condor .25 for predators
Okay, I have decided that the Condor SS in 25 caliber will fit my needs nicely,from what I’ve read with a few mods it should be perfectly capable of killing coyotes out to 50 yards. I am really intrigued with some of the heavier pellets, I think that they are called “slugs” , I am trying to avoid a barrel swap, what other type of modifications what I need to run these heavier pellets? Are there any of these heavier slugs usable without swapping my barrel out ? One of the big factors for me choosing the Condor ss is the super silent Factor. How adversely would these heavier weight projectiles effect the super silent feature on this rifle?
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BOGMAN, ok, sorry then. I know you were just “kidding”…hell, I actually killed a Yote with my Tikka T3 in 6.5 x 55mm Swedish using a 140 gr LAPUA HP travelling 2750 fps at only 80 yards…..lol! The damage wasn’t bad at all and quite less than what I expected.
But, as for the 251, my buddy Paul killed a couple of yotes with his HOTLY MODDED DAYSTATE AIR RANGER shooting the 251 cal 51-52 gr RN bullets many years ago with much success. He modded his air ranger to be just like the BEAUMONT Air Guns. IIRC, the 251 pills went just slightly over about 1100 fps BUT, his gun could be filled to about 4000 psi or so which is how he got all that power. He killed both way over 150 yards+. One was with a headshot and it was a complete pass through. This was before we knew about TJ barrels. It would be a different story today though and accuracy would be greatly improved. He now knows about the 257 and just bought a DAQ 50 and a Recluse and a TJ barrel in 257 😛 Wonder which one he is gonna convert?……..
You can easily get 900 fps from a stock .25 condor ss. I pushed the 31 gr. kodiaks to 960 and had more room to go. Inside 50 yds and knowing where and when to shoot a yote should work for you and if you find it short on power for youre taste and how you want to use it then build it into a slug gun.
Wait maybe i read youre post wrong and it looks like you are going the slug route right out of the gate.
Guys, this is great info. But really Ive been hunting predators for the better part of 20 years , I know they can be tough, I know theyre “twitchy” sometimes . I am looking for a PCP rifle that with a minimal amount of mods I can kill coyotes inside of the 50 yard mark. The condor ss in .25 looked very promising on many levels……so, stock – bone stock condor ss, running 55 grn .251 slugs what mods would you make – beond a barrel swap to get 900 fps out of it or can it be done ?
Yeah, we normally take our .17 center fires out for coyotes. I was just wondering. We have however shot a coyote and bobcats with a .270! Nothing really left after that.
Tof, I’m speaking strictly of .25 (a.k.a. .251, .252) like you’ll get with a stock .25 Condor, per the post heading. I’m well aware the .25 CAN do it, totally agree with you, I just suggested Dyotat would be the guy to build such a gun. But, as we all know, slugs in .251, .252 are still an issue. In fact Doug, is working on a .25 gun for me, used for larger predators and long-range groundhogs, etc. Tony and a few others could build a .25 ‘yote slug gun, but you know how complicated that is, unless you’re familiar with these guns from a air gunsmith’s perspective. The .257s are a given to be modded, but to partially answer the .25 Condor “power-up”question:
You’ll want a different/new
tank-larger
Modify valve
Barrel guided hammer-made to fit barrel
Barrel-currently the TJ seems best in .25-it may need machining
Shroud-if you want it ear-freindly
Bushings-larger ones to fit the frame and barrel
Trigger guard, like a Wokguard or some other way to lessen frame flex
Modify trigger assembly, especially the friggin AF safety
slugs or casting setup 😕
Dyotat, what am I forgetting?
What this could cost depends on what the components run and if you got the knowledge, time and equipment to assemble, tune it.
No doubt, a 200 yd. coyote gun is a reality. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression 😳
The .308 Winchester was actually a bit of a joke, kinda like hitting a squirrel w/ 00 Buckshot 😆 Got to admit, it’d be a quick kill!
This guy did it….
