How long can a CO2 cartridge remain installed?

[Uslanja]

Good day all!  One of the reasons I have avoided CO2 guns is not wanting to waste a cartridge.  My 1322 pump can be discharged at anytime I decide to stop shooting and be put away.  My break barrels can be discharged at any time as well.  But if I decide to do some shooting with a CO2 gun and it is not empty, can I just leave the cartridge in the gun under pressure?  If so, for how long?  And, how do I safely release the pressure?  Just crack open the cylinder tube?  Just keep firing on an empty chamber untill empty? Co2 cylinders work out to about 1.25$ CDN and pellets at .02$.  Not expensive at all, especially compared to powder, but I hate wasting anything.

[farrlarr]

CO2 guns will hold gas for a long time; I have inadvertantly left cartridges in guns for more than a year and found that there was still pressure.  As long as you use a drop of Pell Gun oil (or automatic transmission fluid or some other substitute, search this forum for information on what else to use) on the tip of each cartridge, the seals will remain in good condition for a very long time and that is essential for preventing leakage.  If/when you want to release pressure, you need to dry fire the gun until pressure drops sufficiently for the cylinder cap to be removed easily (finger tight only to start a new cartridge, finger turning only to remove the cap). As long as there is higher pressure left in the cylinder, the cap will be very difficult to unscrew.  Do not use a screw driver or any other tool to tighten or remove the cap.  When the cap loosens, there will still be some pressure left in the cylinder and it will leak out around the cap; keep your fingers away until the gas is all gone since it will be cold coming out. 

[Uslanja]

Thanks Larry.  That answers many questions and thoughts.  I have a tube of Pellgun Oil and where I live it costs 15$ plus shipping.  Crazy expensive.  I have been looking online and reading about folks using Automatic Transmission Fluid.  A quart of ATF is a much more reasonable price.  I'll search here to see if there might be an even better alternative.  Being able to leave the gun charged brings it into the realm of pest control.  So now I need to see what it can do.  We have a farm and so we store feed which draws small critters that cause damage.  There are weasels and mink around and they take care of any mouse or rat problems.  The only time we had rats was in a load of hay we brought in.  There were about a dozen rats running around and it was concerning that they might settle in and begin populating but the weasels took them out in about a week.  Almost wish I could get some more rats 😁  If anything does become a problem we usually just use one of the air rifles and dispatch it quickly.  Larger animals we use powder.  Coyotes and fox are around.  We hear the coyotes kicking up a ruckus hunting but so long as they aren't too close to buildings we leave them be.  Our dogs tend to keep them farther out.  Now what can I shoot? 

Dave

[rangerfredbob]

Pellgun oil is pretty much just 20w non detergent oil which is conveniently very similar to air tool oil so that's what I use, ATF has more detergents but is likely close enough...