Question for You Knowledgable PCP Shooters

Hello,

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You need to know your sizes and material.

You need to modify paintball tank. all paintball tank have regulator on the end that outputs around 800 psi. You need to disable regulator or increase its output pressure to 3000 psi. You will also need fill station to connect paintball tank to your rifle. Be advised that those tanks are pretty small and will only be good for few fills before you need to drive to the shop to re-fill the tank.

There's several ways you could go about this depending on your budget and air fill resources in your area. You could go the route that shutik recommended above. You could also buy a scuba tank and the fill adapters necessary.

There are two common types of scuba tanks. Aluminum tanks which are rated for a max pressure of 3000 PSI and steel scuba tanks which are rated for 3442 PSI. You could get more fills from the steel scuba tank.

Another option is to get an SCBA carbon fiber (CF) tank which is rated to 4500 PSI which is the best option. You'll need to find a place like a dive/scuba shop or paintball shop that can fill to the pressures listed above.

Just ask them what is the highest PSI their compressor can fill up to. You could also check your local Fire Station. They usually have their own high pressure air compressors to fill their SCBA tanks. You would need to purchase an adapter to do this.

Some fire stations might not do this for liability reasons so it's best you know someone on the inside. Or you could go for the gusto and buy your own high pressure air compressor and SCBA or scuba tanks and not have to worry about a fill source.

You could also find a welding supply store who rents out nitrogen tanks and fill your SCBA tank from it. Again, you will need the proper adapters. Check out Joe Brancato at airtanksforsale.com. He'll have everything you'll need.

The SCBA tanks and fill adapters are pricey but they're high quality American made components. Keep your hand pump(s) for backup. Just a word of caution, it gets expensive but worth it in the long run and makes shooting more enjoyable instead of worrying about having to pump it.

I have 3 dive shops in my area that are anywhere between a 5 to 10 minute drive. They charge between $3.00 to $5.00 to fill my SCBA tank whether it's from 0-4500 PSI or 3000 to 4500 PSI. I saw no need to purchase a compressor given the current options I have.

I use a paintball tank, but it has the 3000 PSI regulator, and came with a fill station. I also have a Marauder in .22. If you have a paintball shop nearby that can pump it up to 4500 PSI, you'll get 10 or so fills off an 88 cubic inch tank. I have the Air Venturi from Pyramyd Air. About $350, complete setup including tank, regulator and fill station.

Most dive shops can only do about 3500 PSI, this will work, but reduce the number of fills considerably.

Sadly, air is the biggest problems with PCPs. I'm considering one of the Chinese 4500 PSI compressors on eBay for $225, but just don't have the cash to buy it at the moment. Until I have the cash, I'll just rely on the paintball shop to fill my tank.

Most paintball tanks have about an 800 PSI output, so you can see why they won't work. The 3000 PSI output regulators are usually GOLD color so the staff's at the shops can tell them apart. You never want one of those out on the range, as a paintball pushed at 3000 PSI could really hurt someone.

Highly recommend a tank. Pumping is great exercise, but I bought the gun to shoot, not pump. Lets me shoot just that much more.

Good advice here from the other posters.

I had to call several paintball and Dive shops, and I spent several days doing the research before I found a local Dive Shop that "had a compressor that was powerful enough to fill to 4500 PSI." So, make sure you find that source for air before you buy any fill tank as was previously mentioned.

FWIW - I purchased a CF Omega 74 cu foot tank from AoA for about $550 approximate and I get about 40-45 fills with my DS Regal XL .22 cal PCP assuming I fill from 120 BAR to 220 BAR. I cannot justify buying a compressor for just one PCP, but I agree that I would prefer to spend more time shooting than pumping. Especially true if you know you might end up buying one or more PCPs, then it becomes easier to justify a CF tank purchase -- for me anyway.

Takes less than 30 seconds to fill the gun each time it is needed, and the tank is 24" in length and weighs about 12-15 lbs -- so storing is not an issue.

Great advice from all the above.

The route I went a while back was a used SCBA tank (fire department breathing tank and are much lighter than SCUBA ) with about 10 years life left from the 15 years maximum allowed in the USA (albeit some of these same tanks are used for 30 years in Europe...but that's another topic). You can pick up SCBA tanks up on Ebay and at times on airgun forums. They have to inspected periodically and hydro tested, but that's only about $20-30 every few years.

Then I purchased one of the early Shoebox compressors back in 2012. Their latest version was on sale recently for $499, probably due to the increasing competition in this market. You will also need a shop air compressor ($50-100) as the first stage. Short of spending over $1,000, other options are the Altaros compressor from Europe or the Chinese ones on Ebay (reliability? parts?), or wait for a used one at an airgun forum.

One thing to be careful with parts/fittings. Many of the Ebay and Amazon HPA parts are not rated for high pressure air. Most are made in China and they are not a marked or they falsify the markings. It's not worth to save $20 on a $30 fitting (that you will use for years and years) and end up losing you finger or arm or eye. 

