hello again. S510! great. The sidelevers neat. What calibre did you buy - .177 I hope! feed it with AA Fields in 4.51 or 4.52 or JSB exact or H & N Field target trophy & you wont go to far wrong.
If you have never shot before or are new to air, make sure you get plenty of range time before you start going out in the field shooting at live quarry. if you zero at 25m & then shoot paper targets at 8m, 10 etc at 5m intervals out to 45m you will see how distance & gravity affect the trajectory of the pellet ie low at closer & further away then zero. all you have to do then is learn how to read the wind & find out how it effects your little 8.4 grain pellet. If you have bought a .22 then you will see an even more pronounced trajectory than with 177 - which will mean that your rangefinding will have to be spot on so you know how much aim off to apply
Dont know about a thumbhole though - sporters have always been my choice as I always shoot with a 'thumb up' hold.
I have never bothered with a bipod as my prone stance with a PCP is good enough not to have to worry about stability. I do a bit of HFT - its just practice, practice & more pracice that lets you work out whats good & whats not. You will be the most stable off a pod though - makes 45m shots a lot more plausable.
My air rifle of choice is always my AA TXHC though - up the springers!
As regards scopes - the worlds your oyster depending on how much you want to spend. The HFT circuit is dominated by the edgar brothers 'sniper' fixed 10x, Bushnell 6500 or one of the many Leupolds. the smart money is being spent on small objective lens scopes and low magnifications - many have gone to 40mm or smaller front lens diameters to give a fuller field of view. Burris are also becoming very popular with the Fullfield 2 a good bet without having to remortgage your house. theres a load of other that give very respectable performance - such as Falcon, Bushnell 3200, MTC viper/cobra or something like the Hawke range are ok. I would look on the BBS - there are lots of second hand bargains out there.
Also have a look on the Air Arms Owners Club - especially if you are new to air rifles - theres load of really useful info on there.