Never shot so slow & so good before
I’m still a rooky so I don’t feel bad telling on myself. I’ve shot aronnd 2,000 rounds thru my Condor, many different pellets, a .22×24″, a .177×12″ barrel, while making many adjustments to the TopHat. I went thru 3 or 4 AF pumps while getting the necessary? 3,000 PSI Fill. And now I’m down to what the pros on this forum have been saying all along i.e. ‘to fast ain’t no good’.
For the first time I filled to ONLY 2,300 PSI. I’ve been working on trying to slow down my H&N BARACUDA MATCH .22 x 21.14 grain pellets to a max of 990 FPS. I’ve screwed the TH from 0.090″ down to 0.060″ and back up to 0.070″ all the while screwing with the Power Wheel too. The PW set below 3 1/2 just messed up the FPS consistency and much higher gets supersonic. So, I settled on 4 full turns of the PW. My PW zeros at 10 so 4 full turns to 10 is where it wants to be. From setting the TH up to 0.070″ and shooting a few strings of 40 to 60 shots, I found it drifted a bit to more like 0.072″. So, still not achieving my goal of max 990 FPS, I reset TH to about 0.067″, left the PW at 4 full turns, and ONLY FILLED TO 2,300 PSI. My scope is zeroed for 46′ & 100 yd. and has been accurate for the 46′ thru most of my adjustments. So I went right to the 50 yard range where I expect to be on target using the 3rd mil dot above the crosshairs. There’s good shade there for the Chrony.
So, if you’re still withme, here’s the meat (string):
SHOT/FPS/Approx.PSI
01/856.68/2300
02/970.02/2282
03/968.24/2264
04/965.30/2246
05/976.44/2228
06/964.00/2210
07/972.60/2192
08/983.66/2174
09/990.02/2156
10/980.00/2136
11/979.52/2121
12/988.16/2103
13/998.92/2085
14/992.37/2067
15/994.98/2049
16/1002.98/2031
17/1000.41/2013
18/1002.98/1995
19/998.18/1977
20/1005.14/1959
21/997.52/1941
22/997.77/1923
23/996.62/1905
24/991.80/1887
25/985.82/1869
26/990.18/1851
27/985.34/1833
28/976.12/1815
29/972.05/1797
30/971.81/1779
31/971.11/1762
32/968.70/1744
33/962.39/1726
34/958.35/1708
35/953.52/1690
36/947.40/1672
37/941.80/1654
38/940.04/1636
39/935.39/1618
40/928.79/1600
There are some nice flat groups in this string and I’d never before shot with less than 1800 PSI so I wasn’t surprised as the last 10 shots began to drop more quickly.
My reason for this long post is my surprise how much tighter the last 2 groups of 5 were. As usual it was windy with 15 mph wind gusting to 21 mph.
My last 5 shots were side by side at 50 yd in gusty wind.
My usual has been 2-3″ groups at this range
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You go out on a nice day and you’ll really like the accuracy of your gun. You sure are a relentless searcher for the best your gun can do, and you should take a break and look for the perfect day to reap the rewards of your efforts. I don’t think a 21 grn. pellet is enough weight to buck that kind of wind you were shooting against.
Right on Packrat. But I’ve been tuning for months and happy with any string like that but check this out:
Shooting at the large squirrel I blew the 1st shot way left, that’s on me. Then the other 4 are typical for my shooting at 50 yards. Then shots 41-45 (group #6) shooting at the middle size squirrel’s NUT (not nuts), I hit a 1″ triangle pattern to the right and then the last 5 shots (group #7) hit all pretty much in a line side by side. The wind was from behind me but the 21 mph gusts still have a tendency to rock my aim a little.
PS I finally figured out how to use Photobucket images.
Hell…that whole string looks pretty dang good to me, actually looks REALLYY good!! I’d be a happy camper!
Additional info for this string is that the max FPE at shot 20 was 47.4 and the lowest was the final shot at 40.5 FPE. The flattest part of the bathtub curve was from shots 8 thru 27 with a Standard Deviation of 7.66.
I would have thought that I had a good thing at a 7.66 Standard Deviation but this time I’m happiest with shots 31 thru 40 where in spite of falling FPS my groups tightened up.
Am I waking up or going crazy?
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Good numbers 🙂
Have you tried removing the condor hammer weight, turning UP the PW and filling to 2300-2400ish psi?