How do I increase Power??
Hi guys, I’ve recently received my .22 barrel for my Condor-currently .177.
After fitting the new barrel and testing over the chrony, I was getting 680fps with JSB 25gr pellets. It shoots .177 JSB Monsters (13,4gr) at around 1200fps but lacks power with the .22 barrel. When I bought the rifle, I got a new valve kit with new hi flo valve stem and top and .22 valve spring which was fitted including some seals.
My question is, can I set or decrease the tension on the valve spring in order to let more air through or do I work on a lower fill pressure to up the velocity with the .22 barrel. I fill up to 2900psi. I’m trying to achieve around 1000-1050fps with the JSB 25gr’s. Any help appreciated.
Many thanx, Nick.
Ps: I have set the top hat and adjusted the side wheel but this doesn’t have any effect.
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.177 barrel still fitted-first shot over the chrony shows 1167fps with 13,4grs. 2nd shot shows 1180fps. Its looking good but still needs to pick up quote abit. 3rd shot over the chrony-ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!! The chrony was blown off its stand, the backstop (a solid 2″ American Walnut block off wood was thrown against the door. Now I know what you guys mean when you talk about a Condor dumping.
It took me some minutes to recover-my parrot has aged 10 yrs in 3 seconds. O yes, I went to change my jocks.
After 15minutes I scrape the courage together for another attempt. I refill the cylinder after stripping the valve and tightening that bloody retainer screw thing. The first time it was filled to 2900psi, the second attempt started at 2600psi. Right let’s do this, I’m ready for it this time and after the first shot-all hell broke loose again. Yes it dumped!!
My 300bar dive cylinder has enough air for one more charge, the cylinder has been restripped, valve retainer screw tightened quite a bit more and the parrot has been moved to another room. Let’s see what happens-i’ll keep you updated.
LMAO!!
So you done unscrewed it a bit too much!
Tank dump aint no fun is it ? 😆
In theory you shouldn’t need a spring in there, the bottle pressure should snap the seal back in place after the hammer has smacked it open. But it don’t quite work out that way with the AF rifles…
try bringin in the tophat a bit. i just got a pm from cygnus x, telling me basically that you can do without the spring completely, but turn the th down and work out bit by bit…UNTIL IT DUMPS! 😈 😈 then bring it back in a hair, and that dump happened at your minimum pressure.
Just a quick update. I opened the cylinder and unscrewed the spring retainer nut until it was nice and relatively easy to push in with my thumb.
.177 barrel still fitted-first shot over the chrony shows 1167fps with 13,4grs. 2nd shot shows 1180fps. Its looking good but still needs to pick up quote abit. 3rd shot over the chrony-ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!! The chrony was blown off its stand, the backstop (a solid 2″ American Walnut block off wood was thrown against the door. Now I know what you guys mean when you talk about a Condor dumping.
It took me some minutes to recover-my parrot has aged 10 yrs in 3 seconds. O yes, I went to change my jocks.
After 15minutes I scrape the courage together for another attempt. I refill the cylinder after stripping the valve and tightening that bloody retainer screw thing. The first time it was filled to 2900psi, the second attempt started at 2600psi. Right let’s do this, I’m ready for it this time and after the first shot-all hell broke loose again. Yes it dumped!!
My 300bar dive cylinder has enough air for one more charge, the cylinder has been restripped, valve retainer screw tightened quite a bit more and the parrot has been moved to another room. Let’s see what happens-i’ll keep you updated.
yep…polish everything as mirror-like as possible as well, incase you havent seen it yet, theres a tutorial in quick reference. be careful when porting the spring retainer, as i bored mine out a bit too much and the spring started tipping into the retainer. ive since corrected this with a handmade brass seat that i actually like better…but i digress. keep us posted, as i know youve been at this for a while now, if my memory serves.
another important thing to come up recently: wherever you set your spring retainer at, check it for full travel(tophat touches valve face). if the spring compresses solid, 2 things happen. air is momentarily cut off, and the stem has nowhere to go, it gets its ass whooped…no good.
I understand, by Dremel work do you mean porting the valve? I’ve seen pics of valves that have had the rear end slight widened and the spring retainer nut drilled out to increase airflow. That’s one step I’m planning to do while the valve is opened.
The barrel was turned by Kevin Strauss-he builds airrifles as well. His companies name is Airvolution.
The valve travel is a good point-I’ll defintely have look at that.
you may have to do a little dremel work to get it consistently where it seems you want it…26″,huh? what brand is that barrel, who turned it?
another important thing to come up recently: wherever you set your spring retainer at, check it for full travel(tophat touches valve face). if the spring compresses solid, 2 things happen. air is momentarily cut off, and the stem has nowhere to go, it gets its ass whooped…no good.
Beautiful, thanx! Will that give me the 350 odd fps I need and are there other things I can look at. I’m trying to set the rifle up for max power.
Yes you can adjust the valve spring. You’ll need to remove the valve from the bottle. At the back end of the valve is the spring retaining nut. This can be wound out to decrease tension. Loctite when it’s set to where you want. I find when its nice and easy to depress the tophat with my thumb is about right.
Thanx for the quick reply, the barrel is 26″-custom made. There is a hammer weight, I haven’t weighed it but the length is around 20mm. I have a lighter h/weight but opted for the heavier one.
how long is that barrel? wait, did you put a striker weight or heavier hammer in? takes a bit more “thump” to open the hi flow…get back to us on this, we’ll figure it out… 😉
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😯
Sorry but that explanation was pretty damned hilarious…
Well at least you didn’t get hurt and your bird didn’t keel over from a heart attack! Is the chrony ok?
Haven’t had a tank dump, but did have the fill hose pop off once, nothing like what you just went through though but it did get the heart going…