Does anyone still use CO2?

[CoolHand]

Originally posted by Jack & Coke


......

"...only if you shoot low ROF and short strings..." (will CO2 have a chance of being as consistant as HPA)

As far as gas attributes go during high performance games (i.e. tournament style):

A. ability to provide consistant shot-to-shot pressures
B. ability to provide consistant operating conditions (allowing your guns internal parts and regulators to work properly)
C. ability to provide enough volume of gas (to avoid "starving the gun")

HPA vs CO2

HPA wins.

That's not universally correct.

While your theory may be true for an Automag, it is not for an Impulse. I have used an Impulse in a high performance mode for about two years now. With a full 68 CU tank, I can shoot all the paint I carry (a hopper and 5 pods), in hopper long streams at 14-16 bps, with both:

A) no shoot down and B) no frozen marker problems.

Now, that said, I have on more than one occasion frozen my hand to my vert MaxFlo, and even the bottle to my shirt. Did it hurt anything (besides my hand), no.

My Imp runs at ~100 psi, and has never shot down on me once. Now, were it to need say 600 psi, then yeah, it might shoot down, but only on a cool day with a nice thick tank cover to insulate the bottle (IE keep body heat from warming it).

Brophog is totally correct on this one, CO2 has no problems, at any temperature range, if you are using it at a low enough output pressure.

Is CO2 better than HPA?

Dunno.

Doesn't really matter, because lots of folks have no other choice.

Given the option of HPA (at say a tourney), I still run CO2 in my FreeFlow, and my Imp, and they both perform just like they would off of HPA - No shootdown, and no hot shots, plus I can shoot nearly a case and a half off of one fill (with the Imp).

[127.0.0.1]

There's more work/thinking involved in using CO2 as your gas... so... go HPA!

lol although CO2 isn't as bad as most people think. I ran off a cocker double palmer stab regged and it was fine all day... winter day mind ya (well winter in Cali isn't bad)

[Brophog]

Originally posted by 127.0.0.1
lol although CO2 isn't as bad as most people think. I ran off a cocker double palmer stab regged and it was fine all day... winter day mind ya (well winter in Cali isn't bad)

That's the main point. I don't want to sound like HPA is bad or that I don't like it. Far from it. I don't use it a lot, mostly because I shoot markers that don't require it, and its easier for me to refill my 50lb cylinder every few months than worry about getting an HPA setup going. I know one day I'll probably make the switch permanently, just not now.

I do want to emphasize though just how ignorant we can be about CO2. When HPA became popular, people somehow were reduced to "CO2 is bad" and that is not the case at all. Its different. It has characteristics that you must deal with, but they are for the most part solvable. However, you wind up with a few positives as well, mainly a high volume per area capacity, low cost, and reliable fills.

I play a lot of scenarios, and there is nothing worse than bringing HPA to only get 2000 PSI fills. Its not worth the hassle when you can bring a CO2 tank of any size and get enough air to shoot well past your next reinsertion. Fact is, HPA is not all that popular still in many areas, and not everyone can get reliable 4500 fills, which is what it takes to get a desirable quantity of air a lot of the time. I want people to know that in a lot of markers, you can still get high performance by using CO2. You will not however, get that performance by merely screwing the tank onto your marker.

[trevorjk]

i go through 12 grams like mad crazy now

[trains are bad]

Brophog is totally correct on this one

Brophog is totally correct. He basically reiterated everything I'd already said.

[Gadget]

I've not used C02 in a decade. Our entire team went to 3000psi AA air systems in '94 - before that I was running around with this as a marker (plus 20oz anti-syphon)...now that's a real man's expansion chamber

[kscullin]

To clarify, my statement about replacing a CO2 bottle every 5 years is because it costs as much or more to get a bottle hydrotested as it does to buy a new CO2 bottle. IMO, there's no point in getting a CO2 bottle hydro'd when you can just replace it, but a bottle outside its hydro date is useless so I say take out the valve and toss the cylinder.

Of course HPA bottles are expensive enough to warrant the hydrotest expense, but a lot of those are 3 years.

I don't think there is a bottle that doesn't have a 15 year lifetime.

[pjammaman]

its straight c02 for me, 20oz or 12 gram. too hard to get fills, and I just can't justifiy the price difference to switch to hpa (yet). However I will probably make a switch in the future.