I'm going to be the "odd duck" here making a recomendation that you look at a particular chinese made air-rifle: XISICO XS-B21/22 price: $114.95http://bestairgun.stores.yahoo.net/xsb21.html
I own this rifle in .22. It is a side-cocker (not top-break or underleaver). It is essentially a clone of the RWS 48...with some neat differences. I almost purchased the much more expensive RWS 48, until I found out that it had a plastic trigger. I knew about the XS-B21 and did quite a bit of research into the differences between these two guns. I discovered that the XS-B21 had a milled, all steel, adjustable trigger-fire control parts.
So, I decided that the price was right and I'd give this Chinese Airgun a try, so I purchased it a few years ago. I couldn't have been more pleased with the quaility of this air rifle. It fires .22 pellets at 900 fps. It is a heavy rifle. The barrel is solid steel and about as thick as something you would find on an Ak-47. I believe the rifle weighs about 10lbs. The receiver and all parts are made of steel. The piston appears to be hard-chromed. The wood stock is some from some kind of tropical wood - nice looking and finished "ok", but don't expect a fine turkish walnut stock by any means.
The metal was finished in a very nice looking black phosphate coating.
I took the rifle completely apart. To do this, I fabricated a spring compressor using a large hack-sawed C-Clamp mounted on a 2x4 piece of wood. I was very impressed with the quality of construction. I was not impressed with the metalic dust that was left behind (I was forewarned about this, thus why I dissasembled the rifle when I got it). I thoroughly cleaned and lubed the rifle before reassembling it.
The trigger mechanism is better than what you will find on the RWS - it is a smooth, solid steel two state trigger system. Not what you would expect from a gun in this price range at all! Seals and springs are available for thfrom dealers for this rifle on the internet if you ever need to replace them. The iron sites on the rifle are good quality and accurate. There is a rail so that a scope can be mounted to the rifle, but I don't have one on mine.
The cocking mechanism requires some strength - NOT FOR KIDS. I have been shooting this rifle for several years now and only had one (user error) problem. I let a friend borrow it and he didn't know that there was a claw-type release that needed to be pressed in to retract the cocking handle if it's not cocked all the way. He cranked down on the cocking handle and bent the rod attached to a part that moved the piston. I didn't realize how easy it is to just order the broken rod (subsequently discovered that it was a $10 item), so I fabricated one using some bar-stock that I got from an ACE hardware store and a $6.00 threading die. Works perfectly.
I absolutely love this air-rifle. If the RWS had come with an all milled steel trigger instead of plastic, I probably would have bought the RWS. Having owned this XS-B21, I wouldn't trade it for the RWS 48 (if I couldn't buy another one)
