Hand pumping a pcp

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beerthief

beerthief

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Jun 20, 2019
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Scottsville, Alan County , Kentucky, United States
I have been reading "newbie" post's , and thought i would post this advise 

If you are using a hand pump to fill your PCP MY experience is to not let your gun get below 1/2 fill . Let say your gun fills to 300 bar , just don't let it get below 150 bar then (at least in my Gauntlet) it takes about 10 minutes to refill and it is good exercise also if the gun is empty when you receive it , take it to a paint ball field or store , their compressor usually will only fill it 1/2 way or so but that is the hard part to do , the first half fill .

SO at least at first don't be leery about using a hand pump , I'm a 76 year old and i did that for the first year of PCP life .

shoot straight , Stan in KY 



Wonderful replies to this post , thankyou ALL . I started this post because i keep reading post after post to newbies to just bite the bullet and buy a compressor . this can double or more their entry cost into the hobby . I am a relative newbie @76
 
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I am still hand pumping, but one of my guns (in for evaluation at pitbull) is an airhog and it requires 30-60 pumps with a break then another 30-60 pumps with a break, or the pump gets too hot. I'd get a good hand pump though--I have two, one of them the handles are hard. Also, if you're pumping to 4500 or 3500 psi like I am, it helps to be a bit heavier. Others who are lighter than me cannot pump that high.
 
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My kids gave me a Benjamin hand pump for Christmas in 2019. I did not buy a PCP until May of 2020 when I got a Benjamin Marauder Pistol. I hand pumped it until after buying first an Avenger, then a higher pressure hand pump, then a Yong Heng, then a SCBA bottle and then a valve/hose for the bottle. I did not get the Avenger until January of 2021 so all I had was hand pumps for about a year. If I was just using the Prod I probably would never have purchased the Yong Heng. It just is not that hard to fill 66ccs to 3,000 psi. But 180ccs to 300 bar is a very different matter. But I still did it for months. I filled the little Prod a bunch of times with a pump even after getting the Yong Heng. I was worried about the compressor filling the gun too fast. But it doesn't. Less than a minute but plenty of time to react. But it is a lot more enjoyable to fill a 45 minute SCBA tank once a month or so and fill the guns from that. But I am not getting rid of my hand pumps. If I ever have compressor problems, I will hand pump. If I had to stretch the budget to get the Yong Heng I would not have. Pumping is very doable. I did not always pump the Avenger to 300 bar. I usually just pumped it up to 3500.
 
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I started out with a hand pump and it was easy to manage, the small Crosman tubes at 2000psi, even with the shoulder and arm injuries. 

When I started the 2400psi pumping it was a bit more difficult but still doable. 

A short time after I started the 3000psi pumping I started tearing myself up again so got a Yong Heng and never looked back.
 
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Bought a pump many years ago, a Hills MK3. Tried pumping my Theoben bottle a few times.

Easy to 180 bar, thereafter my valves starting blow one by one, initially heart surgeon did repair work and then thereafter when I tried again I felt my aorta popping through my upper chest I canned it and bought a 7L 300 bar dive cylinder, never looked back......
 
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My First pcp was a .25 marauder. Got 16 shots per fill and I'd hand pump that gun from 1800 to 3000psi 10 times a day. That was in my early 20's and before kids lol. I feel I use to concentrate a whole lot more on my shooting when I only hand 16 shots before needing air. Fast forward 10 years and now I use an omega trail charger and CF tank for extended shooting sessions. So much air on tap sometimes I forget to concentrate and just let lead fly.
 
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A lot depends on the size of gun tank. My Brocock Atomic XR isn't worth breaking out my compressor or Great White air tank. It only takes 30-40 pumps after 15-20 shots.
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Actually, that is not quite correct,

it all depends on power and how many shots you take between refills,......if you have 2 guns of the same caliber and power, one with a 180cc tank, the other with a 580cc tank and you take 20 shot with both guns full you will pump the same to fill up again regardless of the tank size.

