Cheap PCP's

[knightrider]

I've always been a firm believer in what you pay for is what you get,so on that note surely the cheap PCP's like the kral npo2 and the likes cannot be that good?

[Bunny-on-Bunnyr]

I spent two weeks with a three or so year old Gamo Phox, far too light for my liking / cycling was a little rough but a hella lot of rifle for £350 new at the time.
Chap who bought it paid £240 s/h, still owns / uses it daily about his farm.
I've shot the cheap Stoeger pcp as well, iirc a bit more expensive (£400ish) than the Phox though it does have an adjustable comb - which most £1000 rifles dont have!
Gamo GX40 is pretty much the same thing but £350 (current price).
These were second hand rifles my gunsmith has had in - blink and ya missems and none come back for repair, only to be traded in against something more advanced rinse-repeat.

[Strimmer]

I bought a ata airborne. Fantastic gun, looked and felt nice, apart from I couldn't shoot it as the seals went before I could. 3 times from new. Got my money back.

Years ago, ags pcr-1. Very budget at the time PCP, worked for the session, but as soon as you touched the barrel or left it stand it lost pressure and zero. Couldnt pump it up from a stirrup either from empty, had to be a bottle, which I didn't have being skint and living in the sticks at the time.


I believe these new guns (most of Turkish descent) will be fine, but I don't think for a moment they will still be 'tight' in 20 years time like older quality makes, just look at rapids, falcons, super 10s and s410s, still going strong. I always wanted a shiny new gun, but I've learned to buy quality secondhand instead, which is a shame as nothing progresses with out selling new designs off if you catch my meaning

[rapidresponse1]

the old saying you get what you pay for

[evert]

Expensive guns are not always the best guns- sometimes you pay a lot for overcomplicated solutions to problems that dont exist

[32:1]

Expensive guns are not always the best guns- sometimes you pay a lot for overcomplicated solutions to problems that dont exist

Thats true, how many orings in an impact and how many in a rapid, but the buying public apparently needs bling and gadgets to excite them, where’s the fun in cleaning a course with an s400 when you could spend a bit more and look much cooler.

Ive recently been shooting BR25 and my PB is tied with three rifles, and Anshutz 9015, HFT500 and a Kral project, none are as delivered and all have tweaks of some sort.

Chris

[Shed tuner]

I think this is the key point.. cheap rifles with a poor design and crap materials are goign to be crap.

cheap rifles with a good, but basic design, and reasonable quality materials are likely to be fine, although you may need to smooth off any rough edges (literally and figuratively) as QC costs money.

I have a couple of Krals, and put them in the latter category; fairly simple design, materials and build quality are adequate, and frankly I find them excellent valuye for money.

[32:1]

I've always been a firm believer in what you pay for is what you get,so on that note surely the cheap PCP's like the kral npo2 and the likes cannot be that good?

This depends on what you want/ need / think

Of course there’s differences between cheap and expensive pcps, but what do you want or need it to do is the question, is the deltawolf or Redwolf 6x more accurate, lighter or shots perfill, is the npo2 anywhere near the finish or detail ?

You buy what you see fit for the job, and the price to suit. Id say there’s a wide line over what we all think is accurate, value for money and looks, thats the great thing with air rifles we can buy what we want not what we need. We all are tarts somwhat and it drives the industry

Chris

[Faerie]

I returned to shooting regularly last year after an almost complete absence of over 2 decades. My springers are each in need of a complete overhaul & refurbish, and osteoarthristis in my left wrist means I can only shoot with my multi-stroke pump rifle for 20 or 30 shots before it becomes too painful, so it was obvious that a new PCP was the way to go.
Spending a four-figure sum on a rifle was out of the question because (a) I couldn't justify spending that much on a hobby I'd been away from for so long and which has changed a lot during my absence, and (b) PCPs were not really "a thing" twenty-odd years ago and I knew very little about them. What if I spent a lot & then didn't like the gun ?
So I got myself a Gamo Coyote from a nearby RFD. The package included the (wood stocked) rifle, silencer, 3-9x40 scope, rifle bag, and a second magazine all for less than £400. Not much lost if I couldn't get back into shooting in a way I was happy with.
The rifle is a bit on the heavy side for me because of the arthritis, but that also meant I knew I'd be shooting off a rest so weight didn't matter much.
Here is a photo from last week. https://imgur.com/a/G0YN1j2 All 10-shot groups at 30 yards, rested on a sandbag. You decide whether it would have been worth me spending 3 or 4 times as much !

[venoman]

Atemis M16.

[32:1]

Atemis M16.

I had an m16 and p15 but I just cant recommend anything from smk due to their absolute failure to supply spare parts to maintain the product, and the amount of returns Id see at my local rfd waiting for refunds.

Chris

[rapidresponse1]

i think if they supplied parts for the p15 they would sell a lot more of them

[aris]

No spares is a dealbreaker. Protek are selling a pcp for £160 - a Beeman 1317

[Jesim1]

The law of diminishing returns kicks in earlier and earlier as time goes on, a quality gun used to be miles apart from a cheapie, but the cheapies are now far better than they used to be, and the gap much smaller. So the problem is, although a £400 pcp is noticeably poorer than a 9015 for instance, it's actually not a million miles behind it performance wise, it's more down to quality, consistency, and the feel of the gun to use. This means when looking at guns under a grand, a £400 one can be a close run thing on most accounts, as you can spend double the money for very little real gain

Personally, cheap is fine if your throwing it about or running on a budget, but it's nice to use a better quality gun, it just feels better to use, even if it's not miles more accurate.

[peddy]

I'm a big fan of budget pcps, although I own a fx dreamtac I still enjoy my pr900, m16a and p10 which perform flawlessly