The atmosphere is comprised of gasses, gasses can be compressed. The compressed gasses are what moves the pellet but it is also what keeps the piston from slamming the end of the compression chamber. Piston races forward compressing air, as it compresses it slows down and the pressure goes up, pellet begins to move. Pellet moves allowing piston to continue to move until it reaches the end of the chamber. In magnum rifles the piston can actually rebound off of the compressed air charge. This rebounding and the compression chamber pressure should keep the piston from impacting the end of the chamber. If the piston in an air rifle impacts the end of the chamber something isn't right and needs to be corrected.
What wrecks scopes is the violence of the opposite and equal reactions of the rifle components the scope is attached to overcoming the strength of the scope's internal components. The more energy released during the firing cycle the harder it is on the optics. I don't buy claims that hi powered magnum springers are smoother or have a more gentle cycle than others such as SIG has claimed. The energy is there, the more power an air rifle has the more energy it has to be dealt with. If all that energy could be transferred to the pellet the world would be perfect but in reality a large portion of that energy is absorbed by the friction inside the rifle and the mass of the rifle itself. We are using a small portion of the stored energy released upon firing to move our pellet, the rest is lost to heat in friction and recoil moving the rifle during the firing cycle.
Any rifle tuner or maker who can use just a little more of the available energy to move the pellet vs it being wasted is the hero in the air rifle game. We can try feebly to cancel out friction with lubes and smoothing/polishing the best we can and we can use mechanical means to negate or cancel out the recoil energy we feel but that energy is not lost, it is simply used some place else. The more complex the method of negating recoil for the sake of accuracy and scopes the more expensive the rifle. In the case of a magnum springer the job of getting the energy into the pellet and not into scope wrecking recoil isn't easy, there are physics that need to be dealt with. IMHO the answer isn't mushy mounts or exotic sealed gasses but something more mechanical, something that uses the released energy against itself to render movement of the barreled action to zero. Think FWB300. Or possibly a second piston that moves in the opposite direction to counter the compression piston. But here we go adding complexity and weight, two things that typically add money to an air rifle.
In lieu of building an air rifle that would cost $10k and weigh 19lbs without optics we can use optics that are built tough enough to withstand the abuse. It can be done and I believe it has, one just won't find the reliability in a $200 optic. Magnum power spring guns and cheap optics no longer go together and the day of a 25lb+ ME gun and optic for under $1k are likely gone if such a day ever existed to start with.
Firearms guys have for decades spent as much or more on their optics than they have their rifles when reliability and longevity are paramount. These air rifles are now to the point of being the same. Want a scope that will last on your magnum rifle? Talk to the best companies in the business and break out your credit card.
The thread title needs a correction, it should read " WHY CAN'T WE MAKE A CHEAP SCOPE MAGNUM SPRINGER PROOF !"
