I'm curious to hear tell your findings. I have found my own but wanted to hear from others first.
PCP & springer.
PCP & springer.
Serious cold and airguns
- Thread starter JamesD.
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You have to define serious cold. Make it cold enough and military lubricants begin to fail in PBs.
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You are right. I have known of firing pins freezing up inside of bolt action rifle’s When it gets cold enough.
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If 16 deg F is cold I can say the only effect it had on my PRod was # of shots. I filled to 3000 in house and once sitting in the woods after a few hours it was reading 2600psi. I had no problem shooting the gun, or hitting the squirrel I was aiming at.
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I have had a 200 psi drop in pressures regularly. I pay attention to filling outdoors in the cold so when I get back inside it is not over filled. A shooting session in the cold will typically frost the barrel and moderator as well.
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It’s not that the cold gives you less shots, it’s that the PSI reading on the gauge is in relation to tank temperature at the time of fill. Conversely, when the ambient temperature rises to that when the tank was filled (to your ideal pressure) the PSI reading on the gauge would be the same as when you first filled it.
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OK, so you're telling that I would have gotten the same # of shots that I would have at 70 degree (the temp I filled it)? I can tell you the answer is NO, I would not have gotten as many shots, therefore the cold affected my shot count. Sure there are things that could have been done to change the effect (ie overfilling), but without doing those the cold DID cause me to get less shots.
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No—I am saying you would get the same amount of shots that you initially filled the gun to when the ambient temperature rises to that of the tank at the time of fill. Of course, you would get only the number of shots that a lower pressure can provide.
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I was just out this weekend shooting at the range. Temps about 35 degrees. Temp in the house when I filled the gun and the tank to 300bar was ~68.
Definitely confirm as the gun and tank cooled down outside pressures dropped to around 260 bar and shot count and fill count from the tank were both lowered. Definitely expect a drop in efficiency with the temperature.
I would guess in a PCP the things which could fail in extreme cold are o-rings which could shrink or harden, metal parts connected together made of different metals having different thermal coefficients of expansion and most likely POI changes.
Definitely confirm as the gun and tank cooled down outside pressures dropped to around 260 bar and shot count and fill count from the tank were both lowered. Definitely expect a drop in efficiency with the temperature.
I would guess in a PCP the things which could fail in extreme cold are o-rings which could shrink or harden, metal parts connected together made of different metals having different thermal coefficients of expansion and most likely POI changes.
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This is why my bigbores sets in the unheated garage between outings. That and the frost on the rifles being brought into a warm house. I fill the guns in the temp I will be hunting. Yesterday, I lost almost 50 bar of pressure in my Wildcat after filling the rifle inside and then having it set overnight in my unheated truck. That estimates about 10 to 15 or so shots. But if you fill in the cold to your fill pressure, You will get just as many shots as you would in warmer weather. In the/my bigbores, a 40* drop in temp will put my shots (only get a couple) several inches low or possibly even high at 50 yards depending on the time it takes the bullet to leave the barrel. Another thing to watch is the fill pressure after coming back into the house. Or your car. Just like babies, a full tank is not good in a sun-drenched back window. A 4500 filled bottle will climb pretty high.
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I think the thing to be careful of, as Quad82 alluded to, is if you have a tank at 4500psi in the cold and then bring it indoors it could increase in pressure substantially. Might even blow a burst disk if the pressure gets high enough. Could be very bad for a gun in the similar situation.
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Oil is another thing like already mentioned. After a deer hunt with my son durning Christmas, we headed for the house. Decided to stop at the pond and see if my Badger was still zeroed at 50. Pulled the trigger and nothing. As I raised my head from the scope, the rifle went off. A hang fire. Just like my old cap and ball muzzleloader. At 17*, the hammer froze to the wall. Finely the spring pressure let go the hammer. Glad it happened shortly after pulling the trigger and didn’t go off as I was lifting the rifle off the table.
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This is a rather interesting thread.
If the gun is filled to 3000psi then drops down to 2600psi due to cold temperatures what if no shots fired then brought back to warmer temperature does it go back up to 3000psi?
If the gun is filled to 3000psi then drops down to 2600psi due to cold temperatures what if no shots fired then brought back to warmer temperature does it go back up to 3000psi?
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Exactly. As long as the warmer temp is the same as when the gun was filled. Pretty much like car tires loose pressure durning winter.
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This is what I was curious about, failures.
I have a big compressor that produces E quality breathing air but, I noticed freeze up in PCP's and the step down in-line reg.
Now is moisture ever able to be completely removed? No. and what happens during slow flow, fast, any expansion of compressed air? It gets cold, and in the Winter weather I hear my step down in-line reg leaking at the bleeder. It's frosted and not seating any longer at the bleeder when this occurs. Tighten it more? Use a different seal? Don't shoot when it's so cold?
I honestly haven't had any problem with springers except loading with numb fingers. A spring could break in the cold though.
It's not a big problem for me as I honestly don't like the cold so much anymore but I wanted to know what others have experienced.
I'm not really worried about regulated perfect performance (groups) in cold windy weather. Just dependable and built for ease of maintenance.
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