Using a tank to fill your PCP air rifle is without doubt a much easier task, but there are a few points to consider. The hand pump on the other hand can be carried easily, or tied up with some sort of strap and put over your shoulder. This is dependent on the make and model, but a good average, PCPs have somewhere between 30 and shots before recharging is necessary.
Usually if the PCP air gun is filled to high pressure, the velocity will be low, then increase and then taper off. To combat this problem, many PCPs have regulators that manage the air pressure to the firing valve. This means the firing valve always receives the same amount of air pressure which gives you a more consistent shot rate. PCPs aren't just the most accurate air guns, they are also the easiest to shoot accurately too. When you compare a PCP to a spring air rifle , you'll notice that the springers take a lot more mastering, whereas with a PCP - it's literally just point and shoot.
PCPs are incredibly quiet and have no recoil whatsoever. The PCP air rifle is without doubt the best choice for sportsmen who value quiet comfortable and accurate shooting, regardless of your experience. The price is greater for a PCP than it is for a break barrel air gun and if you are on a budget this could be classed as a disadvantage.
Also there is the added expense of air tanks and refilling the air tanks etc. Plus due to the pressurised system, PCPs have seals that will eventually need replacing as they get older which is covered by our lifetime guarantee if you buy your PCP air rifle through us at The Airgun Centre by the way!
With that being said, it's fair to say that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Remember, PCP air rifles are the most accurate, quietest, easiest air rifles to use. And because there's an absence of recoil when shooting, they are also considered to be more comfortable to use. And let's not forget the very real fact that breaking the barrel after every shot can be a pain in more ways than one.
PCP air rifles need much less effort to load and use, and combined with the above mentioned reasons - they make great weapons for both novice and advanced shooters. PCP air rifles are a great choice for hunting as they are easy to shoot, quiet, have no recoil and most important they are extremely accurate. The short answer is yes, but it does depend on what you want an air gun for.
For beginners, PCPs are a much easier option and many experienced shooters prefer them too due to their greater accuracy.
How does a PCP gun release just enough gas to fire a shot? The trick is in a balance of energy. The air in the tank is pressing a valve closed. This keeps the air trapped inside the tank. When the gun is cocked, a hammer inside is ready to fall. When the trigger is pulled, this hammer falls onto a plunger in front of the valve. The energy from the falling hammer pushes the valve open. When the energy from that hammer strike is spent, the pressure in the tank pushes back and closes the valve.
In unregulated PCP guns, this is a direct process. The hammer opens the valve for a split second and air escapes. That air is funneled behind the pellet, which rockets out of the gun. The length of the barrel to a point helps maximize the expansion of the air behind the pellet, increasing its velocity. This burst of air, though, can produce slight variations from shot to shot.
And shots at the beginning of the shot string and at the end tend to vary even more. At the start, the pressures can be high enough that the valve closes too quickly. Regulated PCPs, on the other hand, insert another step. The regulator ensures that the pressure in its tank is consistent, shot to shot.
The first shots in the string have the same basic energy signature as the last ones until the tank is depleted. A regulator is an ingenious device.
It is, in essence, a second reservoir. Positioned between the tank and the hammer, a regulator has its own valves that allow just enough pressure in and out. This means that shots at the start of a string have the same velocity as those all the way to the end. It is rewarding to be able to focus on accuracy, trigger discipline, and timing, without the intrusion of the exercise required by some other air gun actions. David Higginbotham is a writer and educator who lives in Arkansas. After years of writing and consulting in the firearms industry, he's coming back to his roots with air guns.
Register Log in. When you fire the gun, all of the air is discharged with every shot. This simple mechanism leads to very consistent velocity, at the expense of efficiency, since any air exiting the valve after the pellet leaves the muzzle cannot add to the velocity. There is an exception, however. They operate similarly to how PCP airguns work, in that only a portion of the compressed air is released with each shot.
CO2 guns typically retain most of their liquid in the reservoir cartridge. Only the small amount which has converted to a gas and stored in the valve is discharged with each shot.
Most pneumatic airguns use some variation of a valve like this:. The valve is held closed mostly by the pressure of the air HPA , assisted by a spring. It is opened by being struck by a hammer or striker in the direction of arrow. This allows some of the air in the reservoir to escape through the port P and then into the barrel to drive the pellet.
Modern PCP airguns work by using very high pressure air or sometimes Nitrogen or Helium , stored precharged in a reservoir. That reservoir can be a tube under the barrel, or a small bottle attached to the gun. Our heading photograph shows an example of this. Here is an example of a. When I built that gun, I also built a 6mm version running on a regulated cc carbon fiber bottle.
Both these PCPs shoot bullets, not pellets, and are intended for long range Varmint hunting. This allows many shots. But if I need to, I can disconnect it and have a few useful shots without being tethered to the large tank. Using a regulator to reduce the pressure in the reservoir to a lower, but constant, pressure is somewhat easier to understand.
Logic tells us that if the pressure is always the same for every shot, the velocity should be as well, and this is indeed the case. Unregulated PCPs, to the novice, seem a contradiction! On the face of it, filling a gun to PSI, and then shooting it down to PSI, it would seem impossible to achieve a constant velocity.
0コメント