Shoebox Odyssey

These .25 Marauders use a lot of air between then but there are others, and they are all hungry!

Over 15 years ago I bought a used SCUBA tank at the one and only dive shop in Pocatello Idaho. They had to be convinced that I was Ok, but I had been doing that by filling my Airforce bottle for a couple of years so by now I was a valued customer. It helped that I had sent a couple of others to the shop. A dive shop in SE Idaho needs all the business it can get. At the time I had two PPC airguns.

It had now become clear that one 3000 psi tank was not enough. With five PPC guns I was always running out. I spent more time planning which guns to fill and in what order as the pressure in my gun and the tank’s pressure dropped. New guns all seemed to want 3K air.

I thought I had it figured out. I would get a small 4500 psi tank and keep the dive tank. I would cascade my fill and use the little tank to get up to 3000. It would work and the cost would be budget friendly. I could not get a 4.5K fill locally, but I travel from time to time. Sadly, fate intervened.

“It has been a good run for 37 years,”

“But, it’s come to an end,” said the guy at my local dive shop. My faithful tank, veteran of Extreme Benchrest, two FT Nationals and a host of local and regional shoots, failed a visual inspection. Failed as in dead, dead dead. The cracks were there one was across two threads and the other across one thread in the neck where the valve screws in. They marked the DOT number out with a cold chisel, and returned the tank so I could recycle it ($0.75/pound). I unceremoniously dumped my tank into the back of my pickup, and thought, “Now what?”