Bisley Air Cylinders

Bisley Air Cylinders

The Bisley air cylinders from John Rothery Wholesale are a great item to add to any PCP owner’s kit to keep their guns filled and on point.  They come in three different sizes and are made from a single piece of steel and the amount of work that goes into making these cylinders can be seen in this video.  What impresses me is the sheer amount of pressure that these items can take and considering the thickness of the metal is only 3.7mm, it’s incredible that they can hold up to 300 bar safely. All cylinders for use with air rifles do require a check at your local diving shop every five years but if looked after properly, these can last you a lifetime.

When it comes to picking a size of air bottle it will come down to two things.  Do you have enough space to store a larger bottle and what sort of price you want to pay?  There is quite a variance with the amount of fills and shots when you compare the different sizes.  A rough guide to how many shots you will get is below.

15 fills approx. (about 1200 shots) from a 3ltr 300bar bottle

30 fills approx. (about 2000 shots) from a 5ltr 300bar bottle

40 fills approx. (about 3200 shots) from a 7ltr 300bar bottle

Cylinder vs air pump

There are many advantages to using a filling bottle over a stirrup pump. Firstly unless you are trying to shape up for the summer and get a good workout, there is much more of an advantage to using a cylinder as they aren’t as strenuous and do not require so much physical effort. They are quicker to fill and when they run out, you can take them to your local dive shop and get them refilled usually for under £5.

Another advantage to using a cylinder is the air from a pump can let moisture or grit in it when you come to filling your rifle, and this can cause severe damage to the inside of the air cylinder on your rifle, meaning you could eventually have to get your rifle stripped and the cylinder replaced, whereas the air from a dive shop will be clean and free from any moisture or contaminants.

One of the downsides however with a pump to a cylinder is that the pumps are usually quite lightweight and can be stored easily without risk of falling and damaging something. This is where cylinders loose out to the pumps because a cylinder is A LOT!! Heavier and if it falls and lands on your foot, you will know about it and this may possibly result in you needing to take a trip up to A&E. The Bisley 5 & 7L cylinders come with a boot on them to make them more stable but you will still need to be careful not to knock one of these over.

Warning!

One thing you need to remember when you are working or storing anything that involves high pressures is that if something does go wrong, it could go very wrong. You will need to take care of these cylinders because if you damage the valve, you have potentially got a rocket that could cause some serious damage; check out this video if you don’t believe me.