Airgun Depot's Airsenal News

Crosman has been making airguns for a long time. They are one of the most historic airgun manufacturers around and are still providing us with enjoyable products that shooting enthusiasts can treasure for years.

One of the best contributions to airgunners that Crosman brought to the forefront was the use of CO2 as a propellant in their air guns. And to keep those air guns working well, Crosman has provided, for many years, Pellgun Oil.

If you've owned a Crosman CO2 gun before, you are probably aware of Pellgun Oil and its uses. It is packaged with many, if not all, of Crosman's CO2 guns, and there is a good reason for that. It will, with proper use, lengthen the life and usefulness of your airgun. But as in many walks of life, too much of a good thing turns out NOT to be a good thing. You can overdo it when using Pellgun Oil, so lets look at what the manufacturer suggests.

CO2 guns, by their very nature, must use seals of some sort to keep the gas from leaking out of the gun. Those seals need their lubrication, and since they are on the inside of the gun, you have to get the oil to the correct location.  You will find in the instruction manuals of Crosman CO2 airguns the correct way to apply Pellgun Oil to the seals. A single drop, no more, on the tip of the CO2 powerlet is sufficient to keep the gun in good working order. Put too much in there, and the oil leaks into the valve, taking up the room that is supposed to be filled with CO2 gas. Not putting oil on the end of the powerlet for a lengthy period of time will allow the seals to dry out, robbing them of their capacity to perform their function. When that happens, you will have a leaky gun that won't work to your satisfaction.

Another benefit of Pellgun Oil is that is helps keep debris from getting stuck to the head of the valve. It doesn't take a very big piece of debris to cause a leak in a gas-powered gun. Tiny slivers of metal, or a healthy piece of dust can block the valve head from closing and sealing properly. The lubrication provided by Pellgun Oil helps float such debris out of the way. If you have a gun that has started leaking for some unknown reason, it is pretty much going to be a seal problem somewhere in the gun. That's just the nature of the beast. I have personally had a leaking gun return to normal firing behavior by simply applying the Pellgun Oil to the seals, and working a cartridge or two of CO2 through the gun, dry-firing as well as shooting pellets rapidly in order to spread the lubricant to all the desired places.

There has been some debate in the past about Pellgun Oil's makeup.  Some have thought is was silicon-based, others have reported that it is petroleum-based. Today I did a quick test.....I set a cleaning patch with no oil on fire to watch it burn. I then soaked a cleaning patch with Pellgun Oil and lit it up....and it burned quite nicely. Notice the difference in the two patches burning. The oil-soaked patch burned much more fiercely, so I give creedence to those who say it is petroleum-based and liken it to non-detergent 30-weight motor oil.

 However, the packaging makes it easy to apply, and one little tube will last quite a while. Remember, you don't need much of this stuff at one time. I suppose you could buy a bottle of oil from the auto parts store.....but you've got enough there to last your lifetime, the lifetime of your kids, and perhaps your grandkids as well! So to steal a phrase from a commercial a long time ago, "a little dab will do ya!"