Posted this on the Yellow the .25 crowd is going to be mad!

Well I have been playing with airguns since the 70’s and have learned about springers, CO2, pumpers, and 4 years ago started with PCP’s.

Airguns I have worked on and learned from just to show I am not just a newbie getting into this sport.
My springers past and present:

Telly .177 miss that one
Raven .177
HW 35 .177
British Patriot .22
BSA Meteor .22
QB-57 .177
Webley Typhoon .177
Webley Junior .177
JAP .177

My CO2’s past and present:

Crosman Single Action .22 bone handle grips
Crosman SA6 .22 pearl grips
Crosman CR150 X 2 .22
Crosman Mk1 .22
Crosman 38T .177
Crosman 2240 .22
Crosman 2250 .22 bulk
Drozd .177 BB bulk

Pumper:

Crosman 1400

PCP:

Airforce Condor .22/.25

So about a year ago I decided to use the Airforce modular design as a test bed which would allow me to do various side by side tests but with only one airgun.

Test 1: Changed the 24″ .22 to a 12″ .22 barrel to do a side by side evaluation of 30 ft lbs compared to 55-60 ft lbs.

On paper the 12″ choked .22 LW barrel proved more accurate then I had expected. Using .22 (5.52) JSB’s or washed Crosman .22 Premiers would yield one shot groups at 25 and 50 yards. But what I did notice was the lighter 14 to 16 grain pellets did not shoot well in wind gusts or anchor gophers as opposed to 21 to 42 grain pellets. It has become clear that the heavier projectiles and greater mass made poor shot placement (result of wind gusts) more effective due to the increased delivered kinetic energy to the pest. Using heavier pellets I was still able to generate 30 ft lbs even at 100 yards as opposed to less than 10 ft lbs of energy with 30 ft lbs. We could actually see the POI moving with wind gusts!

Test 2: Factory LW standard rifled choked .22 LW 24″ barrel.

This barrel is incredible, now I did have friend recrown the barrel because he offered but what I found was this barrel really likes the longer heavier pellets that are available. The Kodiaks and 28.4/32 grain Eun Jins all proved VERY accurate and were used past 120 yards (launched between 940 and 1000 fps) effectively on gophers even in the wind. Using heavier .22 pellets really closed the gap in comparison to the .25 option and as it always is windy on the Prairies and heavier pellets are a must!!

Test 3: LW Polygonal .25 choked 23.8″ barrel.

Okay Woody at LW suggested I use this type of barrel as opposed to standard rifling and I have found a few things that I do not like. The Polygonal barrel is SUPER pellet sensitive!!! I pushed a Beeman .25 Crow Mag and Kodiak down the barrel and it had little to NO resistance until the choke?? The .25 Eun Jin was a tight fit and took real effort to push all the way thru the barrel. Crow Mags grouped horrible with Kodiaks grouping pretty good but the 37 and 42 grain Eun Jins were 1 holers at 50 yards.

I suspect the better BC and heavier weight of the Eun Jins helped during the wind gusts as Kodiaks will group well with no wind.

Test 4: .22 (21 to 32 grain) vs .25 (26 to 42 grain) pellets.

On paper they both did as expected, using Chairgun and STP the .25 appears to reign supreme at longer distances but field testing proved otherwise.

Taking into the consideration the cost and availability of .25 pellets, overall effectiveness on gophers at distances between 25 and 124 yards I have to say the 21 to 32 grain .22 pellets close the gap so much that I have gone back to using my .22 barrel.

Today I spent 6 hours testing both the .25 and .22 barrels (performed 5 minute barrel swaps in my Jeep)on my Condor using a variety of different pellets both on paper and on pests and for overall effectiveness, value, and cost of shooting the 21 grain .22 Kodiaks prevailed. For sheer power and reach the 28.4 and 32 grain .22 Eun Jins were hammers!!! My last shot was on a gopher in heavy wind lasered at 80 yards and the 32 grain .22 EJ (950 fps) struck the gopher in the neck and instantly dropped it!! It threw up so much dirt behind it I thought I had missed until I retrieved it from the hole it fell in.

So I will keep my .25 barrel for the heavy stuff and for solid slugs but for pesting my Condor is back to the tried and true .22 LW configuration.

Randy