Almost all PCP players believe adding regulators are better for accuracy. Because the pressure is always changing, the velocity will naturally change, but stable velocity is the guarantee of accuracy. So is this correct?
Here we have an explanatory video. There are some rough explanations in the video. This article will be more detailed.
First of all, whether the velocity of pressure changes or not will always change. This seemingly correct statement is not entirely correct. After the PCP is adjusted reasonably, the velocity balance between the mechanisms will be maintained within a certain range. Different guns have different stabilities due to different adjustments.
We can see that the velocity of the gun we tested in the video
https://youtu.be/0h0eCi1edcs
Has remained almost unchanged from 2950 PSI/20.5 MPA to 1950 PSI/13.5 MPA. So it turns out that without
regs, we can also stabilize the velocity in a range. This range is about a third of the inflatable pressure.
That means we can adjust to (20-13 MPA or 24-15 MPA, etc.). There is no difference between velocity
fluctuation and regulators in this range.The final accuracy is also related to the velocity fluctuation.
Let's say 50 yards if you're looking for an inch of pellets group. Then the velocity fluctuation of 40FPS
is irrelevant. But if 0.5 inch expand is pursued, the velocity fluctuation should be limited to less
than 15 FPS. Some guns are not designed to hit 0.5 inches, and other structures limit their accuracy,
so pursuing regulators on the gun will not be very effective, because other links will become bottlenecks.
So some people have to ask, then there is regulators to solve all these problems. Why discuss the case of regs?
The following are the reasons:
First, the regulator is a pressure reducing valve, which will reduce the efficiency of air pushing. That is, if I want the pellet to reach the same 40FPE kinetic energy. The pressure of 20MPA must be less than that of 13MPA. So without regs, the same volume of air can shoot more.
Secondly, since the regulator is a relief valve, the maximum power will be reduced. Many friends will think that accuracy is more important than power. This opinion is correct, but not comprehensive.
Because there are several situations where big power is better.
1. The hunting of large animals. Big animals have fewer chances to shoot in hunting, and players don't need to shoot many times steadily. And animals are strong and ambitious. At this time, regulator can help you reduce the accuracy from one inch to half inch, which is not valuable. But 300 FPE and 200 FPE are totally different.
2. Long-range shooting accuracy, although long-range shooting also requires high accuracy, but in the outdoor, the farther the target wind is, the greater. For example, a gun shoots with reg of 13 MPA. 22CAL 24GR bounces to 40FPE energy. The other gun shoots at a constant pressure of 25 MPA. 22 40GR ammunition with 65FPE energy. Maybe the first gun will be more accurate at 50 yards, but the second gun can also be used, because at 50 yards, 0.5 inch or 1 inch is no difference for hunting. So 100 yards, as long as there is a little breeze 24GR missile 100 meters offset will be very likely to miss the target. But 40GRs pellet success rate will far exceed.
Then some people will ask why the regulator is not adjusted to 16 MPA to shoot 40GR pellet? As I said just now, the pressure range of a perfectly tuned gun can be stabilized by one third, so it can be stabilized by 25-16 without reg. Moreover, the velocity of the 16 MPA without reg gun is higher than that of the same 16 MPA gun. Because the space pressure of reg is smaller, the pressure drop is larger at the moment of shooting.
Third, regulator air recharge is too slow for semi-automatic high-speed shooting. And when shooting in this way, the precision error caused by quick pulling the trigger and moving the body is far greater than the value of regulator. So reg is meaningless at this situation.
Fourth, regulator is a component that also has the risk of wear and tear. One more link is another possibility of failure. It is very common that even if there is no complete damage, the problem of sealing only leads to a gradual increase in the gas in the reg’s chamber. You also need to remove and replace the seals.
So in summary, we will find that regulator does not have advantages and disadvantages in these cases. So one of the main points of this article is why our AEA company has regulator, but also pays attention to the regulation without regulator. That's because it's risky to rely entirely on regulator. The best thing is that the gun itself is stable. So our engineers have absolute choice initiative. We don't need regulator, but the velocity is still stable. Suitable for regulator, because the gun is already stable, plus regulator can add more stability. And not afraid of regulator problems. Because the gun's self-regulation has been able to counter a wide range of velocity fluctuations. Then in case of regulator point error, there will be suitable point pressure fluctuation. Then the performance of the gun itself can completely overcome this fluctuation. It doesn't cause the gun to totally miss target.
So let's talk about which guns are suitable for regulators?
First of all, low-power gun.
Many countries and regions or competitions have energy limitations, so the power is relatively small.
For example, a 12FT or 6FT gun pressure 3-5MPA is enough. If the inflation is 25MPA, then only a little more
than three-thirds of the stability can be achieved by adjustment alone, that is, 25-16MPA stability. When
regulator is used, 25-5 MPA or 25-3 MPA can be used. The scope of use has been greatly improved. The number
of shots that can be shot could be doubled. So maybe someone saw the previous article and said that
regulator can increase the number of shoots, why do you say that it will decrease? In fact, that's the reason.
What I said before is that under the same pressure, with regulator shoot times are less, because the efficiency
is low. But if a lot of pressure range is increased, the total number of regulator shoots will be more.
So even if the small power gun is 30FT, it is suitable to use regulator because 8MPA-10MPA is enough, then
25MPA can be inflated with 25-8MPA.
In the second situation, it is also suitable to install regulator when inflating pressure is high. For example, shoot 22CAL 24GR pellets. regulator is about 13MPA. At this time, if the inflatable pressure is 21 MPA, regulator will be worthless, because as I said before, a third of the range under perfect debugging can not be constant pressure stability. Then it can be shot stably without reg of 21-13 MPA. But what if it inflates 30MPA? Without regulator can only be 30-19 MPA stable, but with regulator can be 30-13 MPA stable. So reg is also valuable when inflating pressure is high. There are two preconditions, we must remember that under the premise of perfect debugging manufacturers do not need reg to stabilize more than a third. The second pellets of different weight needs different regulator, so we can calculate when reg is suitable.
In the third case, it's a game because I just said that when regulator is not needed, it's hunting. There's no difference between 50 yards, 1 inch and 0.5 inch expand, but the competition is very different. In this way, combined with the stable debugging of the gun itself, the competition will be very advantageous. This article mainly explains the advantages and disadvantages of regulator and its range of suitable using. Our AEA company's gun design, engineers are also based on these actual circumstances to choose whether each gun needs a regulator. Instead of increasing or decreasing at will. Of course, all this is based on the premise that we can make the gun stable without regulator. Watch the velocity stability in our video. Without this premise, the result would be completely different. When we can do this, it will make a gun more reasonable to choose to install the regulator on our own initiative.