Charging Bottle advice

[400driver]

Just finished my range at home so intend to shoot 4 or 5 times per week. I currently have my LP10 charged at the club and i am wondering how best to proceed at home.

My options are a Hill pump that I already have for which I would just need to buy some quick release valves and adaptors for the Steyr.

OR

A 12 or 15L 200Bar bottle and the associated connections.

Can someone give me a rough idea how many fills will i get when filling the cylinder from about 100-200Bar?

I understand that there is a small chance of moisture entering the cylinder if I use the Hill pump and the Dry-pack.

Many thanks for any pointers to help me make up my mind.

My club charges 80 cents per tank cylinder fill.

[Andre]

Steyr LP10 cylinders fill very fast because of how small they are. I have a Hill pump and it's very easy to use. Easily the best hand pump on the market.

No need for a bleed valve, in fact if you used one it would drain the tank. (because the fill adapter opens the check valve to the tank, like Walthers) Just unscrew the tank from the adapter while charged, after a few turns the air between the pump and tank will drain and you can continue removing the cylinder.

I have the air dryer on my pump, does it work? I don't know, seems to. I'm sure you can drain any liquid moisture in the tank by degassing it (using the fill adapter outside the pump) and letting some air out while the gauge end of the tank points up.

[400driver]

Many thanks Andre.
Will order the Hill accessories and think about the extra cost of the bottle.

[David M]

If you are going to shoot 4-5 times a week, you will get sick of the pump very quickly.
Go the Scuba tank, you will get 6-12 months depending on use between fills.
At the pistol club all members using it , we get 2-3 months per tank.

[400driver]

That is a lot of charges! I will price up the tank also.

[Mtl_Biker]

Just finished my range at home so intend to shoot 4 or 5 times per week. I currently have my LP10 charged at the club and i am wondering how best to proceed at home.

My options are a Hill pump that I already have for which I would just need to buy some quick release valves and adaptors for the Steyr.

OR

A 12 or 15L 200Bar bottle and the associated connections.

Can someone give me a rough idea how many fills will i get when filling the cylinder from about 100-200Bar?

I understand that there is a small chance of moisture entering the cylinder if I use the Hill pump and the Dry-pack.

Many thanks for any pointers to help me make up my mind.

My club charges 80 cents per tank cylinder fill.

Chances are that the 12 or 15L 200 bar bottle will be a carbon fibre one. They're expensive. I see you're in Spain and I have no idea about scuba shops in your area, but here in Montreal Canada, where there really isn't all that much diving to be had, we have several scuba shops. And I bought two used 80 cu ft for $200 Canadian (about 135 Euros) each. They came with DIN valves, so no other fitting (other than the adapter that came with your LP10) is needed. It costs me $9 Cdn to fill the tank and I can fill my EVO-10 compact cylinders more than 200 times on a fill.

My suggestion to you would be before buying any new gear, particularly a carbon fibre tank, check with local scuba diving shops to see if they have any used tanks. If they don't have any at the moment, chances are they will at some point and you might have to wait a little while. And those tanks usually get hydro tested when you buy them and then they're good for 10 years. It becomes very very inexpensive (and easy!) to fill your LP10 cylinder(s).

Hope this helps...

[Rover]

+1

[400driver]

Yes I'm in Spain where they like to extract every last penny out of the consumer. The bottles are steel and I see that I can order the whole kit for a 12 L, 300 Bar bottle with all the connections for 239 pounds which is pretty reasonable. Better if you are using $$$!
Will pick one up on my next visit.
Thanks all for the advice.

[wasatch]

Fire departments are another option for filling compressed air bottles. In the US they're generally using 4500psi carbon fiber SCBA (not SCUBA) bottles. Meaning more pistol cylinder fills per trip to refill SCBA tank and/or a smaller tank to get the same number of fills compared to 3000 psi SCUBA.

My friendly neighborhood fire department fills my SCBA tank (with current hydrotest) for free.

If you go this route you will need to investigate fittings to connect your tank to their compressor. This site specializes in SCBA and SCUBA equipment for compressed air guns: http://www.airtanksforsale.com/ Search page for 'fire house' to see the adapters. Spain may be different?

Another adapter that is quite handy is the 'Stainless Steel DIN200/DIN300' (search the above site) which adapts the quick disconnect on the hose to most fill adapters for removable air cylinders from competition type air guns.

Best Fittings of the UK sells lots of the same HPA equipment for airguns. http://www.bestfittings.co.uk/default.asp

Here's an online calculator to determine the # of fills from a given tank: http://www.calc.sikes.us/2/

[Andre]

If you are going to shoot 4-5 times a week, you will get sick of the pump very quickly.

The Hill pump is easy to use, but especially if pumping before shooting it might not be the best idea. A few importers take the second Steyr tank out of the case and only ship them with one, (Not naming names, but I would like an explanation as to why this is done) but if you have both you can fill both of them every other day.

[Gwhite]

I'm trying to get back up to shooting 4-5 times a week, which I used to do a couple years ago. With long Steyr or Morini cylinders, I seem to recall that I could easily get at least two practice sessions per cylinder. I have two cylinders, and when I was done shooting, I'd use my Hill pump on the spare cylinder, if it needed it. It really wasn't a big deal to keep supplied with adequate compressed air.

If you go overboard & shoot several times a day, that would require pumping up both cylinders almost every day, which might get a bit tiresome.