Using a condor on MEDIUM power; Can it be done?
Hello guys, a good friend of mine recently purchased a .22 cal. condor, and even tho the rifle performs well at high power, filling to 2800psi, PW at 10, shooting barracudas with accuracy for about 25 shots, my friend would like to also use the rifle on medium power for long range plinking, bird hunting, etc. His idea is to shoot CPs (or similar weight pellets), at arround 950fps.
He fills to 2800psi, sets the PW at arround 5 and starts shooting, first 10 shots or so are wonderfull, but then power begins to go up, and accuracy goes out the window, eventually (a few shots later) even with the PW set at zero, all shots are going supersonic! and he cant hit anything.
Is there a way to use a condor for consistently shooting at medium power, like CPs in the 900fps range?
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Yup, the Condor’s valve diameter looks about three times bigger than the Talon valve’s diameter. Great photo that compares the two YN.
Cue gratuitious valve comparison
I forgot to mention that my Talon tank can be filled to 2900 PSI and the first shot starts off at the lower part of the fill’s curve (with Condor hammer weight removed). Removing the Condor hammer weight, at least in my gun, was necessary because with it on I couldn’t get a power curve. With a curve, I could shoot 14.3 grainers at 780 FPS (start of curve) to 800 FPS then back to 780 FPS (bottom of curve). And I get about 45-50 usable shots that are good up to 50 yards with no more than half an inch of drop from my original holdover point of 0.5 mildot at that distance at the bottom end of the curve. If I limit my shooting to 35 yards, I can get even more usable shots … about 70 shots. Although the velocity with my tank maxes out at about 850 FPS, the power level with my gun’s setup is more than enough for me. I couldn’t get these many USABLE SHOTS with the Condor valve using 14.3 grain pellets.
Like I said in the previous post, the Condor was made for power. Just looking at the difference in diameter between the valve holes of the two, the Condor’s can swallow your head! 😯 Ha ha! Please excuse the hyperbole. Anyway, it looks roughly three times bigger than the Talon’s valve’s hole to me. Heck, if it still can shoot 21-grain Kodiaks at supersonic speeds and 28-grain Eun Jins over 1000 FPS, it’s definitely made for .25 caliber pellets as well … which obviously, some already have discovered not too long after the .22 Condor debuted.
You can shoot a Talon tank with the condor weight – it doesnt damage the valve – It just makes the gun shoot full power regardless of the wheel setting.
He fills to 2800psi, sets the PW at arround 5 and starts shooting, first 10 shots or so are wonderfull, but then power begins to go up, and accuracy goes out the window, eventually (a few shots later) even with the PW set at zero, all shots are going supersonic! and he cant hit anything.
Is there a way to use a condor for consistently shooting at medium power, like CPs in the 900fps range?
MAC1 sets up Condors in that manner, iirc, he uses the standard air tank, takes out the additional Condor Hammer weight, and makes some adjustments to get it there.
Regards,
Tony
The problem, though, when you turn down the tophat too low is that the tophat will bounce when slammed by the bolt. Moreover, the minute difference in clearances between the bottom of the tophat to the brass base can vary at some parts. Now, when the bottom part of the tophat slams onto different parts of the brass base from shot to shot, velocities will be erratic. Bear in mind too that the valve stem turns from time to time. That means that the tophat’s bottom part won’t hit at exactly the same spot on the base everytime. Needless to say then that the bottom of the tophat shouldn’t be slammed against the brass base. Instead, it must be free to travel as far as it could depending on the power wheel’s setting. But because this is the Condor valve we’re talking about here, letting the valve travel freely will result in medium weight pellets still shooting supersonic.
So, it’s obvious then that the Condor was designed specifically for POWER. It was intentionally made to be a hunter-rifle and to hurl the heaviest pellets available for it. I know this because I’ve tried many times to get the most consistent, mid-level velocities, and increased shot count for medium weight pellets. But with every tuning of the tophat, I only got adverse effects; I always got the opposite instead. And this is even with the newer Condor valve kit. THE CONDOR CAN STILL SHOOT CONSISTENTLY THOUGH, BUT ONLY WITH HEAVY PELLETS. So, I gave up on using my Condor valve to obtain Talon SS velocities and shot count and ordered an entire Talon tank instead and removed the hammer weight on my rifle (that is to be used with the Condor valve). I couldn’t be more happier with my setup now. I now use my Condor tank just for raw power shots. In addition, I only use Kodiaks or Eun Jins with it at a starting pressure of 2500 PSI with a power wheel setting of 6.
If you want to use the Condor valve to shoot CPs or similar-weight pellets, you’re going to have to lower your fill pressure lower than usual as you want to make sure that they do not shoot the pellets supersonic. The tradeoff, of course, is linear velocities – you will not get a bell-curve, which means a lower shot count. And if you’ve been reading carefully on what I said in the first paragraph, you can’t just screw in the tophat further down to get around this because you’re only going to get erratic velocities from valve/bolt bounce-back and all those other gremlins.
So, if you can, get a Talon tank or Talon valve assembly instead and save yourself from the headaches. With my current setup, I can now apply holdover and holdunder aiming. With the previous setup, I couldn’t do this because of unpredictable POI due to erratic velocities. Good luck!
If I drank a half a bottle of that stuff I would be mating with the Turkeys…:8
I drink a 1/2 bottle of that and I’ll make wild turkey calls.
………….a bottle and a half of that and I would probably be runnin’ around thinking I was a turkey!!!
3 bottles of that and I,ll just be dreaming of hunting turkeys.
The birds on the left, look really good to eat.
The birds on the right, would be good to drink.
The birds on the left are better to hunt, and I love hunting.
I would have to go with the left wild turkeys.
semper fi
Fishin_Rod, Please clarify;
….OR…
If it’s the latter, count me in when your new condor arrives.
I spoke to airforce.com on the phone last week. The lady I spoke to said, that if a.g.d. did not send me my co2 adapter with my condor to call them back and she would get me one. Maybe your friend can call them and request one.
I am still awaiting the return approval of my walther falcon hunter to a.g.d., before I have them charge me the difference and send me my new condor. I hope when it arrives it will shoot the heaviest pellets as fast and hard as it can. I plan on using it to kill wild turkeys.
By fishin_rod, shot with u770SW,S770SW at 2008-11-30
as for the off season and target shooting in the backyard, I will use the co2 tank for reduced power.
Agreed. It’s my first pcp as well, so maybe I’m ahead of the game so to speak. 😉
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Spinj, that sounds really good, if not phenominal for shot count, just love the idea for target shooting, thanks for the info, and yes the regular Condor is a power mad, air sucking demon.