Sumatra (and Others) Fill Probe Replacement

[gy954]

Sumatra (and Others) Fill Probe Replacement

Don't you hate messing with a fill probe? Each one is proprietary (i.e., different), so if you are shooting, say, your Sumatra 2500 and your Hammerli Pneuma (Hatsan 44), you have to constantly switch between adapters. Properly used, the O-rings of a fill probe should be coated with silicone grease before each use. Either that or they soon deform or break and need replacing. Either way, it's a real pain. I have always liked the Marauder's standard quick-disconnect (Foster) fitting on the end of its air tank. Why don't all rifles come that way?

There is an answer to this grief--an adapter which has a male quick-disconnect fitting on one end, with a male 1/8" BSPP thread on the other. This adapter allows Sam Yang, Sumatra and Career rifles (and maybe others) to connect directly to the Benjamin 3-stage hand pump, or ANY female quick-disconnect. Because the quick-disconnect fitting is industry standard, this adapter fits most scuba-tank and hand-pump hoses. (At Pyramyd: AVMaleCoupling [PY-A-2841].)

Replacing the fill port on my Sumatra was simple. I put the long end of a large Allen wrench into the fill port (where the probe goes) and unscrewed it anti-clockwise. To my surprise, it came off with virtually no resistance. I added the O-ring supplied with the adapter by dropping it into the hole where the fill port had been before screwing on the adapter. The thing fit perfectly. I snugged it tight with a crescent wrench, careful to not use much force. I should mention that the gun was fully charged while I made the change: there is a check valve in the tank, so no air was lost.

Want to buy my used fill probe? No--wait!, you could better use that money to buy the adapter!

[Rescue35]

I used one of these on my Dragon for over a year. It worked great with my pump and the other PCPs which used male Foster QDs. Once I picked up the other 2 Careers I made a male foster QD to attach to the probe and reinstalled the factory fitting on the Dragon. Now I just install the probe in my fill whip (I use cylinders now) and go to town.

Having to screw gun specific fill adapters into your fill source gets old quick.