Incredibly efficient Condor .25 – thanks Maw!
The valve had developed a slow leak on my Condor .25 so I sent the tank to brother MAW to have a look at it and fix it. I also asked him to polish the valve stem and do whatever else he thought was best.
Maw found a cracked valve seat as he had suspected.
All I know is when I got the tank back it was shooting like it had a regulator in it or better. The tophat gap measured 0.088″. I settled in by the Chrony prepared to spend a few hours of TH and PW adjustments, because I used to have the TH turned down a little more (in the 0.070’s). Since this Condor likes JSB Kings out of all the pellets I have tried over the years, I started out by cranking the PW all the way down to 0 and filled the tank to 2800psi because my tanks were getting pretty low and could not fill to 3K. I was going to work my way up with the PW and then go down in increments of 0.002″ on the TH and try again..
What happened next had me scratching my head. Shot after shot through the Chrony remained within a 4fps max. spread, between 1,000 and 1,004fps! I only got a 999.8fps once. I am up to 34 shots now and it’s still reading 1,001-1002. Unbelievable consistency, and I would have to guess efficiency. I have not taken more shots because I need to get my tanks filled at the dive shop, and want some power left to do some pesting before the pressure drops in the tank a lot. I am very curious what the pressure will end up being when the velocity starts dropping, because I want to calculate the PSI/shot. But I will take a few more shot strings once I have more air and the velocity starts dropping. The way it looks now, it’s going to go easily >40 shots at the same velocity 1000-1004fps but I don’t know how fast it will start dropping. We ‘ll see.
I don’t know what brother MAW did, but he has the golden touch.. and maybe some luck, hehe 🙂 That’s important too. He adjusted the valve retainer spring a little as well, but he can explain it more if anyone is curious because I wasn’t there.
I should mention I guess that this Condor was tuned by Talon Tunes 3.5yrs ago, so the valve must have been tuned to some extend. It also had the O-ring mod, but I am not sure if Maw did anything with that o-ring or if he replaced it with a stock one. It was not shooting bad before it started leaking. It had decent consistency, but nothing like this! Each shot through the Chrony is mostly 1000-1002fps, with a 1003 & 1004 once in a while. I just can’t wipe the grin off my face 😆 I think tomorrow I will break down and just keep shooting through the Chrony to see where it falls off and check the pressure. One thing is for sure, I am not changing a thing!
Thanks MAW for the great service, communication, and a very fair price! 😀
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Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
OOuch glad you didn’t get hurt sir!!!
Well I refilled the gun to 2700psi and couldn’t get any more in it, but decided to try by cracking up the valve on the 4500 tank a little, and then BANG! A blast of air hit me in the face as air come out of a hole at the base of the hose where it had developed a kink over the years 😯 I was kneeled looking at the gauge on the SCBA tank. Oh well.. good thing I wear glasses. Joe Brancato will be selling at least 1 hose today. What the hey, it’s only $. The important thing is my face is intact, and no parts flew out 😆
The weird thing is I had a bad feeling this was going to happen. I was thinking that I should turn my head or distance myself just a couple of seconds before it happened. Just knew something bad was going to happen. Creepy right? Just like a couple of times I got a bad feeling before getting into a car accident. Anyone experience that before? Makes you wonder…
Anyway, the pressure in the tank was about 2,050psi. I had started out with ~2750-2800. Took about 38 shots. That’s >18psi per shot. That’s a little too high. Can’t call that “highly efficient” at this point. I was getting about 15psi before, and on my .22 Condor which is stock is giving me 13psi/shot on PW0. So I am definitely going to be turning down the tophat and doing some tuning.
It took 12 shots through the Chrony to get up to 1,001fps and the next shot, #13, was 1,003fps so I stopped there, because I know it will be consistent for at least a couple of dozen shots after that. I need to use the gun for hunting while I get the hose assembly repaired so I decided not to waste any more air or time through the Chrony until I get the tank straightened out.
