Newbie hello and Condor SS power data

First a hello: I’ve been lurking and absorbing the excellent wisdom of this group for a while; finally sprung for a Condor SS so can now enjoy more than vicariously. I live in Northern California; mostly target shoot but may help some nearby friends with their turkey problem when I get things all dialed in. Appreciate all the info that’s shared and hope I can contribute something useful.

My Condor SS arrived from Airguns of Arizona last week. Sadly the Spinlock tank they’d substituted for me proved defective right out of the box; pressure gauge did not work and the check valve in the fill nipple seems stuck open, preventing disconnect from my SCUBA tank without venting the entire Condor tank. Kind of annoying given the long wait but Airforce stepped up and is shipping a new tank out ASAP. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons it occured to me that since I can still shoot while connected to the SCUBA tank, it might be a good time to chrono some shot strings with different pellets at different power settings, since the tank pressure would remain near-constant for a ton of shots. Today I did just that and thought I’d share the data.

PSI: 2700 start, 2600 finish (what I happened to have in the tank)
Chrono F1, 5′ from muzzle

Pellet selection (with weight and price ea): JSB Jumbo 18.1gr, 3cents; H&N Barracuda 21gr 4cents, Promethius Piledriver 30gr 14cents, Mr Hollowpoint 45gr .217 56cents, Mr Hollowpoint Spitzer 50gr .217 56 cents

Speeds were all over the place for the first 20 shots or so but then stabilized remarkably; eventually in the mid-power settings I was getting exact FPS numbers shot-shot with the HN and JSBs. Here are the average numbers:

Powerwheel 13
JSB 1065fps, 45fpe
HN 1015fps, 48fpe
PP 898fps, 54fpe
MH45 778fps, 61fpe
MH50 736fps, 60fpe

Powerwheel 10
JSB 1094fps, 47fpe

Powerwheel 8
JSB 1101fps, 49fpe
HN 1052fps, 52fpe
MH45 771fps, 59fpe

Powerwheel 6
JSB 1093fps, 48fpe
HN 1053fps, 52fpe
PP 934fps, 58fpe

Powerwheel 5
JSB 1084fps, 47fpe
HN 1045fps, 51fpe
PP 930fps, 58fpe
MH45 780fps, 61fpe
MH50 713fps, 56fpe

Powerwheel 4
JSB 1062fps, 45fpe
HN 1030fps, 50fpe
PP 939fps, 59fpe
MH45 774fps, 60fpe

Powerwheel 2
JSB 975fps, 38fpe
HN 961fps, 43fpe
PP 899fps, 54fpe

I’m still waiting for my scope from SWFA so was shooting with a Burris red-dot just to hit the pellet trap and thus didn’t get any data on groupings.

I’d purchased 50 of the 45gr hollowpoints from Mr Hollowpoint and he threw in a few 50gr Spitzers for comparison. They all were reportedly .217. The 45gr hollowpoints fit snugly but a few had significant casting defects, voids etc. The 50gr Spitzers looked cleaner but were so tight that firm thumb pressure still left 3/16″ sticking out of the barrel. Despite this they seemed to shoot OK, though I can’t say anything about consistency as I had very few to play with. Given that the 14-cent Piledrivers gave about the same muzzle energy as both these 56-cent bullets, I’ll need to measure ballistic coefficient and check groupings at different ranges and impact characteristics before deciding which is the best high-power hunting bullet for this gun. May also want to get some 28gr EunJins to compare.

I like that the stock gun will put out an honest 60fpe and can get nearly this with fairly inexpensive Piledrivers (though don’t know how well they will group). The shot-shot consistency with the JSBs and HN in the PW 4-6 range was incredible and I imagine their grouping will be similar.

It was interesting to me that with the JSB and HNs the power was greatest in the Powerwheel settings 6-8 and dropped off when dialed up. Powerwheel 4-5 seems to be a good sweet spot for these pellets, lots of power but not too loud or too much wasted air.

When my new tank arrives I’ll be able to get a better sense of how much air is used at different PW settings, how power changes elsewhere on the PSI curve and how well she groups at different powers. With so many variables it seems like it could take quite a while to figure out where the sweet spots are for targeting and hunting.

Hope this is helpful!
🙂