Personally, i think there is. it got me thinking about this at the weekend when i dusted of an old Crosman 140 pump-up rifle. Its about 35" long, weighs under 5 pound, i'd say, is standard apart from a feinwerbau sport butt pad i adapted to lengthen the stock slightly, and fitted an Anshutz adjstable rear sight. It was made late 60's, i think, a time before Crosman discovered plastic! 6 easy pumps give about 10.5 fp, whilst 8 give around the 12 fp mark. As with all pumps, very versatile, with 1 pump i was knocking flies off an old wall at 6 or 7 paces, but with 6 pumps its perfectly suited to vermin shooting. Unlike modern crosman pumps, the firing discharge is very crisp, almost like a rimfire, which reminds me af my old Sharp Innova.None of that blatty, farty sound!Trigger is steel, but like a lot of pumps, gets harder to pull with amount of pumps.6 pumps is a good compromise.
To bring it up to date, my wish list would be the following;
Keep the same , handy lightweight dimensions.
Facilities to fit a moderator.
Fitted with Williams peep sight but with scope rails.
Although a single pump would be nice, you would loose the versatility. Maybe 4 pumps for max power, which with modern materials and technology, has to be possible!
Prefer under lever pump, as opposed to side, for styling and compactness.
Modern 2 stage trigger.
I know Daystate tried a quality pump-up, with the MK1 Sportsman, which was'nt a great seller at the time, but today we have all become used to recoiless PCP technology, willing to pay near £300 for an entry level rifle. I for one would be willing to shell out on a quality, self-contained recoiless, lightweight rifle.