So the Air Repeater and Long Air Repeater use a “container of pressurized air instead of black powder to propel small metal pellets from an attached cartridge.”
We know how many pellets are in a magazine (depends on which air repeater) and we know how long it takes to reload a magazine (3 actions).
Out of combat can we combine pellets from multiple magazines into one, or do we get stuck with magazines with 1 or 2 pellets left in them. It isn’t clear to me from the description if the container of pressurized air is part of the magazine or not.
I've heard this type of question before. I think it is an open question - the rules don't really cover it.
The 3-action reload is the time it takes to reload the weapon with a different magazine. Not to refill the magazine.
If I remember right, the ruling that I liked the best is that refilling the magazine takes one action per piece of ammunition being filled. So it becomes equivalent to reloading a weapon with individual rounds, but you are reloading the magazine instead.
IMO, the Stow an item/put away Interact action covers that. Reload is a Weapon Statistic and a magazine isn't a weapon so it doesn't apply so the same action you'd use to add an arrow to a quiver is the same action you'd have to add a round into a magazine.
I agree that the three actions is to pull out the magazine, get a new one ready and then put it in.
I don’t know of anything that says how long it takes to reload a magazine, but I would expect it to be something only done in exploration mode.
Sounds like I didn’t miss anything and it is an open question. I guess for 1 sp per pellet it really isn’t a huge deal, just would like to know.