The Talon by Tom Gaylord

INTRODUCTION
This is the first section of a three-part look at AirForce rifles. We broke it down like this to make it easier to read on the Internet. In this part, we look at the basic rifle that got things started. Part Two covers the Talon SS and Part Three covers the Condor. It is probably best to read all three parts, as certain technical things will only be presented once.

The Talon, tricked out with scope, laser, sling swivels, bipod and tactical flashlight.

DESIGNED FOR MANUFACTURE
From the start, the Talon air rifle was designed for ease of manufacture and reliability. That sounds catchy, but it is so rare in the airgun business that it’s worth a closer look. Most airgun manufacturers will hand-build a prototype gun, then design production machinery and tooling to fabricate the special parts they can’t purchase off the shelf. What AirForce did was just the reverse. They looked at the most efficient manufacturing methods and materials, plus what parts he could buy off the shelf, and, using them, they designed the gun. Of course there were styling and performance considerations, too, so they had to play every design aspect against each of the others before they could lock down a design detail. When possible, parts were simplified and even removed from the design. The barrel can be changed in minutes, allowing owners to not only change barrel length but caliber, as well! With every American rifle sold, AirForce includes a one-hour instructional video (the only one of its kind in the airgun industry) describing all the operations, maintenance steps (including barrel swapping) and even how to install a scope and sight it in — in 10 minutes. To date, most of the improvements except the addition of the power adjustment wheel have been made available as upgrades to earlier guns. AirForce knows thier customers don’t want to be left behind when the product advances, so they takes pains to ensure full retrofit capability of all improvements. The power adjustment wheel is an exception to this because it requires a machined slot in the frame for installation. Now, let’s look at the rifle.

THE TALON
The Talon is a single-shot precharged air rifle that uses a detachable reservoir as the butt of the gun. It is highly modular, as we shall discover.

This profile of the Talon with fewer accessories shows the style of the rifle best.

The rifle has an 18-inch barrel that sticks out of its short frame. Because the muzzle is outside the frame of the gun, it is loud when adjusted to high power. The gun’s frame is made from an aircraft aluminum extrusion and lots of the other parts are either aluminum or engineering synthetics. Where necessary, such as in the trigger mechanism and the valve, steel is used. A Talon weighs about 5.5 pounds and can accept more accessories on its three integral rails than any other air rifle today. A Lothar Walther airgun barrel completes this precision air rifle. The valve is part of the reservoir. It allows the compressed air to flow directly forward behind the pellet -- something no other popular airgun can boast. This makes for better efficiency. AirForce sells the only precharged rifles on the market with a safety burst disk built into the air reservoir to prevent dangerous over-pressurization. Look for that feature on other guns in the future, but Talons have had it for many years. Today’s Talon is a huge advance from other air rifles. One major advance was the power adjustment wheel on the left side of the barrel jacket. Now, other air rifle makers are scrambling to offer power adjustment, but, once again, AirForce was years ahead of the crowd. The rifle delivers a large number of shots within a very tight velocity spread.

The 18" Talon barrel is shown above a 12" Talon SS barrel for comparison. The frame at the top is the Talon SS. Note the two different muzzle caps. The larger one is for the Talon.

POWER ADJUSTMENTS
Power is instantly adjustable via a thumbwheel on the left side of the barrel jacket. A marker indicates the major power divisions while numbers on the wheel indicate the minor steps. But don’t think that the power actually increases and decreases by these exact and discrete amounts. Instead, these are actually reference points so favorite settings can be developed and repeated.

The power adjust wheel is on the left side of the frame. The Allen cap screw head in the oval window indicates what power level has been set.

Similarly, there is an upper limit to every gun. It may happen at the number 11 or 12 or wherever the pointer happens to be when the pellet exits the barrel at its maximum velocity. Dialing the power to numbers above that limit simply exhausts more air without generating additional velocity. You’re just wasting air. Within the band of power adjustability, the Talon has a broad and useful range. We have had .22s shoot pellets reliably as slow as 450 feet per second (f.p.s.) and as fast as 950 f.p.s. With very light pellets, the maximum is above 1,000 f.p.s. in .22 and 1,100 f.p.s. in .177. Extreme consistency at the lower power range has always been harder for this rifle to achieve because it was designed with power as a guiding principal.