Of course the gun with the 580cc tank will want to make you take more shots on a fill just because,.......but, in reality the tank size do not matter and should not factor in when making a purchase decision, 

just keep in mind,..shots taken between top ups that is all that matters.
 
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You guys are pretty tough. I am one year in and the thought of hand pumping my Benjamin Armada went thru my head so fast, like it was never there. My compressor was only a hundred more than a hand pump, and I converted a small oxygen bottle for a portable mig welder for off grid shooting. Can fill my rifle in 1.25 minutes, and my tank from 1500 to 2800 in 15 minutes. My current settings get 70 shots at 1500 regulated. Tank size definitely matters !!!
 
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Actually, that is not quite correct,

it all depends on power and how many shots you take between refills,......if you have 2 guns of the same caliber and power, one with a 180cc tank, the other with a 580cc tank and you take 20 shot with both guns full you will pump the same to fill up again regardless of the tank size.

Of course the gun with the 580cc tank will want to make you take more shots on a fill just because,.......but, in reality the tank size do not matter and should not factor in when making a purchase decision, 

just keep in mind,..shots taken between top ups that is all that matters.
Click to expand...

This is why I never understand why so many people recommend guns with really small capacity for someone who wants to hand pump. It doesn't matter how big an air capacity the gun has, each shot will require about the same amount of pumps at a particular FPE and caliber. I don't have any experience with unregulated guns, but with my regulated gun with 292cc air capacity with a maximum 250 bars, It shoots around 100 shots at 31 FPE from 250 bars down to regulator pressure of 95 bars. 100 shots is a lot and I rarely shoot that many in one session. It means, I can keep my gun at lower pressures (I usually have it on the ready at around 150 bars) and still get a good amount of shots. When I run it down to regulator pressure, I don't feel the need to pump it to full pressure. Pumping from 95 bars to 150 bars is MUCH easier than pumping from 150 bars to 205 bars even though both offer the same amount of shots for the same amount of pumps (at least on my gun). On my gun, 55 bars of pressure gets me around 35 shots. A gun with a smaller tank will require me to pump to much high pressures to get the same shot count. Also, a gun with a smaller tank will never have the option of be able to fill it more if I'm willing to put in the effort to pump it to its full 250 bar pressure in anticipation for a day with a lot of shooting. Yes, a gun with a bigger tank will always take more time and effort to hand pump than one with a smaller tank if I'm always shooting down to regulator pressure and always pumping up to full pressure, but the fact remains that each shot for a particular FPE and caliber takes about the same amount of pump strokes. And who's to say that I always have to fill my gun at full pressure or that I have to shoot down to regulator pressure. Again, this is for a regulated gun. I don't know how it is with unregulated. Really, the only downside I can think of with a bigger tank for hand pumping is if I have to fill the gun up from totally empty. I had to do it a few times when I was tuning the regulator because my gun doesn't have an external regulator adjustment. That was a pain because it takes around 500 pumps to fill my gun. I took it 50 pumps at a time with 10 minutes break in between.
 
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Actually, that is not quite correct,

it all depends on power and how many shots you take between refills,......if you have 2 guns of the same caliber and power, one with a 180cc tank, the other with a 580cc tank and you take 20 shot with both guns full you will pump the same to fill up again regardless of the tank size.

Of course the gun with the 580cc tank will want to make you take more shots on a fill just because,.......but, in reality the tank size do not matter and should not factor in when making a purchase decision, 

just keep in mind,..shots taken between top ups that is all that matters.
Click to expand...

