One of the critical things to do to keep a PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) airgun functioning properly, is to keep dust, dirt, and debris out of the fill port, and thus out of the air valve system. No one wants to have to deal with an air leak in their rifle.
Some of my guns have fill port protectors built in. Like the Logun MK II with a rotating sleeve that covers the fill port. Some, like the Air Arms 410 and Benjamin Discovery, have screw on, or snap on caps. My FX 2000 has an accessory plug that is put back in the fill port when finished filling, but a few have nothing to keep unwanted material from entering the fill port area, and eventually into the fill valve.
My FX Monsoon, Whisper, RWS Rapier, and Logun Solo, are all guns with no fill port protection. This could be a problem, and was made apparent to me one afternoon when I had stopped to take a few pictures of squirrels I had taken earlier.
I had laid my Whisper across a nearby stump while I shot the photos, and when I went to pick it up to continue hunting, I noticed a bee was crawling into the fill port hole. That's all I would need to do, stuff the fill probe into the port without noticing the bee, and blow bee parts into the air cylinder and valve systems.
After scratching my wooden head for a bit, I came up with an inexpensive, and very viable solution. SOFT FOAM EARPLUGS.
I went down to my friendly neighborhood Walgreens, and picked up a package of foam earplugs. The kind that you roll between your fingers to compress them, and then insert them into the ear canal, and after a bit they will expand up to fill the opening. I cut them down some, because I needed two on each air cylinder, and their length would cause one to push the other out when being inserted from the other side.
I also colored them black with a "Sharpie permanent marker" to better match the gun's finish. They work to perfection. No more worries about bees, or anything else getting into the fill ports on those guns without protection.
As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words", so I've included a picture above, and a couple below showing how I use the earplugs. For contrast, in the gun, I've shown the plug in it's original color, but in actual use, I use the black ones.
The fill port on the Monsoon goes clear through the end of the air cylinder, so there is another plug on the other side. It just doesn't show in the picture. This is a very inexpensive, yet effective method for keeping debris out of guns with fill ports, but no cover or plug.
Comments