Not true BOGMAN. WHile many might think the 257 or 251 to be UNDERPOWERED for a 200 yard shot, I think (cause I owned one) that the 308 win with 168 gr bullets is too damn heavy for yotes.
The problem is ACTUALLY MORE ABOUT ACCURACY than power. Cause in all truth, it doesn’t take a crap load of power to kill a yote if the shot hits it in the head or heart or lungs. At that range and FPS, the bullet will more than likely still pass completely through a yote.
FACT: At ONLY 900 FPS at the muzzle while using a 74 gr Lyman 257420 FP bullet, it arrives at 200 yards with 108 FPE and 812+ FEET PER SECOND. Thats more FPE than the DAYSTATE WOLVERINE has at the muzzle + some. So grab a Wolverine, fill it and load a 30 cal pellet into the chamber and place the muzzle on a yotes chest and that’s roughly the same THUMP that a low powered 257 will have at 200 yards. My gun will shoot that same bullet at 1010+ FPS at the muzzle so a 200 yard shot on a yote with ENOUGH power is not the problem. The round also has the accuracy to hit its mark at that range too.
Also, to get a yote to stop bobbing and weaving………………..SIMPLY BARK when you are ready to shoot. They will look right at you like a deer in the headlights till they figure out what that sound was and what you are. By that time……….you should have already pulled the trigger.
Again though, and I say this with all honesty, the 257 and the 308 are GREAT long range rounds but you’ve really got too practice your ranging skills and shooting at long ranges to successfully place a bullet into a coyote at 200 yards with an airgun. Simply build the gun, then set up some bright colored coke cans and you will soon find out, it takes some serious practice and knowledge to hit something 2-3″ in diameter at that kinda range. EPECIALLY A KILL SHOT ON A YOTE.
NOT EASY but definitely doable
I ordered a TT Condor in .25 back in July of 2013, and I’m still waiting on it. I am currently running a stock Condor SS in .22 cal and a Marauder also in .22. I was looking at the heavier weight projectiles and one of the solutions I ran across is the custom pellet making dies from Corbin. I ordered a set in .22 for the guns I have and will be ordering another set for my TT in .25 whenever it shows up. The dies can be used on a lot of reloading presses and they allow you to consistently make pellets of different weights. The .22 cal set I ordered was around $200. I’ll have to report later on how they work out as I’m waiting on the dies at the moment too. Since most bullet casting molds are pretty close to $100 these days and you only get one weight out of them the wide range of weights from the swaging dies looked pretty good for tuning the projectile to the gun. I’ll update when the dies show up and I’ve had time to “play”.
It’d take convincing Dyotat to take on yet another gun project 😆
200yds? I’d use a 168 grain,.308 Winchester and a Leupold.
Sorry to ask another question on this thread, but…
What would it take to make the perfect 200 yard coyote gun(money is no object)? And what mods would y’all have done that would boost power for that gun?
I want to shoot diablos for the snow geese around the house, but I also want to knock yotes off their feet out to 100 yards with slugs. Should I get an unchoked .25 barrel and try .251 slugs? I know a guy here in nm that makes them.
‘Yotes are really twitchy. It’s going to be difficult to humanely, reliably kill them with .25 pellets, especially if they’re coming around at night. You don’t want it running off with face damage. The other, smaller predators should be less of an issue and I certainly dispatched a lot of feral cats with a .22 Condor. A head shot on a ‘yote is very likely to miss it’s mark because they don’t hold still for long. Check out Chancer’s posts in the hunting section. Cats and fox will often freeze if you make a little noise and keep still, just like deer. Those are easier to pop in the noggin. If you really want to head-shoot ‘yotes, study a skull for the weak points and brain position. Some parts of their skull are fairly thick. Like John says, the eye socket (orbit) and ear are two entry points with the right shot angle.