LET’S EXPERIMENT
The Talon shoots most consistently at the higher end of the power range. You will see that in the following results. We have used a .22-caliber rifle for the test, as that is the most popular caliber, by a large margin.

.22-caliber Talon PCP rifle • 18-inch barrel length Muzzle 1' from the start screen • 72°F • All velocities in feet per second (f.p.s.) Oehler 35P chronograph • All strings were 10 shots Talon set to the highest power .22-caliber Shark hollowpoint • 20.5 grains
High 844 f.p.s. Low 827 f.p.s. Average 835 f.p.s. Extreme spread 17 f.p.s. Standard deviation 5 f.p.s. Muzzle energy 31.75 ft.-lbs.
Talon set to the highest power .22-caliber Crosman Premier • 14.3 grains
High 956 f.p.s. Low 931 f.p.s. Average 950 f.p.s. Extreme spread 25 f.p.s. Standard deviation 7 f.p.s. Muzzle energy 28.66 ft.-lbs.
Talon set to the lowest power .22-caliber Shark hollowpoint • 20.5 grains
High 506 f.p.s. Low 376 f.p.s. Average 433 f.p.s. Extreme spread 130 f.p.s. Standard deviation 40 f.p.s. Muzzle energy 8.54 ft.-lbs.
Talon set to the lowest power .22-caliber Crosman Premier • 14.3 grains
High 732 f.p.s. Low 600 f.p.s. Average 671 f.p.s. Extreme spread 132 f.p.s. Standard deviation 37 f.p.s. Muzzle energy 14.30 ft.-lbs.

UNDERSTANDING THE VELOCITY TABLES FOR THE TALON
At the lowest setting the pellet is using up the air before it reaches the end of the barrel. It then starts coasting, and friction with the bore begins to slow it down. So this rifle needs to be set higher than the lowest power wheel setting. As power increases, the Talon becomes much more consistent. This can be seen by the results of the chronographed pellets. The Talon can be pretty loud, especially at high power. If you are looking for power over quiet operation, this is the way to go. If reduced noise is more important, look at the Talon SS.

CALIBERS
The Talon comes in either .177 or .22, but .22 is more popular. A good strategy might be to initially buy a .22, then add a .177 barrel at some time. Or, if you want the .177 first, at least you know that .22 is always an option. Whatever you decide, changing barrels in the Talon is about as hard as installing a license plate on a car.

SETTING UP THE TALON
After unpacking your rifle, you’ll want to get it into operation right away. This is the time to watch the video that is included with every new gun. It covers everything you need to know to get started. I’ll address the most important subjects here.

First, you need to put air into the reservoir. It’s empty when you buy a new rifle. The most convenient way to fill the tank is from a scuba tank, which you will also need to get. If you decide to fill this way, an AirForce refill clamp with gauge is required. A scuba tank can be bought at a dive shop. There are many specifications, but the basic scuba tank we recommend to fill all our rifles is the aluminum 80 cubic foot tank because it is the largest commonly available. You may wish to read the article about buying scuba tanks and purchasing air from dive shops, also on this web site. Many owners will want to get the optional AirForce hand pump. While it seems incredible, it actually is possible to put 3,000 psi into an air tank with a manual pump, but it has to be a very special pump. Filling the huge air tank that come on all our rifles takes around 375 full pump strokes when you start from zero. That takes three or four sessions of pumping five minutes at a time, with a 15-minute break in between each session. Once the tank is full, though, you will only shoot it down to around 2,000 psi and a refill takes one five-minute session of about 120-140 pump strokes. Once the air tank is filled it never goes completely empty again. The gun is normally used until the air pressure drops to approximately 2,000 psi. It can also be kept fully charged to 3,000 psi all the time with no problems. That means your Talon is ready to go at a moment’s notice, even though it may not have been shot for a full year! shipping it. Once your gun is filled, attach the reservoir to the rifle. Now, it’s time to shoot.

THE FEEL OF THE RIFLE
The straight line of the butt and receiver takes some getting used to. Some shooters have difficulty getting their eyes down low enough to acquire the scope, but the solution for that is a higher mount. The new AirForce high mounts should raise the scope up enough for almost anyone.

