condor ss .22 speed
hey everybody, i have a quick question. so i ordered a .22 barrel for my .25 condor ss. after installing the barrel i used a chrony to see how fast the pellets were flying, and the results were way less then expected. i got a low of 330 and a high of 430, with the average being between those two, because the shots were not consistent at all. is this a common issue? the power wheel was on the lowest setting. i don’t know what the average was for the .25 barrel, because i didn’t have a chrony before i got the .22 barrel. help!!!!
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The brass part (valve body) being a little below the lip of the bottle is normal. Being able to move the top-hat shouldn’t explain what you’re seeing, but would lead to inconsistent velocities. You should be able to eliminate that play by tightening up (gently) the two grub screws in the top hat, but I don’t think that’s the fix for the problem you’ve been having. Best clue I’ve heard so far is that the bolt is dragging – I’d see if I could figure out what it’s dragging on.
GsT
okay, so i got the reloading calipers out, and the valve is .117 away from the body of the bottle. i also noticed i can spin the head of the top hat just slightly. the brass part of the bottle is also just a hair shy of being level with the rim of the bottle. are these serious issues?
here are some pictures, if you need me to take more just ask!
Anything else just ask!
i don’t know who said this, but i checked the valve, and there is just on the line of the 1/8th inch mark. i don’t know if this is the problem, but what could i do to fix it, if it is. i will try lubing the inner bolt and see if that helps, but i don’t think i will be able to chrony until this weekend, as school work takes the majority of my week time. i have also noticed there are grooves on my bolt, where it may have dragged on part of the housing. is this s common problem? i will see if i can upload pictures later tonight. thanks for the help everybody, i hope i can get this thing sorted out soon, and without having to send it back to AF.
could it be that my chrony is on metric, rather than U.S. standard? i have pulled the top hat several times, and greased/polished it. i seems to be all ok. i have the older style bottle, w/o a gauge. my tank is on. i think it may be my chrony, but i find it hard to believe the lowest power setting for the .22 would be 350-400 mps and 1150-1300 fps. could that be?! it would be very cool if it was! :rofl:
Not sure what is going on there.. You have the opposite problem most have with the .22 cal. That’s what I started out with, and with the factory top hat (that i ditched pretty quick because I couldn’t get it to stay adjusted), any power setting above 2 would send Crosman Premier’s supersonic. Generally the Condor’s are harder to tune down for good pellet flight than tune up for more speed. Probably should check things in an organized way to try to find the problem… then a solution should be simple. These guns are not complicated. First thing I’d check is compare the gauge on the gun (if it has one) with the gauge on the fill device (or at least 2 different gauges in the fill and tank system to see if there’s a big difference. Those AirForce gauges are not very dependable. Then maybe pull the top hat and check it for an obstruction or maybe not being machined properly, etc… Go through the seals on hammer/barrel etc. Generally, if you actually have 3K in the tank and you adjust the Power wheel to anything above 2, you’ll be supersonic. Might compare your Chrony to another one too… Your problem is just not normally something that occurs with these guns…
the bolt does drag, but no more than it did when i bought the rifle at AOA. i greased the hammer yesterday and tried the chrony again. no much faster, maybe 25-50 fps. the valve should be a .25, because i bought the gun new in .25 caliber. i believe the o ring at the back of the bolt is still good, because i can see it when i get behind it with the bottle removed, and it is shiny. i haven’t modded the valve, but i am debating it. should i?
Let’s assume for the moment that there’s nothing wrong with the valve (that’s still an assumption, and something you might have to check eventually) – next thing to check is your bolt – does it move smoothly? Easiest time to notice would be after you push it forward to cock the gun, do you notice much drag pulling it to the rear? If it’s binding, or the o-ring seals are dry or anything else retards its impact on the valve, that would do it. If there’s drag, you might lube the rings on the bolt and barrel with silicone grease as shown in the video that came with the rifle.
After that you’re looking at the hammer, and/or trigger which will require some disassembly to get to. Again you’d be looking for anything that would slow, or limit the travel of the hammer or bolt.
Another thought occurs to me and that is that perhaps you have the .177 valve, which I understand is smaller. I couldn’t tell you how to identify it vs. the .22/.25 valve but I’m sure someone here could.
GsT
have you messed with the top hat?
i am filling to 3kpsi, with hpa. it looks like there is atleast 1/8th of an inch (maybe more) between the bottom of the top hat and the brass housing in the bottle. i can’t seem to find an answer anywhere online.
How full is your tank? I assume you’re using HPA and not CO2? It could be that your top-hat is too far to the rear – that seems like the easiest explanation. Do you have ~1/8″ between the bottom of the top-hat and the brass valve body?
I haven’t dragged out the Chrono yet, but my Condor SS is super-sonic with Crosman 14.3 gr. premiers. It’s subsonic with the heavier pellets, but I’d have to guess not by much.
GsT
what is your power wheel set on? when i have tested mine i kept it on 0. i can get around 950 if the power wheel is at 9, but i waste a lot of air. :angrymob:
My new factory .22 CSS @ power lvl 5 is supersonic with 18.1 JSB, I don’t have chrony but what I’ve read it should be right at 900 fps at lowest power setting, that where mine stays. Idk why yours is so slow :sadn: I’m still learning my gun.
well, since everybody pitched in and helped me figure the problem out… LOL, that never happened. i changed barrels back to the .25, and it chronied at around 400 fps. seems very shy of what i was expecting. any recommendations for higher velocities?
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i tried lubing the bolt and the valve last night with remi-oil and q-tips. i will try to get home early enough to chrony tonight. if i don’t see an improvement i might just buy a talon tunes tophat with inserts. hopefully the remi-oil will help solve the issue. i will also remove the bolt tonight and check all around to make sure there aren’t any other o-rings i could be missing.