300 bar Steel Cylinders

Midland Diving Equipment DIN Gun Charging Adapter

We have available 300 bar (4,350 psi) Faber steel scuba cylinders with 300 bar DIN valves in 3 litre, 5 litre, 7 litre and 12 litre capacity for charging air rifles. Most people use the 12 litre capacity 300 bar scuba cylinder. The 3, 5 and 7 litre cylinders are typically only used as a more portable solution where mobility counts. It's extremely rare to find 300 bar cylinders for sale second-hand.

The 300 bar scuba cylinders are usually connected to your air rifle using an adapter with a 300 bar male DIN fitting at one end and the fitting required for your air rifle cylinder at the other end. We do not supply these DIN 300 bar adapters. (We suggest you try Hermanns Sporting Guns.) These adapters can be used with scuba cylinders using a 300 bar DIN, 200 bar DIN, or DIN/K valve.

How many fills will you get from a 300 bar cylinder? Well, there are so many variables that we're not prepared to say. Other owners of the setup you're using should be able to answer this much better than we could.

232 bar Steel Cylinders

Midland Diving Equipment A-clamp Gun Charging Adapter

We have available 232 bar (3,365 psi) Faber steel tanks with DIN/K valves (232 bar DIN connection with the insert removed, and Yoke connection with the insert in place) in 3 litre, 5 litre, 7 litre, 9 litre, 10.5 litre, 12.2 litre, 15 litre and 18 litre capacity for charging air guns. If you're buying a 232 bar cylinder, we suggest the 12.2 litre capacity cylinder.

The 232 bar scuba cylinders are usually connected to your air gun/rifle cylinder using a Scuba Filling Yoke/A-Clamp/K-Valve Adapter for PCP Rifles with either a 1/8" BSPP thread or a Female Foster Connection. We do not supply these adapters. (We suggest you try Hermanns Sporting Guns.) These adapters can't be used safely with 300 bar scuba cylinders.

Tech Tips

Refilling the scuba cylinder is best done at a dive shop where the compressed air provided should be completely free of moisture and other contaminants. The compressed air that you pump your car tyres up with is not clean or dry enough for a PCP air rifle, and the pressure wouldn't be high enough anyway, e.g. 150 psi (10 bar) when you need 3,000+ psi (200+ bar).

When charging the rifle, open the scuba cylinder valve very slowly. This will allow the air to pass along the filling hose, open the inlet valve and fill the reservoir. Only partially opening the cylinder valve will let you control the air flow. A slow fill is a good fill. Opening and closing the scuba cylinder valve quickly will give a false reading of how much air is in the gun, it can also damage the rifle.

WARNING: Never use anything other than divers' quality compressed air to recharge your PCP air rifle/gun. Using gasses other than clean, dry, breathing quality compressed air can be highly dangerous and will usually invalidate air rifle warranties.

Air rifles must never be filled to more than the manufacturers stated pressure, which is likely to be much lower than the pressure in the scuba cylinder. By exceeding the recommended pressure two things will happen. The first is that the power of the gun will drop significantly. It's a myth that the higher the pressure in the gun, the more power it produces. In fact, you normally find that maximum power is produced about 10 bar below the maximum recommended pressure on non regulated rifles, and a 20 bar overfill can reduce the power by 40%.

In order for scuba tanks to be refilled in an Australian dive shop they are required to be tested every year if they are used for diving. As a dive shop has no way to tell that you're using the cylinder exclusively out of the water, they will require the scuba cylinder to be in test before filling it.

We suggest you avoid aluminium scuba cylinders as most are only rated to 207 bar. Do not buy second-hand old aluminium cylinders (made of 6351 aluminium alloy, or pre 1995) as some have been known to explode and kill people. Plus you probably won't be able to get these old aluminium tanks tested, or filled at a dive shop.

A full scuba cylinder contains an enormous amount of energy. They are quite robust, however, you should treat them with great care.

We recommend you put a For Paintball Use Only cylinder sticker on scuba cylinders used to fill air gun and paintball cylinders.

Diving the Back Beaches

Guide to diving the Back Beaches of the Mornington Peninsula

Diving the Back Beaches of the Mornington Peninsula between Point Nepean and Cape Schanck near Melbourne is regarded by many as simply the best shore diving in the whole of Victoria. And if you're fortunate enough to be able to access the area by boat, then even more wonderful locations become even easier to reach.