A trick for Talon shooters is to rest the lower tip of the buttplate about an inch below the top of your shoulder. There is a natural pocket there that holds the tip of the butt nicely. This brings the air tank up high, which makes it easier to align with the scope. The complete lack of recoil makes this hold the one the experts use. The trigger is not adjustable, but it’s pretty nice as it comes from the factory. AirForce has made it a multi-lever unit that has a two-stage pull with a nice, crisp let-off of around two pounds.

HOW ACCURATE?
Talons have pleased thousands of shooters at four NRA Annual Meetings and the Hollywood Celebrity Shoot. It always amazing to watch so many shooters approach the rifle as though it were some kind of futuristic toy, only to see them mesmerized by its accuracy. One conversion came at the 2002 Hollywood Celebrity Shoot, when a man walked up and said he doubted such a rifle could do very much in the accuracy department. Forty-five minutes later, his wife had to pry him from the gun, and he actually came back twice to shoot it again saying, “I can’t believe this thing shoots so well!” The gun was dialed down as far as it would go to conserve air, yet the man was hitting a half-inch kill zone in a special British practice action target placed at about 40 yards! The Talon does not feel like a conventional air rifle sporting a wood stock, and indeed it does not. Putting your cheek on the foam pad surrounding the round air tank is a very different feel and the straight lines of the gun make you take notice. But if you settle down and concentrate on what you’re doing, you will see that nothing has been compromised for accuracy. For a look at some representative targets, read the Talon SS report on this website. All precharged rifles with pedigreed German or British barrels are extremely accurate, so it comes as no surprise that the Talon shoots as well as it does. What is nice is that such an American-made air rifle with such a degree of accuracy can be purchased for hundreds of dollars less than competing European airguns.

IS THE TALON FOR YOU?
You have to decide which AirForce rifle is for you, but there are some guidelines to help you make your decision. The Talon is the gun to get if sound is not a problem where you shoot. It is the lowest-priced rifle AirForce Airguns makes, yet it is as accurate as the rest of them, plus it has a bit more power than the quieter SS model. Get the Talon if you want a simple, rugged field rifle that’s also great for hunting and plinking. And remember, you can always change the barrel, so the caliber can be changed in minutes, if you desire.

The Talon SS by Tom Gaylord

The Talon SS is shown here with just a scope mounted on top. The SS has the same mounting dovetails as the Talon and Condor, plus it has a longer frame than the Talon, so it will hold many more accessories. Notice that the muzzle cap is flat. The actual barrel is contained inside the tubular frame, and the end cap strips away the turbulent air, making the SS a quieter gun.

THE TALON SS IS THE QUIET RIFLE
The Talon SS is quieter than most precharged (PCP) air rifles available today. But it is not completely silent. Many airgunners are surprised at the loud report of a PCP, although those who have shot multi-pump pneumatics are prepared for it. Someone coming from firearms with no airgun experience will find PCPs to be relatively quiet.

The Talon SS has a 12-inch Lothar Walther SS barrel housed inside a tubular aluminum frame. A special muzzle cap strips away the turbulent air, making the gun's report quieter than it would be without that cap. The gun is not silenced, but the report is muffled. To see how loud it actually is, shoot the gun with the muzzle cap off.

On power setting six or below, it sounds about like a hand clap. On power settings above number six, it becomes progressively louder.
The Talon SS is the most popular rifle AirForce makes, by a considerable margin. And .22 caliber outsells .177 caliber by an equal margin. Though the SS has a little less power than an 18-inch barreled Talon, it is still more powerful than 99 percent of all spring rifles.

FEATURES
Many of the Talon SS features are identical to those of the Talon, so we'll simply mention them here. If you want to learn more, please read the Talon article.

The SS has the same power adjustment feature, located in the same place on the frame of the gun. The shorter barrel means that the gun will not shoot a given pellet quite as fast as the longer-barreled Talon.

You should get 35 to 40 shots on high power with the SS, just like the Talon. On low power, there can be hundreds of shots before you need to refill the tank.
The air tank is the same 490cc air tank we use on all our air rifles and it fills in the same way. It detaches from the rifle very quickly, allowing you to transport your rifle in a much smaller carrying case than a standard air rifle would require.

