Folks, I have shot a ton of this Blazer 9mm 115 grain FMJ ammo over the years at the range. Palmetto has it on sale for $219.99 + S&H – click here for it.
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My 6.8L 300 bar/4,351 PSI Air Marksman tank had a slow leak. How slow? It would lose a few hundred PSI per month so real small and slow. I used the CRC Aerosol Leak detector to track it down. The seal between the 7/8ths inch valve stem and the tank/bottle is accomplished via an O-Ring and it needed to be replaced.
This how-to works in general but the o-ring size will change if your valve neck has a different diameter. Not all brands and tank volumes use the same diameter valve stem.
| The first step is absolutely the most important – open the valve and make sure the tank is competely empty. Before you go any further, open the valve and leave it open. This is your safety check that it is empty. I can’t stress this enough – make sure it is empty!! |
The valve and tank are 7/8ths inch right hand thread. That means you turn left (counter clockwise) to loosen it and right (clockwise) to tighten the valve on the tank.
To remove the valve, you can first see if it will unscrew by hand but usually they are a bit “stuck”. I use a non-marring dead blow hammer to hit the valve and smack it loose. Hit a part of the valve body that sticks out like a lever arm and not knobs or gauges.
It should not take very much force to get it to come loose. It’s the “whack” that knocks it loose more than just pure brute force. Think of it this was – the sudden jolt on the valve body knocks it loose while inertia is relatively holding the tank body in place. It’s actually way easier than trying to hold the body and apply a wrench or strap to the valve body.
If it isn’t budging, make sure all air is out of the tank before you try more force.
The Neiko dead blow hammer knocked it lose very easily. I then unscrewed it the rest of the way by hand.
Searching on the WWW said to use a size 212 o-ring on a 7/8ths inch valve stem. What you’ll notice in the next photos is that the 212 size o-ring is an approximation of the original. Odds are the Chinese manufacturer of the Air Marksman tank used a different specification but the SAE 212 o-ring will work.
When I removed the o-ring I noticed the o-ring had a number of filaments left over from manufacturing. In theory these remnants from manufacturing an cause imperfect seals.
It took some digging to find out the size and specification I needed:
We dos sell the above o-ring on our site if you are interested – click here.
I wish I had taken a before and after photo of the pocket where the oring sits. It was filthy and I wiped it down with a paper towel before I took this next photo.
Speaking of o-ring grease, absolutely use a quality silicone based grease and I would recommend one formulated for o-rings. I use Super Lube’s o-ring grease and it works great. The grease lubricates the o-ring so the parts slide around it during reassembly and it doesn’t tear. A film on the threads helps prevent seizing and corrosion.
Note: NEVER use petroleum grease or the high pressure air can cause it to ignite like in a diesel engine.
I carefully threaded the valve stem back into the tank and it turned very easily. I brought it down snug by hand and added a about an eigth to a quarter turn with the dead blow hammer. If it feels like it is firm then stop – you don’t need excessive force.
In theory, it is ready to fill but we want to test that. I like to add a 100 bar, stop and watch the pressure gauge for an hour. Why? Well, it takes a long time with a home compressor like my GX CS4 unit to fill a 6.8 liter tank. I’d rather fill it part way and watch vs. wasting extra time on the pump just to find out the leak was still there.
So, I filled to 100, watched and everything was okay. I then went to 200 and watched. Finally I went to 300 and watched. None of my gauges agree with each other so I get at or close to 300 bar on the highest-reading gauge and call it done. To explain that, I have gauges on my pump, on the fill port side of the valve and one on the tank side. Whichever hits 300 first I stop at just to be safe. Yes, the tank should be able to handle way past its working rated pressure of 300 bar / 4,351 PSI but I don’t see any point in pushing it and finding out from a safety perspective.
The link appears to be gone but I can’t tell you for sure if it was the o-ring with its filaments causing imperfect seals or the dirty condition of the pocket where the o-ring sits on the tank – or maybe even a combination – but it’s not leaking.
My Air Marksman tank was leaking around the valve stem through some combination of defective o-ring and debrise/dirt during assembly. I cleaned all the surfaces, applied a light film of o-ring grease on the surfaces including on the new o-ring and re-installed the valve on the tank. Problem solved.
Note: We do sell the o-rings in our store if you are interested. Click here.
