Getting Started in CA Pistol Shooting

[RWillia63]

I am coming back into olympic style pistol shooting, having had some experience 20 years ago with CO2 AP. I have read "A guide to Compressed Air Usage" on the PilkGuns web site. Today I visited a local dive shop in northern Virginia, taking the article along. However the person at the shop was not very knowledgeable, and insisted I did not need the yoke (also purchased from Pilkguns) to mate with the K valve on the tank. At the end of our conversation, I was not convinced I was getting good advise about the tank and service I was trying to buy.

Do we have any shooters reading this who are from northern Virginia? If so, I would sure like to talk with you about "how you do it"!

Thanks for any advice from anyone.

Dick
rhw1963@gmail.com

[peterz]

I also live in northern Virginia, Great Falls, 22066, but I am only in the next month or two going to make the change from CO2 to CA. Hope to talk to you soon. I have no experience at all, I'm afraid.

Why not talk to Pilkington and asked them to walk you through, step by step and necessary gadget by necessary gadget?

pz

[chuckjordan]

First let me say that I used to live in NOVA, I now reside in Richmond. Most dive shops will have either a 200DIN or 300DIN Male fitting to go into your tank (I'm assuming that is your setup). Your tank will may either a 200DIN or 300DIN depending upon max pressure.

Most scuba shops (the older ones) will know their stuff quite well. Day-in and day-out they handle these types of fittings.

Let me guess, you went to the US Scuba at 7 corners? On Rt50 & Wilson Blvd) ? If so, they are one of the oldest scuba shops in the US (no defending them, just stating a fact).

I have a CF (carbon fiber) tank from Airhog, they filled it a few times until I moved.

I look at it this way, it's their job to fill the tank safely. To fill over 3500 PSI, they need a special certificate. I'd look for that (or ask if they can fill over 3500 PSI). If so, I wouldn't worry.

Hey, where do you have 10M practice/matches in NOVA?

[peterz]

Hey, where do you have 10M practice/matches in NOVA?

I wish I knew too. It gets lonely shooting alone in my basement. I suppose we could try to persuade one of the local small-bore clubs (Izaak Walton and such) to rent a group the range a couple of times a month for meets if we can find a dozen or so shooters.

I live in Great Falls, zip 22066.

Please PM me with ideas!!

[Misny]

If you get a tank equipped with a standard K valve, you will need the adapter like you get from Pilkingtons. If you get a tank equipped with a DIN valve, you will not need the adapter to fill your compressed air cylinder. I went with the K valve and adapter, as I figured if I ever wanted to sell the tank that scuba divers (the biggest market) would prefer the K valve setup. Scuba shops are very knowledgeable regarding diving, but not so much regarding air pistol shooting.

[RWillia63]

To close this out, I did purchase an 80 CF air tank and K-valve from a dive shop in northern VA, and the transaction and experience turned out to be positive. The person at the shop was very knowledgeable about tank filling and air gun cylinder filling. I viewed the whole process and became much smarter, and gained confidence in the dive shop at the same time.

Now, if we could just solve the problem of where to hold league-style AP matches in NOVA!

[chuckjordan]

Where to hold AP leagues?

Just come down to Richmond and we'll have enough people.