R&L Extreme valve/replacement 25 Condor barrel

I bought a barrel from Randy at RL several months ago it was in .25 caliber and I could only get it to shoot with one pellet, the JSB Kings. I thought it shot pretty good, going around 3/4 of an inch on average at 50 yards, sometimes doing that at 100 with Kings, but the problems I encountered were loose fitting bushings, which I fixed somewhat by adding two more srews to each bushing to center them, and a tight breech, loose middle bore and then of course the usual tight choke LW barrels have.

Even with the set screws, I had 1.5 to 2.5 inches drift from a 50 yard zero to 100 yards.

With any other pellet it just sprayed.

Now I tried to fix this myself, a big no no with customers and parts vendors with warrantees, but I mentioned the troubles in passing while talking with Randy about another matter. Randy jumped on the barrel issue and insisted he send me another barrel, I again explained I had worked on it myself over the months trying to get it to shoot. He insisted, stating that he needed to know why it did not shoot well, so he could remedy that problem with the producer of the barrels.

I should mention that unlike other vendors discussed here and on the Yellow in regards to warrantee problems, never did Randy suggest to his friends that they should turn me in for a reward. 😆

Seriously, Randy has gone above and beyond on this, I never asked to have that barrel replaced, he did that on his own.

Then my Condor valve stem broke, the third one I think I have had trouble with. Now remember I do a lot of experimentation with my rifle, heavy hammers and springs, port the valves, so having one break was no indication that AF was making bad valves, I just went beyond the norm with my valves.

So I ordered a extreme valve from Randy.

This week I got it all in and put it all together and shot some groups.

The Top Hat was set at .70 which I thought was a little short, I but decided to test it at that position, the top hat, which Randy furnished was tighter or snugger on the breech than my AF top hat had been, it snaps on the breech, like it is supposed to and like I have never had happen before.

At 35 feet, which was where I could get my Chrony in the shade and set my pellet tin to load from, lazy I know, but that was where I shot from, with a 3000 PSI fill, I got the first shot at 940 and then 30 more at 960 to 975 FPS and then the battery quit on my Chrony. But I think that is all I could expect. I normaly fill only to 2500 PSI, because I am always close to one of my many SCBA tanks and long strings are not a problem, except in the fall when I shoot continuesly during pesting season and walk my legs off up and down that hill for air.

Accuracy is great, as seen by these groups at 50 yards, fired off my Explorer hood with a Caldwell range bag. They measure .40, .55, .75. A wind picked up during the shooting and I did not correct for it, so you can see the side to side drifting. I am going to leave everthing where it is, accuracy is just too good to mess with, ging faster is to temp fate and the sound barrier.

I also have about a 15 % incline here on my private 100 yard range, this picture is from 50 yards back to the bench rest Ford. 😆

The next step in all this is to tether the Condor to my Pygmy tank and scuba regulator. This is the tank, the brass colored regulator will fit between the tank and the fill hose assembly. This should allow me to get around 100 or more shots in a tight 970 FPS or so string. I can regulate down from 4500 to 100 PSI with this set up, but I will keep it at 2500 PSI which is where I get my best accuracy. It will connect and disconect with male and female quick connect fittings so I can move it back and forth from the Booster to the Pygmy tank.

I plan on carrying the tank in a belt holder or backpack during the pesting season in the fall.

Regards,

Roachcreek