I went through this a while ago, and decided that buying my own compressor was best.

I only fill direct to gun, but have a pump that will do a cylinder.

Firstly, a dive shop will only fill a certified tank, and that needs to certified every 12 months (?), then a more expensive test every 5 years (?).

In Richmond they quoted me $30 to fill or top up a tank. 

So...first I bought a GX CS4 compressor. Water cooled, 5+ hours run time, can run off 220 volts and 12 volts (portable).

But about a year later I decided to get something 'better' (maybe) and sold the CS4 to buy a Hills Evo-310 pump (ex UK).

The CS4 will pump up to 4500psi easily. The Hill's only 3000psi..but I only need 2000psi anyway.

Your options are a GX CS2, CS3, or CS4 really, and for the money I think the CS4 is better (CS2 and CS3 are air cooled but both also are 220v and 12v).

https://gxpumpofficial.com/

My rifle only has a 220cc cylinder (but it is single shot target rifle).

Huma Air has a PCP pistol with 480cc cylinder.

For what you're doing this may be a good option.  We have a water-cooled version at our gun club which has been very reliable and gets quite a bit of use.  Limitations are that it runs on 220V and is not big enough to fill a storage cylinder that you may want to take with you.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004296712406.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.22.51047510BbVZoL&algo_pvid=cc429314-8a41-447b-91e8-817c69046e1e&algo_exp_id=cc429314-8a41-447b-91e8-817c69046e1e-21&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22117%22%2C%22spu_best_type%22%3A%22price%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21NZD%21644.33%21322.17%21%21%21380.36%21190.18%21%40210311cc17700912506964777e8d12%2112000036119929497%21sea%21NZ%21168182036%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3A51d2aeff%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=Rufo3H7FJrhZ&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005004296712406%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

My own compressor that I use to fill a 10L bottle from which I then top up my guns is a water-cooled V-twin Tuxing.  It has been nothing but trouble and I've spent far too many hours carrying out repairs and replaced a lot of parts.  It recently cooked itself when the water pump failed so I've converted it to a 12V pump with a flow switch and relay so that the compressor pump will stop if there is no flow return from either another failed pump or a disconnected hose (which can happen if a head gasket leaks or fails). I bought it cheap off AE 2-3 years ago and suspect that it was a used pump housed in a new frame as it broke the inlet reed on the low pressure side in relatively short time.  The debris that went through and did a fair bit of damage.  I'll keep it though as I know it inside and out, the parts are plentiful and cheap and it does the job.

Even though we also have one of these at the club that is older than mine and has been pretty much trouble free, I wouldn't buy another or recommend it.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008047385036.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.6.36bbPZoSPZoSl5&algo_pvid=7292a2ea-efc8-4744-8a30-8607240f9496&algo_exp_id=7292a2ea-efc8-4744-8a30-8607240f9496-5&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%221%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21NZD%211321.74%211070.60%21%21%21780.25%21632.00%21%402101e81117700919567383460eaaa5%2112000052603309198%21sea%21NZ%21168182036%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3A51d2aeff%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=swQshhBRxH1w&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005008047385036%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

My 10L tank is a carbon fibre/aluminium composite bottle (I have a dodgy back and the previous steel one was far too heavy for me to move around).  I took it to the local fill centre once for the initial fill, but it's nearly a 90 minute round trip for me.  When I saw how they filled them and the sad condition of the Fire Service BA carbon bottles I decided that I needed my own compressor.

This is probably your best bet but make sure you get one with auto-shut-off.  I'm not certain that this one has.  If you only have a pistol, this will be more than adequate and a lot easier to use than a hand pump!

https://www.guncity.com/pcp-air-compressor-12v-250w-376381

For compressors I have a GX CS4. Had it a couple, maybe 3 years now and no issues. I only fill directly to my guns and it is 12v with a converter, so it can be powered off a car battery in the field if required.

It does add costs...and I went through this with my indoor benchrest.

