieUK]

dont listen to the nonsense about a $500 gun being less reliable than a $2000 gun ( just look through the technical posts on this forum and see how many manufactures are mentioned, they are not all sub $500 guns by a long shot)

I should correct my statement. If he said he wanted a sub 500 rifle, there are plenty of options which rival any high-end gun. One would be the go to Mrod. But since he wants a sub 500 bullpup, I don't think he can get one new at that price. If he says he has money and is able to get some lens for a camera for 500, then he should at least increase his budget by just 2 or 3 hundred dollars more and then he will have something he wants. A used first gen .25 wildcat IMO is worth about 700 to 900 depending on the condition and the add ons.

Wyshasow please do not think I was aiming my post at you, genuinely, I wasnt!

My wording was a little blunt, apologies, my point was the airgun world is in a different place now than it was 10 years ago ( when most experienced airgunners wouldnt have touched an entry level Turkish gun for example).

The truth is a lot of entry level guns now are great and capable of 1.5 MOA and better. IMO the law of diminishing returns strongly applies to what you get for your extra $1000 plus on a high end gun. 

 

[ninelives]

I have eyepieces for my telescope that cost well over $500...

Those Ethos eyepieces are pretty delicious! I've probably run into you on cloudynights I'm guessing 

Just to warn you, I think I've already spent nearly as much on PCPs as I have on astronomy gear. But you gotta have something to do in the daytime while you wait for it to get dark!

As for your PCP question, I just bit the bullet and went for an FX Impact Mark II in .25 with 700mm barrel. Haven't regretted it since, it's the most entertaining gun that I've ever had the pleasure to shoot- and living here in Idaho, I've shot my fair share of powder burners.

 

[TucsonAZ]

My hope is that this turns into a "is $500 a realistic budget" or some other post about the budget. Ideally, what would help me most is more people telling me that I should "save" more when the amount of money I have to spend isn't the limiting factor or telling me why I should spend more. I get it, $500 isn't a huge budget, it's that way with most of the things in my life but man, do you know what a gun I could likely make from scratch for $500 if I wanted to spend the time on it! They make Bullpups under $500, I'm just asking which you would buy in the event there's a brand I'm missing or a diamond in the rough I don't know about.

I think it is time someone was straight up with you....

Having owned, or still owning every calibre powder burner one thing is clear....you are already a gun addict.

You have a PCP already that will do what you want ( it only takes 5ft/lb of retained energy to head shoot a Jack rabbit or Hare as we call them in the UK) and around 8ft/lb to kill them with a chest shot ( I know this as prior to getting my firearms cert I was limited to sub 12ft/lbs)

As you already know it is accuracy that kills and not power.

It appears what is happening here is you are now extending your addiction into airguns which will only end up with you spending thousands....( would love to hear back from you in a couple of years to see how much youve spent on them )

Bottom line is you will struggle to find your perfect gun as you will always find a reason to change so you can keep feeding your addiction ( do you need every calibre of powder burner.....??! No, but you wanted them all )

You have money, buy what ever you like the look of as in reality there isnt much between them, and dont listen to the nonsense about a $500 gun being less reliable than a $2000 gun ( just look through the technical posts on this forum and see how many manufactures are mentioned, they are not all sub $500 guns by a long shot)

I'm more than a couple years into this, honestly, I'm obsessed with cheap guns, taking them apart, polishing them, tweaking them and seeing how they perform. I bought a nice 3d printer to make parts as needed, have a lathe and all I need to make new things and more tool steel than I care to lift. I'm no gunsmith but thankfully I'm EXTREMELY happy with modding very cheap guns. Honestly, my favorite gun really is my modified QB78, it's amazingly accurate! Keep in mind, guns have become a much lower interest for me with age, I have too many costly hobbies to allow PCPs to become a major addiction. You wanna feel financial pain with a hobby, get obsessed with Land Cruisers, I had 11 of those at one point. I'd offrad every Sunday which became known as $2,000 Sunday for obvious reasons. So thankfully, I most enjoy tweaking sub $100 pellet guns.