FILLING THE AIR TANK
All AirForce rifles fill the same way. The air tank that serves as the butt unscrews from the rifle and attaches to either a scuba tank through the AirForce refill clamp with gauge or directly to the AirForce hand pump.

Here you see the rifle air tank attached to a scuba tank through an AirForce refill clamp with gauge. This is the most convenient means of refilling the rifle's tank, as it takes little time and effort. An aluminum 80 cubic foot scuba tank will fill the AirForce tank about 15-18 times, though the last fills will put in less than a full fill of 3,000 psi. To keep from overheating the seals, fill the tank over a one-minute period.

The scuba tank is faster, but it will need to be refilled after 15-18 rifle tank fills. Most dive shops charge $2.50 to $4.00 for this service.

The hand pump takes more time and effort, but it frees you from the dive shop. It's perfect for those who want to get far away from civilization, plus it weighs only 5.5 lbs., compared to the scuba tank's 40.

The hand pump is lightweight and convenient, but it takes some effort to use. Up to 2,500 psi, almost every adult can pump it. After that level, the effort becomes harder and most people use their body weight to pump. If you weigh less than 135 lbs., the hand pump may be too difficult for you to use. The AirForce hand pump comes with an adapter for our air tank attached to its base.

UNDERSTANDING ADJUSTABLE POWER
At the highest power setting, the Talon SS is very consistent, but by adjusting the power wheel to a slightly lower number, the high velocity remains the same and you use less air. The short barrel of the SS simply exhausts excess air at the maximum power setting. If you don't have a chronograph to check your rifle's velocity, keep the power wheel set between a minimum of number 4 and a maximum of number 11.

LONGER BARRELS CHANGE THE SS
By now you know that any AirForce rifle can be fitted with any barrel length and caliber (read about this in the Talon article on this website). In the SS, a change from the standard 12-inch barrel to an optional 24-inch barrel makes a dramatic change in performance!

Where a standard SS develops 23 to 25 ft. lbs. in .22 caliber, it jumps to over 40 ft. lbs. when the optional 24-inch barrel is installed. That's a Kodiak 21-grain pellet traveling 900 to 930 f.p.s. So by simply changing the barrel, which takes about five minutes, you get a rifle with much greater power. Of course, because the muzzle is no longer enclosed by the frame, the longer barrel is much louder, too.

You can also add the 18-inch barrel to the SS. That increases velocity to the same as the regular Talon rifle.

ACCURACY
The SS is just as accurate as either the Talon or the Condor. While that sounds strange because of the shorter SS barrel, it is true. All our barrels are choked at the factory. This choke or slight restriction in the bore at the muzzle, sizes the pellet perfectly just as it leaves the muzzle. A choked bore seems to be essential to accuracy on a PCP rifle, and the 12-inch barrel is every bit as accurate as either the 18-inch or 24-inchs barrels. Only the power potential changes with barrel length.

This is a typical group of five Beeman Kodiak pellets shot from a Talon SS at 35 yards. The group measures 0.263-inch between the centers of the two widest shots. That's just larger than a quarter-inch. Both the Talon and Condor have equal accuracy.

The Talon SS is the m ost popular AirForce rifle for many good reasons, but a quieter discharge is the principal one. It is lightweight and takes down for convenient transport. It has more power than all but a very few spring rifles and is a wonderful hunting and general-purpose air rifle. We feel it is the best entry into the world of precharged airguns.

SIGHTING-IN ALL AIR RIFLES
Air rifles are easy to sight-in. I have to mount scopes on hundreds of airguns every year. There's no time to go out to a formal rifle range every time I have to do it, so I came up with this convenient method.

First, mount the scope on the rifle so it has the correct eye relief for you. Pay attention to the crosshairs and rotate the scope tube in the mounts until the vertical reticle seems to bisect the rifle's action in the center. This is done by eye; no special tools are required. When you are satisfied, tighten the scope rings, but don't over-tighten them. A good mount will hold the scope securely without being too tight.