The cost of the pump was less than me continuing shooting with a .22 rimfire for less than 2 years, and at the end of that time instead of a whole lot of empty cases swept up and tossed I still had a pump to sell one day to recoup most of my setup costs.

Most PCP pistols are about 50cc and usually only 200-250 bar, some PCP rifles are up to 700cc and 300bar which is a totally different story. 

Having said that a compressor is a great investment and once you have it there is little barrier to buying more PCP's. I have been running a Yong Heng for the last 4 years or so and it has been fantastic! It is happy to fill up bottles or do direct gun fills. I had a few Tuxing and other brands in the past but they were all trouble. The YH one is under $1000 landed and will last a long time.

Kris wrote: Where abouts do you shoot in Nelson/Richmond?

Saxton Field indoor range. It's 25 yards. I have asked about pistol shooting in there and am waiting on a reply as there are a few of us who want to shoot pistols too.

I'll be very surprised if they issue a permit for you to import a PCP pistol.  I applied to import a single shot pistol for target shooting after having already imported several PCP rifles and they turned me down.  I appealed the decision and they again declined telling me I could further appeal through the District Court. A rough estimate of the cost to do this was around $2k without engaging a lawyer, with no guarantee I'd be successful.  The pistol was only worth $700 landed so I flagged it.

IMHO, the Police use this mechanism to prevent the importation of these as they're (currently) not subject to to the legislative requirements of rifle ownership.

In terms of fill time it depends what you are filling, the drying filter itself is about 400cc so the way I tend to do it is to fill one of my tanks (think the big one is 6L) and when it gets close to full I will then connect each of my rifles to the tank to top them off, that way I am not wasting the 400cc filter purge for each rifle. If I was to just direct top up my Uragan from 150-300bar it would only take less than 2 mins to fill it. To top up the 6l tank from 150bar to 300 takes less than10 mins from memory.

The biggest advantage to me is the fill pressure, most of my PCP's fill to 300bar and get a lot of shots from 300bar down to the 220bar which is the max most dive shops will fill a bottle to, which becomes much more evident when the bottle starts to drop off down to 180bar etc.

My Matador will get 120ish shots @ 33fpe from 300bar, but if I was limited to a 200bar fill that would probably only be 60 shots which makes a huge difference.

This of course becomes even more important if you start talking about air hungry big bores that only get 3-5 shots per fill!

KiwiTR6 - How long ago was that permit refused? They eased up on the permit approvals for them about 8 months ago, I recently imported 2 Evanix Rex pistols (.25 and .30) and had no questions asked.

It was about 12 months ago and I have seen a few being sold recently by Gun City.  Figured they'd found a way around it but my interest in pistols has waned since then, I much prefer using rifles.

Slightly off subject, but Mintie, how do you disconnect the line and retain the pressure in the air dryer so you can fill another gun? Did you get one of those EDgun ezifill things?

I asked our main man Graeme, and he replied...

"I raised the subject of Pistols with the executive. They seemed interested to discuss further, at least did not reject the idea.

You would need to put together a plan of what you would want to do with some direction on how club would be administered etc.

The first issue to be resolved is what are the requirements of the Firearm Safety Authority to establish a pistol club. or can you develop a relationship with Nelson Pistol Club??? At this stage the Association is not licensed to shoot pistols.

You need to think about what target equipment you would need  - the expectation is using target machines across the range".

So it could happen but needs some planning/ideas. We should meet one day.

As Mintie said there is a significant shot count advantage being able to fill to 300. You can get dive bottles rated to 300 bar which have a specific high pressure rated DIN valve, however not all dive shops can filll to 300. Most will do the standard 230 odd bar. 

SCBA tanks used by firefighters sometimes come up for sale and these are generally rated to 300 bar. They can be composite or steel. A fire station might be able to help with filling.

If you can afford it I would go with a compressor, no hassle with testing dive tanks or dropping off tanks to be filled.