Video: Episode 2 - PCP Airguns 101: PCP Airgun Fill Methods

Episode 2 - PCP Airguns 101: PCP Airgun Fill Methods 

Welcome to the Pyramyd Insyder’s PCP 101 Series. Today we're going to talk about different methods to fill your PCP. And they are plentiful, as you can see in front of me. Now this is just a limited selection of the available products that Pyramyd Air offers to fill your PCP airguns. But first, we're going to start the most economical, the most affordable. Those are the hand pumps. Now we have our Air Venturi g6 pump here and our Hill hand pump here, and the reason we have two different pumps on display for you is because they use two different kind of connections, and this is important when we talk about filling PCPs. How do you link the gun to your pump or your tank or your compressor. This is all something that you have to be aware of. 

So we're gonna use our Benjamin Wildfire here, and this uses the same foster quick-connect system that most of your Benjamin guns use and a lot of brands are going to this. It's a quick and easy system. Now on the end of our hose, this is a male fitting here on the end of the gun, and on the end of our hose on our G6 pump we have a female end, okay. So we simply snap the female end on to the male and we're able to go ahead and fill. And in a future episode, we will actually show you how to fill the guns. It's very simple, it's a hand pump, I think you guys can get the idea, and the tanks, and obviously the compressors have a little bit more complication to them in terms of operation. But very simple to do but what about a gun maybe like this Crawl here that uses a fill probe. Now fill probes are something that a lot of the European companies use. They're usually two O-rings with a hole in them and that hole is where the air flows through. But you have to fit this threaded end onto something. Now oftentimes I'd recommend going ahead and getting yourself a quick disconnect adapter so the fitting on this is actually the same as on the Benjamin we just showed you. But oftentimes a lot of folks will go ahead and get themselves a Hill hand pump which is actually threaded to the same threading base that the probe is. So this is one-eighth BSPP male this is one-eighth BSPP female. So you're actually able to go ahead and just thread that right in, now you would want to wrench tighten this, and this is just as an example just to get it started in here. But then we would simply take our gun, we find their fill port right about there. Go ahead and plug the probe in and then we're able to fill. It would function the same way with the tank or with the compressor in terms of fitting that adapter on it. Now we're gonna move on to our tanks for you guys. Now there are many different sizes and variations of tanks here. What we have for you guys today is a 74 cubic foot tank. Now this tank is not regulated, so what that means is that if you open this valve it's gonna let as much air as the valve will allow to come through out. Now, this is important because it's a bit of a safety feature, now our 90 cubic inch tank does have a regulator on it, which will regulate the output to about 2900 PSI. Nice safety feature but it does limit the guns you can fill. With a lot of guns starting to fill the even higher pressures than 3,000 PSI, you really do need a tank like this. Now the other nice thing about this tank is that it'll fill that any pressure really easily with just the opening of the valve, and you can throttle this valve similar to how you would throttle a motorcycle. It's all about feel. So you can open it up a little bit and fill your 2000 PSI gun safely or you can open it up a little bit more to fill the 3,000 or 4,300 PSI guns as well. And all of our tanks are gonna come with a female quick disconnect on the end of the hose, so that's really important to note as well that all of the Air Venturi tanks that are sold on Pyramyd Air are gonna have this adapter. The last thing I'll mention, you guys when you're looking at tanks, it's important to note that whether you're buying them on PyramydAir.com or maybe getting one used or however you're gonna go ahead and get your tank, it's important to note that the carbon fiber tanks have to be hydro tested every five years, and they have a 15 year lifespan. So that means that from the stamp date on here, which on our tank here is 11 so November of 2016, that you are going to have 15 years from that date to the month of service out of this tank. But in order for somewhere to fill it, whether it be a scuba shop or a fire department or paintball shop, wherever you're gonna have it filled, that's something to consider is that every five years you are gonna have to have it tested or they're not going to fill it. And a lot of places will require a visual inspection yearly as well. So something to keep in mind with the testing and upkeep on these tanks. Very sturdy, firefighters are going into burning buildings with these on their backs, this is not a true safety concern. You don't want to leave it in your car overnight and you certainly don't want to go dropping it anywhere of course, but if you take care of it it's gonna take care of you and all your PCP needs. 

And last but not least we're gonna talk a little bit about air compressors.Now this isn't so much gonna be a mass-market thing, but it is certainly gaining popularity and it's important to understand what a compressor is. So wanted to show you guys one here. Now this compressor this is the brand-new Air Venturi compressor. Now this has the female quick disconnect on the end so that you're able to attach it straight to a gun, to a tank, you can actually get a it comes with a little adapter so you can hook it right to your hose on your tank, and you can actually fill through the hose in the tank which is a really nice feature. Works on 110 volt electricity. You fill it with water, you fill it with oil, keep everything nice and lubricated, and you're good to go. Now it does also have an adjustable output, so what that means is it'll automatically shut off wherever you go ahead and set it. Now you can fill a 2,000 PSI gun directly, you can fill a 4,500 PSI bottle, obviously you're not going to get up and walk away from this while it's running, but it's important to note that you can actually set this and it'll run and then shut off when you get to the appropriate pressure. Now obviously the Air Venturi isn't the only compressor out there on the market, but it is one that we've been using a lot here in-house. There's Nardi compressors, you have the shoebox compressor, which is more of a booster unit there are many many, many different options on the market, and something to be aware of because when you walk into your scuba shop or paintball store with your compressed air tank they're probably going to have a compressor sitting in the background, and if you don't have somewhere local to fill your tanks or fill your guns for that matter you can always purchase a compressor and become totally self-sufficient. So it's something to keep in mind something to be aware of. And now that you guys know what we're using to fill the PCP airguns that we're shooting all the time here on the Insyder, we're gonna show you guys how to fill them at the next episode, so stay tuned.

What are the best options to fill your PCP gun with air? Tyler explains the many methods to getting air into your new airgun, from beginner handpumps to advanced fill systems, and everything about adapters.