If you’re into hunting or target shooting, you know the importance of having a rifle that delivers power, accuracy, and reliability. That’s where PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) rifles come in. These airguns are known for their consistent performance, making them a top choice for serious shooters. But with so many options, how do you pick the right one? Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered. In this post, we’re breaking down the top 5 PCP rifles that are perfect for both hunting and target shooting. Let’s dive in!
1. Umarex Hammer .50 Caliber PCP Pellet Gun Air Rifle
Highlight: The most powerful production air rifle on the planet; Dumps a ton of energy into its target instead of carrying the energy with it through the target.
Constructive Review: After a year of using my rifle, I noticed a slow leak. I called UMAREX and they sent me a FEDEX label. I sent them the rifle on a Monday and received a brand new rifle the following week. I see reviews where people state that UMAREX is hard to contact. I own numerous UMAREX rifles and have found that they are ALWAYS available when I call with questions or for service, (I also own Hatsan PCP rifles).
UMAREX customer service is superior to other PCP makers. I have called them when I was on a hunting trip because I had misplaced a part. They sent me one and I continued my trip. Just remember that you need to keep your PCP in clean working order as any other fine hunting rifle. I am now in the process of getting the 50 caliber carbine. If it is anything like my HAMMER then I will be extremely pleased. I can’t say enough good things about UMAREX and their products. The 50 caliber is a hog and deer killing machine. -JimE
Trending Review: Around an amazing piece of American Ingenuity. Top quality and amazingly powerful! Blasts right through 6 inches of railroad tie at 50 yards! Just be careful how hard you pull back on the bolt handle. I broke it right off my first time shooting it. A must have for big game air gun hunters!
Reassuring Review: So I bought this rifle a few years ago. I believe it was 3 years ago. My wife and I live off grid in Oregon. Already this rifle has gotten us out of VERY close situations with a black bear, and 3 mountain lions. One of those mountain lions was the biggest one I’ve ever seen in my life. Easily 300 pounds. And anyone who doubts it, ask someone from here, or Google it. They get that big here. I wouldn’t trade this rifle for anything.
I kept stressing on the carbon fiber barrel. Anyone who wonders why they would put a carbon fiber barrel on a hunting rifle that constantly gets knocked on trees and whatnot, once you carry it up a mountain to pick mushrooms(just in case) with a bipod and scope, flashlight, and laser, both with tac plates, well, you should understand. The thing is heavy. Not as heavy as others. But ya. I keep an extra shot in the handle too. So I understand why they’d do carbon fiber. But I still stressed it. I worried about it getting knocked wrong and cracking the barrel.
I know that it’s got a mechanical necessity as far as its design. From what I’ve read, it can’t be changed out, only it will work. I thought of everything I could do to make it stronger. So I did the only thing that I could think to do. I heat shrunk the entire barrel. One piece. Then I gently filed out the part of the stock that holds the air tank steady. I took the entire tac rail/barrel shroud off of my Crosman DPMS/sbr full auto, and filed it out just a smidge, and wrapped the end of the barrel in nonadhesive bandage(the sports wrap that sticks to itself).
My scope has tac rails all around it. I’ve got my light and laser on either side and just in case, I have a fixed blade knife on the top tac rail of the scope. All in all, it’s a surgical little devil, and I’ve got it pretty dialed. This thing not only killed a fricking cape buffalo with one shot, it also is the same gun that a guy on you tube uses to hunt black bear, and grizzly bear. It’s the only gun he uses for it. There’s a guy on a forum that I’m a member of that uses it to plink soda cans at 385 yards. That’s over a thousand feet. I had to invest in a firefighter’s SCBA air tank and put a valve attachment on it. Now I can fill it to 4500 in under a couple of minutes, and it’s ready to go. Best airgun for the money, and it’s regulated so the shots are pretty even.
