What does cocking effort tell me?

Cocking effort is the pounds of force needed to break the barrel and compress the spring, and it usually scales with power.

Entry-level guns are around 18 to 25 pounds, magnum springers can exceed 35 to 45 pounds. Higher cocking effort makes the gun harder to shoot a lot, harder for younger or smaller shooters, and is correlated with harsher shot cycles. For most adults, 25 to 30 pounds is a comfortable upper limit for a session of hundreds of shots.