.22 cal 43 gr hollow points revisited
It’s been a while since I posted about these before, been up to my butt in alligators for a while, just recently had some good weather and free time to coincide. I can now shoot these bullets with no problems.
Bob Vogel casts these as .225 and sizes them to .217 for the standard air gun barrels. I found out they won’t stabilize at a standard 1 in 18″ twist, so I ordered a centerfire barrel with a 1 in 12″ twist and got it turned to drop into the Condor. Bob sent me some unsized .225 bullets and I sized them to .222″ and gave them a try. There’s no sign of instability, they punch nice round holes and better yet, they group well. They strike lower than Eun Jin’s, of course, but they’re carrying lots more energy as well. My backstop is 1/2″ plywood followed by 3/4″ plywood and then an aluminum plate that’s a quarter inch thick. These went through both pieces of plywood and put a nice crater in the aluminum plate. The next test session will have to be elsewhere, I think, these are a bit much for my back yard. They’re only making 800 fps, but they’re impressive, mushroom to almost .44 in soft stuff… mud, my favorite cheap ballistic medium.
I’ll try to make some video when I get around to playing with these some more. I want to see how they hold up at longer range than the 43 yards I have been shooting at.
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David B,
Tagdagger sells a modified Condor valve and spring/Hammer set, I got 120 FPE with 70 grain Jerry’s slugs with it this week.
Tagdagger also makes the Air Archer, it is a mod that lets you shoot 16 inch arrows out of your Condor at up to 500 FPS, using that same firing mechanism.
Good luck on the weather,
Regards,
Roachcreek
I NEED to get my arse in gear and do my accuracy testing of Bob’s hollow points outta my .22lr barrel thats resting in my condor.. its got a 1 in 12″ twist so hopefully they will group…We’re having the worst spring that i can remember.. we’ve been 10-15 degs below normal in temp with wind and rain for far too long…when we do get a break its when im at work… 👿
I considered a 1 in 9″ twist, but the online stability calculator said that 1 in 12″ would stabilize the 1/2″ long bullets down to 500 fps. I don’t remember all the details, but there was a slight $$ advantage to the 1 in 12″ twist, so that tipped the scale. It does a good job at 800 fps. My Condor came as a .177 so I’m wondering how much more oomph I might get from a different valve. I know some guys have made several hundred FPE with the AF platform. I’m pleased with the results so far, anyway.
Twisters in our area this evening, I’m in the basement with my wife & dog, waiting it out. Ma nature is kicking ass tonight.
Oh yeah, I’m also curious about the 1/12 twist. I would think with the low speeds 1/7 would be even better. They use those in .223 to stabilize the long bullets….so for sure they would work at airgun velocities.
Outstanding 58! I am continually amazed at what these airguns are capable of. Thanks for posting.
Fantastic info, what you’re doing here is going to finally bring air rifles into the modern era with high ballistic coefficient bullets. If anyone works out a group buy for barrels i’m in!!!
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i got out for round two of my testing of Bob’s rounds.. I have .217 and .218 sized rounds for use in my 1-12″ rim-fire barrel.. the best group that i managed outta 50 rounds at 35-45yrds is 3″ CTC @ 40yrds … The biggest problem i had was that they had a tendancy to tumble if the fps dropped too much and then when i got them going too fast the group opened back up (i dont know the fps as i didn’t take my cronny today)…. so for coon and marment hunting they will hit the boiler room anything smaller i wont even look at them…