Now, put on safety glasses, because you are going to shoot into a bullet trap at a range of just 10 feet. You will probably be hit by pellet fragments at this distance.

A scope level allows the shooter to level the rifle before every shot, removing any canting problems. This B-Square level is mounted to the upper accessory rail of a Talon SS, where it is easy to see with the non-sighting eye.

The steps of this procedure are keyed to the numbered pellet holes on the target. This is an actual sight-in target I made at AirForce, and it took LESS than 10 minutes to complete.

1. Draw one or two small dots on cardboard large enough to show where your pellets are going. I draw two dots about two inches apart and stack them vertically.

The target in the photo measures about 6 inches wide by 8 inches tall. There is no precision to this step. You just want a target large enough so no shots are lost. At 10 feet, they can't go too far. Hang this target in a safe bullet trap.

If your scope has parallax adjustment, adjust it as close as it will go. If it has variable power, adjust it as low as it will go. The aim point will still be a little fuzzy at this distance.
Aim at the top dot and expect your first shot to be as much below the dot as the center of your scope is above your bore. If that's three inches, that's also how low the shot should go.
My first shot landed a little below the bottom dot and over to the left. I shot another to confirm the first shot. Notice I am not trying for a group.

2. After seeing where the first two shots went, I applied some correction to the scope's horizontal and vertical adjustment knobs. At 10 feet it takes a LOT of clicks to move the next shot just a little way!

Shot three is in line with my aim point and low enough to suit me, so I'm finished at this distance. Keep shooting until your shot lines up vertically.

3. More the target trap to 10 meters (or yards, it doesn't really matter). I shot two more shots at the top dot and found I'd adjusted the scope too far to the right. This was corrected by adjusting the horizontal knob to the left. It doesn't take as many clicks to move the shot at this distance.

4. One more shot shows I am aligned with the aim point vertically. Once the target is moved farther away, the shots will rise. I like to have my shots about an inch low at 10 meters, but this one is lower than that.

5. Move the target trap to a range of 20 to 30 yards away. I have a maximum of 23 yards inside the AirForce factory, so that's what I use. I'm still using the top dot as the aim point. My group is very close to the aim point at this distance. That is a 5-shot group, and I am satisfied with it.

When I made this target at AirForce, I was testing a barrel for accuracy. As you can see, this barrel is fine, so I'm finished. If I were sighting in this rifle to use, I would make final small scope adjustments to bring the strike of the shots over to the aim point. If the shots are on the aim point at 20 to 30 yards, the rifle is sighted-in.

The powerful Condor by Tom Gaylord
What's the deal with the world's most powerful smallbore air rifle?

The Condor is the world's most powerful smallbore air rifle. Like all AirForce rifles, it has adjustable power (see inset).

Crosman Premiers, Beeman Kodiaks and Eun Jin pellets from Korea are three good choices for the powerful Condor.

Of course the Crosman Premier is traveling too fast for its best accuracy at the Condor's top power level. It's simply used to give shooters a point of reference. Shooters will either want to use heavier pellets that slow the rifle down to less than 1,000 f.p.s., or they will dial the power way down to use the Premiers. To go faster than the speed of sound with some pellets can cause inaccuracy.

WHICH PELLETS TO USE?
Premier pellets weighing 14.3 grains are superb in all our air rifles, but in Condors they work best on the lower power settings, from 0 to 4 or 5. The 24-inch Lothar Walther barrel loves them. When you dial the power wheel up to 8, use heavier Beeman Kodiaks. Condors with Kodiaks at power setting 8 get groups smaller than a dime at 25 yards.

When you want all the power the rifle can offer, Eun Jin pellets from Korea are a good bet. They will produce over 60 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle on the highest power setting. Even with a heavy 30-grain pellet, you will still be shooting at about 1,000 f.p.s. on full power.

Like all AirForce rifles, the Condor's Lothar Walther barrel is very accurate.

AirForce tells their customers to expect a five-shot group of about one inch at 50 yards. That's with everything done right, and it’s true for all rifles. The guns can sometimes do better, but that takes a lot of skill and perfect conditions.

