What’s the better way to be efficient with air?

[Wokdaf]

I’ve been tinkering and still am pretty green. I’m currently able to shoot 44 gr pellets at 970-80 fps with a very light spring. My methodology was to lessen the spring on the valve to allow a lighter hammer to open it up. I also lowered the reg psi to about 2000 psi. I learned that one can go too low and end up wasting a lot more air by doing this.

My question is, I want to keep the same gr/speed but, is it more efficient to increase psi and valve spring and higher psi and thus less but more compressed air to move the pellet to desired speed? Or is it better to use my big enough plenum and lower psi and lighter spring to move the pellet to desired speed. In short , more air and lower psi and valve spring or higher psi, higher valve tension and thus smaller amount of air moving but more compressed?? Which is a better way. I know there’s a balance to this but being new to the world of pcp I’m not sure which is the better end to start from. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The end goal, most efficient and powerful shots.

 

[Long_Gun_Dallas]

Generally speaking, you're probably already in a sweet spot. I generally tune my guns to around 125-135 bar. Go much lower and you start wasting air. Much higher, the valve tends to be a lot harder to open, and tends to yield less consistency. More hammer mass can aleviate this. Port work might help? Essentially getting air to flow with less turbulence. But I honestly don't know if increse in flow in these terms means more air useage as well? It very well could? A longer barrel is definitely more efficient, but that usually isn't desirable either.

Either way, big bore airguns, even at their most efficient, tend to be air hogs regardless. It just comes with the territory.