Charging PCPs

[Walker570]

OK to start with I am not slinging my TX200. My wife has shown an interest in shooting an air rifle and thought a PCP would be the way to go ...keep it simple and hopefully lighter than the TX200.  I am totally new to this charging deal. I have a compressor at home, can the bottle on a PCP be charged from one of those?   Any suggestions on make model would be appreciated and will probably be looking at a second hand unit.

[ips]

no, compressor at home wont go to 200 bar, (I wouldn't think) so you need stirrup pump, divers bottle or many gun shops will charge from there dive bottle for a couple of quid.

personally I would go for airarms they do a couple of lightweight models I believe. Having said that if on a budget then many decent makes / models can be picked up quite reasonably sometimes with bottle or pump as well

[moorvale55]

It's highly unlikely that your home compressor will get anywhere near the pressure to charge a pcp. These rifles can be charged up to 3000 psi and they need to be filled with "dry breathing air" as used by divers. You can use a special hand pump but they can be hard work.

[Zetter]

As stated above only specialist compressors can get up to airgun cylinder pressures which are generally 200 bar +. Really for charging you are looking a stirrup type pump but they are hard work and if you are using the rifle for club use or informal plinking they are a lot of faff and shooting accurately is hard enough without having done a workout before hand .

Personally speaking I would look at a 300 bar 3 ltrs dive bottle. As long as you can find a dive shop or gun shop local to you they work well and generally give 10-12 full charges of a air rifle cylinder before they need topping up that only generally costs about £4. You can either go new on these for about £150 or see if someone is knocking on out 2nd had which means you can pick them up for <£100. However 2nd hand you need to check the test date as they need re testing every 5 years.

 

 

[Ultrastu]

I personally find bottles a faf.

Filling .paying .testing .carrying .filling testing running out .Faf

. If you can handle it an fx pump if far better .

You buy the pump .once and use it. Anywhere anytime. 

If your filling an s200 or bsa ultra it takes a minute of easy pumping .

Even less if you get an older max version sh. As they only require about 180 bar. Instead of 230 ish. 

[GingerCat]

Pumps are all fine and well but a bottle is by far quicker and easier . I simply plug mine in and turn a little  knob,  it fills with air. Bleed it off and then pop it away. This takes maybe 30 seconds from empty. That' a slow fill with a pause to let it cool down. 

You'd be pumping a pump a long time after I've gone shooting. And 80 odd shots on this gun (more on most others) is far more than I need to worry about carrying a bottle or pump about. 

I'e not had to refill te tank yet and had it ages. Done loads of charges from it. When it needs filling I'll get some pellets whilst I am at it. Hardly a chore. 

[washerboy]

Buy her a hw99s, if she doesn’t like shooting you can sell it and you haven’t lost a lot 

[Mice!]

From what I recall your around 70 ish? I wouldn't bother getting a bottle and set up if you have somewhere close enough by to top up your rifle, I've managed for probably 15 years or more but I just take the buddy bottle somewhere, my local gunshop Bamfords charged me £2 for two bottles last week!! Just be careful what else you buy ? 

[teza]

get her  air arms 200 nice and light

[Mice!]

as for what rifle, well my misses can shoot my rapid ok if she's resting on something, but the reach/ fit isn't quite right for her so I would say a junior model might be easier for her. Needs to put her hands on something and see how they feel.

what about one of the Crossman guns rat catcher or the likes using the throw away air cartridges, small pretty cheap, lots you can change on them, folk have said elsewhere just don't get the plastic breech.

[Ultrastu]

1 hour ago, GingerCat said:

Pumps are all fine and well but a bottle is by far quicker and easier . I simply plug mine in and turn a little  knob,  it fills with air. Bleed it off and then pop it away. This takes maybe 30 seconds from empty. That' a slow fill with a pause to let it cool down. 

You'd be pumping a pump a long time after I've gone shooting. And 80 odd shots on this gun (more on most others) is far more than I need to worry about carrying a bottle or pump about. 

I'e not had to refill te tank yet and had it ages. Done loads of charges from it. When it needs filling I'll get some pellets whilst I am at it. Hardly a chore. 

Well I pump up my 300 cc fx wildcat 

It takes me about 4 minutes with 1 minute stop in the middle to count out my  50 pellets .

So you've gained about 3 1/2 mins shooting time on me .that. 3.  1/2 mins cost you a quid or so ? Ok well if you find that good value then thats fine .But for me a 25 mile round trip to a dive shop on the other side of the city is a pain and expensive on fuel and time 

All adding to the cost and inconvenience of a bottle .

Ps I do own one .and hardly use it prefere my pump .

 

[craig1982]

Can't believe people pump up PCP,s I have a 12ltr bottle for the BSA  S10 FAC and a 7ltr for the HW100 12 fpe, They are tested for 5 years and cost £3 to get refilled. Last for ages. Could not think of anything more boring than filling my S10 buddy bottle. Rather be out shooting. If needed which would be very infrequently I could take the bottles out with me if I was on to a good days shooting.

