N/A Why PCP airguns are so expensive?

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vtl

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Aug 28, 2023
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I bought a Umarex Notos recently for chipmunks control and had to RMA it right away without making a single shot. The barrel moves and wiggles in any direction it wants. That would translate to, I don't know, 10x10 feet groups at 50 yards? If the barrel does not fly away, of course. I partially took it apart in a hope to find something obvious, like was found and fixed in AEA Challenger, but nothing. It is either a defect in manufacturing or missing part.

Anyways. This thing costs almost exactly the same money like Ruger 10/22 does. But Ruger is made in America, with high labor cost, it uses more expensive materials, and the design is better.

AEA Challenger .510 is more expensive, since it is more complex, uses more material, have to deal with greater pressures and energies, wooden stock is more nice, etc. At least I was able to shoot it out of the box and see a dirt splash approximately in the direction I aimed. But, again, it costs as much as a .308 Ruger American Gen 2, which is better designed, uses better materials, has nicer finish, got more R&D, used American labor, etc.

I get it when a hand-assembled and tuned precision machine costs a few grands. It's all about highly skilled labor cost and prestige margin after some point, I get it. But those cheapest guns? Is it PCP demand so hot that airgun vendors mark everything up shamelessly? Or there's a huge hidden cost in the PCP production that I don't see?
 
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Doesn't sound like your ready for airguns. Once you realize the expense and noise of powder burners, you will have new insight into PCP's.

As far as the Notos goes, that is most definitely a rare issue, i've had over 175 of them pass through my hands and shot them all, they all do MOA at 10m. Also, the 10/22 runs 319, the Notos 219.
 
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vtl said:
I bought a Umarex Notos recently for chipmunks control and had to RMA it right away without making a single shot. The barrel moves and wiggles in any direction it wants. That would translate to, I don't know, 10x10 feet groups at 50 yards? If the barrel does not fly away, of course. I partially took it apart in a hope to find something obvious, like was found and fixed in AEA Challenger, but nothing. It is either a defect in manufacturing or missing part.

Anyways. This thing costs almost exactly the same money like Ruger 10/22 does. But Ruger is made in America, with high labor cost, it uses more expensive materials, and the design is better.

AEA Challenger .510 is more expensive, since it is more complex, uses more material, have to deal with greater pressures and energies, wooden stock is more nice, etc. At least I was able to shoot it out of the box and see a dirt splash approximately in the direction I aimed. But, again, it costs as much as a .308 Ruger American Gen 2, which is better designed, uses better materials, has nicer finish, got more R&D, used American labor, etc.

I get it when a hand-assembled and tuned precision machine costs a few grands. It's all about highly skilled labor cost and prestige margin after some point, I get it. But those cheapest guns? Is it PCP demand so hot that airgun vendors mark everything up shamelessly? Or there's a huge hidden cost in the PCP production that I don't see?
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I'm a big believer in we get what we pay for... that said.. anything containing High Pressure air i do not want to cheap out on.
Regarding vendor mark ups = have you ever paid rent on a building, insurance, employee wages, taxes and so on... these are huge expenses.
Until a Vendor has sufficient sales volumes they live paycheck to paycheck. Airguns are still a niche market in terms of sales.. we are growing but those growing are also competing with numerous manufacturers.

hope they get your gun sorted soon! I have had great success with Airgun-Revisions.
 
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cavedweller said:
Airguns are still a niche market in terms of sales.. we are growing but those growing are also competing with numerous manufacturers.
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I don't think they're a niche market. In America - perhaps, yes, because you can go grocery and buy ammo along the way. In Europe and Asia where dictatorships, good or bad, deter citizens from having real guns, airguns are very popular.
 
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It is a lower volume market. Also consider machining and finishing that goes into all of the parts. Versus the significantly fewer parts or easier/cheaper to make parts in a PB. I'd be willing to bet my Weatherby 308 has less than 1/4 the parts my fx crown does. And I'd also bet that their sales volume dwarfs that of the crown.

Then again, if you know where to look, you can get simpler/cheaper airguns that still shoot extremely well.... you are among probably 1 to 2 percent of people that have had bad luck with a notos/pp750. I'd say get another one.
 
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vtl, I agree 100% the price of airguns are asinine.....Truth is, making these guns hold 2,500psi and much higher is not an easy task.

I have a PP750 and have had zero issues so far. If it were me, I'd purchase another and save the other for parts?

I own an arsenal/battery of guns and all will agree, ammo ain't cheap either........"If ya wanna play ya gotta pay!"
 
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I'd rather pay $500-$1000 for an accurate pcp that I can shoot in my backyard and not have all the chemicals to clean them, vs a PBer gun that I hear a cash register ring every time I pull the trigger. Not too mention drive an hour away to shoot 100 yards +, or pay $30 bucks to shoot at 25 yards indoors.

Hell, even a 357 pellet rifle costs pretty much the same as shooting my 22lr. Remember, the gun picks the ammo it eats, not you.

As for why PBers are cheaper, they've been around way longer and have much more funding for them.
 
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PB's platforms are much simpler to build compared to PCP's that have potentially dangerous high pressures, an air reservoir, regulators, transfer ports, valves, hammers with hammer springs, hammerless systems....so a manufacturer of PB's are able to use higher quality materials to build a simpler platform without having to charge as much until you get into high end PB's. With PCP's that's why the higher end guns are so darn costly and even entry level PCP's are kind of expensive I believe.
 
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Ranchibi said:
PB's platforms are much simpler to build compared to PCP's that have potentially dangerous high pressures, an air reservoir, regulators, transfer ports, valves, hammers with hammer springs, hammerless systems....so a manufacturer of PB's are able to use higher quality materials to build a simpler platform without having to charge as much until you get into high end PB's. With PCP's that's why the higher end guns are so darn costly and even entry level PCP's are kind of expensive I believe.
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EXACTLY! The inner workings of pcp, the balancing of everything, the more complicated nature of manufacture & assembly, the many tight tolerances involved, etc. ALL of that and more make them way more complicated than a PB. I understood from day 1 why they cost more. In essence a powder burner is a very simple tool requiring less input to manufacture & maintain. The cartridge & projectiles for PB's are self contained too. We need air to push the pellets with a complicated delivery system for that air. Does the OP REALLY not get the difference?
 
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