First Air Gun !

As said above, speed is not necessarily your friend in airguns. I bought a Crosman F4 with a detuned NP1 from the Crosman factory. This is a Walmart-dedicated rifle that is essentially the same as the Crosman Fury, only in a Monte Carlo synthetic stock (not tactical thumb hole) and having a piston that is much milder in its performance than the normal Nitro Piston gen1. Shoots lead pellets at about 600 fps (estimated) and is capable for pest birds up to feral pigeons out to 40 yards or so. Could take a crow at 25 yards; beyond that placement would be key to a humane kill based upon the sub-12 ft lb pesting I've seen from our cousins in Britain. I agree with John ("spysir") that the Crosman triggers on the NP rifles are very poor out of the box. I researched the "Crosman Trigger Fix" on YouTube and found two actions to take that are each simple to accomplish and very inexpensive. View the videos on removing the spring behind the trigger in this gun, mockingly called the "Lawyer Spring" since its only purpose seems to be to make lawyers happy about the unlikelihood of accidental discharge of the gun. Actually an easy process that I have done several times now. The other fix is to replace the trigger adjustment screw behind the trigger (a 5 mm screw that is too short to really do anything for your trigger) with a 10 mm screw. This sounds easy since the screw is accessible from the exterior of the gun, but finding the right size screw and then prepping it can be a challenge. I ended up going to a Remote Control hobby shop in my town since they often stock such small screws. I bought a half dozen of the 10x2 mm screws for use in my Crosman trigger fixes. I found that filing or grinding off the first 1-2 mm of the screw's threads, leaving an 8 to 8.5 mm screw, was just right to make it useful as a trigger adjustment. Longer and it sticks out from the assembly and can catch the rear of the trigger housing when adjusted properly; if left 10 mm and screwed down enough to avoid catching on the housing then it likely has made the sear catch inside the trigger mechanism unsafe by leaving too little contact between the trigger shoe and the first sear. This is why a 8 mm screw is just about perfect: when adjusted properly your trigger breaks crisp without fear of premature release, and the screw head itself is low enough to clear the trigger housing. Applying both the spring removal and the adjustment screw replacement has given me a sub-2 lb trigger that breaks crisp with no noticeable creep whatsoever, on my F4 as well as my Titan and my Fury. Like I said, I've done this a few times.

All in all, my F4 with a detuned NP1 is a sub-$100 gun with a mild shot cycle (very good for accuracy), enough power to take out common (and legal) pests around the garden or farm at reasonable spring airgun ranges, and lends itself to easy modification. NOTE: modifying the trigger does invalidate your warranty with Crosman, so you have to decide if the low cost and ease of modification outweighs the loss of manufacturer's coverage in case of a problem cropping up. I'd shoot any new F4 (or other NP rifle) without any mods for at least a few months to prove the gun. I write this not to guide you away from the other options provided in this thread, but just to let you know that there are really fine airgun options out there even at the shallow end of the price pool if you are willing to learn some fairly simple procedures to optimize them.

One other suggestion. I recently got my Hatsan at 44 off amazon for $248. I had it in my wish list for a long (2 months) time and it was always hovering around 449. It suddenly took a nose dive and in one weeks time it dropped to the 248 price. I went ahead and ordered it and then 2 days later it was back up in the 340 range. Doesnt hurt to watch these guns for a while as the price can bounce around a fair bit.

Old post, just a bit to add re:springers, specifically 34's, Air Hawks, whatever. They do rock and roll and they can be difficult to shoot as attention to technique is required. Also helpful to accuracy is shortening the barrel though that does make 'em harder to cock. The shorter the barrel the less influence the piston slam is gonna' have, seemed that way to me at the time I did it.

So yeah, a few years ago I chopped an Air Hawk to 14" and mounted the steel "brake" from a scavenged dumpster Kodiak (POS airgun, terrible gun really, I threw it into the dumpster I do admit). Honed the cylinder, replaced the piston and breech seals, drilled out the trigger pins and replaced them with drill stock. Wood stock rifle, $60 "refurb". Whatever, fed Crosman 10.4's it chronyed at 904 with a repeatable spread of 6 fps no exaggeration. BSA 4x airgun scope, UTG mount.

I still use it today against predatory corvids and starlings during nesting season. It can hold a 1" group at 30 yards with shooting sticks, and 1/2" off a bag. So it can be done, not that I recommend them, but for cheap recreation (and damn good training for centerfire) a springer does have some merit.