Airforce .177 Condor dumping air

Sleestak

Member
Aug 11, 2024
290
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Ideas that could be the underlying cause of this?

I was shooting CPHPs and tried a 12.5 g slug from a recent NSA order and it degassed on me. So I originally thought maybe it was a combination of low bottle fill w a projectile weight issue and perhaps the power wheel was set too low.

After refilling and shooting just pellets some more it occured again. I hadn't looked at the manometer, but don't think that it was a low fill that time.

I've had big bores dump on me, but that occured at the end of a shot string when I was asking for it. I haven't come up w a pattern yet...this seemed pretty random & I'm just trying to narrow it down.
 
I just got a new .177 Condor with the intent of shooting slugs. Before the slugs came in, I did a few test shots over the chrony to get a baseline. Full fill with 13.4 gr JSB Monsters and PW set to 4, I was hitting 1135.

The slugs I now have in are NSA 15gr. I've not tested them, but will be a balancing act of fill pressure and hammer spring to drop them down around the 950fps mark.
 
What PW setting are you running? Has the Condor been modified at all?

Out of the box & it was set maybe at around 4ish? I've only had a couple sessions w it, so have a lot more familiarization to do.

I turned it up to shoot some more slugs (initial impressions are very positive) and then back down again. The fact that it did it w pellets actually made me feel better since I was able to rule the slugs out...& I really want to try to use them

Did you get yours directly from AF?
 
Out of the box & it was set maybe at around 4ish? I've only had a couple sessions w it, so have a lot more familiarization to do.

I turned it up to shoot some more slugs (initial impressions are very positive) and then back down again. The fact that it did it w pellets actually made me feel better since I was able to rule the slugs out...& I really want to try to use them

Did you get yours directly from AF?
I did, yes. I've had dozens of AF guns over the years and so the platform is very familiar to me. I saw that they had the blems (I still cant find the blemish) for $395 and picked one up to play with.
 
I'd been toying with the idea of a .177 slug gun for some time and so when I saw that... well... just as you said.
I'd be interested in hearing how the slugs work out for you. So far I don't notice any discernable difference between the slugs and pellets...but it's deep winter here so I'm restricted to shooting @ 10 m in my basement.
When it dumps, does it stop if you cock it and take the spring load off the valve/top hat?
It just immediately dumps the entire tank and when I refill it shoots/ acts like it never happened.

very strange, but maybe I'm just getting caught up in my shooting and losing track of my shot count
 
I have a couple AF rigs in .177 and play around a bit with the setups, but have only had dumps in higher calibers, when there was a lot of valve opening, relatively low tank pressure, and a projectile that needs a good push to get going.
As was said, most likely it is low tank pressure, and note the bottle gauge reading may not be accurate.
Double check that the breech slide fits snugly against the top hat when the gun is cocked and that the slide doesn't push the valve open a bit when it is "locked in" to one side or the other.
Check that there isn't stiction when opening or closing that breech slide. If there is, clean and lubricate.
Along with the "smaller transfer port" or orifice idea, try removing the hammer weight (metal cylinder between the spring and hammer), and just use the power wheel to preload the hammer. I find with the smaller caliber and at lower bottle pressures, this restores some ability to adjust power with the wheel.
An o-ring under the top hat will reduce valve dwell and may encourage the valve to close more positively.