Sticky How prepared are you right now?

Doomsday Prepper Forums

Help Support Doomsday Prepper Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I reload center fire cartridges and there is no powder, primers or brass to be had, at a reasonable rate. No 22 Lr. either, at a reasonable rate. I will not encourage price gougers by paying those rip off prices. 25 caliber pellets $0.05 per round, certainly works for me. A small markup to compensate for over time shifts, yes, double, triple and quadruple price markups, not going to happen. I have plenty of firearm ammo but I am not going to burn it up at the range. When the ammo, primers, bullets, powder and brass is sitting on the shelves, then I will go back to my firearms. Till then, it is air gunning for me.
 
I had already watched and recorded the video. Very good channel, I am a subscriber. I do expect to have some parts to upgrade. I am not going to get the best components for $300. My problem is I have to get a high pressure compressor and they ain't real cheap. A hand pump will be purchased for emergency (shft) but I won't be pumping 140 pumps on a hand pump to charge the rifle, if I can help it. I do know there will be a lot of trial and error tuning the rifle and finding out which ammo (pellets / slugs) it likes. That will be part of the challenge and I am looking forward to it. I figure that between the rifle, compressor, scope, bi-pod and pellets, I am looking at over $1,000. That is a big hit to my weapons budget. I had to push back the purchase of a shotgun as both weapons are not in the current budget. I am really hating the ammo shortage. I had scheduled the air rifles for much later next year. But since I can't get firearm ammo, I will move forward with the air rifle.

Thanks for the tips on after market parts, greatly appreciated.

Instead of a compressor ( a decent one costs $1500) is there anyone in your district who refills DIVE BOTTLES ?? if you you can recharge your PCP from a dive bottle the way most of us this side of the pond does. A 3, 5 or 7 litre bottle costs about $200 including the fittings. For basic hunting needs a 3 litre will last a year before needing a refill, for full blown prepping duty, hunting, target practice, security duty a 7 litre bottle (or two) is better. To refill a big dive bottle is under 20 bucks. Refilling a PCP from a dive bottle takes 20 seconds.
 
So my question is, if the SHTF, how will you feel up the air bottles? I have several of the old fashion pump .22 and .177 rifles, good for taking squirrels, rabbits and such. If need be I could possibly hold someone off from entering my house with them with good head shots. There is a show on the outdoor channel for air rifle competition, they are some really nice guns and Very accurate! Being on Disability, it is something I can't go after, but maybe some nice person will will me one, buy me one, give me one?

I keep 3 x seven litre dive bottles to power my air rifles, that equates to many thousands of shots at 12 ft pound, its going to be less for the more powerful US market air guns but the shot count still runs into thousands. You can refill em for years by a compact budget 12 VDC compressor or if fit a stirrup pump.
 
I will look into the tanks. The ones I have seen on line, were pretty darn expensive. They were in the $600 + range. I may need to do some more research. Unless it hits the fan, almost all my shooting will be at the range. A couple of 3 litre bottles seem just about right. One on the gun and one at the dive shop, type of setup. I will have to do some home work to see what is available and what I can afford. I have already ordered a cheap compact 12 volt high pressure compressor. The hand pump will be next and then if affordable, the bottles. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
I will look into the tanks. The ones I have seen on line, were pretty darn expensive. They were in the $600 + range. I may need to do some more research. Unless it hits the fan, almost all my shooting will be at the range. A couple of 3 litre bottles seem just about right. One on the gun and one at the dive shop, type of setup. I will have to do some home work to see what is available and what I can afford. I have already ordered a cheap compact 12 volt high pressure compressor. The hand pump will be next and then if affordable, the bottles. Thanks for the suggestions.

FYI Scuba tanks for precharged airguns | Air gun blog - Pyramyd Air Report

Shop around air gun kit in the US usually matches UK prices $ for £, I think you should be able to source a 7 litre for around $200 and perhaps 50 or 60 bucks for the valve and pipe.

OK this is important, ensure your budget compressor has at least TWO stage moisture removing filtration, if not buy one for your compressor. NEAT compressed undried air will wreck the inside of your gun through rusting. You MUST use DRY air.
 
I keep 3 x seven litre dive bottles to power my air rifles, that equates to many thousands of shots at 12 ft pound, its going to be less for the more powerful US market air guns but the shot count still runs into thousands. You can refill em for years by a compact budget 12 VDC compressor or if fit a stirrup pump.
I never knew a 12 V compressor would fill those tanks! Had I known that I would have been filling my son's paintball tanks years ago!
 
