New High Performance Quick Change Tophat From TalonTunes
I have been working on this for a while and am pretty happy with the results.
It is a one piece high perfomance tophat with restrictive inserts….
The tophat alone will add another 30-50 fps to your Condor
But when you don’t need all that massive power and want to shoot your favorite lighter pellet, screw in one of the two size restrictors….
This is from an off the shelf new Condor filled to 3000psi.
Power wheel on 10.
Pellet is .25 JSB King
Should be able to get better with some tuning and tweaking.
What do you think?
Thanks, Tony
All Replies
New orings stopped the breech bounce but velocity did not increase with the restrictor installed.
I felt air hitting my face when benching the rifle, and had just changed the breech rings so I pulled the stem. The oring for the stem came out in 2 pieces.
ACE had 90 duros so I bought a couple.
Used RC shock oil on it when installing and shot over the chrony.
Benji at 915fps, kodiak at 875fps.
Shot pretty well.
I had already made a bigger insert so decided to give it a try. The 1/8 hex was completely drilled out, so I notched the grub so I could install it with a scrwdriver.
Benjis shot right at 1000fps, and kodiaks right at 975fps. These speeds have shot well with this barrel so i punched some paper.
Both pellets punched ragged hole groups at 50 yards, no wind, so I moved the bench back to 100 yards.
Both pellets put 3 shots well under an inch and the kodiaks did the best which was a surprise.
After chqnging the stem oring problem solved. After 30 shots tank pressure was 1900 starting at 2800.
This is a very efficient valve considering the power output and I am very satisfied with this purchase.
KnifeMaker,
The 7 rings may do better than 867.3 FPS. I can’t tell where they are in the bathtub ❓
Weather still sucks here. Freezing, snow and freezing rain followed by 42 MPH Gusty wind.
To cold to clean out the barrel for. New trap and still scattering 2×4 splinters around the bedroom. I’d love to start shooting strings but constant sweeping up the splinters is getting older than me.
threads are 10/24.
I dont think your tophat is seated deep enough.
I like to seat it with a rubber mallet. Please wear eye protection.
Good luck, Tony
And earplugs. 😉
Tony, its seated all the way. First time I did it I used a rubber mallet.
The other stem pushes in the same distance, and it gives me the same .072 gap as before.
I shot a tin of EJS through it with no restrictor. Averaged 970fps and consistency was great.
I only started noticing any “loss” when I installed the restictor for the lighter pellets.
Yes I checked, I do have the larger restrictor installed. 😉
This frame is quite old. Circa 2005, no serial #.
The valve is hi-flo I bought around 2009 right after AF “improved” the design. Maybe the seal is different from what you are using today?
Riff, I wonder if something ended up finding it’s way into the small hole the valve stem pin slips into in the seal.
I looked at that. The normal valvestem seats like it used to, same depth as before.
I haven’t shot over a chrony with that stem for a while so I need to confirm it works normally before I dig into this any further.
I dont really WANT to take my rifle apart either. 😉
Riff,
threads are 10/24.
I dont think your tophat is seated deep enough.
I like to seat it with a rubber mallet. Please wear eye protection.
Good luck, Tony
At 71 grains, not bad at all! 😀
Riff, I wonder if something ended up finding it’s way into the small hole the valve stem pin slips into in the seal.
I think I have it figured out, but I wont know for sure until I get daylight to shoot in. This weekend probably.
I also made a bigger restrictor to test before I left work last night. I didn’t realize how hard it was to drill out a grub screw without damaging the threads. Boy are my fingers sore. 😉
I’m going to add a disclaimer to my posts. This problem is not the fault of Tonys design. Its just the way my rifle is setup.
Mike
Ops I should have said 7 rings @ about 71 grains.
Lurker, what do those black mamba’s weigh?
Mike
Tighter ‘0’ rings needed may-be? Don’t know Riff. Keep us informed on this. Strange to say the least. 😕
Mike
–edit–
NOTE: The problem is with my rifle. There is nothing wrong with Tonys design.
–end edit–
With the largest restrictor I am getting 780 fps with a 28gr Benji. Without over 1100. 43gr EJ without at 970fps. Havent tried one with the restrictor.
I shot a full tin of Ejs before I tried using the restrictor, the stem is fully seated.
I shot a few times a bit ago and watched the breech. No restrictor the breech works normally. With restrictor it bounces almost completely off the tophat.
Now I gotta figure out why. Seems my rifle always goes against the norm. :/
RiffRaff,
Just did a straight swap from my original TT AAA Condor to the new valve and it increased the TH gap by 0.030″.
Chicken to go full blast on first try I put the larger restrictor in and with only 2400 PSI I GOT a quiet EJ at 809 FPS.
Oh well, just a minute…….
2600 PSI No Restrictor, EJ at 973 FPS
3000 PSI No Restrictor, Black Mamba at 867.3 FPS.
No I can lock my bolt maybe yours it to long lol all I can say is dryfire it a couple of times if not call tony for a exchange
I did play with it. LOL
So your gap is wide enough you cannot lock the bolt?
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Both pellets punched ragged hole groups at 50 yards, no wind, so I moved the bench back to 100 yards.
Both pellets put 3 shots well under an inch and the kodiaks did the best which was a surprise.
100 yards, first 6 shots from 2800psi fill.
Benjiman domes on left, Kodiaks on right. Aim point was square below each group, different mil-dot for each. The Kodiaks drop a bit more.
The rain here is pissing me off. All the squirrels are underground.