Have you really stopped and looked at the modern tactical pistol, rifle, and range bags lately? They have evolved dramatically over the years to accomodate the needs of a wide range of shooters with tons of pouches, mounting points and straps all over them. What else do they have? Velcro. Wow. Most of them have a ton of velcro.
One thing I can tell you is that I have quite a selection of shapes, sizes, styles, colors and brands. So much so that I honestly reached the point that I would have to open bags and look inside to see what was there. Sure, I made use of the velcro on the cases and tried sticking on morale patches, caliber patches, and I bought custom patches with a firearms description embroidered on it. The problem was that none of these worked for me — I’d still forget what was inside or I’d pay for the custom patch only to sell the firearm a few months later. I have very few firearms that I keep long term. Most, I buy, tinker with them, get bored and sell them.
I just dealt with it until this past Fall when I ran into Savior Equipment’s “Tactical PVC Writeable ID Patches”. First off, Savior is my favorite vendor of pistol, rifle and range bags. I’ve been using them for years now. For some reason, I was searching on Amazon for something else and these ID patches popped up. [Click here to open the Amazon listing]
The brilliance of the simple idea just knocked me over – give people a tag they can write on with a permanent marker and then stick on their case – any case – these labels have a velcro backing and you can put them anywhere you want on any velcro surface.
So, I bought my first package that contains eight of the ID labels and went through the whole thing. I then got a second … and a third and that’s where I’m at right now. No more guessing what’s in a case.
I think Savior’s idea is brilliant because it’s simple, affordable, and immediately struck me in terms of “Wow – why didn’t I think of that?”.
If you want a easy, effective, and affordable means to label your cases and have velcro surfaces you can utilize, check out the Savior labels [click here for the Amazon listing]. They really simplified finding out what was in cases for me.
By the way, Savior Equipment has a store on Amazon. If you are looking for excellent cases, pouches, bags and so forth, be sure to check them out [click here to visit the store].
Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
My youngest daughter told me her favorite winter boots were leaking. She’s long since grown and on her own so I told her to bring them the next time she visited and I would see what I could do.
She showed up a few weeks later with some nice winter boots made by Columbia that were a year or two old. As a kid growinmg up in Michigan in the 70s, we’d call this style “snow mobile” boots – but they were a rubber bottom, fabric upper and then had a felt liner that you could pull out that seemed to always wear our first.
These new Columbia boots were far nicer with modern materials but they were leaking. My daughter said the bottoms of her feet would get wet. I took a quick look and the rubber bottoms were in very good shape and so were the uppers. This left the most likely culprit to be the stitching where the uppers are sewed to the rubber lowers.
I actually like working on boots. Don’t ask me why – it’s just one of my thousands of personality quirks. I used to take my dad’s old leather work boots, remove the leather thongs, clean then and then make them soft and water proof using mink oil. For a while we had this cool stuff called “bear grease” that was wax and some oil that worked pretty well. At any rate, rather than drying out and cracking, not to mention leaking real bad, you could really streatch the life of your boots out.
Many years ago, and I do mean “a lot” of years ago and any number would be a guess so maybe 20+ years ago, I heard about Atsko Sno-Seal. It’s basically beeswax and needs heat to really soak in. I’ve used it on more boot, tools and other uses than I can count. [Click here to buy it on Amazon]
To seal my daughter’s boots, I first warmed up the oven to 135F. That is the lowest setting of our oven and I didn’t want to harm her boots my getting the synthetics too hot. Once the oven was warm, I turned it off because otherwise the tops of the boots would be close to the heating elements and risk damage.
I then inserted her boots for about five minutes so they would get nice and warm. I pulled them out and pushed/rubbed a thick amount of wax into the seams. To be clear, I just did this on the seams – the uppers are synthetic and I didn’t want to risk discoloring them. I then put the boots back in the oven and let the wax melt and I would then rub in another thick batch of wax into the seams.
I repeated this three times. I wanted to make sure that any little openings, or “voids” in the seams were packed with wax. After the final heating, I removed the boots and wiped off the extra wax with a paper towel.
For the fabric parts of the upper and the tongue (the part under the laces in the front), I applied two coats of Scotch Guard Outdoor formula spray. I doubted the water was leaking in from these two places because of my daughter’s description that it was the bottom of her feet getting wet. However, since I had the boots, I figured I would do them also.
