Always read from the bottle, never the gun?

How would you know if either are right? Not a dig, just saying that I wouldn't trust any gauge until you know it's right. Do you have a different gun to hand pump? That would give you another comparison point. You could put together a larger gauge with the right assortment of fittings to fit the end of the fill hose on the pump directly. Pump a few times and compare the 2 readings. 

I learned to trust my tanks by having all three pretty much agree with the compressor while filling two at a time cascaded, and comparing that the tanks vs the gauge on the guns I fill. I know that this isn't something everyone can do.

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I definitely wouldn't know. I just got my first pellet gun in 40 years a couple days ago, and am learning everything from scratch. It did strike me that there must be a way to test my gauge ... but that would involve another gauge ... and how would I know that one was right either? I was wondering if I should buy some device or maybe go to a dive shop and see if they offer a service to verify gauges ... your dual tank set-up is well beyond me at this point. Though I did just now order a small tank, as I can't see myself wanting to do a lot of hand-pumping in these 100 degree days. Meanwhile, I just don't want to explode anything including myself!

Generally speaking ... the gage on the bottle will be more accurate than the one on the gun. For one, it is bigger, it is more expensive, it is filled with glycerin. I would say that if all things are equal, the larger, more expensive, glycerin filled gage would be closer to the actual pressure than the dime store manometers on most guns. I have one of Joe Brancato's slow fill devices on my bottle and it is almost always spot on as I checked it a Edgun EDMU electronic gage on my R5M.

When you say "always/ reliably true" of course not, these things are mass produced and quality control is not always up to what it should be ... but generally speaking I would trust a compressors or a bottle gage over one on the gun or a hand pump.

Shalom

John

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Thanks for your feedback. I only have a handpump and a marauder pistol at this point, but just ordered a small tank. If the gun tends to be the least accurate, I won't push my luck with any kind of fill system. I was just surprised to see such a big disparity of 300 PSI between gun and handpump. I can learn to live with it though, for safety's sake.

I only fill to 3000psi max no matter what the gun is rated for. Don't want any annoying leaks in the long run and the guns seems to be more accurate too.

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3k is the max of my marauder, but I've read varying figures to include 2800 being about the highest you want to go for consistent shot strings. So I was thinking, if my hand pump says 3k plus, but my gun says 2600 or 2700 ... am I about to get shredded in a way that doesn't have anything to do with my diet? What you're saying fits in with my wanting to play it safe, so I think I will do like you do. I am surprised though that you say that in a general sense, when you have guns like the Air Venturi Avenger which, if I recall correctly, can take up to 4500 PSI. That's such a giant difference, that 3k seems sooooo cautious. I'm starting to get the feeling that folks don't feel that manufacturing standards are quite what companies say or imply they are. 

When I got my Impact the gauge was 40 bar or 580psi off of my compressor and tank gauges which were very close to one another! That is a bit much to me so I replaced both of the gauges on the gun. One of the replacements was 20bar off so I put the best of the original gauges back on. Something we all need to remember is that our gun gauges are more like indicators than actual gauges. They will usually get us close which is good enough for our needs most of the time.

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I guess I have to play it this way then. I thought after half a century of scuba tanks, this would be a beyond-refined science and level of safety. Heck, I mean ... explosive capacity is involved! Oh well, guess not. I also hope that the 300 PSI discrepancy between my handpump and my marauder pistol is trivial. I mean, 300 is only 10% of the 3000 PSI the pistol is supposed to take, but 10% more dead or being exploded on than you were a millisecond ago still matters.

Thanks. It's a 70 buck cheapo but it did.