Bill Mason, Thanks for the filter tip. I did plan to purchase additional in-line filters. I have worked around compressors and seen the amount of water / oil they can produce. While this compressor is water less /oil less, I do understand that during the compression cycle and cool downs, moisture is generated.
 
As a back up, I will have a manual hand pump. It is just a not a task I want to do on a regular basis, just for target shooting. Now a real SHTF event and no power, I will be pumping. Slowly but pumping. LOL
Instead of a compressor ( a decent one costs $1500) is there anyone in your district who refills DIVE BOTTLES ?? if you you can recharge your PCP from a dive bottle the way most of us this side of the pond does. A 3, 5 or 7 litre bottle costs about $200 including the fittings. For basic hunting needs a 3 litre will last a year before needing a refill, for full blown prepping duty, hunting, target practice, security duty a 7 litre bottle (or two) is better. To refill a big dive bottle is under 20 bucks. Refilling a PCP from a dive bottle takes 20 seconds.
check out a fire company, most have the compressor to fill Scott bottles. A volunteer co. Would be better they are always looking for a donation
 
Bill Mason, Thanks for the filter tip. I did plan to purchase additional in-line filters. I have worked around compressors and seen the amount of water / oil they can produce. While this compressor is water less /oil less, I do understand that during the compression cycle and cool downs, moisture is generated.
The moisture is naturally present in the air, unless you live in Death Valley ,, and as well as wrecking in the inside of your gun it would also wreck the inside of a dive bottle.
 
I never knew a 12 V compressor would fill those tanks! Had I known that I would have been filling my son's paintball tanks years ago!

To be clear these compressors we are referring to are NOT Tyre (tire) inflation tools they are purposely designed for very high pressure filling of guns and pressure vessels, ( Tyre inflators run up to 100 PSI Air gun compressors up to 3500 PSI) Many of the imported one you can only run for five or ten minutes at a time. Sooooo if you are refilling a dive bottle its done five minutes at a time with ten minutes cooling between running.

The bigger and more expensive water cooled compressors can run longer and fill larger vessels.

YMMV depending on type of compressor and size of vessel / tank being charged. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS carefully because over this side of the pond more than a few folks have wrecked their hobby compressors by trying to refill big diving tanks in one go.

Compare the AVERAGE air guns air tube / bottle 180 to 300 mils in capacity then look at dive bottles 3 to 12 LITRES . You can see how much harder a budget compressor has to work filling a dive bottle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you live far away from where scuba diving facilities, as someone else wisely points out check out who locally refills your fire fighters air bottles, some fire houses have their own, others are visited by a mobile service or a local company carries the contract.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a 12v budget compressor set aside for if TSHTF, but I normally operate my guns from the three dive bottles and get them refiled as and when at the local airgun club who have a much larger professional compressor with three states moisture filtration and theirs can fill a 12 litre bottle in 15 minutes (they charge about $10 a fill but one fill lasts me a year on average)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One or two other benefits of PCP airguns are when fitted with a moderator they are also silent, and they have NO recoil of note which makes them ideal for smaller and more nervous family members.
 
Last edited:
FYI Check out HADES pellets they are superb when used in full power US market air rifles. These are being used in a Leshey 2 in this test and producing 58 Joules (UK is limited to 16 Joules) thats 42 ft pounds in Americanese :) More than enough to kill a Coyote and to really ruin many a two legged critters day.

 
HTH


Scuba Professionals of Arizona
4.5 (51) · Dive shop
Peoria, AZ, United States · In Olive Business Park
Closed ⋅ Opens 9AM · +1 602-314-6650
Scuba shop providing equipment, rentals & training in a heated pool. Also leads guided trips.

AF1QipNK7bonjrpUilquYyFJoWBfPsfD2OLftPvSY5Ee=w112-h112-n-k-no

The Dive Shop
4.9 (12) · Dive shop
Tucson, AZ, United States
Closed ⋅ Opens 12PM · +1 520-326-3483

cbk

ScubaTechs.com
5.0 (2) · Dive shop
Mesa, AZ, United States
Closed ⋅ Opens 10AM · +1 877-837-7637
public_googblue_24dp.png
Their website mentions refill cylinder

Airguns of Arizona
4.4 (320) · Gun shop
Gilbert, AZ, United States
Closed ⋅ Opens 9AM · +1 480-461-1113
public_googblue_24dp.png
Their website mentions scuba tank and refill
done_gm_green700_24dp.png
In-store pick-up
 

Latest posts

Back
Top