My Talon Tunes Story

I’m pretty new to air guns. My need came because the wife and I moved from the farm we lived on to a farmette on top of a hill, just out of town.

The farm next to us grows alfalfa and every year we are inundated with ground hogs. They do huge amounts of damage. I’ve lost wiring harnesses high pressure fuel lines, brake lines, underground utility lines to their gnawing, plus the damage they do with their holes.

We had a similar problem on the farm, and my Tikka/Valmet .222 over a 12 gauge was a wonderful tool in eradicating them. On this new property, on top of a hill with people nearby, shooting safely was problematic.

So, after doing a little research, I purchased a .25 Condor SS and a nice Hawke Sidewinder scope for it. In getting used to it, I hated the broomstick feel, so I got the Talon tunes tank adapter, a moderator and the tank cover. Being an idiot, I ordered the moderator for the regular condor, not the SS. I installed this thinking “Damn this is Long!” About every third pellet I put through it caught an edge and tumbled wildly, or shattered inside the moderator.

Hmmm.

So, I emailed Tony, and he very politely pointed out that I should have called him first, as I purchased the wrong moderator, and created a rather unlikely contraption. He took the return and refunded my money without complaint even though the error was wholly mine, and I am sure I damaged his moderator through my misapplication.

As I experimented with the gun, I still didn’t like the way it felt in standing shots, and longed for a sling. After some more research, I bought a Mad Dog stock, and now I was in love with my tack driver. Using predator poly mags. 28 grain Baracudas, and 25.39 grain Diablo Kings, I would send 50 or more groundhogs a year off to their next life. At 50 yards I could virtually guarantee a one shot, humane headshot kill.

Last summer I had a few anomalies. Most of my shots went like this: groundhog sees me, runs to hole. I shoulder the Condor. 30 seconds later the groundhog pops his head up to see where I am. That’s it for him. I walk over to the hole and dispose of the dead groundhog. This summer there wasn’t always a groundhog in the bottom of the hole after I knew I had scored a direct hit.

I felt bad about this. I take my responsibility to make clean kills and minimize suffering seriously. So, I called Tony and ordered his top hat, and the hammer with slap modification for my gun, thinking this would improve the power. He concurred.

I had some problems installing the hammer. It was not intuitive, and was further complicated by the mess inside my barrel. My hammer spring had fouled against the hammer, and one of the barrel bushings was apparently not secured properly at the factory and was retained inside the barrel housing. I called Tony, later than I should. He still picked up the phone, and talked me through the problem, and I got it squared away…. mostly.

I need to do some testing, but i’m pushing pellets again, and I think my power problems are over.

So, what would I have done differently?

I would have purchased my gun fully set up and tuned directly from Tony and saved myself the grief and bother of trying to do it myself. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the mechanics of my rifle, and climbing the learning curve, but I felt bad about relying on Tony to help me out. He was providing customer service far beyond his obligation. I suffered too, because I don’t think my gun was set up properly from the factory. It would have been much better to begin my journey into air gunning with a reliable and competently set up air gun.

I enjoy the greater control, precision and skill necessary with an air gun. In the near future, I plan on getting into a big bore. There’s only one place, I’ll shop.

Thanks again,

onebaddj

Participant

February 12, 2019 at 10:34 pm

Ive had my gun set up everyway I could from 20 fpe plinker to 100+ fpe yote slayer. They are tons of fun to tinker with.

Jds sells regs or you can use nylon washers under the top hat.

fomen

February 8, 2019 at 3:44 pm

I think I would get an Edgun. Watch the video where Ed from Edgun (in Russia) shoots bulls-eyes on a target at 50 meters, removes his scope, runs over his gun with front and rear tires of his SUV, then slaps the scope back on and hit the target in the EXACT SAME SPOT! It can also be regulated with an adjustable Huma regulator.

Or, if you want a REAL KILLER of a gun, buy the Huben K1 Mk2 air rifle. It’s a regulated semi auto repeater with a patented hammer-less firing system. The design allows for very precise release of air with each shot. Way more precise than a spring and hammer. It’s made for long range air gunning. It shoots slugs.

I actually have my Condor converted over to shoot slugs. I ordered a slug mold from MP-Molds that was designed by Gregor Kamenšek in the Czech Republic. They are 48gr boat tail rounds with drive bands. They have the same footprint in the barrel as a pellet (with 2 points of contact- front head and rear skirt). They are AMAZING! I took a head shot on a squirrel last weekend at 182 yards. Dropped it in it’s TRACKS! I can get MOA groups at 100 yards ALL DAY LONG! You just can’t believe how straight they fly. Due to the shape of a pellet, they will eventually destabilize in the air and start to spin or drift off. Not so with slugs. They fly straight as an arrow downrange. Once you get your left and right parallax dialed in on your scope, all you have to concern yourself with is learning the holdover for different distances. They buck the wind VERY well, unlike pellets.

I have my gun set up to where it fires them at an average of 865 fps at the muzzle. The interesting thing about slugs is their retained velocity due to their aerodynamic shape. Here’s what I mean. I can keep the same settings on my rifle and fire a 33.94 JSB pellet at 960 fps at the muzzle. But if you set up a chrony downrange, even though the muzzle velocity of the slug started out slower at the muzzle, it’s faster at the 100 yard chrony downrange than the pellet. The aerodynamics is similar to lobbing a badminton shuttlecock downrange vs lobbing a football in a tight spiral. No comparison when it comes to drag. And when a pellet starts to slow too much, it starts to destabilize and wobble. The slug won’t.

Needless to say, it’s ENDLESS what you can do with your gun and with options. It all depends on how much money you feel like spending.

scylla

February 8, 2019 at 2:09 am

Thank you. I know there is still a lot I could do, put on a .30 barrel, add a bottle, a regulator….

I think my next step will be a second air gun though. I’m thinking Vulcan.

February 7, 2019 at 11:11 pm

Buy a constant air pressure regulator from PCP Tunes. Tony doesn’t carry regulators for the AF platform. Otherwise I would direct you to him. The regulator will eliminate the bell curve and allow you to use one of Tony’s AMAZING .5L carbon fiber tanks that can be filled to 250 BAR (3625 psi) instead of the stock (HEAVY) aluminum tank from AF that can only be filled to 200 BAR (3000 psi). This will increase your shot count by 40%. Also, you can’t just upgrade your bottle without upgrading the hammer weight and top hat. If you try to go beyond 3000 psi with the stock set up, you’ll get the dreaded “valve lock”, where your hammer and spring aren’t hitting hard enough to overcome the pressure pushing against the valve assemble from the bottle. The constant air pressure regulator overcomes this. It steps down the bottle pressure to a set pressure determined by you. The regulator is adjustable. It also has 2 gauges on it. One gauge displays the bottle pressure, the other displays the regulator set pressure of the air in the plenum portion of the regulator (the air that gets released when you pull the trigger). If you’re shooting a .25, I would have them set it for 170 BAR from the factory. That will allow you to propel the 33.94gr JSB Diablo’s downrange at 935-950 fps. That is the sweet spot for those pellets. And I ALWAYS recommend people step up from the 25gr to the 34gr JSB because the heavier pellet has a better ballistic coefficient, AND it retains MUCH more energy downrange.

But with the regulator, you will only have an extreme spread of 10-12 fps across your entire shot string (which should be 45-50 shots with the aforementioned settings). You only need to set your power wheel at 7 or 8 (mid range). Consistent velocities equate to accuracy downrange- FACT!

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