The Back Beach dive sites, a part of the Great Southern Reef, are exposed to the seas of Bass Strait and the ocean swells which has resulted in a heavily eroded underwater landscape full of caves, tunnels, gullies, swim throughs and canyons crammed with oceanic fish and marine life. You'll find a range of fish hiding within this environment like wrasse, parrot fish, whiting, abalone, rays, wobegongs, port jackon sharks and more! There is also a lot of kelp cover around these areas.

A number of ships were driven ashore on the various Mornington Peninsula Back Beaches. The ship wrecks you can dive on include: Australia, Cheviot, Craigburn, Isabella Watson, Light of the Age, Petriana and Sierra Nevada.

You'll find details about most of the Back Beach dive sites in a section of our Melbourne Shore Dives web page. Details about the boat accessible Back Beach dive sites can be found on our Melbourne Reef Dives web page.

Remember the swell, storms, massive waves and fierce rips make the Back Beach dive sites highly dangerous for divers except in rare flat conditions. But as all of the local divers know, when the conditions are right, the diving is magnificent!

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Back Beach Safety Considerations

The Back Beaches are tough dive sites and not for the average diver, with real problems and serious consequences if you get it wrong. Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming in wild surf conditions at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria on 17 December, 1967. His body was never recovered, see Disappearance of Harold Holt. Despite being an experienced skin diver with good knowledge of the beach, the turbulent conditions (high winds, rough seas and rip tides) overcame him.

Don't underestimate the problems that lie in wait, or overestimate your own abilities when diving the Back Beaches.

Winds: Diving the Back Beaches is generally only possible after several days of no winds, or several days of prolonged northerly winds. These conditions flatten out the swells.

Tides: Make all of your entries on Low Tide, or 1 to 2 hours before Low Tide. Tidal ranges on the Back Beaches are in the order of several metres. Low Tide exposes the entry and exit rock platforms you need to use.

Surf and Swells: Looking at any of the Back Beach dive sites when the surf is pounding in should convince you to forget it and head for the calmer waters of Port Phillip. Even on days when it seems the surf and swell is low, watch the sea for at least 20-30 minutes to see what happens.

Rips: All of the Back Beach dive sites are rip prone. The reefs in the area are very shallow, which means the underwater surge is considerable, even on relatively calm days. Many swimmers and divers have been drowned at Back Beach sites. Be aware of rips in relation to your planned dive route and make sure you surface several times during the dive to make sure you're still on course.

Strong Currents: Some of the Back Beach dive sites are still close enough to "The Rip" to be affected by tidal currents.

Platforms and Exits: The limestone platforms of the Back Beach dive sites are separated by gullies which are usually the most protected entry and exit points. Before you begin your dive, locate a few exit point options just in case conditions change while you are underwater. Always return to shore with plenty of air in reserve. It could be vital if you experience difficult conditions while exiting, or get tangled in the kelp.

Boat Diving: Large waves can appear without warning, even on calm days. These waves can swamp an anchored boat, so anchoring in this area is not recommended. Plus the deep gutters of the reef can hold fast an anchor making retrieval difficult, if not impossible, in an emergency. The boat should stay live and divers should be dropped and retrieved beyond the break line as quickly as possible.

Surf Entry: If you are planning to shore dive the Back Beaches, you need to have excellent surf entry skills. This is not the place to learn them, even on good days. You need to buddy up with some experienced local divers who can pass these skills on to you.

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Best Back Beach Dive Conditions

The ideal conditions for diving the Back Beaches follow several days of no winds or northerly winds, combined with a low swell. This happens rarely. When the wind is down it's safe to take a boat out through "The Rip" and around to the Back Beaches.

The best time to dive the Back Beaches is when the tide is approaching low water. You can look up the tide times for Point Lonsdale on the Bureau of Meteorology web site.

If conditions seem too rough, even though the wind and tides look okay, we recommend you choose a different, calmer dive site.

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Mornington Peninsula Back Beach Sites

For a list of back beach diving and snorkelling stes please see the Back Beaches and Cape Schanck — Point Nepean to Cape Schanck section of our Melbourne Shore Dives page.

Wrecks on the Back Beaches

The following shipwrecks can be found on the back beaches of Mornington Peninsula:

Stay Safe

If you are not experienced with diving the Back Beaches, make sure you go with an experienced local dive guide or dive buddy who can read the conditions and advise you accordingly. Most of all, stay safe and enjoy your Back Beach diving.

We accept no responsibility or liability for the accidental or intentional misuse of information portrayed on this website, or misadventure resulting from its use.