I own a crawl puncher jumbo, a puncher pro, hatsan flashpup and purchased a FX crown in December. The $1,800 gun leaked are after two weeks and it's been at FX USA for two weeks as of today and still hasn't been touched LOL. The flash pup was the first PCP I purchased and had zero issues with it. I just enjoy benchrest shooting and really never could get comfortable shooting that gun off of a bench, probably just me and I recently sold it. The puncher pro is probably a couple months old and shoots very well, trigger could be a little better. I've worked on it and it's acceptable but I absolutely love the puncher jumbo. I can't imagine how many shots I've put through that gun with zero issues and it's very accurate. so don't make the mistake I did and go out and spend almost 2K on a gun and think that that is the end all cure-all because I promise you it's not. I've had more fun shooting my $500 and $600 guns then looking at my $1,800 gun sitting in the corner LOL

Thanks for the comment, same for me, I'm not cheap but certainly thrifty. I have an obsession with value points and like seeing what "good deal" items can do. There is a time to spend the money, and there are times you can get something amazing for less. I'm typing on a Dell 34" 1440p ultrawide because nothing was close to what I wanted for what I wanted my budget to be but I'm using a Ryzen 2600X that cost $114 because I felt it was the point of diminishing returns. Anyway, I'm right there with you.

I have eyepieces for my telescope that cost well over $500...

Those Ethos eyepieces are pretty delicious! I've probably run into you on cloudynights I'm guessing 

Just to warn you, I think I've already spent nearly as much on PCPs as I have on astronomy gear. But you gotta have something to do in the daytime while you wait for it to get dark!

As for your PCP question, I just bit the bullet and went for an FX Impact Mark II in .25 with 700mm barrel. Haven't regretted it since, it's the most entertaining gun that I've ever had the pleasure to shoot- and living here in Idaho, I've shot my fair share of powder burners.

If I ended up spending double on PCPs I'm going to be bankrupt! And, I had an old Meade 2045 (as you know, hit or miss, cheap scope) that honestly held up 98% as well as my Questar, edge detail, everything about it. Now, I'm not saying they're the same class of scope, just that if somebody were looking for a scope I wouldn't tell them they couldn't do anything with a $300 budget as you can do A LOT! Also, remember we're not talking about aperture, I have a 25" Obsession to address any aperture envy issues but in the end, it's my Nexstar 11 GPS that gets used the most (I have it in all three sizes). Same with eyepieces, I am always grabbing for the 35 Pan over almost anything else. I would get the 31 Nagler but they pretty much fill the same need. Anyway, you should see this picture of M42 I got with an EOS R the other night, amazing, I will try and post it. Oh and I don't spend any time in astronomy forums.

 

[TucsonAZ]

Hopefully this works, I've never uploaded a picture on here before. It was just a single image, the trapezium is all blown out but I wasn't really trying to do an impressive shot just trying to take a quick picture for comparison to one I took with an iPhone 11 so I thought it was good enough for sure. And as you know the altazmuth mount isn't great for astrophotography. 

 

[JeffDodge]

Another vote for Kral 

 

[thammer]

https://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Puncher_Breaker_Silent_Synthetic_Sidelever_PCP_Air_Rifle/4241



Open the ports up to 3/16" barrel to valve, play with the springs and its easily a 50fpe gun in 25cal. A full, really dig in tune and it will make 60fpe quite efficiently and accurately. The new triggers are fantastic as well. About 1lb pull and crisp out of the box.

 

[TucsonAZ]

https://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Puncher_Breaker_Silent_Synthetic_Sidelever_PCP_Air_Rifle/4241



Open the ports up to 3/16" barrel to valve, play with the springs and its easily a 50fpe gun in 25cal. A full, really dig in tune and it will make 60fpe quite efficiently and accurately. The new triggers are fantastic as well. About 1lb pull and crisp out of the box.

This is for sure what I'm leaning towards right now, have some feelers out on one so we'll see what happens. Any upside to the plastic versus the wood stock what you can see?

 

[TucsonAZ]

So I go load my cart, I'm processing in my head, the pellets are a $25 value but I have optics I like so that's of no "need" for me. I decide to go for it when I see it looks like there is no tax being charged and it's just going to be $460 then boom, at checkout my total comes to exactly $500.01, seriously lol!! So I pause, think about it, wait, process, ponder, research, see how much I can sell the scope for on eBay, anyway, I pulled the trigger so thank you all for the help. 



That having been said, if anybody is in the market for a brand new Hawke Sport Optics Vantage 4-12x50 AO Rifle Scope with rings shoot me a message ( :



https://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Hawke_Sport_Optics_Vantage_4_12x50_AO_Rifle_Scope_Ill_Mil_Dot_Etched_Glass_Reticle_1_4_MOA_1_Tube/5048