Why on some rifles is better not to be regulated?

i'd like to know to .. from what i understand its mainly all about consistency over a large shot count, most unregulated guns do fine is a smaller window and theres less complexity and weight .. so if you dont need 75 shots per fill consistency then you dont lol ... i do fine personally with one clip consistency, its enough to wipe out a whole herd of sqirrels in my backyard lol ..

The potential downsides are:

1. A regulator represents another part that can malfunction or leak. For example, the typical internal regulator adds 3 O-rings. Tack on 3 more potential spots that can leak if it has an output gauge. And the number can climb higher in some cases.
2. A regulator places a practical limit on the maximum power that can be achieved. It can only provide a reduced pressure at a smaller volume.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that a regulator isn’t a magic wand. A good one comes pretty close but it won’t completely remove the need for tuning. Regulator creep is perhaps the most common complaint...it’s a situation where the regulator’s output pressure will climb from, say, 140 bar to 150 bar after sitting idle for an hour. Depending on how the airgun is tuned, that may or may not cause a velocity change. Meanwhile consider for a moment that a conventional (unregulated) PCP will maintain a consistent velocity over a much broader range of pressure. Not because it has some inherent advantage but because it has been well tuned. So too will a regulated one when tuned with a similar amount of care and attention. After all, a regulated PCP is simply an unregulated one that we decided to feed with the same pressure over and over again. It’s just that the “same pressure” isn’t precisely the same every time. However it’s much closer to this ideal than without a regulator.

I like my regulated PCP because I don’t have to fully fill my PCP and still be in the sweet spot. I prize the consistency a good Huma regulator provides.

Same here.

To me, a regulated airgun is like fuel injection on a car. Carbs were fun, but I'm not going back

I have owned quite a few great unregulated guns but my dumb ass always winds up putting a reg in them because I don’t like how they sound. I will say that my buddies Brocock is unregulated and if it was mine, I would leave it alone...........maybe.

Because I don't have anything to achieve with my airguns -this is all just a relaxing hobby and no animals' lives are on the line - I prefer my guns in an unregulated state. I have a regulator for my airforce guns but don't use it because I enjoy being able to shoot at different powers in a single session. I find when I put a regulator on my airforce guns they lose some personality and become kind to boring to shoot. Kind to a stupid thought but that's about how I feel about it. If I had to make sure every shot was predictable (like if I was hunting or competing) I would see it differently.


Having started with unregulated guns, it is a very strange experience when every shot is basically exactly the same. I like it, and I don't at the same time. 

I recently bought one after having my dreamline perform miserably in the cold, out squirrel hunting this year. Nice to have an alternative if you need it! The revere is my only unregulated small bore. It is a suuuuuper sweet shooter too!

The only downside I see to a regulator, as already mentioned, is the potential for a maintenance issue. I guess I've been lucky, but I've found that after setup and some break in, regulators are very reliable. And if you have a bad one, you will know it right away. Seems like a regulated rifle might also be easier on the valve, long term, since it's never exposed to maximum bottle pressure.

Same here.

To me, a regulated airgun is like fuel injection on a car. Carbs were fun, but I'm not going back

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Regulators work well and I won't use something with a known problem (un-regulated air rifles) when there is an easy fix. As L.Leon says " I don’t have to fully fill my PCP and still be in the sweet spot." and I did that just yesterday, SPOT ON FPS with a 125BAR fill for testing on my Taipan.

Additional o-rings as a maintenance issue is a non-existent problem.

...Seems like a regulated rifle might also be easier on the valve, long term, since it's never exposed to maximum bottle pressure.

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Great point! Unless you have a Mac 1 FT that uses a max fill of 1500 psi or Benji Maximus(2000 psi) most unregged guns are subjecting the valve to 3000 psi. I don’t have any hard data to prove that subjecting your valve to 3000 psi will make it breakdown faster than subjecting it to a lower regulated pressure but my gut feeling is that your valve will last longer when it is exposed to a lower pressure. 

Well if you shoot from bench and punch paper best solution is unregulated gun with external reg feeding from scubatank. Thats how I use my bullet shooters. No downsides, no lower power, better consistency due your reg controls larger "plenum". Most internal regulated gun problems are listed above and as bullet shooter losing power is by far biggest problem for me. 

Some guns’ valves are designed for unregulated/high pressure. With some of these guns adding a regulator is actually counter productive sometimes. Also unregulated guns are crazy reliable if done right, I checked my POI on my 1701 after a week of storage and first shot is exactly where I aimed.