Altitude vs PCP

[flatlander]

Odd question for the day. Heading to Colorado soon and plan to do some plinking and target shooting with a PCP rifle. My home is a couple hundred feet above sea level and we will travel over several passes that are 10,000 feet plus and be shooting at about 8,000 feet. Does increase in elevation affect tank pressure or ability to refill with a compressor. Can the rifle be transport with a full cylinder or will it need to be drained? Will altitude affect pellet travel, velocity or functionality of the rifle?

Thanks in advance. 

Rich 

 

[rc-air]

Hi Rich I live at 7500 feet and I travel up and down to see level and have no issues with my PCPs one thing you will notice is the gun will shoot a little faster up at altitude so you’ll shoot hi have a nice trip

 

[Guest]

I'd be more worried about my lungs capacity than the air tubes pressure. You might want to try some EPO to keep from getting tired to quick though.

 

[ImpactX]

If you mean travel as in a plane. Yes you need to degass it. You can not fly with a tank full of air. They will need to see pressure at zero. If you have a gauge on the tank it makes it easier for the airline to know it's empty.

 

[Ranchibi]

I just came back from helping a friend pest at his home at a higher elevation and like rc-air said pellets travel quite a bit faster in altitude....pellets travel is much flatter at distance, you’ll see .

 

[Macros]

Yep, the altitude will in effect, increase the bc of your projectiles.

Regarding cylinder pressures etc, the entire atmospheric pressure is only 1 bar, so the pressure in your cylinder relative to atmosphere can only ever go up by a fraction of 1bar as you go up in altitude. So even in a plane, the degassing is really only required in case of failure for other reasons. Lol, the drop in temperature in a plane's hold would have more of an effect and drop the pressure overall.

As far as compressors go, you may just notice a slight increase in fill time.

 

[flatlander]

To all that replied: Thank you for the information. 



Rich

 

[flynviking]

I live at 1200’ elevation and camp at 9300’ elevation. Last year I brought one of my pcps, no issue with the airgun or refilling using my tank. You’ll definitely need to adjust for drop due to a decrease in drag if you want to shoot at longer distances. I used StrelokPro to adjust for altitude and it was spot on out to at least 100 yards.