The “bell curve” was not that great IMO. It started out with 930fps and was going up 8-10fps with every shot before reaching 1000fps. That is a long spread. So it looks like 2500-2550psi is where it gets very consistent with PW-0. So no need to to fill much past that really if I am going to stick with this configuration (TH 0.088″ and PW0). I am going to make adjustments to try to get better use out of the higher pressures >2500, once I get the hose repaired and the tank filled at the Dive shop.
I will definitely get my tanks filled this week. I can’t wait to do more testing.
Adam:
I am mad I didn’t get my tanks squared away while I was waiting for the valve to arrive. I also think I jinxed myself saying I could go 40 shots or more with that superb consistency..
How is that? I will always find something to complain about, even if it’s about myself 😆 😆
Nice work MAW!
because we know how much Harry loves to complain and he ain’t complaining 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Yes it does, but how long the valve stays open determines effiency, I wish you had more air so you can map out a bell curve, and post a full string, I’m sure you will once you get air. Hey Good Shootin!!
I shot a crow with this .25 about 30min. ago. Shot #35. After the crow dropped, it seemed to be moving slightly, so I administered “rule 2″ just in case which I rarely do with this gun, and put another one into it. That was shot #36. This last shot sounded slightly less powerful, so back to Chrony I went and the next 3 shots were 989, 985.9 and 981.6fps. So velocity dropped about 19fps since shot #34. I think I can conclude that 34 shots is about max with the perfect consistency and no drop in velocity. I ‘ll take it! This also means this setup definitely likes higher pressures. With my old setup (0.075” TH and PW 6.5) I could shoot “fairly” consistently (1-3fps drop) down to 1700psi, but with this new setup (0.088″ TH and PW-0), velocity is dropping at a higher rate after the initial almost “flat” 34 shots.
I am going to refill now, probably to 2700psi because not much air left in my 4500 tank, and see what the pressure is in the tank. I am thinking maybe I should crank the TH down to 0.075″ and test all over again, to see if I can gain consistency in the lower pressure range, but a voice in my head keeps telling me not to touch anything 🙂
PS.
Maw, did I really say I wanted “less power”? 😮 Well, I am glad you interpreted it that way buddy! hehehe 😆 I thought porting the valve stem is supposed to increase air flow, no? I am a little confused right now 😕
I know the .25 barracuda’s are not shooting as good as I remember them to shoot. I think the new stuff is not up to spec or something. I am not sure the .22’s are the same way or not, as I am still shooting old stock on these just yet.
Its left me with the JSB’s shooting hands down my favorites now. I do hope that JSB does come out with the heavier .25 as they have the .22’s… The JSB-Monster in .22 is an awesome pellet in stuff I have around here.
The .25 JSB do shoot really well just under the sonic crack also, which I really like. Most things I see shoot better around the 920’s to 960’s give or take a few.
Certainly sounds like MAW did you proud though, I have always till here recently liked my tophat set on the tighter side. Doing so I got more shots per/fill and just letting the hammer bang the tophat to the stem bushing never seemed to be a bad thing either. I have never been able to try the O-Ring trick behind the tophat yet, since hearing about good results doing this also, I have not had the Chrony yet to try…
Maybe now your rifle will tack drive the entire tank full man LOL.
Thanks Harry, my head is so big as I am pushing it back into place, like I said the parts airforce are supplying now are much better, Harry wanted a valve that was not to powerful, so his neighbors would not hear him so I reduced the spring retainer alittle more. His valve has a new valve seat, brass insert, and spring retainer, alittle teflon tape and alot of polishing, plus I ported the stem slightly. he also has a 95 grm. hammer from TT, and stock spring. but his gun shoots so good it is tempting me to get a hammer and repeat the process. I also just did this with my .25, but I have a heavy spring and a 100 grm hammer from Tagdagger and never chronied it as of yet, shoots 7 rings at 800 something. The new spring retainer and valve seat are a plus for these guns, airflow is much better, I don’t know when they started making these parts this way,but I can guess 6 months. Thanks again Harry and I appreciate your business.
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Don’t take this wrong. But help me to understand something, your first post you talk about how efficient it is and how happy you are and you’re not going to touch it. Then next thing you know you’re going to make changes……What gives? EDIT: I forgot to add, I’m glad you didn’t get hurt too.