I remember losing entire afternoons to that exact question, watching velocity charts and reading forum wars, until I finally just bought an unregulated rifle and told myself I'd upgrade later, but what actually happened was that I learned more from that simple gun than I ever could have from a regulated one because every shot taught me to feel the pressure drop, to count my shots, to know exactly when the poi started to wander, and that raw feedback made me a better shooter in six months than a regulator ever could have. The regulated rifles do give you that flat string where the second shot hits as hard as the tenth, and if you're punching paper at 75 yards that matters a lot, but for a beginner who's mostly plinking cans or rabbits inside 40 yards, the extra cost just delays your trigger time and buys you a problem you haven't learned to appreciate yet. I've tested both side by side with a decent Pinty mounted on each, and honestly the biggest difference wasn't the groups but the confidence I felt knowing exactly what my unregulated gun would do at each fill level, because consistency isn't just about the gun, it's about you learning to work with what you have, and that skill transfers to every rifle you'll ever pick up.