PCP airgun failure during maintenance.

fat tony

fat tony

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One would think you would discharge the air in the pressure vessel before disassembling such a gun. He mentioned he was using something called: "High packs", from what he said, about 4 of them. He also stated these pressure vessel extensions threaded on to the existing threads on the tube. To my mind, a pressure vessel for a Pre charged pneumatic rifle should not have points of failure built in like that.


The poor sod is very lucky to escape with his life & leg relatively intact.
 
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Meaty looking hole in the leg. I'm mighty curious about what was lost during the battery failure

I dunno anything at all about PCP airguns. Have a few springers here, and not all of them can be relieved easily. M'oldies can be relieved by holding it (tight!) fully open, pulling the trigger, and easing the barrel back to closed. Not so with all though. I would echo the "don'tcha think relieving it first is prudent" sentiment.

Again, not knowing PCP; Is swapping what you use for a debouncer really doing "maintenance"?

EDIT:
There's a follow up video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilM7gHYI0x8
 
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the hipac failure is one thing, but for the valve to dislodge and travel out the tube (and into his leg), there was a problem with the screws that secure the valve into the tube which I believe are supposed to be beefed up when using this system. I wonder if this was done and also wonder what kind of psi was being used in the hipac.
 
I have been futzing around with Crosman pneumatic guns off and on like a lot of us. The way the valves are secured to the pump tube is probably suitable for the factory power levels. You get one small machine screw and either one or two precisely located divots made by a hydraulic press. With the 1377 and 2240 at least, you remove a tiny screw, then tap the valve out with a dowel or something. The thought of getting a Crosman valve in my leg at speed is a little cringe worthy.

He also mentioned near the start of vid 1 about the ridiculously small machine screw which holds the barrel / receiver assembly to the pump tube. This tiny screw takes a large measure of the stress of the gas being released upwards into the barrel. This design oversight on Crosman pneumatics has always been in the back of my mind, esp. with regards to modding.
 
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From the second video, the valve was not secured properly and the hipac system had been modified. See bob sternes comment on the second video. This guy knows what he's talking about.
 
x2 on second video revealing one screw with 1000lb shear strength was holding 800+lbs...I guess the complete mod would have used 3x valve retaining screws.

As awful as it was for someone to have it happen; if I ever find myself tinkering with something similar I won't have to repeat the error.
 
Internet service where I am (at the moment) is so terrible I can't look at the video...but since I get a sense of the catastrophe from the comments...I have to ask~what is the appeal with PCP air rifles? They strike me as being over-priced, over-complicated, and delivering nothing more than a .22 rimfire rifle performance-wise. The PCP's I've been around (not owned by me, or by friends) aren't quite as loud as say...a .22, but make a fair amount of noise. If .22 is too loud for a given spot, then a PCP rifle would likely draw about the same amount of attention.

Not a criticism~I genuinely am curious. As far as I'm concerned...the more the merrier. If you get a kick out of it~why not? :) PCPs just seem like ALLOT more effort/expense than they're worth...but I'd love to have my mind changed on the subject.
 
There are a couple things going on. One is that once you go PCP, you get away from the cost of CO2, and the lack of places to fill bulk tanks if you use them. If you use a Scuba tank, fills are pretty cheap, a tank full at a dive shop is usually under $10. With the acquisition of a hand pump, you essentially shoot for the cost of pellets.

Air is not as affected by temperature as CO2 is. Guys that like to shoot outdoors in wintertime have seen some drastic variations in performance with CO2. Because of this, and the availability of High Pressure Air systems for paintball (where they also had problems with CO2, esp. during really rapid fire), it seemed a natural transfer to the air gun world. Most modern high end target guns have gone to air instead of CO2.

The biggie, though, is some guys like to tinker. The Crosman series guns are almost made for this, as they are mostly modular built with lots of parts interchange between similar models, esp in the lines descending from the early bulk CO2 guns, and pneumatics. Parts are cheap, there is lots of aftermarket support, and if you are not happy with what you end up with, you can always change it. Sorta like a 10-22, in that respect.

This incident brings to mind some of the more unwise conversions that I had seen that came apart while being recharged. Essentially blew the guts of the air gun out the back of the tube, where ha it happened in use, the owners face would have been.

Proves that playing with charged high pressure toys is a poor idea.

Cheers
Trev
 
Readers should keep in mind that the HiPac system that failed and is at issue with regard to the incident in the video is NOT what is used in PCP air rifles. HiPac systems are used to modify CO2 guns to use High Pressure Air. CO2 pressures are low compared to those used in PCP's. PCP guns are designed from the beginning to use HPA. HiPac and PCP are not synonymous. And it is also worth bearing in mind that in any circumstance where HPA is used caution must always be exercised and safety is always paramount.
 
It sounds like the person who modified that gun didn't do his homework. The third from last comment on the second video explained it better. No hipac failure, more like people failure obviously.
 
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