Friendly airgun vs rimfire competition
This morning I decided to do a little competition between my condor and my .22lr. I now have a rangefinder, so I could actually know how far away I was shooting, and try to get some groups with each. This actually didn’t start out as a competition, I was just shooting them both, so they shots per group are different, but the idea is there.
First off the guns. The condor is .25 cal, MM valve, shooting kodiaks at about 920fps (I started at the top of the curve so I wouldn’t have any weak shots to begin with) It’s wearing a leapers 8-32×56 and sitting on a harris bipod. Groups circled in black.
The .22lr is a cz 452 ultra lux wearing a leupold varixIII 3.5-10×40 tactical scope, shooting remington subsonic ammo. No spot for a bipod so I used an ammo box as a rest. Groups circled in red.
The black dots on each target are 1″
I started out at 75 yards for this, but in past experience, the condor has a slight edge in accuracy at 25 yards and 50 yards, very slight, but it is there.
Starting off at 75 yards. The condor and the cz are about even here, the condor doing slightly better. There are 4 shots from the condor and 6 from the cz on this target. They were both also hitting pretty hard, I have no doubt I could drop a squirrel with either gun at this range.
Next up stepped it out to 100 yards. 3 shots from the condor, and 5 from the cz. This was a little dumbfounding to me at first, the condor groups grew like they should, but the cz groups shrank considerably.
Finally reached out to 120 yards. 8 shots here from the condor, and 8 from the cz. Again, while the condor groups grew, the cz groups are extremely small, 5 of the shots going into a very very small group.
After scratching my head at this for a while, I finally figured out what I think was happening with the groups. The scope on the cz is made for tactical rifles, the parallax being set at 150 yards and not being adjustable. I think this made it hard to shoot closer, and explains why it became more accurate farther out. There was a substantial scope quality difference here, which I’m sure affected the results. Looking through the scope, it was hard to see a difference at 75 yards, but getting to 100 and beyond the leupold was MUCH brighter and clearer. This is also where the cz started to destroy the condor in terms of accuracy.
Despote the obviously one sided competition, I was surprised how well the condor can do at range. It can truly hold its own against rimfires. I’m sure it could hang right there with a remington 597 and the like. The cz is an exceptional gun, so it may not have been a fair .22lr to test against, but it’s all I have. Having shot other rimfire rifles though, I am 100% positive in saying the condor hangs right with them in accuracy.
Just for fun, I bought a bunch of clay pidgeons. This is me shooting at them with the condor at 120 yards. The first shot is obviously a hit. The second shot hits, third misses, and fourth hits. The last ones are almost impossible to see because all it did was chip off part of the clay instead of bust it completely. The camera was on 12x zoom for this.
The last two that it clipped:
I plan on retrying this soon. I should be getting my other leupold back from the custom shop within the next few weeks. I will put that on the condor so it has a fair chance. The leapers simply isn’t up to par here.
I also have to get more ammo for the condor. 😀
As a side note, the condor was quieter for all of this. 😀 😀 😀
All Replies
Lama, if you want an accurate test, you can’t use those sub-sonic 22’s. Get some Remington Elay Club Xtra’s
At 50 yrds with a good rifle, you can get 1/2 inch groups with 10 shots.
I’ve tried many different .22 ammo in my custom built 10-22 and the Elay’s are by far the most accurate. It’s gotten to the point where it’s more fun to shoot the tack out that’s holding the target up at 50 yards than making the bullseye dissapear. Now granted, my TalonTunes Condor .25 was just as accurate at 50 yards w/ Eun Jin 42’s, but hey, that’s why they cost the big bucks, right?
Switch over the the JSB’s in the .25 and watch the groups at 100 yd’s shrink by at least half. 😉
Many of us have seen the Kodiaks start to become unstable at 80 yards plus.
I actually have a couple of jerry’s slugs I may have to try out. Don’t have a lot, but I can probably get in a couple of groups. I’ll try that later.
The wind was light, probably between 5 and 10mph. But being in the woods, it didn’t affect the bullet much. It was enough to throw off the condor if I shot during a gust though.
The “range” there actually goes back to 130 yards, but I am going to have to do a bit more testing at that range, because I think it may be going through some low hanging limbs to get out there. But we’ll see. If I get bored I may even be able to go out farther, just have to break out the machete again….
Funny thing with the blaser is, at 4 or 5 times the range the group sizes would probably be close. 😆 They make a .22lr kit for it, which I hope to get one day. It’s supposed to be incredibly accurate. I just can’t make myself spend $1600 for a new .22lr setup. 😯
Thanks!!
to be more accurate at the longer distances?
You may be on to something… 😉
😯 Tsk, tsk… 😆
Nice write up!!! The CZ getting more accurate at 100+ is very interesting. The Condor ain’t that shabby either!!! 😯 So when you get the Blaser up in it’s new chamber you have to include it but multiply all the distances by 4 to 5 times… 😆
Nice Lama! What was the wind like? The CZ rimfires have always caught my attention and I hope to get one in the future.
I haven’t done much extended range shooting with my rimfires but they only outshoot my Talon when it is windy. If it is a really calm day or when the wind is predictable my Talon wins every time.
Nice write up Lama…
I wonder if Jerry’s slugs would prove
to be more accurate at the longer distances?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
interesting post.
I have had that same phenomonon happen with other guns too more accurate further away.
I just count’nt get my mind around it, I fig it had to be me.
Oh , I got luepold mark AR 10x on my condor , and at 120 yards on a full fill at power level ten jsb 18 , I was getting around 1.5 in groups,
So I think your going to see a differece . But I was useing the 22 cal condor , which I think is a little more accurate at long range than the 25.
I think those groups would close up just a little more in 22.
I d like to see the results of the 22. You might even beat yourself!!!