by vulrath » Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:29 pm
I prefer CO2, but that's partially because there's only one place in town to fill HPA, and the store owner's a douche (seriously, he tried to sell me a $500 ICS 552). It's also more efficient than HPA if you live in a warmer climate such as most of TN. HPA tanks cost more (as much as $60-80, while you can pick up a 20oz CO2 tank for right around $20-25). Price difference is dependent on who fills the tank and what they charge. Right now I'm filling up my 20oz tank at Dick's Sporting Goods for right around $4 per fill. It takes a while for me to deplete that, even with the Escort MP5, 2 GBB M4s, and the KJW M700 sharing that tank (of course, I'm quite easy on the trigger). I've been planning to build a backpack rig that daisy-chains 2-3 20oz CO2 tanks for insanely long play time, but I was stopped in my tracks by a lack of the specific kind of backpack I need (long story for another time).
Palmer regs, as I previously noted, take pretty much all gases as long as input pressure is under 1500 PSI (CO2 rests at about 800 PSI, for comparison).