no clue about the second question, but to the first, this sight, go to the wanted section and say you're after a 3000 psi air tank, preferably carbon fibre and give the highest price you're willing to go, you should get a reply within 5 days at most
A bit of conflict in that advice
Carbon fibre puts the price up, and for 3000psi is unnecessary. There are a small number of rare fibre 3000psi cylinders about
If going to the expense of carbon fibre (about £150 new, about £80 second hand) then get something for the extra money, EG 4500psi
This is only worthwhile if you have the money to spare and spending an extra
£120 does not cut back you paint and playing funds
A 3000psi steel/aluminium cylinder is about £30 new
With second hand cylinders it's easy to get caught up in the fact that its cheaper then new, but you need to be sure it is value for money especially regarding remaining life
A retest which is required every 5 years costs about £25. More if the cylinder needs to be posted
(Drop it off with hpac at an event, paintball shops, scuba shops)
Steel/aluminium 3000psi cylinders last forever if they are tested every 5 years (and pass) but they are cheap enough to replace with new
Carbon fibre wrapped 45000psi cylinders have a maximum life of 15 years, so that is a minimum of 2 tests. A lifetime cost of £200 - average annual cost about £13
Work out how many remaining tests there are, allow £25 per test add that to the second hand price (include postage, pay pal fees etc) divide the total by the number of year life left. If its close to £13 or more then its not worth buying second hand
A 10 year old cylinder at £80 that has had its 2nd test already equals £16 per year
A 5 year old cylinder at £80 that has had it's first test will need another test to complete the remaining 10 years which makes the total £105, divide by 10 and its £10.50 per year so is viable. It's the. A matter of personal choice as to whether the unknown history is worth the £2.50 per year saving
(Drop it, mark or crack part of the firbe or doubt its condition then that's an extra test to be safe)
When buying second hand check the final date, and the next due date
My recommendation is a new steel / aluminium cylinder at about £30
(Other branded ones are available with different regulators etc for a little more)
EG
from bz paintball cylinder are under £30 with post at £6 or free with orders over £50
from lips paintball there are cylinders at under £40 with free delivery over £25
From demon paintball £35, and £7 postage
From we are paintball £30 to £50, I think delivery could be a fixed rate but I'm not going through the checkout process to find out. However please note that you can get a discount code for them by visiting my teams Facebook and liking us
(Task force delta on Facebook, like us then there is a 'discount codes' gallery. The code is visible when you like us)
From just paintball at £35 and probably free post
(Always phone just paintball and check stock - the main complaint people have with JP is how slow they are when things are not realy in stock)
If you can't go for that much then you can use site cylinders for free or a small fee until you can buy your own
(Note that if money is that tight then consider if paintball is for you)
If you want to save a bit then check the classifieds as a few 3000psi cylinders have been up recently including southampton university paintball club:
http://p8ntballer-forums.com/threads/southampton-uni-are-having-a-clearout.157403/
They have cylinders at £18 with just over a years life
(Going by my maths that's too much to pay on cylinder depreciation if you go by a £30 to £40 cylinder
Which equate to £6 to £8 per year. Much of their sale price is courier fees, so you're paying for the postage, however if you want to pay less then new for just over a years worth then it can be buy able)
For fills you should get them from the site you play at
If you play 'off world' it can get a lot more illegal then you think. It's not just playing a game on land you should not be on - it can be a firearms offence. If you are reported shooting in the woods then you could get a different police response to the one you expect
If you have permission on the land then it still does not make it legal, there are various complexities
If you do need to get air from elsewhere then it will need to be a visit to a scuba shop, but they probably don't have the right fill rig and you will need to provide it
In addition the scuba community work in BAR we work in PSI (though cylinders are marked in BAR) - it should never happen but scuba shops have filled 3000psi cylinders to 300bar which is 4500psi and the burst disk goes bang