This is why I never understand why so many people recommend guns with really small capacity for someone who wants to hand pump. It doesn't matter how big an air capacity the gun has, each shot will require about the same amount of pumps at a particular FPE and caliber. I don't have any experience with unregulated guns, but with my regulated gun with 292cc air capacity with a maximum 250 bars, It shoots around 100 shots at 31 FPE from 250 bars down to regulator pressure of 95 bars. 100 shots is a lot and I rarely shoot that many in one session. It means, I can keep my gun at lower pressures (I usually have it on the ready at around 150 bars) and still get a good amount of shots. When I run it down to regulator pressure, I don't feel the need to pump it to full pressure. Pumping from 95 bars to 150 bars is MUCH easier than pumping from 150 bars to 205 bars even though both offer the same amount of shots for the same amount of pumps (at least on my gun). On my gun, 55 bars of pressure gets me around 35 shots. A gun with a smaller tank will require me to pump to much high pressures to get the same shot count. Also, a gun with a smaller tank will never have the option of be able to fill it more if I'm willing to put in the effort to pump it to its full 250 bar pressure in anticipation for a day with a lot of shooting. Yes, a gun with a bigger tank will always take more time and effort to hand pump than one with a smaller tank if I'm always shooting down to regulator pressure and always pumping up to full pressure, but the fact remains that each shot for a particular FPE and caliber takes about the same amount of pump strokes. And who's to say that I always have to fill my gun at full pressure or that I have to shoot down to regulator pressure. Again, this is for a regulated gun. I don't know how it is with unregulated. Really, the only downside I can think of with a bigger tank for hand pumping is if I have to fill the gun up from totally empty. I had to do it a few times when I was tuning the regulator because my gun doesn't have an external regulator adjustment. That was a pain because it takes around 500 pumps to fill my gun. I took it 50 pumps at a time with 10 minutes break in between.
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BINGO !!!



Some things get repeated over and over again and unfortunately people start to take then as fact when they are clearly not.
 
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I used to hand pump my 3000 psi discovery rifle with the cheap $50 Chinese pumps. I had the rifle modded for high power and only got 8 shots at 60fpe out of it. I got so tired of pumping thing thing up, I put it back to stock configuration. Using the pump on a 2260 pcp frame or Prod is easy, but even the disco was a workout. I think the quality of the pump does matter, because I'm in pretty good shape. Bench press 355 deadlift 520 lol, and it kicked my arse lol. Soon as I got a larger tubed air gun, my next immediate purchase was a YH compressor and I haven't hand pumped since!
 
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I really like filling from my SCBA tank but if I had to hand pump I would still want to shoot my PCPs. I fill my guns when they are low enough that the velocity is low. I did the same when I hand pumped. I know it is possible to top off earlier but I don't understand why that would make sense. If you are hand pumping, the easiest pumps are at the lowest pressure. More stored air means more pumps if the end pressure is the same. But if guns are equally efficient in their use of air you can pump fewer pumps and just shoot less shots like you have to with a gun like my Prod - 66cc storage. Some power plenums are about that size. But 30-50 shots for about 30 pumps is not a bad trade. I would not want to tune my other guns to the power level of the Prod so they use more air per shot and were more work to pump up. But still plenty doable for this 66 year old.
 
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Pump shmump.

I've had my .22 caliber AVA for a couple of weeks now and will now order a Yong Heng. I'm 67, still relatively strong, weigh in at 200 and have to practically come of my feet with my stomach against the handpump when approaching 3000 psi. Not good for a person who has had three umbilical hernia repairs and a bum shoulder. 

Just my 2 cents with some Naproxen.

Ponz
 
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Pump shmump.

I've had my .22 caliber AVA for a couple of weeks now and will now order a Yong Heng. I'm 67, still relatively strong, weigh in at 200 and have to practically come of my feet with my stomach against the handpump when approaching 3000 psi. Not good for a person who has had three umbilical hernia repairs and a bum shoulder. 

Just my 2 cents with some Naproxen.

Ponz
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I find it funny when you read manufacturers stating their rifles are hand pump friendly on a 3000+ psi fill. Even a small diana stormrider will fight you to get that last few hundred psi !
 
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