Hope someone can help, by explaining how a regulator on a pcp works, does it matter if you have a regulated gun or not and are they more expensive, I am looking to buy a BSA superten as my fisrt pcp, good gun?
Hope someone can help, by explaining how a regulator on a pcp works, does it matter if you have a regulated gun or not and are they more expensive, I am looking to buy a BSA superten as my fisrt pcp, good gun?
A regulator ensures that the same amount of air at the same pressure is used to drive each pellet. The rifle always shoots with the same power - until the air pressure drops below the pressure at which the regulator is set. A regulated rifle can be set up to use a small amount of high pressure air, or a larger amount of lower pressure air. Generally speaking, the higher the pressure of the regulator, the shorter the barrel you can get away with. The trade-off is a decreased number of shots because the air pressure in the reservoir will match the the regulated pressure more quickly.
A regulator is basically a spring loaded valve. High pressure air lifts the valve against a spring until the air pressure on one side equals the combined pressure of air and the spring on the other side. The stronger the spring, the less air passes through before the valve shuts off.
While one would think that a non-regulated rifle would tend to have maximum power at maximum pressure and that velocity would steadily decrease with pressure, it has a couple of tricks. First is the knock-open valve which shuts quickly at high pressure and slowly at low pressure. Second is the size of the pre-chamber. This is a volume into which air is bled through a small opening (frequently threads) from the main chamber. When the hammer knocks open the valve only the air in the pre-chamber is available to drive the pellet. However, the pre-chamber is filled by the bleed in time to take the next shot.
A non-regulated rifle can be perfectly satisfactory and will be lighter than a regulated rifle. A regulator is also quite complex and can malfunction.
Try doing a search because this has been covered a number of times.
Andy
Nowt wrong with a BSA Superten though. The HFT series was won with one last year! I have just got one, although I haven't really had much chance to play with it yet. There are several other members who shoot them, I think Bozzerman has/had one, and Dave Willy does too.
alex <img src="http://jsramsbottom.co.uk/bbs/e/icon_cool.gif" alt="Cool" width="15" height="15"><!--graemlin:-->
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