life of cartridge in airgun?

[kBob]

In the way back, as a kid, I found that CO2 cartridges would not stay pressurized in my old Daisey CO2 200 (loved that gun) more than a few hours. They were always dead over night.

Fast forward till a decade or so ago and I bought a Daisy Powerline 15XT I am convinced is neither as accurate nor powerful or convinient.

anyhow I used it untill it was used up in the past and then lost one grip panel and it went on the reserve list for five or six years. Found the grip panel behind a bit of heavy furniture that went out last week and loaded that sucker up this past Tuesday. I reconfirmed my accuracy and power complaints on a small amazon box with a towel in it in the bedroom and tossed it on my desk.

well here it is Sunday and I saw it sitting there and picked it up and aimed at the box and ...it fired the last four BBs in it and rocked the box each time Seems to have held full pressure for five days so far.

if this long life is normal this will become a much more valuable nusiance animal and knock about the yard gun!

I may give it a shot of Ballistoil down the barrel and take it "fencing" with me tomorrow

-kBob

 

[Cemetery21]

Don't know how long they last. I changed a scope in a rifle last fall and still waiting for the pressure to subside so I can sight it in with fresh cartridges. Is there any way to bleed off the pressure without firing? The instructions on the new rifle said not to unscrew the tube under pressure.

 

[CapnMac]

Near as I can tell, long enough to surprise you and short enough to annoy you, seems to be the rule.

The new stuff (both guns & cartridges) seem to seal and hold charge better than in ages past.

 

[MedWheeler]

I've been led to believe that leaving them charged over time degrades the seals faster. In countries in which CO2-powered guns are considered options for self-defense, many models have a means to quickly "break seal" on a capsule that's already been inserted, but left unpierced, so the gun can be brought into action without having already bled out. Some of the CO2-powered OC-ball guns are like that, too.

I've also heard/read that bleeding out a charged gun by loosening the seal can cause the seal o-ring to freeze solid, shortening its life by making it more brittle. In the event of having a partially-charged gun, I don't know which is worse for the o-rings, leaving it charged, or bleeding it off.

A few days ago, I had to resort to a CO2 pistol to dispatch a snake that got into my garage when the break-barrel repeater normally used for critter control failed due to a damaged magazine tube (it didn't occur to me at the time to simply feed the pellets into the breech manually, one at a time.) I didn't have time to go shooting to expend the remaining C)2, so I had to bleed it off. That does get frosty.

 

[chicharrones]

In my experience the seal that fails first is the CO2 cartridge seal. Leaving a cartridge compressed into that flat round seal deforms it, and it doesn't seem to be able to handle that deformation as well as an o-ring.

I've even used one drop of Crosman Pellgun Oil on each new cartridge on the recommendation it supposed to make the seals last longer. It sure doesn't seem to be the case for the CO2 cartridge seal, in my experience. They either develop hissy slow leaks, hissy fast leaks, or the seal crumbles to pieces in maybe 5 years.

 

[kBob]

Well that first cylinder lasted 12 days....I fired abut 75 shots with it spread out over that time ...the last 15 producing 3 hits on soda cans at seven or eight feet from a moving Gravely riding mower (Fill your hands you Suns of Beaches!) Typically from ten feet shots were through and through aluminum soda cans including through the thick bottom and out the top.

Then yestersday a tree rat decided to dine at the bird feeder I have set up so I grabbed up the gun to run him off....click click roll droop still scarred him which is all I wanted to do.

This morning I went out to the shop and gathered a couple of CO 2 cartridges. Both catastropically vented even leaving frost around the cracks in the gun design.

Oh well.

Guess I need a new 1911-sh CO 2 pistol...

-kBob