Note, ScotchGuard is a spray and is really easy to work with. I’d recommend you read their instructions first. I basically spray on a coat and let it dry then I do a second coat and let it dry. My wife hates the smell so I let them dry in my shop – so just bear that in mind if your spouse doesnt like chemical smells.
Applying Sno-seal to the seams took about 30 minutes. The ScotchGuard spray can be applied in less than a minute but the drying time depends on many factors – including temperature and if there is airflow from a fan. I usually let them sit and do other things.
Let me make one last comment – sealing boots isn’t a “do it one time and you’re set forever” activity. You might get a season or two and then you’ll probably need to do it again. Some guys treat it as part of their routine “getting ready for winter work” and some guys like me do it as needed or before some big outting like hunting, hiking, etc. Bottom line is that it works but needs to be maintained sooner or later.
If you do this and ever find yourself in a rush and don’t have Sno-Seal handy, you can try heating the seam up with a hair dryer and seeing if the remaining wax will seal the leak. This is a real gamble though as it depends on the amount of wax left. You could ideally seal the leak temporarily until you have time to do it right but you might also either accomplish nothing or even make the leak worse as the reamining wax moves and enlarges holes. So, it’s iffy and there’s no guarantee it will work.
Summary
The boots were sealed and my daughter was happy. I recommend Atsko Sno-Seal for a great many applications including sealing boot seams. The ScotchGuard Outdoor waterproofer works very well also.
I hope this helps you out.
Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
I was asked this question just the other day and the short answer is no – it’s just fine. The reason it is discolored is that the brass is annealed in that area. This means the brass is heated and allowed to cool to remove stresses when it is being formed. If you’ve ever heated up a metal really hot with a blow torch, you may have seen it change color.
Want to know the funny part? All ammo that is necked down is annealed in that area.
Commercial ammo is polished to be nice and shiny as buyers think that discoloration means it is defective or cheap. Military inspectors want the discoloration there so they know the cases were properly annealed during forming and aren’t going to crack.
Removing a process step should lower the cost and thus the price — but who knows how effective governments really are at negotiating pricing.
I shoot a lot of surplus 5.56 NATO ammo and find it just fine for my needs at the range. I don’t shoot it in my target rifles but it’s very cost effective otherwise.
If you’ve been on the fence because of that discoloration, don’t be. It’s just fine. The ammo is just fine — assuming it is a reputable brand and vendor of course.
I hope this helps you out.
Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
Olin Corporation, who owns Winchester, annoinced they are buying Ammo Inc for $75 million on 1/21/25. The assets will become part of Winchester.
Apparently it is the brass shell case capabilties and 185,000 square foot production facility in Manitowoc, WI constructued in 2022.
At any rate, the whole press, release is here. I shot a few cases of Ammo Inc’s 10mm TMC ammo some years back and found it decent. They own Gunbroker so maybe they are going to focus more on that now.
I did see one comment that Ammo Inc has to restate their financials due to some problems with the accounting. Click here.
Well, I bought SCT17 frames to move my Polymer80 builds over to so they could have serial numbers and be tracked. The SCT 17 frames are nicely designed and molded so kudos there. I bought assembled/populated frames and wished I hadn’t. I have always changed the mag lock, slide stop and slide lock controls on a Glock because they are too small for me. The SCT triggers were pretty crude too – I did not like the feel of the shoe or the pull so I did some reading and changed the components out.
Now, my original plan was to simply move the internals of my Polymer80s to the SCT frames. The problem I was running into was that none of my triggers just moved over – the slide was hanging up big time. I’m not a Glock guru and I read some about bending the cruciform at the back and finally decided screw it – I’d just buy new triggers.
I did some digging and guys reported the Overwatch Drop-In Poly-DAT triggers did just that – they went right in with no tweaking. Huh? Basically they designed an affordable trigger that should fit most Glocks based on their experience. It cuts pre-travel by about 20%, had their NP3 treated their Minus connector, and their exra power return spring but with an OEM trigger housing.
Okay, it was just before Christmas and I scored three of the Overwatch Precision Drop In PolyDAT triggers for $79.99/ea. I also picked up new Vickers Tactical Slide Stops for $21.56 and decided to also get new Strike Industries pins for $9.99 fom Primary Arms. My slide stops and pins were pretty beat up and I figured I’d go with new ones.