The only thing that these people have wrong is the two shots with one finishing shit. I get six per tank. Granted at about 1200 psi, ot won’t even put one out the barrel. But the six before that are killers. I have to say this tho, this thing is NOT a toy. Everyone that I’ve let shoot it has said the same thing. It kicks and sounds like a 30-30 or a 30-06. I have to say I wish they could come up with a four shot clip, just like someone else said here in a review. It is no longer the most powerful production airgun on the market, but who cares? There isn’t a critter in this state that it won’t stop from coming at me. That’s all I wanted. –Jessica Tiffany-Clark
2. Benjamin Marauder Synthetic Stock PCP-Powered Air Rifle
Highlight: Adjustable raised comb cheek-piece and reversible bolt handle.
Constructive Review: I’ve had this gun now for about four years, and I must say I am extremely impressed with its accuracy. After fitting it with a scope and zeroing it in with some target practice, I can easily hit a squirrel in the head from 30 yards. I find it is most accurate between 1,500 to 2,000 psi. The Benjamin .25 cal ammo pairs super well and is extremely accurate. The gun is well balanced and the stock is comfortable. The trigger pressure is perfect and I love the double trigger safety. The black finish is nice and the overall build quality is very good.
My only complaints, and they are minor, are:
1. It’s almost too powerful for squirrel hunting. The pellets frequently go through and through.
2. It takes quite a workout to pump it up to 2,000 psi. I know there are electric pumps out there, but they are expensive.
3. The magazine is a little finicky. I rarely get all 8 shots as the spring is too weak to load the last round.
All in all, I highly recommend this rifle. –Steven J. Valenta
Trending Review: I normally don’t leave positive reviews except if something is great and I can tell you this air rifle is AMAZING! I’d give 10 stars if I could. I’ve been struggling with accuracy of an air rifle, so I bought a different one and different ammo too, and it made some improvement, but I was still not satisfied. So I said what the heck and bought this puppy.
Suddenly my shots are all going through the same hole, I couldn’t believe it. With the other rifles I would have been lucky to hit a tennis ball but with this rifle I could draw a smiley face on it if I wanted to, I kid you not. I went ahead and doubled the distance to about 40 yards and I was still able to hit a dime 9 times out of 10. I’ll try to post pictures of the target when I have more time. I put the following scope on it: Barska 6-24×50 AO IR Blackhawk Rifle Scope and I used Modkin 11mm Dovetail Scope Mounts for 1” High Profile.
The ammo I’m using is Crosman Copper Magnum Domed Pellets (.177). What a great combo, I highly recommend. If you’re wondering which pump I used, it is the FOUR UNCLES High Pressure Hand Pump 4500 Psi. If anything breaks of these items I will update the review. –osidfa
Reassuring Review: The air rifle is excellent. It took me a few days to get the right scope rings and dovetail to rail adapter (locally procured) set up and to get a scuba tank inspected and filled. My rifle came with no air pressure in the reservoir, and I was afraid that it leaked, but it’s held 1,000 psi with no change in pressure for >4 hours now. I sighted the rifle in at 10 yards to get ‘on the paper’ then went to 30 yards.
At 30 yards, I was able to shoot quarter size groups with the inexpensive Benjamin pellets right away. Unfortunately, the Benjamin scuba adapter hose blew apart on the fourth fill, before I was able to finish sighting in (but that’s another review). So far, after about 25 shots I’m very happy with the rifle. I am bummed about the Benjamin scuba adapter.
The rifle is quiet relative to an old Benji pump but still loud enough to make the dogs a little nervous. Took me a little while to figure out the pellet magazine; once figured out, it works great. It’s nice to be able to squeeze off 8 shots in a minute versus one shot a minute from the old pump guns. –Mitch
3. Sig Sauer MCX Virtus PCP Pellet Air Rifle
Highlight: The Sig Sauer MCX Virtus PCP offers realistic semi-auto action, a 30-round magazine, and 700 FPS power—perfect for tactical training and target shooting.
Constructive Review: Well, I’ll start with the good.