For ‘yote body shots, you’ll want a slug gun and it’ll cost you, unless you’re good at tinkering and willing to spend quite a bit of time learning before doing. The most accurate Condor slug guns have a lot of modifications and slug mold designs are being worked out. The LW barrels on Condors have more inconsistencies in i.d. than barrels made by TJ, which are gaining popularity as the more accurate slug barrels. Pellets, unlike slugs, have skirts which expand to fit minor barrel i.d. inconsistencies. Dyotat is the guru in the Condor power-mod dept. He may have parts to sell for a DIY job. It’s easy to get power out of a Condor, but the more power you add, the harder it is to control accuracy.
Many areas allow coyote snares (with deer stops). You might use the Condor with pellets for the smaller pests and find another way to control the ‘yotes. A crossbow is a fine tool, if your state allows them. I get quick deer kills with a Horton; the expanding broadheads are very consistent.
I think you can get in the ballpark with a Talon Tunes hammer and one piece tophat, with a general DIY workover of the mechanism. When you talk about valves, the TT tophat is actually the valve stem assembly with high-flow mods already done. To go much further, you will need a custom made high-flow valve assembly, like those made by Dyotat100. I’ve never seen one, but I get the impression that the bore is larger in both body and stem, significantly increasing flow.
As for body shots, well maybe I’ve led you astray. At fifty yards I can put 4 out of 5 shots through a dime. I can put a shot in a coyote’s ear or eye just as easily, so I’m confident of a clean kill. A body shot will certainty kill with the kind of power I’m making, but not humanely enough for me. I’ve always hunted with a .22, no matter what I was after, so I’m comfortable using placement, rather than power, to produce a clean kill. If you’re more comfortable with a body shot, you should consider the .257 mod that’s common on these guns, or maybe even .357.
On the other hand, get some dowel rod or similar material and drive suitable pieces in the ground. Shoot until you can consistently chop them into one inch pieces at 15-20yds. Shot placement for a clean kill becomes easy at that point. The one reason I moved to an airgun is I can afford to shoot enough to achieve that level of consistency. At today’s prices, even rimfire is prohibitively expensive. I’m surprised at the ammo cost I’m doing even though I’m hand-pump only at this point.
The TT one piece tophat comes with restrictors that let you shoot any commercial pellet at near supersonic velocity. I’m confident that I can push 55-60 grains fast enough for acceptable balistics, if I can get them.
John
Whoa !!! thank you for your very quick response, unfortunately I am very new to the PCP world… I understood about one quarter of the post !I’m understanding that yours is a stock custom gun, so to replicate some of the results that your getting im looking at a semi-custom rifle….from what I’ve been able to glean so far, I’m going to need a different valve, or at least port and polish the existing stock one, a new ” top hat” , a heavier hammer, with some form of rebound reducer.am i anywhere near on the right track? Unfortunately, my budget is rather tight. That is the reason I settled for the Condor…. perhaps settled isn’t the correct word, I don’t or can’t invest the 1500 dollars plus for higher caliber higher velocity pcp rifle.And the low sound output +the versitility of being able to swap barrels (in the future ) are very attractive to me. So, I guess the question I should be asking is , what are my options when it comes to a .25 condor ss in regards to pellet wieght, and more economical mods (drop in or diy ) to make this rifle an effective predator stopper inside 50 yds. Im hoping for something that I could feel comfortable taking body shots with at that range. If it seems like an unreasonable goal PLEASE feel free to tell me that too! Im a total newb in the pcp – or any other air powered rifle but have been a hunter for over 35 years now. Im looking for a fox, bobcat, and coyote gun, and as of late ….well just go to walmart and try to buy a box of ammo. Im thinking this could be a reasonable alternitive.
Thanks for all the input so far !
Mine is a “stock” Talon Tunes AAA Condor SS, which means an 18″ polygonal barrel (low friction rifling), heavy hammer, and modified AF valve, along with a general polishing and tweaking. To get 98fpe, I’m running 3200psi through a TT one piece tophat. Even slightly increasing the tank pressure (already well over the factory redline) causes weirdness. Gotta talk to Tony about a bigger hammer.
I polished the barrel and cut a fiber shim for under the tophat to eliminate a bounce at high PW settings without a restrictor. Pretty much everything else has been ergonomic, but I’m probably leaving out something.
John
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