Not All Airguns Are Friendly to Hand Pumps
There are many different air sources for pcp’s and many of them can be a little heavy on the wallet. The lightest hit your wallet will take is with a hand pump, but not all pcp’s are “hand pump friendly”. How can you tell the difference?
Hand pumping an air rifle is not something most people can do with one hand while sipping their coffee, it takes effort and sometimes maximum effort. The reason this knowledge is so crucial is because if you purchase a pcp and it is not hand pump friendly, you probably won’t be pcp friendly and may not ever pick it up again!
Fill Pressure
When the maximum fill pressure is above 3,500 PSI like the Air Venturi Avenger with a max fill of 4,351 PSI, you’re not only in for a great workout, you may not be capable of filling the pcp all the way. You’re going to need a substantial amount of body mass to be able to push the pump handle down at some point during the fill.
A Few Ideas
Airguns that would be preferable for a hand pump are going to require less of a fill, like a max fill pressure between 2,000 and 3,000 PSI are best. Here are a few examples and we’ll tell you why. The Crosman 3622 PCP the fill pressure on this one uses the lowest of them all at 2,000 PSI and you’ll get 25 shots per fill.
A few airguns fill to 2,900 PSI like the Diana Stormrider Gen2 which gives you 30-40 per fill. The Kral Arms Puncher Empire XS at 48 shots. The Kral Arms Puncher Mortal and depending on the caliber it offers 50-60 shots. Lastly in the 2,900 category is the Webley Nemesis X and this one may be the one on the top of the list with 180 shots per fill! That’s quite a bit of time for rest between pumping!
The Seneca Eagle Claw Carbine, Umarex Iconix, Kral Arms Puncher Empire X, AirForce Talon SS Spin-Loc, and the Seneca Dragon Claw II Tactical .50 Cal all have a max fill pressure of 3,000 PSI. They are all very different PCPs and fill different needs.
Shot Count
The Eagle Claw and Umarex Iconix are small bore and will produce twenty and twenty-five shots per fill, maybe not the best choice for shot count. The Kral Arms Puncher and Air Force Talon are also small bore but produce a max shot count of 120-144 and depending on power settings for the talon from 30 up to 200 shots per fill! That would be at the top of the list as one of the most hand pump friendly PCP’s.
What about a Big bore airgun that’s hand pump friendly, no worries, Air Venturi has that covered with the Seneca Dragon Claw a fifty caliber big bore airgun that is hand pump friendly. Expect 3-4 consistent shots on high power and 8-10 on low power. The good thing about big game hunting is generally you’re only going to get one shot off, on a rare occasion you may need to take another or get to take another so one fill should be sufficient for the hunt!
The next ones are the JTS Airacuda Standard with a max fill pressure of 3,200 PSI and you’ll achieve approximately 40 shots per fill and the Gamo Arrow PCP with the highest fill pressure of all the airguns we’ve shown here at 3,365 PSI and a shotcount of 60 per fill.
May Not Achieve A Max Fill
Can you purchase an airgun that has a higher max fill pressure than these and use a handpump? Absolutely but unless you have an incredible amount of body mass at some point it may become impossible to continue filling and yes that’s okay! It is not necessary that you fill your pcp to the max fill pressure to enjoy it.
Things to keep an eye out for when looking for a hand pump friendly pcp is max fill pressure and max shot count. The higher the shot count the less you’ll have to exert the energy for another fill. Also consider the hand pump, they vary in quality and value as well. You can opt for the Crosman Hand Pump or the AirForce 3-Stage PCP Hand Pump. Happy filling!
