Is it practical to recharge Gifford cylinders to fire them?

[micky2]

How do you fill them with an adaptor?

Hi yes you will need an adaptor fixed to a CO2 canister of somekind, but they are great to shoot a real bit of airgun history.

[wild boar]

i made a valve for it yesterday - seems to work witha low pressure fill , i might try to pressure test it this afternoon by filling it with water and taking it to maybe 1500 psi just to be sure it will be ok on co2

[10/10]

Best calibre for me is 4.5mm. i just roll a JSB 4.53 pellet with a Kebab stick (They have rifled barrels)you should get 2p groups at 20yds and the bottom of a beer can at 40yds

[10/10]

If enough interest is generated i may consider having a quantity of adapters made
The CO2 thread is an oddball size so not quite as easy as it could be

[Lawrie Amatruda]

Thread sizes on the Giffard Co2 reservoirs are as follows:-
Rifle 20mm x 2.0
Pistol 16mm x 1.5

And although the thread for the Co2 tank is an odd size, you can use 7/8” x 14 UNC which is as near as you can get.

Hope this helps,

Cheers Lawrie.

[wild boar]

i have had to put a sleeve in between the valve and the spring retainer as the air was pushing the nylon and o-ring back up the tube against the spring rather than going thru the valve to fill it ,
i put maybe 1000 psi in to try and got 330 fps with 45grain (around 11foot pounds )and after a few shots it dropped some - not much but its the sleeve i put in restricting the flow - that was with air but i think co2 might be similar in power but would be safer as i dont know what pressures the cylinder would stand - i did not dare put more than 1000psi in , i will leave it at that as i am pleased to be able to shoot it a little allthough i am wondering if i could sleeve the barrel to .177 (only if its totally reversible without damaging it at all )it could be a nice thing to use

[j_potter]

A few years ago Martin Herrick, who's a brilliant gunsmith, found me a rusty old Giffard barrel in Poland. He skimmed the pitting off the outside of the barrel but managed to keep the gold lettering. He then sleeved it to .22. I unscrewed the 8mm barrel on my rifle ( very carefully but it's not difficult to do ) and now i have two barrels which i can swap over. The .22 is shooting at a very nice 10.5 ft/lb. Martin also adapted an old Mossberg peep sight for me so now i have a nice 'target' outfit. There are pictures of it on the vintageairgun site.

[mrto]

A few years ago Martin Herrick, who's a brilliant gunsmith, found me a rusty old Giffard barrel in Poland. He skimmed the pitting off the outside of the barrel but managed to keep the gold lettering. He then sleeved it to .22. I unscrewed the 8mm barrel on my rifle ( very carefully but it's not difficult to do ) and now i have two barrels which i can swap over. The .22 is shooting at a very nice 10.5 ft/lb. Martin also adapted an old Mossberg peep sight for me so now i have a nice 'target' outfit. There are pictures of it on the vintageairgun site.

I Just took a look at the site you mention your gun looks truly stunning in its repro box!

[Benelli B76]

i have had to put a sleeve in between the valve and the spring retainer as the air was pushing the nylon and o-ring back up the tube against the spring rather than going thru the valve to fill it ,
i put maybe 1000 psi in to try and got 330 fps with 45grain (around 11foot pounds )and after a few shots it dropped some - not much but its the sleeve i put in restricting the flow - that was with air but i think co2 might be similar in power but would be safer as i dont know what pressures the cylinder would stand - i did not dare put more than 1000psi in , i will leave it at that as i am pleased to be able to shoot it a little allthough i am wondering if i could sleeve the barrel to .177 (only if its totally reversible without damaging it at all )it could be a nice thing to use

You will not get many shots with 1000 psi of air, the power will drop off rapidly. CO2 is much better, giving many more shots at a fairly constant velocity especially in warm weather. With CO2 you have a dense liquid supply that is slowly vaporising to gas. With the air at 1000 psi it is constantly falling in pressure at every shot.

Baz

[mel h]

I've made up a couple of adaptors in the past for charging some antique cylinders (with mixed success), and I've been putting a little thought into the Giffards for a while. Just a quick query, can anyone confirm for me that the screw thread used on the modern 88 Gram Co2 containers and adaptors for 12 gram bulbs, is 16 mm x 1.5 . I've never used them so have nothing here to measure.