PCP beginner info

[Swamp Fox]

I’ve been considering getting an air gun, since we can’t get 22 ammo for a while. I plan to use it to teach my kids some marksmanship and for pest control around the house/garden. I was looking at the break barrel type rifles, but the pcp rifles seem interesting, and I have some basic questions.

I like the idea of multiple shots and semi auto shooting. The Benjamin marauder seems to be a good basic type rifle. Unless it’s not? Also, will I hate life if I buy a hand pump to pump it up? Later I may would buy an electric compressor. Either way I don’t want to be taking a tank to get charged up every week. Can the pcp rifles take a regular rifle scope or do they need a special scope?

Whatever I buy I plan on getting 22 caliber, but if I like the pcp stuff I may get a larger caliber later.

[dverna]

Just got into PCP this year

A 75 cu ft tank is what I purchased. I may need to fill it twice a year for 8000 shots. My rifle is the Daystate in .22 so different than yours but there is a calculator that lets you know how many fills you will get for the gun you have. You get more shots out a .177 than a .22.

Cost to fill the tank is $10...so cheap, but the tank was $600..not cheap. Tank has service life of 15 years and needs to be hydro tested every 5 years. Still way less than .22 LR at $50+ per brick. DO NOT BUY A CHEAP TANK OFF EBAY....THEY ARE NOT DOT CERTIFIED AND NO ONE WILL FILL THEM.

You will regret a hand pump if you do any amount of shooting. Watch a few YouTube videos of guys using one.

Any scope will work on a PCP. If you buy a springer, you must get an air gun scope.

Good luck.

[Elmer Fudd]

I have been shooting a 22 Marauder bolt action for about 3 years. I don't know how I went so long on my old Benjamin 392. I scoped with a side parallax adjustable rimfire scope and am perfectly happy. I can make kills at around 80 yards on invasive birds, pigeons and the like. It has the power to kill cat-sized critters. I got it with a pump, looking for anything to add to my life that makes me work; I found the right thing. My kids can't pump it because it takes 150# to make it go. I acquired an old SCUBA tank, which fills to 3ksi, which is the same as the gun. I don't have a regulated gun, so I run from 3000 to 2500, where the accuracy gets wonky. I am impressed by the pump and its longevity. You can over heat the pump, so you are limited to about 50 strokes. That works for me because I am lazy. The tank is a good idea, for sure, especially if you have access to a place to fill it.

I would buy another Marauder, but it would have to be regulated. I would find a pellet to get 40 shots on a fill and satisfactory accuracy. I have found no need for 1000 fps; kills on collared doves at 600 fps are acceptable.

[NSB]

Just got into PCP this year

A 75 cu ft tank is what I purchased. I may need to fill it twice a year for 8000 shots. My rifle is the Daystate in .22 so different than yours but there is a calculator that lets you know how many fills you will get for the gun you have. You get more shots out a .177 than a .22.

Cost to fill the tank is $10...so cheap, but the tank was $600..not cheap. Tank has service life of 15 years and needs to be hydro tested every 5 years. Still way less than .22 LR at $50+ per brick. DO NOT BUY A CHEAP TANK OFF EBAY....THEY ARE NOT DOT CERTIFIED AND NO ONE WILL FILL THEM.

You will regret a hand pump if you do any amount of shooting. Watch a few YouTube videos of guys using one.

Any scope will work on a PCP. If you buy a springer, you must get an air gun scope.

Good luck.

I too have a Daystate. Agree on the SCBA tank also. I got a very good pump just before I got the bottle and after using it a half dozen times I ordered the tank. I filled it one time last year. You get thousands of shots off a 74 cubic foot tank. My .22 Daystate shoots as good a groups as both my CZ rimfire and the Anschutz rifle I had. As said, any scope is OK to use on a PCP air rifle. Recertification on a new tank is 15 years, not five. It’s 15 from date of manufacture so if you buy an older/used tank the time is less than fifteen years. They are cheaper to buy though, so sometimes it’s a good deal. Without DOT certification you won’t find anyone to fill a tank, so don’t buy off Amazon...they aren’t certified.

