RevoXT wrote: On my A-5 I finally did a count and I get about 400-600 rounds off with my 20-Oz Anti-Siphon Tank.. is this a normal number for an A-5? I know it technically uses more air than a Spyder because it has to feed the Cyclone Feeder.. but is this what most people get w\o a X-Chamber and Anti-Siphon?

you should easily be getting 500 more rounds out of that tank. remember: the cyclone uses excess blowback gas. it has NO EFFECT on the overall efficiency. are you sure you're getting a good fill?

You should be getting ~1000 shots out of a 20oz. Are you sure your tank is being filled properly? Is there a leak?

ekeboo wrote: OK to see if the paintball store is doing it wrong bring the tank back empty but very cold im talking refrigerator cold very cold. have them fill it. and then shoot it. and see how many shots you get. Tell them you want the tank chilled if they dont do this for you free dont go there.

also,when they fill the gun, the should do three things:

1. empty the bottle
2. fill the bottle partially, to cool down the tank itself
3. fill the bottle completely.

the reasoning behind step number two is that the bottle will readily accept more CO2 if it is cooler(giving you a good fill), than if it is at room temperature(bad fill), or at least, that's what i've been told.

Bruce A. Frank wrote: Because it is a paintball store, doesn't assure that they know how to fill CO2 correctly...which is absolutely necessary to fill the bottle completely. If correct procedures are not followed it is difficult to get more than 9 oz into a 20 oz bottle.

Small matter of safety needs to be mentioned :

I disagree !! A 12 Oz CO2 bottle should be only filled to about 90 percent of its volume to allow for expansion (any vessel containing Cyrogenic liquid for that matter) , to fill a tank "Completely" creates a dangerous situation where if a liquid such as CO2 has no room to expand into a vapor , at best it will take out a burst disc , and at worst you'll have a B.L.E.V.E  (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) . There needs to be some room left in the tank for vapor expansion .

Any "Properly trained" Pro shop will tell you its not a good idea , as will anybody thats been trained in High pressure liquids (Refrigerants , cyrogenic gasses , welding gasses Etc )

As far as your Gas economy , I'd say if you are getting on the average of 500-600 shots per fill with a 20 Oz , you are pretty close to typical .Some say 750 shots is just about where you ought to be under normal circumstances . Tippmann's are gas hogs (as are most Blow-back markers) .

there are things you can do to make them more efficient , gas wise , but to do so is going to run you either quite some effort ,or the money you'd put out to do it would take you a long time to re-coup Vs . savings in CO2 fills .