(SOLVED) Tethering Cricket to tank?

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FearnLoading

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Apr 2, 2015
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Hi guys. Does anyone know how I can tether my scuba tank to my cricket ? I have a 300 bar tank and I usually fill my cricket to 250 and shoot. Once my scuba tank comes down to 250, I was wondering if I could just tether and leave it attached. By this I mean keeping the scuba valve cracked all open and keep the fill pipe inserted into my cricket tank.

Do I need any specific parts to do this or can I just plug and play? The cricket is regulated,,,,so in theory if I leave the tank plugged it still won't fill beyond 250 (since the scuba will be at 250 bar) and it won't let me shoot beyond the regulator which is fixed at 150 bar.

Have a few questions/concerns here. Any advice would be awesome.

1. If I just plug the fill adaptor to the cricket and plug my scuba tank to it will that work ? 
2. Is there a risk of the fill probe popping out while it's plugged-in in case I move the gun? I shot benchrest so movement is limited and only includes panning from left to right. 
3. Can keeping the tank open and the pipe tethered to the tank cause any issues to the gun ? Since the scuba tank will be at 250 bar when i do this and since the cricket is regulated so in theory there should not be any issues. 
4. Has anyone done this to their cricket - ? I see a lot of people online doing this to their marauders but none yet for the cricket.

Would love to hear about your experience. 

Many thanks in advance. 
 
Here is what I do. I leave the tank hooked to the gun while bench shooting. I just watch the gauge on the tank and when it gets down to the setting on the regulator (2,200 psi in my case)I crack the valve and top off the gun. By not bleeding and unhooking the hose you save the air that otherwise would be lost. And yes once the tank gets down to the pressure of the gun you can just leave it open and shoot all day. In fact you can just pump your tank to the max pressure of the gun only then just shoot tethered.

The only thing I don't know about is the fill probe being able to be pulled out while connected. My gun has a foster fitting so not an issue.
 
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"30cal"I don't see how it could. This is a common technique for bench rest. But I do not have a Cricket. Maybe someone with one will coment.
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Yep 30 cal. You are right. The cricket has this slow fill limit set in the tank. So even if I crank the scuba tank valve open.... the gun still fills at a slow pace. This is by design and is done to protect the tank and air gun. This should add more reliability for benchrest shooting using a tethered set up. I am positive someone on this forum would have tried this with their cricket. Haven't found any cricket specific tethering set ups online though. Will keep searching. If I do get a tried and tested answer, I will share it on this thread. 
 
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Yes, I have shot my cricket many, many, many times like this. Just put the probe in, open the tank, and shoot. I use a scuba tank so when I open the tank its at 3000-3300 psi. Shoot as much as you want it will not hurt anything. If you are tuning the gun, you don't want to shoot it like this as you want to look at the entire shot string from full till off the reg.
Enjoy!
 
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"Kgb1024"Yes, I have shot my cricket many, many, many times like this. Just put the probe in, open the tank, and shoot. I use a scuba tank so when I open the tank its at 3000-3300 psi. Shoot as much as you want it will not hurt anything. If you are tuning the gun, you don't want to shoot it like this as you want to look at the entire shot string from full till off the reg.
Enjoy!
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Super kgb1024. Thanks a lot. Going to try this set up the coming weekend. 
 
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You've got a very legitimate concern. High pressure air is nothing to play around with! :) 
One thing I've noticed while looking at pictures of tethered rifles is that the air line going to the rifle is always very long. I would advise maybe getting yourself a LONG air line so that any "pulling" forces are greatly reduced.
I just recently upgraded to a microbore airhose from AoA. I'm highly impressed and wished I had done this a while ago. It is VERY VERY flexible whether its empty OR under pressure! Before this, I was using one of the 1/4" standard high pressure lines. It is very stiff and gets even harder when under pressure. It's lifted (by twisting) the front of my rifles up off the floor many times. So, If that's the type of hose you're working with, make sure the rifle won't fall over when you open the valve! 
Hope it works out for you! 
 
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"Tominco"You've got a very legitimate concern. High pressure air is nothing to play around with! :) 
One thing I've noticed while looking at pictures of tethered rifles is that the air line going to the rifle is always very long. I would advise maybe getting yourself a LONG air line so that any "pulling" forces are greatly reduced.
I just recently upgraded to a microbore airhose from AoA. I'm highly impressed and wished I had done this a while ago. It is VERY VERY flexible whether its empty OR under pressure! Before this, I was using one of the 1/4" standard high pressure lines. It is very stiff and gets even harder when under pressure. It's lifted (by twisting) the front of my rifles up off the floor many times. So, If that's the type of hose you're working with, make sure the rifle won't fall over when you open the valve! 
Hope it works out for you!
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Very valid point tominco. This was one of my key concerns. I currently have a hill pump pipe which I got fixed to my scuba tank fill adaptor. Will never be able to use this one since its highly inflexible and becomes more rigid with air inside. Already ordered a long micro bore pipe (they are super flexible) which can take up to 6000 -8000 psi or more pressure. This way I won't be putting too much strain on the pipe. Lesser risk of it popping out.

The other option to be totally safe is something my pal offered to do for me. He told me he would design a foster fitting which I could use at the end of my tank to fill it. The foster setting ensures that the pipe stays locked. But this option will require some modification to the tank. It will be completely reversible in case I wanna sell the gun. Will see what he thinks up but in the mean time I will give the ideas shared here by all of you a shot. 
 
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Went shooting with the Cricket this weekend. Followed the advice given here by 30 cal, Tominco, & KGB. Details below 

1. My scuba tank was at 250 bar
2. Used a micro bore flexible pipe to tether my tank to the gun 
3. The pipe was about 2 meters long to give enough space between the tank and the gun and prevent any force pulling out the fill adapter from the gun 
4. Left the scuba valve completely open
5. The cricket tank showed a fill of 240 bar
6. Started shooting and it was bliss 
7. Shot about 300 pellets today. The pressure on the scuba tank came down only by 20 bar which is about a 10 bar consumption per 150 pellets.
8. Usually I would get my scuba tank refilled once it came down to 230 since I would have to keep refilling my gun multiple times. Now using the tethering mechanism, I can pretty much shoot till the scuba tank reaches below 150 bar causing the cricket to also fall off the regulator. This means several weekends of shooting, much better air consumption and savings in cost since I can avoid continuous refills on my scuba tank. 

MANY THANKS TO 30 cal, Tominco, & KGB for their advice. 
 
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