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Thread: Testing A 1960s Crosman CO2 Powerlet

  1. #1
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    Testing A 1960s Crosman CO2 Powerlet

    Well, having bought several packs of vintage Crosman Powerlets at Kempton last Sunday, curiosity has got the better of me and I decided to sacrifice a sealed Powerlet to see what would happen and indeed whether the gas had survived the last 50 years.

    I weighed the sacrificial Powerlet and it came in at 33 Grams. The 'coke bottle top' seal was intact and undamaged.

    I wasn't sure if debris might damage the seals of a vintage Crosman Pellgun, so decided to use a spare magazine I had obtained for one of my Baikal Makarovs as they are easy to work on and reseal.

    The temperature gauge in the car told me it was 9 degrees at 06:15 this morning, so donning safety glasses at the club, I screwed in the CO2 tensioner until it was tight but I did not hear a hiss. Nevertheless, I loaded up with 5 rounds of copper coated lead and took my first shot. The pistol discharged and I could see the gold coloured ball in flight until it dropped before hitting the Pringles can I had placed 8 yards away. Sadly, that was the only ball the pistol did fire as my next shots discharged gas but the projectiles remained in the magazine before jamming in the breech area. The discharge was more of a pop than the bang usually associated with this particular Makarov, which I have tuned but it did keep 'popping' for around a dozen shots.

    I then unscrewed the CO2 tensioner and what remained of the gas discharged (there was not a lot of it). The Powerlet was not cold to the touch when I removed it from the magazine.

    I then charged the Makarov with a new Umarex branded CO2 cartridge and it discharged several magazines without jamming and at its usual power level. The Pringles can was shredded by the end of the short session this morning.

    I weighed the 1960s Powerlet when I returned home and it now weighed 31 Grams.

    So, there was CO2 in there but not enough to discharge more than one projectile.

    My conclusion is therefore keep any sealed CO2 Powerlets you come across for display. Performance is virtually nil.

    Photos linked below.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/1ie4ma63iYQEKKCH9

    John M
    Currently looking for Baikal Makarov pistols with the following prefixes to the serial number: 98, T01, T09, T21, T22
    Prefer boxed or cased but will consider loose examples too.

  2. #2
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    interesting.... is there a seam/joint where it could have leaked out from ?
    Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shed tuner View Post
    interesting.... is there a seam/joint where it could have leaked out from ?
    The crimp on these 'Coke cap' tops does not look as sturdy as today's membrane. I wonder if the gas has turned inert through age? I'm certainly no expert on gases and that may be a daft question of course!

    John
    Currently looking for Baikal Makarov pistols with the following prefixes to the serial number: 98, T01, T09, T21, T22
    Prefer boxed or cased but will consider loose examples too.

  4. #4
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    Hello John,
    Thanks for sharing the results of your very interesting experiment. I can't believe anyone would want something like this except a collector for display purposes rather than anything else. The capsules I bought were very tarnished and not the sort of thing you would normally want to risk using. I have used more modern capsules after a period of about of about five years with no problems. I believe carbon dioxide is already an inert gas, so that can't have been the reason for the result.
    Brian

  5. #5
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    yeah, the co2 must have escaped...
    Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.

  6. #6
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    Interesting post.

    Have you checked the weight of your remaining Powerlets? If full, one should weigh 31g + 12.5g (the claimed weight of CO2 content) = 43.5g.

    An obvious leak point would be the crown cap. Does it have some form of gasket to make the seal between the cap and top of the bottle?

    Further destructive testing is called for.

  7. #7
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    I've a carton of these Powerlet boxes

    must try some and see if they are dead. In the late 1970s I could buy an outer of Nittan 12Gm Powerlets(20 boxes) or an outer of Crosmans (12 boxes) for $19.50....from Tisdalls Ltd(Petone).This included postage! I visited this store(a general sports store) on one occasion,they had 27 different air pistols.How change times. ;-)Those Crosman 1100 sets cost around $120 all up. Trev

  8. #8
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    Years ago I bought a couple hundred Crosman 'bottle-cap' cartridges dirt cheap at a firearms show. It turned out that less than one out of three held enough CO2 to be usable at all and most were empty - a false bargain for sure. I've never dissected one, but surely there's a seal/gasket that deteriorates allowing the contents to escape. Interestingly, the old Sparklet 8-gram ones with a visible gasket are still reliable after 50+ years.

