Accident. Daystate Air Ranger bottle front part blasts

[jmohme]

I’ve never liked the stress created on an air vessels neck, especially when exposed in a way where the bottle can be used to support the weight of the gun - also older gun? When was it last hydro’d?

I agree. I avoid resting the bottle of my RTI on anything. I bought an extended lower rail just to avoid that

 

[KatoKevin454]

the area that failed looks to be a stress point, I bet the gun had fallen before the customer received it, not sure if they are billet or cast but it may have had a defect in the cast or billet.

 

[SpiralGroove]

I just took a REALLY close look at it, the bottle is fine where it screwed on failed. Am I seeing that correctly?

Yes, for whatever reason .... it appears the bottle neck, connecting to the gun-> failed .

 

[Headshots]

If I had to be struck by it, I’d rather be the guy holding the gun when it let go rather than standing 20ft away after it has picked up substantial velocity.

I was thinking the guy holding the airgun, setting behind it at a bench or holding it in the field . Hopefully it was a fluke and not a design flaw.

 

[Headshots]

How far away from the wall it went through was it ?

 

[Emu]

That rifle should have many years.

I do not know what caused the problem but for sure it was not just one cause. It should had been a combination of at least two and one of them provably might have been prevented.

 

[gendoc]

That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the threaded end of the bottle.

it looks like aluminum threads ?

 

[gendoc]

I agree. I avoid resting the bottle of my RTI on anything. I bought an extended lower rail just to avoid that

i put all 5 of my bottle guns on the Bog Death-Grip tripod and the Caldwell turrent, bottle snugged down in the clamp.
i've watched the pro's do it.......should i be concerned ?
bottled guns,
Vulcan 3
Uragan 1
crown MKII
Talon-p
piledriver

 

[Glem.Chally]

i put all 5 of my bottle guns on the Bog Death-Grip tripod and the Caldwell turrent, bottle snugged down in the clamp.
i've watched the pro's do it.......should i be concerned ?
bottled guns,
Vulcan 3
Uragan 1
crown
Talon-p
piledriver

The Titan made some successful dives

 

[jmohme]

i put all 5 of my bottle guns on the Bog Death-Grip tripod and the Caldwell turrent, bottle snugged down in the clamp.
i've watched the pro's do it.......should i be concerned ?
bottled guns,
Vulcan 3
Uragan 1
crown
Talon-p
piledriver

Probably not, but why risk it. I just never saw the bottle as being the ideal item to rest the weight of any gun on.
And you snug the bottle down in the clamp on your Talon P?

 

[gendoc]

Probably not, but why risk it. I just never saw the bottle as being the ideal item to rest the weight of any gun on.
And you snug the bottle down in the clamp on your Talon P?

sorry, senior moment there........

 

[jmohme]

Yes, for whatever reason .... it appears the bottle neck, connecting to the gun-> failed .

The cut threads will always be the weakest point and act as a stress riser. If the bottle is not bottomed out against something or otherwise stabilized, then any movement or vibrations will be concentrated on the last or exposed threads.

 

[gendoc]

with all the sales of the bottle clamps that we see everywhere.................

 

[gendoc]

The cut threads will always be the weakest point and act as a stress riser. If the bottle is not bottomed out against something or otherwise stabilized, then any movement or vibrations will be concentrated on the last or exposed threads.

how many here for perfect alignment, just backed off a RCH from being tightend securely ?
and the fill pressure makes up the gap ? so less pressure could be something to avoid while resting in the safe or operating at ?

 

[Dairyboy]

Yeah I got away from bottle guns as I'm just not a fan of resting them on the bottles. I know people do it and have been fine, but I'm rough with guns so prefer a tube setup. Glad nobody got hurt at least

 

[inverted]

Really scary and interesting, especially as I have an Air Ranger myself . . .

The one that blew has something different than mine does, and also different than the picture from bigmike of a factory one in the second post too - if you look you will see that the aluminum bottle has some form of "collar" on it that spaced it off of the action about 15mm or so. I don't know why, as it clearly is too small to be a regulator or anything like that, and you can see in the photo that the failure occurred inside this "space" as well. On mine the threads engage the full length of the bottle, which are M18x1.5 with about 20mm or more of engagement - this set up reduced that engagement by a lot.

I believe something is not "factory" about this gun, and of course we do not know the pressure it was run at. But the bottle did not fail, the interfacing part on the gun failed, most likely because it was not being used as designed . . . . clearly more info will surface on this one . . .

I concur.

Bottle did not fail but the bottle-rifle interface part.

I had an Air Wolf and got to know it well. air Ranger is basically mechanical Air Wolf.
Something is not right on those pictures. Anodizing is completely wrong shade and back then, Daystate air rifles were flawless so it seems that it has been modified at some point. Also as AlanMcD mentioned, threads don't look right too.
We have no idea to which pressure it was filled through it's life, not necessarily the last time it was filled.
FRP on those was 232 bar, and those limits are in place because of rifles design as a whole. Designers are very well aware of any potential weak points of any rifle they design because in design phase they do simulations, but we as a community are tinkerers and to modify a critical stres point can lead to something like this.
In addition, it could have been knocked on a bottle a few times in it's life

All this is a speculation, academic talk and my opinion but I would bet that rifle was modified

 

[SpiralGroove]

Yeah I got away from bottle guns as I'm just not a fan of resting them on the bottles. I know people do it and have been fine, but I'm rough with guns so prefer a tube setup. Glad nobody got hurt at least

Bi-Pod Baby! ... Bi-Pod .

 

[Chukar60]

Do bottle clamps actually cause bottle or thread failures?
Asking because I do not recall seeing any posts about such an incident that was verified. A lot of theory but no actual incidents.
If anyone knows of one I would really like to know about it.

 

[cavedweller]

That rifle should have many years.

I do not know what caused the problem but for sure it was not just one cause. It should had been a combination of at least two and one of them provably might have been prevented.

define "many years" all pre charged pneumatic vessels have a shelf life... do we know ours?

 

[HogKiller]

define "many years" all pre charged pneumatic vessels have a shelf life... do we know ours?

When they turn into bottle rockets? As stated above the end of the threads is the weakest point, if you look at the surface of the break, there is zero indication of any cracks/water, it's an absolutely clean break. Where the issue is we don't see the other part, I'm postulating that the bottle, when screwed on was up solid against the shoulder, was slightly or more over tightened causing strain at the weak last thread, over time it just let go. There is, IMHO zero need to crank the bottle down