[Walker570]

Lots of advice there, many thanks. She plans to shoot squirrels mainly, so 15 or 20 shots an outing max and static. I have Solware within a 10 min drive from my place, so armed with all your advice I will slide over there and see what they say.  I think I am leaning towards a pump. I might be in my 70s but still put a days work in swinging a chain saw occasionally, so pumping for a few minutes might keep me fit.   I like the Air Arms stuff so will have a look at those and I appreciate the advice on HW99 as I well know women can be fickle. 

[Mr.C]

Air arms S200, will be perfect. I would have bought one instead of my MPR but it was just a tad small and light for me. Plus someone on here was offering me a kitted out gun for not much money. 

[Guest]

I am with Ultra: use an FX hand pump. I really cant be bothered to drive tanks over to a dive shop (if its open and if their gear is working). These bottles, esp the small ones, empty faster than you expect.

[bruno22rf]

3ltr 300 bar lightweight tank would be my suggestion - the S200 will give about 50 shots before needing topping off and the cylinder is quite small so the tank should last quite a while. Much as I am not a real fan of BSA, the Scorpion that I owned for a while was superb so worth considering but I think that the S200 would be marginally more accurate. If your good lady is of a similar age to you then a magazine fed gun would be best as feeding a pellet under a scope can sometimes be fiddly - likewise with a tank - I believe that there are chargers now that restrict the flow of Air that is fed into the gun and may be safer with "more mature" hands - a 300 bar tank and shaky fingers could blow the cylinder seals or worse. Timing is bad as I sold a mk2 S200 multi last week in mint cond.for £200. 

Edited November 13, 2017 by bruno22rf
added more info

[Walker570]

Picked up a mint AA200 and a pump today ....ok it is a 22, but will do the job fine. Super trigger and very accurate. A bit of gentle training needed now

Edited November 13, 2017 by Walker570

[Ultrastu]

Excellent .

Try find some .22 falcons and have fun .

These are ideal as they usually only need pumping up to about 180 bar .which is pretty easy .

[Walker570]

Provided me with some VMXPells14.66gr to start with which blew the back out of the 3/8ply I had the target set on at 25yrs !!

[Mice!]

Won't be long Walker you'll have claimed it for yourself, and at least its a proper calibre

now you can also try for yourself which is best .177 or .22 ( trying to underline and bold but it won't) 

I was shooting rats today at about 12mtrs couldn't get any further away.22 bisley pest control and didn't have to aim off or anything, even though I'm zeroed at 25 using accupell on paper there a touch low but the rats didn't notice, think you'll enjoy the .22 its different, look forward to your reports.

[Fisheruk]

23 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Lots of advice there, many thanks. She plans to shoot squirrels mainly, so 15 or 20 shots an outing max and static. I have Solware within a 10 min drive from my place, so armed with all your advice I will slide over there and see what they say.  I think I am leaning towards a pump. I might be in my 70s but still put a days work in swinging a chain saw occasionally, so pumping for a few minutes might keep me fit.   I like the Air Arms stuff so will have a look at those and I appreciate the advice on HW99 as I well know women can be fickle. 

I have a Kral bullpup, nice light unit, might suit your wife. I use a pump and l’m 70. Bit like having a mini gym in the kitchen! Always good to exercise, but these young-uns! Ha Ha.

 

 

[Walker570]

It is a very nice little gun. I think it maybe a Mk2 as it has a barrel band which I am told the Mk 1 didn't. Two piece stock and the whole unit is like new, not a scratch.

It will be interesting to see how it performs.

 

on edit.... job done Fisher, purchased an AA200S in .22 plus a pump.  The calibre was unimportant, the quality and price for what was for as good as new rifle was the deciding factor. I do quite a bit of vermin culling on the hoof around farm yards, up and down on silage pits and bales, so the lighter gun will get used for that as well, but hoping that my wife and I can enjoy some tree rat culling on the pheasant feeders this winter where we can cover both directions down a ride.  A bit of competition might arise as to who has most kills.

 

on edit.... I can see I will have to build like one of those 'love' seats for the pop up with rifle rest etc.

Edited November 13, 2017 by Walker570

[washerboy]

Hope you enjoy your S20O, I had one of the first mk1s and hated it, too light for me and I found it truly awful to load.silencer was perfect.

[Fisheruk]

I’m sure you will both enjoy it. Envious of your wife enjoying your hobby. Mine just withdraws to her sewing room. Interesting she spends far more on her hobby than I do on mine!

[bruno22rf]

Not a "real" Air Arms as you no doubt know (built by CZ from memory?) but made to their exacting specs and sold as a cheaper alternative to the rest of their range - if it had a larger cylinder I think that it would have out sold the S410 but it is as near perfect as you can get at this price. Is it a multi?+ fit an AA mod as it is very effective on the S200 and can usually be picked up used for little money. Only problem I have ever heard of is that the end cap can "stick" and unscrews the cylinder when you try and remove it to fill up. Mine was fed AA Fields and I never had reason to try anything else.