Solid weight, just like the real version is based on. Semi-auto, decent performance, held a 2″ group at 30 yards with a cheap red-dot I slapped on top, and I got stupidly shakey hands, so unless I just got super lucky with mine, people who complain about accuracy simply can’t shoot.
Now for some of the bad: It does jam, rather often too. It seems that the mechanism for rotating the chain is not consistent. The tank was wobbly, which was fixed when I filled it, and the barrel itself I had no issues with it.
So then what do I mean by you need to work with it? Well, there are several things I needed to do for “Ideal” performance. For starters, the gun jams, a LOT. I’ve come to realize this is due to the trigger mechanism interacting with the chain. If you pull the trigger only slightly and release, it will move halfway between shots, and will not let you shoot. To fix, remove the mag and straighten the chain before reinserting.
Be sure to oil the gun properly, a small dab of Peloil on the tip of the tank before inserting should suffice and only needs to be done every few days.
And one thing I found that helped with the accuracy problem: CLEAN THE BARREL.
I used the cleaning kit I used for my actual .22lr, and after swabbing the barrel 3 times (I shot it twice after buying it) the swab came out black the first 2 times, with the 3rd coming out clean. I will admit I got slightly scared because I think I pushed the rod too far through the barrel(?) And locked the valve back slightly, causing a leak, though cocking the gun fixed that. To avoid it, put an ubstruction in the magwell to prevent your swab from hiting the valve, I cant promise cocking it would resolve it with you.
No issues with cheap parts, the barrel is freefloat and isnt connected to the handguard so wobble is expected, but its heavy enough for it to not affect accuracy unless your stupid about it, and after filled to 3000psi it will go through roughly 200-300psi on a mag, meaning you can push 3-5 mags before NEEDING a refill.
Zero idea on power, however, I will update when I get the chance.
Overall it’s a good gun, although it does require some more maintenance than more traditional break actions or such, which I think is what most of the people complaining about it are used to. It’s an AR (sorta) platform, so it comes with the same maintenance requirements as an AR platform.
Treat it right, and it will treat you right. –Raymond Castillo
Trending Review: So far I have a couple hundred rounds through mine without any issue. Chronograph shows quite consistent readings of ~600fps with 14.3g Crossman Pellets.
Trigger is alright, accuracy is pretty decent at around 2″ groups at 20 yards (I am sure I can improve).
So far I am happy.
3 month Update: the rifle continues to run great. I have a couple thousand Pellets through it. Only issue I’ve seen is some of the belts have loose pockets and the Pellets will fall out of the mag. I think this also causes some fliers when shooting.
I have added a 1800psi regulator (my tank was 5/8×18 thread) to the tank, it was cheaper (around $35) to buy a new regulator, opposed to buying new shims and washers. The 1800psi yielded about a 130fps increase as I am seeing about 730fps with 14.5g Pellets. I have since started using JTS 15.3g Hades and Exact, which group better than the Crossman Pellets. I have a Vortex Strike Eagle 1-8 LPVO mounted up, there is slight wiggle in the rail of the receiver. I am going to try to rectify.
Note, I have taken this rifle completely apart to clean and lube and highly recommend against it. There are about 25 levers, springs, and linkage pieces inside that make reassembly very hard. Best option is to find a cleaning rod and swab from muzzle to receiver. –Bazooka Joe
Reassuring Review: Nice rifle, very accurate out of the box. Air holding in the tank very nicely, hasn’t lost any pressure yet, very happy with purchase so far. The only negative is it only comes with 1 magazine and 1 pellet strip, so if you don’t buy extra mags (pretty expensive BTW) you’ll spend more time loading than shooting. I bought 2 extra mags and they both came with 2 additional pellet strips, I would’ve had zero complaints if it came with at least another strip, especially how much this cost for a pellet gun.
