HPA in West Yorkshire

[cropzy]

So for my next project I am going to HPA something. The issues is where is the best place to refill tanks in West Yorkshire? I am near the Huddersfield area and cannot really find anything.

Also I have read you can pump them by hand. Is this true?

 

[L3wisD]

Have you tried looking for diving shops near you?

I had my tank filled at a scuba shop for £4.

Easier still is to buy a scuba tank fill station and a big divers tank to refill at home.

 

[Tommikka]

Dive shops may be willing, but you may need to bring your own fill rig for the cylinder, and it will tend to cost the same per price per fill no matter the size of cylinder

It would be easier but at additional expense to get a dive cylinder, have that filled in a shop and then use your own fill rig to go to the playing cylinder

If you play at a site that runs airsoft and Paintball then they will have a site air system (unless it is a dedicated punter site that still runs co2)

You can fill with a pump, but it will be quite an amount of exercise, eg:

https://www.fatbobs.co.uk/paintball-bottle-stirrup-pump-up-to-4500psi.html#.WuXKCRbTWaM

Be wary of cheap stirrup pumps as they may not be up to the job or have clean air filtration 

 

[you can`t shoot me]

I have used the sweden fx 4 stage pump which i have listed up here for sale, which isn`t actually that bad for filling the bottles but the biggest issue is that the pump heats up.   They recommend you pump for 5 minutes and then wait 15 minutes for it to cool down but i found you can only pump for a couple minutes at a time about 80 pumps or so before it will heat up too much to continue.  I used it on the hardest setting which gives you more air per pump and didn`t find it very hard but i am 17 stone so the weight probably helps but the 4 stage pump does have the option to make it easier but gives less air per pump so takes longer.

It is really handy if you don`t do much shooting and have nowhere you can get a dive cylinder filled nearby or if you want to top up your bottles as the issue with the dive cylinders is you will get less and less of a fill every time you fill your bottle so the pump is handy if you really need a full bottle to last all day.

 

[Aengus]

If you ask in uk airsoft (facebook I know) there's a few of the speedsoft guys from around that area. The kind of shops you should be messaging to ask (even if they don't do it themselves they'll probably know somewhere that does) is: air rifle/hunting/tackle shops, paintball sites/shops, diving shops, highpressureairsoft might be nearby?

 

[proffrink]

Don't do it by hand unless you're not shooting (DMR or even your typical rifle if you don't spam the trigger) a lot or just filling 13ci tanks. It's a faff as I found mine needed new o-rings every 400ci or so that I pumped (around 5 bottles) to keep it on top form. A lot of disassembly and maintenance and although good calorie burning is not good for your back. Might be different for 3000psi tanks as I imagine this is much less strain on the pump (even though the one I was using was rated for 4500psi). It's a last ditch effort if you can't get a scuba tank and fill station, but a good sized tank (10-12L) second hand and a fill station will set you back around the same as a decent pump so it's usually worth doing that if you're able to get down to your local dive shop.

This removes a lot of the work in finding a shop that will fill a paintball tank and finding a shop that'll fill a tank is typically not too tricky. Having said that, you do live in a county that's landlocked so you might struggle a bit. Still a fair amount of cave diving up north though so who knows.

 

[sevizy]

Urban airsoft in Normanton do HPA fills, never used them personally so cant give you an idea of price but I remember they released a video announcing it.

 

[MisterG]

Also I have read you can pump them by hand. Is this true?

Depends on your fitness and quality of your pump. 

I took 2 hours to do 600 psi with lots of breaks, but I am not very fit anymore. 

Shoulders were stiff the next day.  To be fair I spent a lot of energy on a cylinder with a leaking valve, I might have managed 1200 had I started with the good cylinder.  It was getting a lot harder towarrds the end as the cylinder was already half full.

Next day found the scuba shop was 10 mins walk.  I got more exercise from the pumping!  Also £4 to fill.

Cheers

G