fill air tanks

Hi folks,

just a dumb quiestion here,but why buy a pcp you know will have fill problems with???its pretty well known that 250 bar/4500psi airguns have issuses finding anywhere to get 250 bar hpa bottles filled as most dive shops even if they can doso, wont doso,for whatever reasons,fire stations wont fill bottles they dont own,proberly for liablity reasons caused by testing issues with carbon fiber hpa bottles etc,its not all bad as a regulated gun will run perfectly well at lower fill pressures,tho shot counts will be lower,this isnt a big issuse really as will still give a decent shot count for hunting,i rarely fill my own regulated guns up to max fill pressure and am happy enough getting 25/30 full power shots for hunting,i dont know enough bout your rifle to know if regulated or not,but fx are excellent pcp guns and you certainly be disappointed with yours,check your local airgun club,some one will definatly know where to get 250 bar fills,i am lucky my club has a 250 bar compressor,so dont have your problem,carbon fiber bottles have to meet strict test proceedures,any evan slight damage will cause them to fail tests,not to have them tested when required isnt a good idea,as its very definatly a safety issuse,guns that require 250 bar fill pressures certainly have their own issuses that proberly wont change unless the dive industery changes to 250 bar bottles forcing dive shops to be able to fill to this pressure,this has happened to certain extent here due to the oil industy needing large hi capacity hpa bottle banks on off shore platforms and drilling rigs,my local dive shop in new plymouth will fill and test 250 bar carbon fiber bottles,but only started doing so in last 2years,so maybe things changing.

250 bar tanks going be prob for some time as is testing of them to get filled etc,dont believe this will change much unlees commercal divers start using 250 bar tanks,as the demand for dive shops to upgrade their systems for 250 bar isnt currently there,local dive shop in new plymouth bit closer than alex and owner does fill 250 bar tanks,tho not sure if he can test them as well,he does test metal bottles up to 220bar tho,prob being that all pcp rifles now require a firearms licence this has significantly affected sales of pcp rifles as well as use of them,so less are now sold etc,this in turn has proberly had an effect on clubs prepared to spend the significant outlay in buying compressors for club members as well,fact is there are not as many 250 bar pcp rifles out there as the lower fill pressure rifles using lower fill pressure hpa bottles etc,its just a question of numbers as far as dive shops and club fill stations go,personally cant see the point in having a 250 bar gun if cant fill it eh!!as 250 bar guns are really mostly bout getting higher shot counts not bout getting more power,as said previously a regulated gun will work just fine at 200/220 bar,but just give less shots per fill,yet still give a very decent shot count,so its not actually that necessary to actually fill to 250 bar on many rifles for them to still very practical rifles,they just need to be filled more often than at 250 bar.

The other option is to fill up with your dive tank, and top off with a hand pump. Samba, I know we have talked already, but I believe the dive shop in Island Bay might do those generouus fills. But of course you're always going down hill pressure wise.

Good point Mike, If the gun is regulated at say 120 bar, filling to 250 bar will only give you more shots, otherwise no advantage apart from a greater safety margin in the tank pressure. You would only know the difference if you filled it to max, and shot a string, then filled it to dive tank limit and compared shot count.