Where the Condor starts to shine is at ranges beyond 50 yards. It is so powerful that shooters can keep right on shooting to 70, 80 and even 100 yards and the gun will still group well. While most powerful air rifles are limited to about 50 yards for their best accuracy, the Condor offers a significant long-range advantage.

Five Korean Dae Sung heavyweight pellets went into this 1.25-inch group at 50 yards.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
The Condor valve mechanism is adjusted at the factory. The adjustable valve cap is set with a clearance of 0.090-inches underneath to give the maximum power the rifle has to offer. The only thing you need to do is fill the tank with air and set the power wheel. The Condor is accurate at all power levels, as long as you don't push the pellets too far past 1,000 f.p.s.

The Condor gets a great deal of its power from its 24-inch barrel. Even a Talon SS that normally gets 23-25 foot-pounds from its 12-inch barrel in .22-caliber will increase to over 40 foot-pounds, just by adding the optional 24-inch barrel. When the Hi Flo valve is combined with the Condor’s powerplant, however, another 20+ foot-pounds become available.

The Condor will not shoot as powerfully with a shorter barrel, nor will the Talon or Talon SS benefit from the Condor's Hi-Flo air valve. In fact, a Talon SS with a Condor tank will get less than 600 f.p.s. with Premiers, both because of the shorter SS barrel and because the rifle’s mechanism is not adjusted properly to operate the Condor’s bigger valve.

UPGRADE TO A CONDOR?
It is possible for the AirForce factory to upgrade the power of either a Talon or Talon SS to Condor power. We recommend upgrading the Talon SS over the regular Talon, because the 24-inch barrel looks better on the Talon SS long frame.
Only the guns with a power adjustment wheel on the left side of the frame can be modified with the upgrade kit. Some very early guns may require additional parts that must also be installed by AirForce.

HOW ABOUT .177?
What about the Condor in .177? It is available in .177, but unless you pla n to shoot heavy lead bullets that you cast yourself, or until .177 pellets of at least 20 grains weight become available, the Condor just is too powerful for this caliber. In AirForce testing, a .177 Condor pushed lightweight pellets faster than 1,450 f.p.s.

The power range of a .22 Condor is between 19 and 65 foot-pounds. This gives the rifle a wide range of applications. There is no sound suppression on a Condor, and the noise of a high power shot is similar to the sound made by a .22 rimfire rifle.

THE NEED FOR CLEAN
The Condor's design, where the air tank can be so easily removed, makes cleaning from the breech a snap. Do not use gun solvents to clean, but you may use a little gun oil on patches. You don't need to clean the barrel often, but this is how to do it. And don't forget to protect the muzzle crown when you clean, because it is very important to accuracy.

Other than infrequent barrel cleaning there are no special maintenance requirements. There are also no lubrication needs, as the Condor is lubricated at the factory. Putting oil on any parts of the gun other than the barrel will slow the firing mechanism and lower performance. You may lubricate the pellets lightly, but if they are pure lead, like Beeman Kodiaks for example, they don’t need it.

The new Condor air rifle is a purpose-built hunting air rifle that turned out to be more flexible than anticipated. Is it the right airgun for you? The best way to find out is to get one and see for yourself. This powerful new rifle looks like a winning proposition for everyone.

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The MicroMeter valve installed in a standard AirForce tank completely changes the performance of all three AirForce rifles.  By restricting the volume of air that’s available for each shot, you get lower velocities that are extremely consistent.  To find out how consistent, we tested each gun with the new valve/tank.

Talon SS with MicroMeter tank installed:

Fill pressure 3,000 psi · .22 caliber Crosman Premier pellet

High power

High 564

Low 561

Avg. 563

Power setting 7 (medium)

High 553

Low 546

Avg. 549

Low power

High 547

Low 403

Avg. 506

Talon with MicroMeter tank installed

Fill pressure 3,000 psi · .22 caliber Crosman Premier pellet

High power

High 663

Low 654

Avg. 659

Power setting 7 (medium)

High 659

Low 654

Avg. 656

Low power

High 439

Low 477

Avg. 458

Condor with MicroMeter tank installed

Fill pressure 3,000 psi · .22 caliber Crosman Premier pellet

High power

High 693

Low 684

Avg. 689

Power setting 7 (medium)

High 685

Low 679

Avg. 682

Low power

High 674

Low 655

Avg. 665

What do the numbers mean?

