New Crosman PCP Questions

[Riomouse911]

Hey all, I am 100 percent new to Pre Charged Pneumatic air rifles. My sons’ high school AFJROTC cadre uses Crosman Challenger PCP rifles for their shooting team. He wanted to join the marksmanship squad, and has been a great kid all year (Straight 4.0 after his first year of Band with an a-hole instructor who gave him a Vindictive C because he hated the ROTC program ), so I plunked down the 600-odd bucks for a rifle so he can shoot with the team.

They have the charger system at the school so he can sight in and get on paper, but I should get a scuba tank and charging stuff so we can shoot here at home.

What can you experts tell me about these guns, what should I get as far as tank and charging Equipmemt, what’s s good brand and style of sling and for a shooting glove, etc?



Thanks for any and all input!

Stay safe.

 

[jaguarxk120]

I do not shoot a PCP rifle or pistol. But think about it, the rifle will only hold enough air for so many shots.
Practice is what makes a rifleman, so if he can shoot at home and develop his skills, that is good.

 

[Riomouse911]

Yeah, some reviews said up to 70 or more shots before it starts dropping when started at 2,500 psi, so it’ll go for a while.

Now I think I need scuba tanks to hold a reservoir of charging air .

Stay safe.

 

[cslinger]

The challenger is a trivial gun to charge with a hand pump. Low pressure, fairly small tank.

Until you cross about 200 BAR and get into larger air reservoirs hand pumping isn’t bad IMO and that challenger should be easy.

Also keep in mind you should be getting 70-100 or so shots so it’s not like pump 50 times shoot 10 shots rinse repeat. 70-100 accurate, measured shots striving for 10m rifle accuracy neither mentally nor physically easy.

I would start with a pump and see if it warrants a more expensive solution for you.

 

[cslinger]

Just as a point of ref. IIRC the Challenger is a 2000 PSI fill gun and the air reservoir cannot be much bigger then the 100 or so CC tank that is on my Air Arms / CZ T200 and the T200 fills to 170-190 BAR vs the 138 or so for the Crosman.

It takes me about 35 to 40 pump strokes back to full after 80-90 shots. Even at 190 Bar these are easy strokes. So call it 5 min of pumping if that and you are back to 70-100 shots. Also keep in mind you are not pumping like a mad man. You are slow deliberate up, slow deliberate down.

That Challenger should be a pussycat to hand pump.

 

[cslinger]

Hey all, I am 100 percent new to Pre Charged Pneumatic air rifles. My sons’ high school AFJROTC cadre uses Crosman Challenger PCP rifles for their shooting team. He wanted to join the marksmanship squad, and has been a great kid all year (Straight 4.0 after his first year of Band with an a-hole instructor who gave him a Vindictive C because he hated the ROTC program ), so I plunked down the 600-odd bucks for a rifle so he can shoot with the team.

They have the charger system at the school so he can sight in and get on paper, but I should get a scuba tank and charging stuff so we can shoot here at home.

What can you experts tell me about these guns, what should I get as far as tank and charging Equipmemt, what’s s good brand and style of sling and for a shooting glove, etc?

View attachment 1025601 View attachment 1025602 View attachment 1025603

Thanks for any and all input!

Stay safe.

One more thing, sorry stream of consciousness kinda guy. , IIRC, the bolt action/Tbolt whatever is used to load the pellet uses a ball bearing or some such on the Challenger and is prone to coming out or failing or some such. Might be worth researching just to have in your back pocket and maybe have the parts / fix instructions on hand just in case.

 

[Riomouse911]

Good idea, thanks for the tip.

 

[cslinger]

Good idea, thanks for the tip.

Some numbers to give food for thought.
I have an Air Arms/CZ T200 rifle. It is similar in design principles to the Crosman you have. Highly accurate, low velocity, high shot count, low pressure.

I just ran mine down from around 180 bar to a hair under 150 bar. That nets me around 60 or 70 shots at 20 yards. I can run around 110 or so before I really have a need to refill but in my world 60-70 shots is about max before I refill and fits my shooting style.

I timed my pumping back up from a little under 150 bar back up to a little over 180 bar and I counted the pump strokes for you. From the time I started by removing the cylinder from my rifle (as that is how my gun is filled), attaching it to the hand pump, pumping 30 strokes to bring me back up to around 170 bar, to putting the cylinder back in the gun I was under 5 minutes and the effort is trivial. The key is the fill pressure. Low pressure fills at or under 3000 PSI are actually fairly easy barring a large tank. Its when you hit 3000 PSI and above (In my case), a large air reservoir or a very low shot count or all three are where the argument for a bottle or compressor really starts to make sense.

Now that said if I was hand pumping six, eight, ten times a day it would be a chore to be sure. But 2-3 or 4 times a day, no problem at all.

So like I said above I would pick up an inexpensive hand pump and give it a go. Worst case scenario you hate it, upgrade to a bottle or compressor but still have a manual backup when you cannot get out to get air or the power/compressor is down etc.

My two cents.

Take care, shoot safe and give that gun a try yourself, I bet you like it......alot.

 

[Riomouse911]

Cool, I’ve seen the pumps for sale so I’ll get one. Luckily the school ROTC has a air pump system for thier guns that he can use while he shoots there.

Stay safe.