Something important I had not realized before purchase is that you need a PCP compressor or hand pump to fill the tank, I made the assumption I’d be able to at least partially charge with my shop compressor before realizing the tank was 3000psi. So this will be an investment and probably not for your average consumer, if you’re not shooting a lot, something cheaper might be the way to go. All I’m over $700 already for just the rifle, compressor, and mags. You’ll also need optics that fit a regular rifle, air gun optics would not fit. I am very satisfied with the purchase, and will be buying more SIG Airguns. –Anthony S
4. Umarex AirSaber PCP Powered Arrow Gun Air Rifle
Highlight: The Umarex AirSaber fires arrows at 450 FPS with PCP power, offering extreme accuracy and hunting performance in a lightweight design.
Constructive Review: After airing it up I took my first shot at a target never saw the arrow and it had a kick to it.
I knew it was as dangerous as a real gun,dont play with it, use it as a rifle
don’t buy scope it sucks, get a excalibur overlook or tack one scope, and shoot first arrows at 20 feet. Any further and you will lose arrows and never get it sighted in,,buy extra arrows to start. –johnny shelly
Trending Review: After the first use of my arrows, only one arrow survived the launch. One arrow launched just the tip (shaft stayed on the tube) and one arrow completely splintered inside the gun. These arrows need to be evaluated and tested before being sold. I would like a replacement of my arrows since they were defective upon arrival.
Edit: have contacted the seller to explain the problem and to ask about a replacement set. I have not received a reply from the seller. Gun is amazing but Seller isn’t reliable. Go buy this from a different seller or even Umarex themselves. –Ian K
Reassuring Review: This not an “ok toy” as one reviewer wrote. Rather it is an extremely powerful and well designed arrow gun. However, yes the bolts have or had a problem, may or may not have been fixed by Umarex. The original problem was the inserts would blow out. Umarex may have fixed this by now, but the original problem was the inserts were not designed well and/or the glue was too weak.
My solution was simply to use crossbow bolts (remove the nocks of course) from eBay. Keep fill pressure at 3000 psi max or the bolt ends may split (not dangerous but you will have ruined the bolt). Generally for fixed blade broadheads you want less than 300 fps for optimal flight. I ended up buying bolt shafts/inserts and doing my own fletching. Serious bowhunters know how to do this and have their own fletching equipment, so it’s no big deal, but the average air gunner would be at a loss. That said you can buy arrow bolts online just get the right length and size.
Most will have the right diameter and most will have inserts strongly glued in unlike Umarex at the time of this writng. The arrow problem is solvable by you! 2. Forget hand pumping, you need to have either an airgun compressor or a airgun tank (even a scuba tank will work with the right fill adapter) to fill from, but then you are dependent upon an airgun shop or possibly a paint gun shop (or even some fire stations) to fill it up. Serious pcp air gunners know all about this and it’s no big deal once you have the required equipment. Yes, this is not an inexpensive hobby to be set up properly (although cheaper than many endeavors such as golf, etc.!).
The Umarex scope is ok However,. better to get one of the higher quality airgun scopes or even a high quality rifle scope (and just learn what your arrow drop is at various distances). 4. Due to the noise of gun (a bit less than a .22 short) for serious hunting you need to generally restrict your shot distance to 40 yds. or so as game may react to the shot, although this has not been a problem for me so far. Regardless, it would be unwise to take longer shots, and I would say the same for crossbows. By the way, the performance of this arrow gun is about the same as the better crossbows in all regards, and that is a notch about most compound bows. Properly setup you could take Cape buffalo, power is not an issue. 5. For hunting you need to shoot expandables or for non expandable broadheads that work with crossbows due to the high arrow speeds. This takes some experimentation. In general, the problem with nonexpandable broadheads is once you get around 275 fps and up.