The MicroMeter valve/tank was designed to give the owners of AirForce rifles a lower-powered option with great consistency for the rifle they already own.  After testing, it looks like that has been accomplished in all three rifles.  There is a performance difference between the rifles that can be chiefly attributed to the different barrel lengths.

Talon SS

The SS, with its short barrel, gets the lowest velocity of all.  The power adjustment wheel has very little effect until it is almost at the lowest setting, and then the consistency opens up.

The average velocity of about 560 f.p.s. produces right around 10 foot-pounds in .22 caliber.  Expect about 20 percent less energy in .177, which would mean that an 8-grain pellet might travel an average of around 670 f.p.s.

Velocity is very consistent and should remain so for a large number of shots.  If you shoot at distances of 25 yards or less, there are well over 100 accurate shots available in the new tank.

Talon

The Talon, with its 18-inch barrel, gets good consistent velocity, plus some low-end adjustability.  The test results suggest that the Talon SS, with the optional 24-inch barrel installed, might be the best combination of all for the MicroMeter valve and tank.

The average velocity of about 680 f.p.s. produces right around 14.7 foot-pounds in .22 caliber.  Expect about 20 percent less energy in .177, which would be about 11.8 foot-pounds.  That’s an 8-grain pellet traveling at about 815 f.p.s.

Velocity is also very consistent for the Talon and should remain so for a large number of shots.  If you shoot at distances of 25 yards or less, there are well over 100 accurate shots available in the new tank.

Condor

The Condor gets the most velocity from the MicroMeter valve/tank, but it isn’t coming from the special powerplant.  It’s coming from the 24-inch barrel.

The average velocity of about 689 f.p.s. produces just over 15 foot-pounds in .22 caliber.  That’s very close to the Talon.  Expect about 20 percent less energy in .177, which would be about 12 foot-pounds on the nose.  That’s an 8-grain pellet traveling at about 822 f.p.s.

The Condor has very little adjustability because of its extra-powerful powerplant.  But the consistency is fine.  If you shoot your Condor at distances of 25 yards or less, there are well over 100 accurate shots available in the new valve/tank.

Summary

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Five good reasons own a laser

Besides the cool points, there are legitimate reasons to mount a laser on an airgun.

by Tom Gaylord

There are several good reasons to have a laser on your AirForce rifle. Let’s look at them now.

1. A laser gives you the possibility of two aiming points on the same gun. Sometimes when you look through your scope, you may see a target at a distance that you know your rifle is not sighted for. For example, we recommend sighting at 20 to 30 yards because that’s where a lot of shooting takes place. With a laser, you could sight the red dot at 50 yards, where your scope would be off by several inches. You would be able to see the dot through the scope when you took the shot, so there’s your second aim point!

2. A laser gives you a fast sight for super-close targets. This tip comes from a pest elimination service that sometimes has to take close shots indoors. Most scopes aren’t much good on targets closer than about 30 feet.

Your laser can be sighted in for 10 or 15 feet to give you a good quick aim point that’s so close and so bright you don’t even have to bring the rifle to your shoulder. As long as the dot is on target, you can actually shoot from the hip and hit it. Imagine hunting rats or indoor birds with a tool like that!

3. A laser can be a kind of rangefinder. Imagine you are in the field and you want to know the distance to a can across a stream. You can’t actually cross the stream. Put the laser dot on the can and shoot. If the laser is sighted-in at 50 yards and your pellet strikes low, you know the can is farther than 50 yards. In time, you can become very skilled at estimating range this way.

4. A laser can be used to silently signal a hunting partner. Have a prearranged spot where you will shine the laser so your partner can see it. Never aim a laser at a person. Always select something like a tree or rock where your partner can see the signal. What a great way to signal the arrival of your quarry without spooking the animals!

5. A shooter with a laser properly sighted-in never has to worry about the optics failing on his scope. The laser will function independently and the dot can always be seen through the scope, even when the reticle is out of adjustment. Having a laser is like having open sights on your gun, except with open sights you still have to acquire the proper sight picture. All you have to do with the laser is shine the dot on what you want to hit.