Here is a U.S. company I purchased from in the past HPA fittings:

http://www.northshorecompressor.com/products/SCBA-fill-hose-to-paintball-adapter.html

http://www.northshorecompressor.com/ip/paintball.html

http://www.northshorecompressor.com/categories/SCBA-Accessories-%28Fire-Fighting%29/

The one thing I saw omitted above is that you will do a lot more shooting if you have your own reliable source of air. I first got the Great White tank from Joe and had to drive over an hour to get to a shop that had air. I got lots of fills with that tank but one tends to be conservative in their shooting knowing they are consuming air at to high a rate and will soon be looking for more air. I solved that and got an Air Venturi compressor for about $1K. The bottom line is I shoot whenever I want and don't even think about air. I would suggest that you are more likely to stay with PCPs and do more exploring if you don't have to operate a pump.

Well said Jim.

Vicious circle we have here....but i like it!

The biggest problem of the pump or cheap compressor is moisture. I recently disassembled my Hill pump, it was nasty, a lot of residue and rust from moisture in the air. I'm changing dry-pac pellets in a pump at least once a season. Finally decided to go SCBA tank way.

Now you can find hundreds of those tanks on eBay. Most at the end of the lifespan or expired (carbon tank has 15 years lifespan), but the good news most of the tanks got an extension to 30 years. You can get 2003-04 tank for less than $100. Do hydro test for $30-50 - you are good for next 5 years for sure and most likely your tank will not fail hydro for another 15 years

Lot's of good imnformation on filloing, tanks. boosters, compressors in the section for such:

https://www.airgunnation.com/forum/discussion/air-tanks-pumps-and-compressors/

PA sells Life Extended" "LE" tanks. If wanting one at this point your best to deal with PA.

I have had 2 of the lower cost ( 1 $84.00 & 1 $49.00 ) hand pump and both are better QC than the benjamin and as good as FX. Do save money on that backup pump. I always keep one just to show folks they arent too hard to use. Sun was/is the original LOW QC hand pump. Took them a couple of years to stop telling people to put MOTOR OIL in thier airguns/pumps. Several years to improve QC to the level the sub $100 pumps were at a couple of years ago.



Your retired, have a shop compressor? Jump in thye airtank/fil section and learn all about "Boosters" yet another fun option. As I have enough time in life ( and I own the smallest hotdog compressor anyway) I use the altors booster.



Having your own air is very very nice.



John



any other airgun folks near you? THE best way to learn.

First I was told at our local Dive shop. They told me: as long as carbon tank would pass Hydro test, they would fill that tank. Even if it's older than 15 years (I guess it depends on the shop, state, etc.)

Also Pyramid Air started selling extended life tanks, but those still not as cheap as you can get from ebay. I just got couple days ago from ebay second tank for $104, it will be my travel tank. 30 minutes (44 c/ft), made in 2005 with 2015 hydro. It means I still have couple years on this hydro, will test in 2020. Even in the worst case scenario I'm good till 2025 for $104 - you can't beat that.

More information about extension you can find here:

https://www.digitalwavecorp.com/scba-life-extension-1

Once again, if you have higher end airguns, I would not go cheap compressor or hand pump way. After I saw how badly my hand pump looks inside from moisture, just after couple of years of use, I decided no way I'll pump that into my new guns. Cheap compressors and hand pumps can't separate moisture from air.

At the dive shop you are getting nice clean and dry air. I guess it is the reason why Chinese compressor cost $300-500 and dive shop compressor cost thousands. Fortunately for me our local dive shop with 4500 psi compressor is just 15 min away, with two tanks at home, I don't have to worry running out of air

First I was told at our local Dive shop. They told me: as long as carbon tank would pass Hydro test, they would fill that tank. Even if it's older than 15 years (I guess it depends on the shop, state, etc.)

Also Pyramid Air started selling extended life tanks, but those still not as cheap as you can get from ebay. I just got couple days ago from ebay second tank for $104, it will be my travel tank. 30 minutes (44 c/ft), made in 2005 with 2015 hydro. It means I still have couple years on this hydro, will test in 2020. Even in the worst case scenario I'm good till 2025 for $104 - you can't beat that.

More information about extension you can find here:

https://www.digitalwavecorp.com/scba-life-extension-1

Click to expand...

Great info on the 30 year life-extension certification! How much does it cost? Looks like they supply the life-extended tanks to PA, but do they certify directly to the public?



EDIT: I called the company. They are located in Colorado. They do service the general public but charge $300 for the extension. Add to that shipping trountrip.

Wow, 300 - that's a lot, I guess they are first company, who got those rights to issue an extension. It will be more companies like that and price hopefully will go down. If you look on ebay - hundreds of expired tanks floating around



I'm fine with my 2005 $104 ebay tank 

Even, if I can't get an extension, I can use this one till 2025

By that time, they may relax rules bit more, but even now, our dive shop guy told me, he will fill tanks as long as they pass hydro. Doesn't matter if a tank is older than 15 years. 

I guess it all depends on a State regulation and each Diving shop rules too. 

Some shops are asking you to sign paper - you not using that tank for breathing and when they don't mind tank age