After JSR has so gracefully convinced you NOT to try a springer I feel obliged to complete the pro/con story .
1: As a springer is fired it compresses air.This produces the air to heat up, wich can yield higher muzzle velocities than a PCP pneumatic could because in a PCP the reverse takes place.Stored air expands and cools.
Hot air can move faster than cooled air.
2: based on the workings above, a springer can be used to ignite fuel in the chamber known as dieseling.This will create even hotter gasses and more volume of it.
Supersonic velocities just became the norm.
3: obtaining and precompressing a powerful spring is supposed to be practically undoable....unless you use an airspring.
This could be installed without any prior compression and then afterwards be tailored to the shooters bodystrength.
In other words, fill up that airspring to the maximum pressure required so that the shooter can only just manage to cock the launcher.
With a longer barrel the system would be easier to cock, so enlarging the conventional design will give you more power than a commercial springer, without more effort.
Granted, the stroke would be longer, requiring more energy input, but at no point would it exceed the shooters capabilities.
A 9mm version , maxed out on springforce with a long barrel and a drop of suitable fuel would probably be
not so weak...
Anyway, I just finished a
pump-pneumatic...so what do I know..
.
The principle is nothing to sneeze at, but indeed building one requires skill, specific tools and suitable materials.
That is why it is out of the newbie realm.
Edit:
Furthermore: An airsping could be MUCH more powerful than a steel one.
Look at this basic principle:
When you compress a short airspring by 2 inches, the pressure builds up significantly.
Now in comparison compress a really long airspring those same 2 inches.
The pressure won't rise as much.
The stock of a conventional springer is little more than the remains of a dead tree...or a non biodegradible chunk of hydrocarbonates if you lack taste....
So..
Forget the wood or plastic stock and replace it by a reservoir pneumaticly connected to the airram/airspring.
Now preset the pressure like I proposed before.
Now you get a "main spring" that is able to push almost just as hard at the end of the stroke as in the start of it.
Compressing it won't be significantly harder but it will give you a much more powerful shot.
I plan to build one in this way this year,it will be just one of my upcoming projects.
And
this is my longest post ever!