Nitrogen for air rifles?

Levergun59 · Post by **Levergun59** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:43 am

I have both a nitrogen and CO2 tank. If I filled my air rifle with nitrogen, would there be a problem with the metering of the nitrogen gas? Nitrogen has it's pluses. It is not nearly affected by temperature changes and should shoot better. People use it to fill race tires exactly for this reason. Nitrogen has no water that would form from the changes in pressure. No water filters to mess with. It is more expensive but not prohibitively so. I'm sure somebody has tried this before and it didn't work, but I am curious as to why. Thanks in advance.
Chris

J.Hoes · Post by **J.Hoes** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:25 am

Several years ago a shooter from India started this topic
http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php ... trogen+air

about using nitrogen in an air pistol. He reported no problems.

"nitrogen" is no "air", so check for legal problems.

Greetings Hans.

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:37 am

that thread was re replacing compressed air with nitrogen.

Replacong CO2 with nitrogen is a very different matter as the CO2 gun uses the (comparatively) constant vapour pressure of the CO2 to regulate the pressure: replacing with nitrogen will be unregulated and the pressure will drop off with each shot.

sbrmike · Post by **sbrmike** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:10 am

Liquid CO2 is not temperature sensitive at all unless my memory is flawed. It is a bit of a pain to fill and you must pay attention to muzzle blast to tell when it is depeleted are it's big detractors. CO2 is great if you properly fill the tank and keep an accurate round count as to when to swap them out.

Barney · Post by **Barney** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 9:51 am

There is about 80% nitrogen in air anyway, is it really going to make that much difference using 100% ?

GCSInc · Post by **GCSInc** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:36 pm

We use Nitrogen almost exclusively at The Ole Mill Range Complex. We don't use any CO2 anymore.

We have had very good luck and less maintenance issues since we switched from Compressed Air to Nitrogen.

I have photos of our Manifold System if anyone want's to see them.

Roy

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:49 pm

from Levergun59's OP I assume he has a CO2 rifle that he is considering using compressed nitrogen in.

Nitrous oxide works in CO2 guns (quite well), but without a regulator I doubt that compressed nutrogen would be all that successful.

SRichieR · Post by **SRichieR** » Sun May 01, 2011 3:53 pm

The temperature and pressure of Liquid and gas CO2 mix in a cylinder are directly related. The relatively constan temperature means constant pressure and no regulator is needed in the gun. The room temp pressure is approx 850 psi.
Compressed nitrogen gas is usually a much higher pressure (3000 psi - 6000 psi) and pressure falls as gas is released. Due to the manufacture method is is moisture free with no oxygen there corrosion is reduced. The temperature pressure relationship is better than air. However some type of metering or regulation is required.
To sum it up, we regularly use nitrogen in CA guns designed for 200 bar air (approx 3000 psi). Due to the pressure difference and need for regulation it would not be appropriate for a gun designed for CO2 only.

My $0.02 mechanical engineer's opinion.

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