Need "experienced" knowledge about Tanks and Fills Please

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

Jim81

Member
Nov 2, 2017
550
33
Wa, United States
I am trying to determine if I should get a home compressor. I don't need advice, yet, about which one to get. I can do that later. I do need to know if it's something I should have considering my rifles and the distance to the closest air supply. (It's a round trip of a little over 80 miles). I shoot a FX t-12 whisper but mostly the FX Royale 500. I think I know the number of shots per fill varies with the power settings and the type pellet used. I have the Great White 100 cu ft tank.
What I don't know is at what tank pressure should I get a refill as what's left might operate the rifles but not consistently or correctly. I also realize the length of time between fills varies with how often I shoot etc. But, it doesn't matter if I shoot 24 hours straight of stretch out my shooting over a month there will be a point where the tank pressure is no longer viable. About what might that be?
I have shot about 400 rounds now and the fills have brought the tank pressure from 4500 down to 4000. I don't know if the reduction in pressure vs use (number of shots) is linear or does it drop off on some serious curve after it gets to a certain point?
I guess I am seeking advice from someone who says. "I have the same rifle and I have found I better get a refill when my refill tank gets to "X PSI. I could still get some shots out of it but it's not practical."
Thanks in advance for humoring a newbie.
 
Jim. I don't have that gun, sorry. But I hope I can help if only a little. Considering the distance you are driving, I would say more than likely I would either try to fill at home, or see if you can get a welding supply to deliver you a 6000psi tank. They rent the tank and charge per exchange, they usually deliver. You would need to research if that is a viable option for you. If you do not shoot a lot, making the round trip may make sense. May even want to get more than one tank, make a trip, and have enough to last you a while. If you shoot frequently, I would recommend either a compressor or a booster. It's a bit expensive and a bit frustrating at times, but there is nothing like having your own source of air at home if you get into this hobby. 
 
Upvote 0
Both of your rifles have regulators in them, which is lowest working pressure you can use for consistent shots.

I would advise to keep using the tank until you get within 200-300 psi above working pressure. Then you would get only handful of shots per fill.

Relationship between current pressure and volume in air cylinder is inverse proportional. So you get more fills from 4k psi to 3.5k psi than from 4.5k to 4k

1c0d14cfb17296b333ca53e27bf83c0c.jpg
 
Upvote 0
Having your own source of air is like having a get off of jail free card...Your time is worth something( 20.00 a hour),wear and tear on the vehicle(about 0.52 cents a mile) and gas cost(2.34 a gal) and cost of tank fill, it all adds up..Having your own air frees you up of all of that plus your not always worrying about how much air you have and not taking 2-3 hours out of your day to get it filled..
Having a Compressor or shoebox adds so much freedom if your going to keep shooting Airguns for the long term, then it’s all about if you want to fill your tank quick or if you have a day or so to fill will depend on what type of air system you get, one runs around 4-6 hundred(shoebox) and the other is 1300 and up for a good system, sure you can buy off eBay and get one for 360.00 but your taking a chance there...
I had no choice because I have no where to fill my tanks within 150 miles so my only option was to buy a compressor and I went with the Air Venturi and I have no regrets, the older I get the less time I want to spend driving to get air I would rather take that time and shoot.
Also Having your own air opens up the opportunity to have more then just one Airgun. If I was in your position I wouldn’t even hesitate about getting my own air supply, it’s just getting a unit that suits your needs.
 
Upvote 0
I'll throw my 2 cents in...and surely somebody will disagree but here it is.

You'll want to refill the tank when the tanks pressure drops below what psi you fill your guns to. You can continue filling your guns from a tank w less pressure but it just means you won't get as many shots per fill...and that only gets worse the lower the tanks pressure. 

With a 100cu ft great white, you should get a tremendous amount of shots before all this happens. I refill my 100 cu ft tanks when they drop to 3000-3250psi and I get a lot of gun refills before that point. Approx 40 or so between my Colibri and Wildcat refilling from around 150 bar back to 230.

You need to find the sweet spot in terms of gun pressure in relation to pellet performance and from there it's all trial and error to figure out the number of fills you get per refill of the tank. It won't take many tank fills to figure this out, esp if you keep a journal or log of your results..
 
Upvote 0
If you can afford to get a compressor, get a compressor. If you can save towards a compressor in the future, save for it. I will agree with Imold, having a compressor is a game changer. You will shoot more and enjoy it much more when you dont have to worry about a 80 mile round trip every shot. I dont get to shoot a lot but when I do I can shoot 1000 pellets in a long weekend easily. All I do is hook up and fill and keep shooting. 
 
Upvote 0
14 fills if you refill your gun when the gauge drops to 140bars, and fill the gun to 220bars, great white 97cubic feet, 9.2Liter water volume, 300bar in great white. 
500ccm

as someone here mentioned, if you benchrest shooting, you can leave the large tank connected all the time if you are careful and then you can shoot it down until power drops off for good.

you did not give us caliber etc details so i had to assume some numbers here.
the apps version of chairgun has a pcp fill calculator in the toolbox, or there are online fill calculators too.

think about it this way, there is certain volume of air in the great white. 9-10liters times 300bar it is around 3000liters of air.
if you use only 300bar-220bar, practically onlly 80barsx10water liter volumes of air, 800liters for shooting. all the rest is just sitting there.

by tethering you can use 300bar down to 140bar, 160 almost double of volume.

when i change the 220bar to 200bar only, then you get 25 refills. Not bad at all.
similarly the second important factor is where the reg is set to, if very high, you will go to the fill place often. that is another consideration for the power hungry Americans.
lol
 
Upvote 0
Thanks all!! Digesting all of the above, if I have done so correctly, the Royale 500 (.25 caliber with a 500 tank) fills to 220 bar. If I fill when air supply reaches about 3200 PSI it sounds like I am at the point where it's time to travel for air refill. Thanks for the inverse curve. Didn't think it would be linear but inverse was a shock. Also buying another air supply tank is about half of some of the better low end compressors. The thought that now there's no thought to air supply if you have a compressor is appealing. 
I'll have to wait a bit to see how long my great white lasts. Kind of a poor time to make a judgement as the weather is so crappy it'll definitely interfere with shooting opportunities. Thinking about shooting out of Rec room door across a driveway into the shop area with a good back stop. I live rural so no sweat about endangering others. At least there would be a dry place to shoot.
Again Thanks!! Appreciate all the responses and experiences. It surely helps steer my thoughts.
 
Upvote 0
On other thing you can try before you get the inevitable compressor is to get another 10 cf tank and use a cascade system to fill which let’s say you have a 3000 psi rifle is fill rifle using 1 tank when the tank gets below the wanted pressure in rifle continue to fill rifle with it, then top off with other tank, that way you can use the rest of the air in 1 tank and the second tank will only be doing a partial Fill. If you want to be more mobile and nod have to carry w heavy tanks get a pony bottle say 90 cc which you fill at your car we’re the tanks are the same way I told you to do the rifle from the 2tanks that small easy to back pack tank should give you 12 or so fills.

watch this video but you don’t need the brand their selling any tank to rifle system will work
https://youtu.be/S7fcuoGfXNQ
 
Upvote 0
 IF you can afford air at home get it !

You can do the math ( just fill in the blanks) fill calc :

http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/Tanks/FillCalc.html

Not as many fills as I would like before having to drive that distance for air. After moving to an even worse area for air I purchased a booster pump from altros. If I could have afforded a well know stand alone DRY air compressor I would have done that. It is just so nice to top off a 4,500psi tank at a time which suits me.

John



 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu