AF Condor first thoughts

[hunter220]

Accuracy-  First of all, the condor is very easy to shoot accurately, even on windy days.  The fact that it can accurately shoot 29gr. pellets at 900-1,000 fps helps a lot on windy days.  I shot a group with the Beeman Kodiaks, which shoot the best out of my gun so far.  Below is a group that was shot from 35 yards with a sustained wind of 10 miles per hour.  



Velocity-  The velocity and power on this gun is amazing.  Without any modifications I can shoot a 29gr. Eun Jin pellet at 1,070 fps on the first shot, which is around 73fpe of energy.  That is approaching the power of a .22lr, impressive nonetheless.  However, you can also dial the power down to quite a low velocity to make the rifle less powerful.  Turned all the way down, the condor will shoot a 21gr. Kodiak pellet at 650fps, compared to 1150fps on full power.

Penetration-  For this test, I was using a 2 liter Sprite bottle filled completely with water and was shooting from 30 yards for my first test.  The first pellet I tested was a Beeman Kodiak at 950fps.  It went all the way through both sides of the bottle with no problem and kept going.  Next, I shot a crow magnum at it.  It was traveling at 1,025fps and went all the way through both sides easily.  Then came the modified crow magnum pellet.  It was moving at 1,020fps, but did not go through the bottle.  Instead, it went through one side and peeled open like a banana.  Here is a picture of a before and after of a MCM.



I then proceeded to test penetration on a 2x4.  The 2x4 was not a typical one, however.  It has been aging for quite awhile in my yard and as a result is much tougher than a brand new 2x4 is.  The Kodiak penetrated about an inch and a quarter at full power while the crow magnum penetrated a half inch.  The MCM penetrated a mere .25 of an inch but had expanded very well.  The Eun Jin was the only pellet that went all the way through the 2x4 from 15 yards consistently.  

Summary-  Overall the Airforce condor is a very nice rifle.  A few of the drawbacks include the following:  some may find the high tank bothersome and require high mounts for their scope, some of the older rifles do not shoot full power at 3,000 psi (it is easily fixed by calling AF though), and some people complain about their trigger, although I like mine the way it is.  I have ordered some JSB predators and some more Eun Jins to test the accuracy of these pellets in this gun and will post an update when I get them. There are also aftermarket parts for the condor to quiet it down.
  Overall, if you are looking for a relatively inexpensive pcp, with good accuracy and power but don’t mind the high tank profile, then you might want to give the condor a try.  

[nyairman]

Larry, great review on the Condor. Alot of us here on GTA are reluctant to cross over to "The Dark Side", but with good reviews on PCP's some of us may be swayed on trying one out. AF PCP's are top notch in my book and I hope to see more reviews on these guns.

I am waiting to see the first reviews on the new Benjamin Discovery and comparisons to AF PCP's.     . That will be some good candy for me. :p

Greg

[yel01z06]

thanks for the review i have been thinking about getting a condor for a while i think you may have made up my mind

[hunter220]

Here is a new picture of what a Kodiak at 55 fpe will do to a pepsi can from 20 yards.  This can had been opened and filled with just plain water.  Pretty Impressive what it did to it.



Right now my order with Pyramydair is on back order because the Kodiak pellets are currently out of stock until at least February 7th, but I will test the .22 predators in this gun for accuracy and expansion whenever I get my shipment of pellets from Pyramyd.

[hunter220]

Here is a new update on the condor's accuracy.  Today I received the predators from PA and decided to do some accuracy testing.  It was a little bit windy today, around 15 mph, but not too bad.  The shots were taken from 55 yards away and the wind was blowing from left to right, which is the main reason this group is not tighter.  Had the weather conditions been better, these groups probably would have been closer to nickel sized at this distance.  Overall though, I am pleased with the results of predators at these long distances.

[daved]

Hey, Larry, nice review.  Something to keep in mind, the H&N Barracuda is the same pellet as the Beeman Kodiak, as are the Barracuda Match and the Kodiak Match.  Reason I bring it up, PA frequently will be out of stock of one, but have lots of the other.  Or one will be considerably cheaper than the other.  All of these are interchangable in my Talon, all work extremely well.  So when I'm buying pellets, I always look for whatever PA has the cheapest.  

