Talon SS or Condor?

When I first heard Mike complaining about loud impact, I thought he was hearing a sonic crack from going supersonic.
Today I enjoyed my first crow with the .25 caliber, muzzle velocity at 960ish fps, and the impact sounded like a light bulb breaking only a bit louder. It is kind of a fun problem to have, ha-ha.

I think you can get good hunting velocities with any barrel 18″ or longer quite easily. I would lean toward the Condor with the new valve, but only because thats all I have experience with. My first valve was circa 2004, and it sucked. Gun got quite a bit more consistent when I got the new valve.

With a 3000PSI fill, I can get 40 shots in the 950-975 fps range depending on PW setting, and still have 2000PSI left in the tank. Velocity deviation is usually within 12 fps. When its really cold outside it gets mildly worse. Tophat sweetspot for my gun turned out to be .80″.
It seems the velocity range gets a little harder to control below 2000 for my gun, but I can still get another 10 shots before velocities start to vary wildly. All this data was shot with the 24″ .22 caliber barrel.

For what its worth, the exact same valving setup is working very consistently with the 24″ .25 caliber barrel. Not changing anything except barrels, kodiak’s in both calibers shoot around 960fps. I fired 10 shots this morning across the chrony at 958-962fps. It seems the Condor valve is more consistent when you open up the bore.

I haven’t yet fired a full shot string in .25, I have to fix my pump as it quits at 2500PSI now…

OK, the 18″ looks good. Blodisdad… were you able to pop the end cap right back on the 1″ ali tubing you installed, or did you have to fashion a custom one for it? It seems the cap would be to big then to fit in… maybe turning the cap on a lathe to fit back in?

I’m actually thinking of just shipping my gun to Tony for the full tune, I’m having accuracy/consistancy issues, the gun is a ’05, so it might be a good thing to do anyway, and he could shroud it proper with the 18″ installed. Does he do these valve mods? I saw on his site that he disasembles the valve, ports them ect, part of the standard tune, but i’m not sure what modding the valve actually involves, or if that in itself would be considered a mod.

My 18″ sticks out past the frame by a 1/2″ or so. I just bought 1″ali tubing and slid it down inside the frame, back to the bushing and cut it 7″ in front of the frame.

A modded valve and 18″ barrel change out will give a guy almost 200fps more velocity, where as just the 24″ barrel will add 150fps. So you can have a shorter rig and more power with a 18″ barrel.

Well said Spinj, if it was my rig i’d go TSSw/ 24″ barrel. With no modding of the valve you’ll get a good shot count and the 24″ barrel will have you shooting Kodiaks at 925-950fps right where you want to be. With the condor its almost better to have a .25 cal setup as the valve is to powerful for most the .22 pellets on the maket today. Your almost limited to EunJins unless you want to de-tune it which kinda defeats the purpose of getting a condor to begin with. You could get the TSS mod the valve and get the 18″ barrel and achieve the same numbers as a 24″ barrel, even a little higher. That is the route i’d go myself, knowing what i know now. But thats a whole different subject. Depends on if you like long guns the 24″ barrel will hang out 7″ in front of the TSS frame add a shroud and your out to 13″ past the end of frame. Sound issues, as the AF guns are loud as rimfires if not shrouded, then they are near silent. The Talon tank is the way to go for .22 as you have a better selection of pellets to shoot with. Unless you go with a shorter barrel the condor tank is to powerful and has a restrictive shot count. There are ways of getting a 100 shots out of a talon tank at lower velocites. Hard decision, lots of choices, once your in, your always after improvement, its a disease. Either way hit WOK up for a buttplate, you’ll be plenty happy. Tony(Talon Tunes) can help you with any lead dust issues you may have 😉

I had good luck getting about 60 shots with lighter (JSP Exacts Jumbo) out of a Condor with the new style valve for long range bird shooting at 850 to 900 fps by starting with a full 3000 lb tank and changing the powerwheel setting through the string to adjust for the velocity curve of the string. My gun seems typical in that I start with a higher powerwheel setting, then reduce it as velocities try to rise through the 2800 psi sweet spot and increase it through the bottom end of the string. I wind up at about 1500 psi. Understanding what is going on by having shot over a chronograph, and also watching pellet strikes vs a ballistic table helps with the powerwheel adjustment through the string. Also having a really good scope dialed in so the focus shows the pellet flight against the sky at the range of the bird helps in understanding where you are in the velocity string progression, and really helps with wind estimation. I luckily had a Leupold 6 X 18 EFR in the safe to put on, and I can see a .22 cal pellet against the sky at 100 yds. Priceless. It is old advice, but so true, buy the best glass you can afford no matter which gun you wind up with. I suspect that you might get a few more shots with a Talon, but you give up some top end power, which can be very soul satisfying. I think you will be thrilled with either, they are wonderful to shoot.

Going straight with the Condor would be what would satisfy your requirements. The longer barrel is more efficient in air usage as it can increase velocity with little air usage, unlike with a shorter barrel. Now, I don’t buy into the idea that the Talon tank is more efficient. The newer Condor valves are much better than the older ones. Plus, you can make the more efficient by adjusting the tophat; it’s just a matter of reducing its clearance to the brass base and confirming velocities, consistency, and what have you via a chronograph. I have a Condor SS, and am thinking of getting me another one … another Condor!