Dave and Bart tag team for the *grin*!

Dave,
I'd concur with JTD and add a few more thoughts for your consideration. I purchased a beautiful Feinwerkbau 124 spring piston rifle in the late '70's. One couldn't do much better for a sporter (hunting) pop gun. With the more modern PCP rifles, the game has changed with just one caveat. A quality springer will push a specific pellet at a pretty much constant velocity forever. The PCP's are subject to velocity/accuracy drop off as the rifle's tank pressure drops below its regulator setting. Usually means bringing a larger SCUBA tank along on extended forays to refill. Savvy?

Another factor is sport vs match rifles. A sporter will push a pellet at roughly twice the velocity of a match rifle in the same caliber. Match rifles are expensive, bulky and are unparalleled at making little bug holes at 10m. Take a look at the Feinwerkbau match PCP's and you'll see what I'm talking about. Match rifles are not for swatting starlings out of your blueberries at 50m.

Also, .177, .20, .22 and .25 pills have flatter trajectories (higher velocities) and less lateral wind drift at the smaller end of the scale and more kinetic energy (how hard they hit the intended target with resulting penetration) at the larger. So, look for a quality sporter in a caliber that fits the bill and it will give you and your grandson a lifetime of memories. Here's some more links for your R&D--

Linky 1

Linky 2

We'll talk pellets/optics/mounts another day. In the mean time, take JTD's hint and forget about the laser on a pop gun.

Have fun my friend!