[sparky45]

Just bought a Air Venturi Avenger. Haven't got the compressor set up yet, but I'm ready to try her out.

[Dapaki]

Swamp Fox, Like Dverna and sparky45, I just got into PCP airgunning this past winter, I went with DAR (Dynamic Air Rifle) for $300.00 a pop. I currently have three of them, a .22 and two .25, one of which I will modify to wear AR-15 furniture and lose the wood stock completely.

I will be shooting only slugs through one of the .25s, 33g at 902 pfs for 60 fpe! I'm working on getting it to 80 fpe. Ill get 10 shots through the mag before topping off.

Being the rebel and dont give a ^%$&, I got an out of date SCBA tank and fill it to 4500 psi with a $350.00 Spritech compressor from Amazon.

(PLEASE, you guys, start a new thread about all the evils of out of date tanks but dont post it HERE please, Don has already made the point, lets stay on topic.)

Also, WalMart has the .22 Crosman Premier Hollow Points (CPHP) for $6.24 for 500, Gander has them on the shelf for $11.26 a tin. They are a little scarce right now but keep looking, dont get scalped by eBay pricing.

[clodhopper]

If you are hand pumping a PCP rifle, a fact you should have foremost in mind.
The bigger the caliber the more pumping.
I recommend getting a compressor.

[SirNomad]

Just got into PCP this year

A 75 cu ft tank is what I purchased. I may need to fill it twice a year for 8000 shots. My rifle is the Daystate in .22 so different than yours but there is a calculator that lets you know how many fills you will get for the gun you have. You get more shots out a .177 than a .22.

Cost to fill the tank is $10...so cheap, but the tank was $600..not cheap. Tank has service life of 15 years and needs to be hydro tested every 5 years. Still way less than .22 LR at $50+ per brick. DO NOT BUY A CHEAP TANK OFF EBAY....THEY ARE NOT DOT CERTIFIED AND NO ONE WILL FILL THEM.

You will regret a hand pump if you do any amount of shooting. Watch a few YouTube videos of guys using one.

Any scope will work on a PCP. If you buy a springer, you must get an air gun scope.

Good luck.

I bought my tank on eBay, BUT I did my research first, knew what I was looking for, bought from a reputable seller, and got an unexpired tank. The local fire safety supply place hydro-tested and filled it for me for 15 bucks. They were awesome.

[NSB]

If you are hand pumping a PCP rifle, a fact you should have foremost in mind.
The bigger the caliber the more pumping.
I recommend getting a compressor.

Caliber has nothing to do with it. How much you pump is determined by the size of the gas reservoir/tube on your gun. Having a larger caliber usually just means less shots per fill.

[clodhopper]

Caliber has nothing to do with it. How much you pump is determined by the size of the gas reservoir/tube on your gun. Having a larger caliber usually just means less shots per fill.

You are talking number of pumps to fill the gun, I think in number of pumps per shot.

[NSB]

You are talking number of pumps to fill the gun, I think in number of pumps per shot.

You still don’t pump any more, you just get less shots per fill. A good reason not to get a larger caliber gun. Pellet selection is better with .17 and .22 also. It’s all about volume.

[andrew375]

Get your tank second hand from the local scuba shop. Mine was tested and filled for a third of the price of new one. Be aware that scuba tanks are filled to 300 bar pressure, whereas the cylinders on pcp guns are for 200 bar. There are plenty of pictures out there of perfectly good pcp guns taken to pieces by their air cylinder's rupturing because they were given 300 bar!

[NSB]

Get your tank second hand from the local scuba shop. Mine was tested and filled for a third of the price of new one. Be aware that scuba tanks are filled to 300 bar pressure, whereas the cylinders on pcp guns are for 200 bar. There are plenty of pictures out there of perfectly good pcp guns taken to pieces by their air cylinder's rupturing because they were given 300 bar!