BTW, I've found the Barracuda match to be just a hair more accurate in my rifle.  Day before yesterday, my brother and I were trying some different things, and were shooting at just over 35 yards.  I'd been struggling with accuracy from my 12" .22 barrel, finally got fed up and switched back to my 24" .22 barrel.  Turned up the PW, eyeballed the TH setting, and sat down to shoot.  The first 4 went through one ragged hole, maybe a 1/4" group, the 5th opened that up to about a 1/2".  No, I don't usually shoot that well, but it's nice to know these guns are capable of that kind of accuracy.  From my shooting/testing, I've found the Kodiak/Barracudas to be very accurate all the way up to around 1100 fps, but 900 or so seems optimal.  And if you shoot the Eun Jins, they also work very well between 900 and 1000 fps.  Not quite as accurate as the Kodiaks, but bone crushingly powerful.  Later.

Dave

[hunter220]

daved - 2/28/2008  9:02 AM

Hey, Larry, nice review.  Something to keep in mind, the H&N Barracuda is the same pellet as the Beeman Kodiak, as are the Barracuda Match and the Kodiak Match.  Reason I bring it up, PA frequently will be out of stock of one, but have lots of the other.  Or one will be considerably cheaper than the other.  All of these are interchangable in my Talon, all work extremely well.  So when I'm buying pellets, I always look for whatever PA has the cheapest.  

BTW, I've found the Barracuda match to be just a hair more accurate in my rifle.  Day before yesterday, my brother and I were trying some different things, and were shooting at just over 35 yards.  I'd been struggling with accuracy from my 12" .22 barrel, finally got fed up and switched back to my 24" .22 barrel.  Turned up the PW, eyeballed the TH setting, and sat down to shoot.  The first 4 went through one ragged hole, maybe a 1/4" group, the 5th opened that up to about a 1/2".  No, I don't usually shoot that well, but it's nice to know these guns are capable of that kind of accuracy.  From my shooting/testing, I've found the Kodiak/Barracudas to be very accurate all the way up to around 1100 fps, but 900 or so seems optimal.  And if you shoot the Eun Jins, they also work very well between 900 and 1000 fps.  Not quite as accurate as the Kodiaks, but bone crushingly powerful.  Later.

Dave

Thanks for that info.  When I originally ordered these pellets, the Baracuda match was out of stock.  I do plan to get some of these in a few weeks, though, because I understand that the Baracuda match pellets are sorted by weight and size and are therefore more accurate.  I have yet to test the Eun Jins in accuracy because they are so loud hitting my pellet trap I don't want to disturb the neighbors.  

Have you tried the JSB exacts in your talon yet?  Pyramyd has been out of stock of those for awhile, but I understand that they produce the best accuracy in quite a few AF guns.

[daved]

I was a big fan of the JSB Exacts when I shot springers, but I haven't bought any since I got my Talon.  Seems they're always out of stock when I order.  That said, none of the other lighter pellets I've tried have shot worth a damn at the 30 yards and more that I generally shoot at.  I'm hoping that the heavier .22 Exact they've been promising for awhile shows up soon, I'd love to try it.  BTW, I think you'll find those Crow Mags shoot like crap at longer ranges, I can't get a decent group at 10 yards, and at 30, they keyhole regularly and are all over the place.  Later.

Dave

[hunter220]

daved - 2/28/2008  10:56 AM

I was a big fan of the JSB Exacts when I shot springers, but I haven't bought any since I got my Talon.  Seems they're always out of stock when I order.  That said, none of the other lighter pellets I've tried have shot worth a damn at the 30 yards and more that I generally shoot at.  I'm hoping that the heavier .22 Exact they've been promising for awhile shows up soon, I'd love to try it.  BTW, I think you'll find those Crow Mags shoot like crap at longer ranges, I can't get a decent group at 10 yards, and at 30, they keyhole regularly and are all over the place.  Later.

