I first got a Beeman R7 (.177) back in the day when Beeman was all the rage, credited as the father of modern air gunning.
Time's past, airguns have gone way beyond Mr Bob. PCPs are the rage. I tend to prefer springers as they are always ready. No CO2, no tank to fill. I would like to experiment with PCPs but that would cost me 2k+ rounds of ammo which is where I'd rather spend my money right now.
I wanted more power and larger caliber so went to a Weihrach HW77 in .22. Not cheap but, for a springer, very accurate with bunny stopping power.
A neighbor wanted to borrow my air gun to deal with cute brown rats. I hesitated to lone my good ones out, so I bought an inexpensive Crosman Titan Nitro in .22 to loan out. From a practical standpoint its lighter and gets the job done just as well as the HW77. We don't have many cute brown rates anymore since the feral cats next door are excellent hunters, but when we do I tend to grab the Crosman over the Weihrach.
There so many Asian imports now and some get good reports. I'd read up on the airgun forums to see what their takes are on them.