Justify buying a compressor?

Two years ago this past November, I bit the bullet and purchased an Omega Super Compressor. I consider this purchase one of the very best I ever made towards my air gun shooting. 226 operating hours later the compressor is operating great and has required very little in the way of maintenance. I tell anyone on the fence regarding a compressor decision - go for it!

Justification for me buying a 4500 pis Omega Air Charger - I wanted it and could afford it, without taking food off the table.

One of the best investments I've ever made in this air gun hobby.

If you are trying to justify buying a compressor, you can not. If you have to justify spending money on anything related to hobby. You can not. If a person will spend $1000 on an airgun, spend the money to fill the thing. The best thing I have done is to buy a cheap chinese compressor. I have shot way more than I did before. And I am getting to be a better shooter because of it. My compressor cost me $384 shipped to my door. That is less then the price of most airguns. If you can afford more get a better compressor. If not get one like mine. After the rifle, a compressor should be everyones second perchase. We all seem to buy several airguns. Buy one, then buy a compressor before the second airgun.

I did a lot of research looking at Chinese compressors. Most of them were designed to fill a 1L bottle and sell for about $210 plus another $150-165 for shipping. The better one looks just like the Airmax II, a 2 stage compressor. I found a vendor selling those for $345, plus $246 for shipping, total of $591. These are much heavier duty and rated to fill a 6.8L bottle in 20 to 30 min. I'm still debating getting one, but I'm new to the sport and don't really know how much air I'll really use. For now, I'll just use a 6.8L Scott air tank and get it filled locally. If that turns into a big hassle, I might go ahead and spring for the compressor. Honestly, the next $600 chunk of cash I have to spare I'd rather use to get an ATN X Sight II night vision scope with HD video recording, or a thermal scope. Something about rodent/varmint hunting at night intrigues me...

Since it was mentioned: Who has a "Thermal" scope for $600? 

Thurmond

I've seen a Leupold LTO for $650, but everything else seems to be a lot more than that. I wasn't saying that thermal scopes are $600, but the ATN is about $600 and the other option for night vision is thermal, sorry if it was misleading.