83 shot string FX Royale 500 (w/regulator)

Wow, Dyotat, those are impressive numbers indeed! There are some major considerations in comparing the two guns, conditions and costs/performance. One big difference is that pressure drop in the tank changes a lot slower as the tank size increases. I know of no regulator or gun immune to pressure variance. Your air tank is over twice the size of a Royale 500cc tank. 62ci is about 1016cc. One would expect better performance.

Temperature may also be an issue, as stated. The top of the rifle was going from warm to cool. The top of the gun was rising to about 80 and the bottom was about 52. I’d like to check a string when it warms up. “Seasoning” the barrel after cleaning is another consideration, especially when the fps starts going up farther into the shot strings. I have a Condor, too. It’s the VW of guns, cheap and built to modify in many directions. Mine will go the heavy hitter route, to push slugs over 50gr. By the time that is done, if I add the parts, labor, it’ll be hovering around 2 grand. Like the hot rod VWs I built, I expect more maintenance rides along with high performance

By the time you add up all the mods to get a Condor to shoot like that, you’ve spent a lot more money for parts, and hours of time tinkering and experimenting. Add that up, enter the maintenance required for both guns, compare stocks, craftsmanship, the safety, magazine, etc. They really are two different beasts.

Perhaps the biggest potential flaw in my Royale is that AOA set it up! If I had only known 🙁 Yeah, maybe it should shoot tighter; maybe it will without tweaking. I’m sure AOA was setting it up in a fairly warm location. God knows, there may not even be a regulator in it!

One thing I’m really interested in is temperature vs. performance. All my guns shot like crap going from 75-80 (house with wood stove) to freezing. It would be great if folks posted their experiences with temperature, both changing and stabilized. How cold can you get these things before performance suffers a lot?

Here’s a few questions for all: How far from the chrony (to muzzle) do you shoot? I’m on a steep slope, so it took a lot of effort to set up a level area to get 6-7 feet away from the chrony. Are pellets wobbling and does this affect readout?

This rifle, hate to admit it, was supposedly “set up” by AOA, so was not direct from the factory. Who knows when AOA is involved?!

So Dyotat, what would you expect or hope for in a .25 over 46 shots? To me, an ES of 19 fps and an SD of 4fps sounds golden, especially w/ a 25 grain, .25.

Now, sigh…there are two other variables in this string:
1-the temperature of the gun/air tank was changing a bit. Went from a 65 degree house to 52 degrees outside with sun warming the black tank, barrel, etc.

2- I had cleaned out the barrel recently w/ a bunch of patches. It’s possible the average fps increase, later in the string, was due to “re-seasoning”. So, it’s possible the string could’ve been tighter with these variables removed. 😯

In any case, my main complaint is pushing so much ammo into the hillside for data. I mean, it’s too bad I can’t have the chrony mounted on the gun, up front, during a hunt. That could have been 2,075 gr of rodent nightmare!

(At this point in time, I’d like to state that Picas are not on my rodent kill list. Any rodent that stays out of houses and gardens, cures little hay mounds and stacks dead migratory birds like firewood is OK in my book. Like my brother says: “They’re little farmers.”)