.308 Big Bore Condor Conversion

I started this project late 2005 because I wanted a big bore but couldnt get my hands on the one I wanted (DAQ.308) so I started this just to see if it would work.

Began with some .224 Full Metal Jacket bullets, .308/.224 Plastic Sabot’s and a .308 Barrel Blank.

Heres the Barrel blank just sitting in the Talon Frame as a Mock up before any Machining.

Becuase .308 is pretty much the same size as the stock .22 and .177 barrels outside diameter at the Breech I had to make a new breech slide and tophat.

Barrel turned down

New breech using larger O-Ring

New Tophat next to a stock Condor Tophat.

Just checking for fit before I drill and tap hole for the cocking handle (The paintjob on the SS is just spray can truck bed liner, as you can see it cracked and peeled pretty bad).

The finished Rifle.

Accuracy testing showed it to be reasonably accurate as the .22 barrel in the limited testing I did in with my short range offhand and it gave around 104 fpe with no adjustments to the Condor valve using 64gr .224 rounds in a 4gr .308 Sabot.

It certainly packs quick a punch too

Here’s a .22 Benjamin Sheridan pellet next to the .224 and Sabot.

Once I had my Big Bore… it dawned on me that I couldnt really use it. I certainly wasnt going to do any big game hunting with it and a .22 will do just as good a job on small game with a lot less noise and weight so I traded off the barrel and went back to my 12 Inch .22 barrel.