Dave

Yeah, the crow magnums aren't very accurate past 30 yards in my rifle, but when modified, they produce one heck of a punch when hitting a bird or squirrel, expending almost all of the energy.  They transfer the energy to prey even more efficiently than predators do.  In one case, a bird I shot was blown into 3 seperate pieces!  Past 30 yards I use predators or kodiaks as they are much more accurate.

[SAVAGESAM]

Hi guys. I'm new here and am "on the fence" about the Condor with open sights and a pump Vs. the Benjamin and pump. Now I know we're comparing an 82 corvette to an 08 F430 but it is a pretty big difference in price too. How many shots can I expect with a heavy pellet at 700-800FPS? Btw I own a Beeman imported RX-1 (that I love to talk about lol) Just in case anyone was curious.

[daved]

Hi, Sam, welcome to the nut house :-)!  I have two Talon SS's, not a Condor, but I have a custom valve for one of mine that gets me better than Condor power if I want it.  Truth is, the open sights for the Talon/Condors suck.  These things are just too powerful and have too much long range accuracy for any open sight to work well, unless all you want to do is shoot at 10 meters.  Either one of these guns needs a good scope to reach their potential, both of mine have Simmons 44 Mag 6.5-20x44's.

My typical high power setup is 24" .22 barrel shooting Kodiaks at between 900 and 1000 fps.  That gives me 30 to 40 full power shots with no change in POI at 30 to 40 yards.  Paintballs aren't much challenge at less than 40.  If I need more knockdown power than the Kodiaks can give, I use the 28 gr. Eun Jins.  Also very accurate, and at 900 fps that's 50+ fpe.  Same shot count, and just about the same POI out to 30 yards.  And BTW, I can push either of these pellets supersonic if I want to, but it does nothing for accuracy or shot count.  Just for grins one time, I decided to go all out with my custom valve.  I was pushing Eun Jins at over 1400 fps.  That's over 120 fpe, which is comparable to .22 LR.  But even the stock valves can reach supersonic or close to it with the long barrel.

If you like tinkering with your guns, get a Talon/Condor.  Good guns out of the box, and can be very good with just a little work, and outstanding with a little work and some cash.  Did I mention I really like my Talons :-)?  This is the only air rifle I ever liked well enough to own two of at the same time.  Now I can have one set up for low power, quiet bird sniping, and keep the other one in hammer mode.  Sorry I can't help with the Disco, but there's lots of info on them out there.  Good luck.

Dave

[hunter220]

With my condor I usually get about 30 or so shots at the lowest power level (900fps with 21 gr. Kodiaks).  Daved is right about the sights.  If you get a condor or talon ss you would not want to limit yourself to open sights.  These guns are just too accurate and need a scope to get the full potential out of them.  With the average condor you can expect half inch 50 yard groups.  My first attempt at 55 yards with a stiff 15-20mph wind was about .90 ctc.

[r1derbike]

Hunter, I can't help but be intrigued with your modified pellets.  Have you done any extended accuracy, knock-down tests?  Do you take a very sharp blade and basically make a V @ each 90 degrees?

I've always wanted a Condor, but didn't even think of one until the full-shroud models.

Charles

[hunter220]

r1derbike - 5/7/2008  4:49 PM

Hunter, I can't help but be intrigued with your modified pellets.  Have you done any extended accuracy, knock-down tests?  Do you take a very sharp blade and basically make a V @ each 90 degrees?

I've always wanted a Condor, but didn't even think of one until the full-shroud models.

Charles

Yep, all you do is take a sharp razor blade and cut two slices across the top of the pellet.  Accuracy is not that great past 25 yards, but if you hit what you are aiming at, it does a TON of destruction.  There was one bird I aimed for the chest, well,  I hit where I aimed and the head went one way, the wings went the other, the the rest of the body fell down.  Upon inspection, the body had been blasted into 4 different parts.  When you hit your target, you know it because of the loud THAWP sound you hear.

[SAVAGESAM]

I thought I'd bump this up. I purchased my Condor soon after my post in this thread and I must say that "for the money" it is one of, if not the best "Bang for the buck" guns out there. If your used to a "Magnum" class springer you will be amazed at how well you can shoot a gun that has almost no recoil. The power! Ah the power is not comparable to a springer. Period. Get one and you will smile too.