For the extended mag catches, I did just move the Vickers units over from the Polymer80s to the SCT17s.
Average trigger pull weights for each pistol were 3# 11.7 oz, 3# 13.7oz and 4# 8.5oz. The triggers were lubricated and tested maybe 10-20 times each max. Pull testing was done using five sample pulls from each with care taken to postion the Wheeler digital gauge in the same place each time. The pistols were on a bench also to try and aid consistency.
Overall, the they feel much, much better with the Overwatch triggers – less travel and not gritty. I’d give them a 7 out of 10 and have no hesitation recommending them to someone looking for a very cost effective trigger improvement. If you have an SCT17 and want something that literally drops in – try this. I had to do zero tuning and would do it again.
I’m happy with the results. I need to get them to the range but they all function test fine.
I hope this helps you out.
Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
In June 2024, I realized I needed another small tank to top off airguns. I’d sold my Omega to a friend because I had a big bottle and the problem was I had a big bottle (a 6.8L Air Marksman Tank) … It takes a lot more work to whip that out just to top something off. So, I did some digging and decided to buy a small 1.1L/67 Cu In carbon fiber Tuxing air tank off Amazon.
Tuxing is a brand made by the Chinese company Xiamen Subang Technology Co. Ltd., that makes a lot of different products for the High Pressure Air (HPA) and Precharged Pneumatic (PCP) airgun market.
I was a little leery of 4500 PSI in a tank that wasn’t US Department of Transportation (DOT) certified but did some digging and they are “CE” certified for use in the European Union (EU) and also “EN” certified as a storage tank for the EU.
From a safety perspective, the EU certification coupled with good reviews, made me feel safe enough to proceed. Note, since the Tuxing tanks are not DOT certified, I knew I would not be able to get them refilled commercially but since I fill my own tanks I wasn”t worried about it.
I do pay attention to service life though and replace tanks before 10 years pass. Technically, I am supposed to have tanks tested evey 3 years but haven’t been as diligent about that with my PCP tanks as I was with my old SCUBA tanks when I was a diver back in the ancient era of the 1980s and 90s.
The Tuxing tank is just the bottle and it is threaded for a M18x1.5mm valve. I did some reading and decided to get an Owfeel unit, which is very affordable off Amazon.
To assembly, lightly coat threads and O-rings with silicone o-ring grease (never use a petroleum product). I use SuperLube’s O-Ring Silicone Grease. The valve is threaded down hand tight onto the tank. The whip for the fill hose can be threaded in and snugged with a wrench.
What I do is to put about 100-200 pounds of air in a tank. The exact amount depends on the lines on the pressure valve. I fill to that point and let it sit to see if the pressure holds.
Never run your fingers/hands over high pressure air lines directly touching them feeling for leaks. At high pressures, you risk injecting air into your blood and having an embolism. Instead, use your gauge and watch the pressure. If there is a leak, read more down below about testing. If the leak is in the wall of the tank or the valve body, it is defective and must be replaced.
Start incrementally increasing the air pressure 500 PSI at a time. At each stopping point, make note of where the indicator is on the gauge, wait 10-15 minutes and see if the pressure leaks down. Fill, wait and watch. Over and over until you reach the maximum pressure.
When you hit the maximum pressure, let it sit and check it at 30 minutes, 60 minutes and then at two hours. It should be holding pressure.
If you detect a leak, spritz soapy water at the quick connects first – they are the most common leak. If leaking, try repositioning. If it is still leaking, drain the air and replace the fitting.
If still leaking, next check the o-rings where the hose goes into the valve and where the valve goes into the tank. If either leaks, let out the air, is one loose? Do you just need to snug it up? If the connections are solid, then the o-ring may be bad and need to be replaced, try that.
I wanted a case to put the unit in a case and realized an oxygen bottle bag would work great. The one I bought is an iGuerburn size D oxygen tank backpack from Amazon.
The Tuxing air tank and Owfeel valve make a good affordable compact combination. The unit is small, light and easily fit in the iGuerburn Size D oxygen tank bag I use to both store and move it around in.
I hope this helps you out.
Click here if you would like to visit the Tuxing store on Amazon.
Click here for their air tanks.
Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.
If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.
