TargetTalk

I'm thinking of making the plunge to a PCP rifle, such as a 10M style, and am trying to get educated on the subject.

For a PCP rifle in the US, are the cylinders all rated for, and limited to, 200 bar? I see the advertisements that say 200 & 300 bar. I asked a vendor about the cylinder of the Hammerli AR20, and the response was "all air rifles in the USA are rated for 200 bar".

Does the cylinder pressure affect the shot, or simply the number of shots available from the cylinder?

The Hammerli spec lists a pellet velocity of approximately 560 fps. (I understand this will vary when different weights of pellets are used.) Is this a typical velocity for this style of air gun?

How significant is the pellet velocity? It seems that the faster the pellet gets out of the barrel the better, although my air pistol shoots substantially slower than 560 fps and has a reputation as being accurate.

Thanks for helping a "newby"!

In order of your questions:
Not true. But it's more convenient and cheaper to go with 200 BAR.

Number of shots. But not really important with large rifle cylinders (or pistol for that matter).

About right, but usually adjustable.

Not very, but the rifle shooters like a little higher velocity than the pistol shooters.

If I recall, some countries require an AP or AR as needing to be registered if it's FPS/MPS is greater than a certain #. The issue arose when some international shooters were not allowed into a country for an event since the literature on the APs showed that the FPS/MPS could be varied and the upper range was beyond the "registration required" level of the gun. The shooters wanted to prove that the APs were below the set figure, but they were still not allowed to proceed since the APs could be adjusted higher once they cleared customs ...

Maybe I dreamed this up, but I recall something about this 10 years ago ... Canada Grand Prix issues(?) Maybe some one else can corroborate.

In regards to the 200BAR, there may be some additional country rules that we are unaware of .... but 200bar is definitely enough air for a couple if natches and lots of dry-fire :-) ..

Walther (who ownes hammerli now) uses a lot of 300 bar cilinders.(LP and LG300 etc). Also the Tau mk 8.
Indeed, more shots available. I very much like that.
Maybe because they also use their system for the more powerfull 12Ftp/20Ftp LG300 Hunter version, in which case, 300 bar=more shots, is a great advantage. Also, no risk of overfilling, when you fill with 200+ bar divers bottles.
Some say, that the shot to shot consistency from 200 to 300 bar isnt at good as the consistancy <200. Allthough I doubt this to be true, cause they're regged, I wonder if it would show up at the card anyway.

All pcp's, and co2's for that matter, can be altered for pellet velocity. Never did change any velocity though, and never found the need to. Usually, factory adjustment, ís best.

Here in the UK, an air rifle must not exceed 12 Ftp [12 FOOT POUNDS] of muzzle energy. Any thing above that requires a fire arms licence, Pistols 6 Ftp with the same proviso. However, I doubt very much if the British authorities would sanction an air pistol over the legal limit due to our 'crazy' pistol laws.

10 Metre match air rifles from all the main manufacturers are around 7Ftp of muzzle energy and match air pistols some where below 6Ftp. So these are well below the legal limits in the UK.

Pellet velocity is not the main criterion in the UK, its muzzle energy which is calculated from the pellet weight and velocity. Perhaps some one can remember the maths, but for those visiting the UK with match air weapons should have no problems.

JSB