    Don R.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by draitzer View Post
    Years ago I bought a couple hundred Crosman 'bottle-cap' cartridges dirt cheap at a firearms show. It turned out that less than one out of three held enough CO2 to be usable at all and most were empty - a false bargain for sure. I've never dissected one, but surely there's a seal/gasket that deteriorates allowing the contents to escape. Interestingly, the old Sparklet 8-gram ones with a visible gasket are still reliable after 50+ years.

    Don R.

    I bought a couple of hundred 12 gram ones that looked old and grubby off that auction site cheap to use on an old but boxed daisy 3357 50 cal paintball marker, Just blew cold dry ice out of the barrel in one go, Only 1 in 3 or 4 worked and not that powerful, Not weak but you can certainly tell the difference between a new capsule. A new 12 gram sparklet works perfect every time so they must deteriorate over a period time.. Not that cheap at 10p each if two thirds of them dont work.

  10. #10
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    A shooting friend of mine had the means of testing the purity of various makes of CO2 capsules where he works and was surprised at the levels of contamination except apparently for those made by Umarex. I must have used capsules from many different manufacturers over the years without any particular problems that could be directly attributable to contaminated gas.

    Brian

  11. #11
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    Maybe Crosman were ahead of the game and were reducing their CO2 emissions long before the car manufacturers
    got into the act.



    Sorry I will take myself to the naughty corner and will be quiet.

  12. #12
    edbear2 Guest
    Hi John, we regularly scrap batches of 100's of aircraft life jackets at work that are C02 operated, some have powerlets similar but slightly different to anything used in any airgun (I used to see guys popping powerlets for days then scrapping the containers and thought "what a waste").

    Anyway, the shelflife is to re-weigh at 4 years and there is a percentage that is allowable, much like a fire extinguisher test, on my gas inflated lifejackets on the boat they just say change at 4 years regardless.

    Thing is, I have seen containers 20-25 years old from storage that are still perfect, but the are very high quality as you would expect, so maybe it's down to the type of closure as mentioned by another poster.

    We must have binned thousands since I have worked there, I will see if I can find some samples to measure as it would almost be worth making an adaptor if you are a C02 buff,

    The REAL fun (and dangerous due to the energy) stuff is letting off scrap aircraft slides and 60 person liferafts

    ATB, Ed

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by edbear2 View Post
    Hi John, we regularly scrap batches of 100's of aircraft life jackets at work that are C02 operated, some have powerlets similar but slightly different to anything used in any airgun (I used to see guys popping powerlets for days then scrapping the containers and thought "what a waste").

    Anyway, the shelflife is to re-weigh at 4 years and there is a percentage that is allowable, much like a fire extinguisher test, on my gas inflated lifejackets on the boat they just say change at 4 years regardless.

    Thing is, I have seen containers 20-25 years old from storage that are still perfect, but the are very high quality as you would expect, so maybe it's down to the type of closure as mentioned by another poster.

    We must have binned thousands since I have worked there, I will see if I can find some samples to measure as it would almost be worth making an adaptor if you are a C02 buff,

    The REAL fun (and dangerous due to the energy) stuff is letting off scrap aircraft slides and 60 person liferafts

    ATB, Ed
    Interesting Ed.

    I have a batch of Crosman CO2 from when CO2 first came off ticket in the UK, which I 'saved for best'. Perhaps this was a poor investment I'll have to try one; one of these days.

    John
    Currently looking for Baikal Makarov pistols with the following prefixes to the serial number: 98, T01, T09, T21, T22
    Prefer boxed or cased but will consider loose examples too.

  14. #14
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    Very interesting thread. Never seen that topic explored before.

    Tests on older post-“bottle cap” powerlets would be very interesting too.

  15. #15
    edbear2 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Josie & John View Post
    Interesting Ed.

    I have a batch of Crosman CO2 from when CO2 first came off ticket in the UK, which I 'saved for best'. Perhaps this was a poor investment I'll have to try one; one of these days.

    John
    Hi John, the ones at work are same as the one in the link, but 28g and made in Austria, covered in part numbers and a minimum weight to 2 decimal places!.I asked the guys at the top and last time they did a scrap out they had 2 guys popping capsules for over a day and the result was several dustbins full!

    We had literally 1000's of aircraft seats at various times, each with a jacket, plus liferafts, you name it.


    https://www.aspli.com/2489/united-mo...yABEgIXMvD_BwE

    ATB, Ed


    ATB, Ed

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