Having recently purchased an example of each of these "cheap" but surprisingly good pistols, my own very brief thoughts are as follows. Please bare in mind that I am a novice pistol shot.

LOV 21:

Made of plastic and looks like something you would have used for firing spuds when you were 10. However, looks can be deceptive. Even in my own inexperienced hands I managed a 45 ex 50, due in no small part to the trigger ,which, considering it is using something that closely resemble a clothes peg spring, breaks nicely at around 650 grammes (once I had bent it to reduce its effect upon the sears.) Shot count is very high, with all of the three guns in our club managing around 80 shots per CO2 cartridge. Its very light and could be comfortably used by those without the strength of Garth. Due to this propensity for the muzzle to "flutter" our own club secretary, that Jones bloke, has fitted some additional weight following a visit to a local Kwik fit centre and the wheel balancer. Anyway, I really enjoy shooting mine, and apart from a couple of strip downs to check out the extremely basic but effective firing mechanism, the gun has now eaten its way through at least 1500 pellets and, for me, is probably the most enjoyable to shoot of all my pistols due to the LOVs ability to make the most of my own meagre talents and the fact that the thing is so cheap. Muzzle velocity of mine is 385 fps and she prefers R10s, although Ians likes Geco. Brilliant value at £100 posted to your RFD. Highly recommended!

CP1 (or AirForce One in its price inflated British garb):

This one actually looks like a real air pistol. It is made from good old steel and wood, and considering I only paid £72 posted from Poland has to be classed as a hell of a bargain. The actual finish is of a good standard, particularly when compared to some of the old wares which flowed out of China where this model is manufactured. I only received the gun at the end of last week and relied upon some experienced pistol shooters to put the CP 1 through its paces at our clubs 10m indoor range. Paul "The Machine" Wray (Hippo on here) managed some frankly amazing groups, particularly considering the very un LOV like trigger mechanism which, although predictable, to inexperienced pistol shooters like myself is best described as "crap" due to mega creep. I did try to polish the sears to reduce this but only improved the woeful performance slightly. However, I have read threads that have described this problem as resolvable and will explore this further. When firing this gun, the action appears to take an age but does not have any affect upon where the shot falls due to the guns surprising accuracy. Incidentally, if you do buy one, make sure you have a packet full of barrel cleaning tissues as mine was still pulling out the brown stuff after ten or so runs through the barrel. I find the gun very pointable due to the well designed beech stock which allows a steady hold, certainly compared to the LOV anyway. The gun was putting out 520 fps with R10s. If you prefer something made of traditional gun making materials, this is the one for you I reckon. As I haven't had the opportunity to shoot the gun within an inch of its life as I have with the LOV, I will reserve my own overall judgement and verdict upon the gun for now. I must not forget of course that many shooters of this pistol will fit a scope and use the gun for long range can spinning and not 10m target shooting as we do. If used for that purpose, the gun would be a fantastic purchase in my own opinion.

So, which one do I prefer? It would have to be the LOV 21. I know it is more expensive and is made of plastic. But I defy anybody not to post in a half decent score with one, mainly due to the standard of the trigger pull which is surprisingly good. Ian and I are currently discussing a less than £150 budget gun competition. Either of these two offerings are particularly well suited to this form of fun competition at a price that wont break the bank and hopefully offer some shooters the chance of a bit of light hearted fun.

Whichever (if any!) you decide upon, both are more than capable of providing some wholesome CO2 powered action. Hope this has been of some use if you are considering the purchase of a decent and cheap pistol.

Have fun!

Andy