TargetTalk

I can't find it on the web or their site, and there's a good LP10 price in the classified for a 10y.o. pistol. Considering I'm not a competitor at major matches (and if I became that good, would spring for new cylinders) are the current 10y.o. cylinders usable for the next few years? Thanks!

The ten year limit is due to EU legislation, after that they must be recertifyed.
But it's almost always cheaper to buy a new one.
Steyr being European based has to comply with that.
If the cylinders are in good shape (with out any knocks or dings) then, they will probably be ok for the next years, although I wouldn't fill them all the way just to be on the safe side.
The only down side is insurance coverage in case there is an accident (but very unlikely).

There was a discussion here a few months back if you want more details.

viewtopic.php?t=37099&highlight=cylinders

Hope this helps.

Are the risks greater with air than CO2?

If there are any risks (no one has shown any), then they would be lower with CO2. Steel cylinders at far lower pressure are the norm.

I have been shooting my cylinders with my C-10 for only the last 23 years

CO2 is different, you only have a gas pressure around 80 bar there. I bought my first AP back in '97, so those tanks are 15 years old and still in use. I've never ever seen a structural problem with an aluminium AP tank, and I'm not worried (even if that makes the lawyers here go nuts). Most of the people in my club don't know about the 10 year rule, wouldn't care, they just shoot, and the oldest APs around must be close to 20 years now.

I think that it is impossible to know if using a particular more than 10 years old cylinder is safe or not.

There are two reasons for that:
- First, there are now few old air pistols (I mean air, not CO2), older than 10-15 years but I am not sure that it is enough to know if aluminum cylinders more than 10 years old are 100% safe.
- Second, the main cause of failure is aluminum fatigue caused by the many cycles of charge/discharge. Unless you bought the cylinder yourself or the owner of the old cylinder can tell you how often he used his cylinder, it is impossible to estimate how many cycles happened for a particular cylinder and so evaluate the risk of accident. Two opposite examples about this, cylinders of club owned pistols you can expect that these cylinders were heavily used and charged very often, many times a week. I bought in 2007 new cylinders on sale from Anschutz these were never used but dated 2003, they will soon be expired but I know that they are safe till at least 2017 since they were never used not exposed to corrosion before 2007 (BTW, I received a certificate from Anschutz dated 2007 that stated that the cylinders were new at that date). Now, if those cylinders are sold, nothing differentiate the club cylinder from mine and the buyer cannot know that the first could be dangerous while the second are safe.

So, I think that deciding not to follow the manufacturers recommendation is your own decision and is done at your own risks.

On top of that, I see that in several European countries, there is snowily a push from the shooting federations to ask shooting clubs to ban expired cylinders starting with the cylinders of the pistols that belong to the shooting clubs.