So in general, most will do best with a good expandable broadhead. You might try Shapeshifter broadheads by Innerloc as a good starting point. 6. Overall, this gun is incredible if you use and fletch your own bolts and work out your shot distances and broadhead setup. Still, it is probably going to be too frustrating for the avg. person who wants to go hunting with it right out of the box. Trust these comments as I have taken numerous deer with airguns shooting arrows and this rifle is extremely capable. It’s not a power problem, it’s a problem of working out the small details that make all the difference. And hunt relatively close. I generally don’t like to shoot past 35 yrds or so. If you don’t like to hunt close, just use a regular rifle.
Hunting close with airgun and airguns shooting arrows is not for everyone. And I would say the same for crossbows and compounds although of course some guys want to shoot at 100 yds. Solve the arrow problem, workout the arrow drop and you can be extremely effective and enjoy a very capable weapon. Too bad Umarex didn’t spend as much time solving the arrow issues as they did in designing a remarkable arrow gun. –David A
5. Beeman PCP Underlever Air Rifle
Highlight: The Beeman PCP Underlever Air Rifle delivers smooth cocking, consistent power, and great accuracy—perfect for hunting and target shooting!
Constructive Review: What I did not like about other bull pups is the cost and the caulking leaver is way up by one’s cheek. Very awkward to caulk. This is an under lever up front near where your other hand is holding the gun. Fast and smooth. The only con about this rifle is the Beeman scope and mounts. Put a different scope on first but later put the Beeman scope on to try it out.
Could not even get it on a big cardboard target at 16 yards and then tried to adjust windage and elevation the cross hairs would not even move as I turned them. Quickly went back to other scope. This bull pup is fun to shoot. Accurate, good wood stock, gauntlet and avenger mags work in it, Crosman 14.3 H.P. and domed pellets very accurate as well as others. Same hole 3 shot group at 16 yards. For a non regulated pcp this is accurate for at least 30 to 35 shots. Hand pump friendly as takes about 70 to 80 pumps to 3000 psi. I’m 83 years old and find it easy to do. For the money for a bull pup you can’t go wrong. –Davey 80
Trending Review: This my second PCP air Rifle and I have to say I’m NOT disappointed. It does make some noise when fired but, it has very little recoil. The under lever works great with minimal effort. The wood stock is nice, it could use a finish coat or a good oil rub because it looks kinda dry.
Also, I would recommend buying an electric air pump cause hand pump takes a lot of effort. I stopped pumping at 2200 pounds.
My little range is set up for 30 yards which at 2200 pounds had no problem hitting the target and punching through the 1/2” pine boards. Yes, I know I need to work on the elevation a little bit but as you can see from the photo, this thing will group at 30 yards with no problem. I need to extend my range
out to 50 yards…. Just ignore the people who complain about everything and just buy it. It’s a blast to shoot. –Troy
Reassuring Review: I like the size, and performance of this PCP. the under lever is quick and easy to operate but it does make shooting from a steady rest more challenging. While sighting in the scope I did not fully seat the underlever and realized my eye was directly over the breech, a small but sharp blast of air was felt in my eye when shooting. The stock is a good style but I think it is too thick and flat.
There is a flat area on the back of the handgrip that should be a smooth round profile to fit the hand better, where the fingers wrap around the front of the grip is too large for my taste. I make custom knives so the handle is very important to me. I will be dissembling this and reworking the grip to suit my style. I have another air gun that has a thumb hole stock that I re-worked and the feel is much sexier. The stock has a matte finish with dust lumps embedded in it so re-working and refinishing it is an easy decision for me. As a starting PCP with good performance , features, style and power this is a solid choice. –Gman
Final Words For A Top 5 PCP Rifles For Hunting and Target Shooting In 2025
To wrap things up, picking the right PCP rifle comes down to your personal needs—whether you’re out hunting or perfecting your aim on the range. The Top 5 PCP Rifles we’ve highlighted here are among the best you’ll find in 2025, offering a great mix of power, accuracy, and reliability. Each rifle brings something special to the table, so take your time to choose the one that fits your style. With any of these Top 5 PCP Rifles, you’ll be all set to take your shooting game to the next level!