How to fill a PCP with a scuba tank?

[chrismc]

For the cost and time of all the stuff you'll need for using those tanks, you can buy a compressor that will fill your gun in minutes - i bought mine for well under $500. The one in the pic above is highly rated.

 

[canadaman30]

Depends on needs, you can also fill any pcp rifle up to 3600psi quite easy with a simple hpa handpump to get you shooting.
Once your gun is filled you only need to top it off to refill. I can top off my 280cc rifle from 1900psi to 3000psi in less than 5mins, which provides approx 80 shots on high power.

 

[daks]

Just to clarify one thing here.
You can try to cool down the steel tubes on the compressor, worth a try, but still the whip lines, the water separator will heat up = from a pressure.
And can't do nothing else with the tank at the end... the air tank will heat up, not very much but you can feel it with your touch.
Both the tank + the compressor motor also the oil, you will need to cool down with frequent stops.

Excellent thank you!

Sounds like I am going to be doing something similar to you if I go to the next level.... with a tank and a jerry rigged system.
Maybe if I get real serious I'll look at a more professional system.
Hard to justify to the wife, the expense of this passion.
She may not notice a collection of barrels, pellets and slugs in a closet...
But she would certainly notice a commercial compressor in the workshop.
Then would ask how much that thing cost....
and the doghouse is cold this time of year.

Local dive shops will fill certified tanks but sometimes you have to leave them there and pick up the next day.
For me two trips to the dive shop is more time than what it takes to go to a range, and shoot.

I also heard that sometimes the local fire departments will also fill air tanks for people,
so going to drop by the local one with some coffee and see what they say.
If I can stop by there on the way back from the range to top up fairly quickly... perfect.

My limited experience shooting PCP,
has my guts telling me the "rattle box" compressor I have now my be good enough for practising field target and 10m or the occasional shooting in a farmer's field.

But 50/100m bench with slugs... Is going to require an investment in air handling.

 

[daks]

For the cost and time of all the stuff you'll need for using those tanks, you can buy a compressor that will fill your gun in minutes - i bought mine for well under $500. The one in the pic above is highly rated.

I bought the cheapest hpa compressor I could find.
Almost exactly the same as a Vevor PCP 4500 portable compressor you can find links to but I'm not too sure on policy here for posting links.

The price point is about $200cdn plus shipping.

Tops up my 480cc tank in my rifle from 60bar to 250 bar in about 20 mins but I have to shut it off 2-3 times so the heat does not get too high. Otherwise it would take less than 10 mins.

For the low power setting for field target (<20ftlbs) I can get about 400 shots between fills so for this application a 200 pump is more than what I need. Pump up once before I go to the range.

For bench at 50m or 100m lol I'm not going to get that many shots. Lol maybe 100 if I'm real lucky.

And with plans to maybe get into the bench competitions I'm going to be using a LOT of air just figuring out barrel indexing and polishing, twist rates and what slug at what speed for what barrel. Before I even sign up for a competition.

Lol and here I originally thought air rifle sports would be cheaper then PB and a reloading hobby.

The one in the above pic looks like what I may be going with, I have rads and pumps from my computer water-cooling days that will adapt to that application quite well. Looks like I will be following in bigHuns footsteps.

I have a lot of fun making my own equipment as much as possible. And you learn more that way. Sometimes my be more expensive in the long run, but it's all that much more fun.

 

[daks]

Depends on needs, you can also fill any pcp rifle up to 3600psi quite easy with a simple hpa handpump to get you shooting.
Once your gun is filled you only need to top it off to refill. I can top off my 280cc rifle from 1900psi to 3000psi in less than 5mins, which provides approx 80 shots on high power.

I agree, hand pumps are very viable.

IMHO for hunting and light shooting they are the most cost effective and reliable method for maintaining fill on your PCP rifle.

For impatient lazy old men with shoulder and wrist injuries, they may not be the most appealing option though.

If I was not looking at going into bench, I would have already bought one.

But certainly not closing the door of buying one especially as a backup.

Which pump is it that you use?
How has your experience been using it, besides it works well for your needs.

 

[canadaman30]

I agree, hand pumps are very viable.

IMHO for hunting and light shooting they are the most cost effective and reliable method for maintaining fill on your PCP rifle.

For impatient lazy old men with shoulder and wrist injuries, they may not be the most appealing option though.

If I was not looking at going into bench, I would have already bought one.

But certainly not closing the door of buying one especially as a backup.

Which pump is it that you use?
How has your experience been using it, besides it works well for your needs.

I use a Hill 4 stage pump. It lasted about 3 years until it leaked. Good thing they put a bag of extra orings in the box. A couple minute job to replace oring and up and running. Great experience for a $150.00 pump, small and light take anywhere.

I get a full shooting session in with a single top off of air. An efficient tuned gun use far less air, less pumping to top off.

 

[daks]

I use a Hill 4 stage pump. It lasted about 3 years until it leaked. Good thing they put a bag of extra orings in the box. A couple minute job to replace oring and up and running. Great experience for a $150.00 pump, small and light take anywhere.

I get a full shooting session in with a single top off of air. An efficient tuned gun use far less air, less pumping to top off.

Sounds like I may have had too much bias about hand pumps effectiveness.

I had visions of like a bicycle pump on a car tire type scenario.

Didn't realize there are multi-stage pumps out there.

Might move the hand pump into the plan between after first air cylinder and before Mcgyver compressor now.

The art of efficiency is not well communicated to people when they first look at airguns.
All the "noise" of Captain we need more power! Drowns out a lot of the art in this sport.

 

[bigHUN]

The Temp is a killer, also creates moisture traps.
The second stage (high pressure) piston composite ring goes first.
Adding those PC fan cooling to the compressor steel tubes won't do much. With a same effort you shall increase the water flow instead.
I am copying my post from AGN from a while back.
...........................

About heat on cylinder heads...here are 3 readings on a freshly rebuilt first+second stage from a kit. The pressure is about 250 bars in this picture after some 15 minutes run time.



The Temp #1 probe is attached to the most highest point on first stage = low pressure cylinder ribs deep to the main body;
The Temp #2 probe is attached to the most highest point on second stage - high pressure cylinder - aluminum cap;
The original YH Temp sensor shows the water flow going back to the bucket.
Here are the addon Temp sensors attached. Also notice the addon - high flow air fan.



The Temp readings are after I changed the water flow...
- re-drill the waterlines (in aluminum cylinder head) to larger flow
- replaced the barb fittings to larger flow
- replaced the water pump to 4-5x larger pressure/flow.
I just feed the bucket continuously from a garden hose in my garage and the overflow is a collateral damage .

Last I checked about 67 hours on this YH, with regular maintenance, some rebuilds and some updates. I have not ran it this year yet.