This is totally wrong! Scuba tanks are lower pressure than SCBA tanks. Just about every PCP gun out there calls for 250 bar fill on the tank/reservoir. I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but just watch some YouTube videos or visit some websites that sell airguns. Scuba tanks are NOT the thing to buy. Here’s the biggest reason: They start out at 200bar and as soon as you take your first fill out of the source tank (the Scuba tank) you can’t even fill your PCP airgun up to 200 bar...you already don’t have enough air. I’m not guessing at this, you are. Just google “how to fill a PCP air gun”. No one uses a Scuba tank to fill a PCP gun......NO ONE.
Visit these sites for more info: PyramydAir.com, AirgunsofArizona, and Airgundepot.com ....they’re all big sellers and you can get some good info from them.

[Smoke4320]

Marauder is an excellent gun. well built and accurate. been around a while so well tested design.

Air Venturi Avenger is having some issues. hit and miss .. as most new to the market items have

[NSB]

Marauder is the number one selling air gun. My buddy got one and it shoots nearly as well as my Daystate. It’s affordable, well made, and made in America (New York State). Parts for it are way cheaper than my Daystate also. There’s a reason its the number one seller.

[mobilemail]

Marauders are great guns. They are easy to get parts for, either OEM from Crosman or a billion aftermarket parts. They are incredibly tunable to meet your needs. The one downside to the Marauder is that they aren't very air efficient out of the box. You can just about double their efficiency by replacing the heavy steel hammer with a lighter one (that you can get from Hill Airgun) and readjusting the hammer spring and striker position - you will need a chronograph to do that.

I used a hand pump for about two weeks and bought a carbon tank. This was several years ago, before inexpensive compressors were available. About once a quarter I would make a 140 mile round trip to a dive shop that would fill my tank to 4500psi with nice, dry air. Quite often I would combine that with a work trip, so the drive didn't hurt so much. Each fill was about $5, totally worth it! Even with inexpensive air compressors available, it still might be a better deal for you than having to maintain a compressor. Start calling dive shops and paintball shops around you and see who can fill the tank to 4500psi and how much it costs. Some folks who have friends at the fire department have been able to get their tanks filled for free.

Back to the Marauder. One benefit of the Marauder is that you can tune its "sweet spot" to a lower pressure, like a 2500psi fill, to get more mileage from an air tank if that meets your needs better. If you don't shoot the Marauder very often you might be able to get by with a 2500psi fill and a much cheaper scuba tank that fills to 3300psi. Airguns can be addictive though, and once you get your air source worked out you may not be satisfied with just one PCP rifle. I would recommend the biggest carbon tank you can afford without wincing.

[dverna]

I looked at the Marauder and came close to buying it. What killed it for me was it is butt ugly compared the the Daystate Huntsman and it weighs 2 lbs more. I ended up spending almost twice the money and it is a silly thing to do for most people. But I am "special"...LOL.

At 70, I wanted what I wanted, and did not want to compromise. I have done that with guns before and always wound up buying what I wanted down the road. My road is dead ending soon so I figured I would enjoy what is left of the trip.

[NSB]

I looked at the Marauder and came close to buying it. What killed it for me was it is butt ugly compared the the Daystate Huntsman and it weighs 2 lbs more. I ended up spending almost twice the money and it is a silly thing to do for most people. But I am "special"...LOL.

At 70, I wanted what I wanted, and did not want to compromise. I have done that with guns before and always wound up buying what I wanted down the road. My road is dead ending soon so I figured I would enjoy what is left of the trip.

I did the exact same thing. I own a Daystate and really like it. I do let people know though that as far as function and accuracy to, the Marauder is darn near as good as my Daystate at half the price. My best friend got a Marauder after shooting my Daystate. He never owned an air gun before and couldn’t believe the accuracy a good PCP is capable of. He got the Marauder with the Lothar barrel and a regulator. It shoots great and functions perfectly. It is butt ugly though. He’s a lot more pragmatic about buying than I am. I guess I waste a bit on eye candy, and it’s got to get spent somewhere....

[mobilemail]

Can't argue with you, I have both. Although the Marauder has been so modified it's hard to recognize as such.

[zymguy]

anyone casting for their pcp air rifle?