.22 Talon First Kill

[longislandhunter]

After breakfast I set about cleaning the barrel of my new .22 Talon and mounting a scope on her. I picked out a BSA 3x12x50 AO that I had and got to the task.. The barrel hardly needed any cleaning at all and it only took a couple minutes to wind up with clean patches coming out. I mounted the scope using a set of high mount rings I had lying around then packed up my stuff and headed for the duck farm to sight her in.

It was very windy at the farm but I really needed to get the Talon sighted in so I set up all my gear and had at it. I did the initial sight in using CPL's then did grouping tests at 30 and 40 yards with the CPL's, Predators, CPH's, Kodiaks, Beeman FTS and JSB Exacts. Wound up they all shot really well but the CPH's grouped especially good so I sighted her in at 40 yards with them.  Now it was time to hunt.......  :)

There were tons of starling at the farm today, matter of fact a lot of the birds were starting to build nests in the holes and crevices of all the old trees, but getting close enough for a shot was tough. I really didn't buy the Talon to shoot starlings but hey,,, why not :)

I hid behind some old farm equipment that was about 30 yards from a cluster of large trees that the birds were actively building nests in, but after an hour of hiding I had yet to get a shot. The birds would head towards the trees but at the last minute they would spot me and flare off. Finally I had one lone bird land on the far edge of the clump of trees. He was about 35 yards out but I figured what the heck.. I cranked the scope to 12x, set the AO, leaned against the old truck I was hiding behind and I set the cross hairs on the yellow beaks chest. Took a breath, held it and slowly squeezed the trigger. The talon barked and through the scope I saw the yellow beak instantly crumple and fall backwards off the branch. I was so excited I immediately ran over to retrieve the Talons first kill :) There he lay, directly underneath the branch he had been been perched on, with a hole in his chest where the pellet went in and a hole in his back where the pellet exited. The Talon was now officially a hunter :)

After that I gave up trying to snipe starlings, to much waiting and not enough shooting, so I decided to go after something I could take home and eat :) ,,,, pigeons and woodchucks. There were a couple of large flocks of pigeons roaming the farm and I know the G-hogs are out in force now so I was hoping I could get a shot at something.

There was one grain feeder that the pigeons kept landing at so I hid behind some empty feeders that were about 50 yards away. I couldn't shoot from my hiding spot because I would have to shoot through the chicken wire fencing that bordered the duck pen, so what I had to do was wait until the pigeons landed and then while they were on the opposite side of the feeders I would come out of hiding and quickly make my way to a clear shooting position 30 yards from the birds. When they emerged again from the other side of the feeder I would hopefully get a clear shot. I did this several times and got busted by the birds every time but I kept at it. Finally on one of my tries the birds didn't see me and I made it to a good shooting position 30 yards from the feeder. As the birds walked out from behind the feeder I picked out the biggest bird I saw and fired. I immediately heard a loud "POP" as the CPH slammed home and the fat pigeon slumped, flapped it's wings wildy for a few seconds then lay still. I walked over and picked up Kill #2 for the Talon. I went back to my hiding spot and did the drill again and wound up taking another fat pigeon the same way.  After that the birds disappeared and never came back,,,,  smart birds :)

I finished out my hunt by slowly roaming the duck farm looking for some G-hogs. I did see 3 large G-hogs but they saw me first and I never got a shot at them. I didn't care though,,,, the Talon had proved herself a worthy hunter and I had enough critter for dinner..

This was my first shooting and hunting session with my new Talon and I am very impressed with the gun !! I'm still getting used to the gun, and still have quite a bit more pellet and power level testing to perform, but I'm very happy with my purchase. When I got home I made sure I took some pics of the Talon and her kills.  

Jeff

[SDale]

GREAT account Jeff!!!


These  are a tweaker guns for sure!!! You still have yet to do the trigger mods. Once you do that then it's an entirely different animal! Mine is set up as a single stage trigger right now. Nice crisp let off at just over a pound. Makes for a sweet shot!

There's also the tophat and power wheel adjustments to work with too! hehe

[PeakChick]

Great account of the Talon's first outing Jeff. I knew it would be no time at all before you and she were on the hunter's path.

[longislandhunter]

Thanks Sam,,,, Thanks Stephanie,,,,,,

I'm really looking forward to getting to know this rifle better  :)

Jeff

[shadow]

Great account of her first harvest Jeff, she look's great with her trophies and I know we'll being seeing more hunt's from her. Ed

[Big_Bill]

Great account of your hunt Jeff,

I didn't think we would be seeing any hunting accounts with the Talon until next week some time.

But we all know how it feels when you have a New baby, and a that need to shoot her !

Great photos, and beautiful baby their with your lunch !

Bill

[johncedarhill]

Nice Blue Bar and Blackcheck--I raced pigeons a long long time ago.  I had 150 breeders and racers at one point.  I still have yet to bag a muskrat with my Talon SS. It did not take you long to get the talon into use.  Keep it up--I enjoy the hunts.

[crazy4salmon]

Just knew that it wouldn't take you long to break her in right. Nice shooting and beautiful rifle. Next we will be reading about 70 yard head shots on nutters. Congrats cant wait till the review.

Dan L

Great account of the hunt I have 91 rat kills with my Talon SS these guns are the best and being able to see pellet impact is a whole new experience.





Also check out TALONAIRGUN.COM it will give you a strong understanding about these guns. Good Hunting

[hunter78]

Great shooting Jeff, beautiful gun and as always great post!

[only1harry]

Nice going Jeff!  I hope we don't lose you completely to the "dark side"!  :-)   Good account of your hunting experience.

Wow that's a short barrel.  Is it pretty loud?  Don't they come with different barrel length and more power?  I think this is like a ~26fpe version right?  I could never understand how they get like 10FPE more with just a longer barrel.  Anyway they must be a lot of fun being recoiless.  I know you 'll be reaching for that gun a lot in the next couple of months, until your next new one :)

[longislandhunter]

Hey Harry,

That's the 18 inch .22 barrel.  They also sell 18 inch .177 as well as a 24 inch .177 and .22  I think I also saw on the Air Force website that they offer a .20 cal barrel also.  

I've already started saving my pennies for some accessories for the rifle,,, my first purchase will probably be a .177 barrel to use for birds at the duck farm.  

As for whether it's loud,,,,, yes it is, but having shot the Talon, Talon SS and the Condor at Cobra Airguns I was well aware of the sound levels. I'm not concerned with the noise as I will be using the rifle out in the field for hunting and won't be shooting it in my backyard.  I  went with the Talon over the SS because I wanted the longer barrel and I like the way it looks.   As for the FPE,,,, I guess it's in the range you mentioned, but then I'll be the first to admit that being able to compute FPE,,, or anything else mathematical, is not one of my skills  :)  What I can tell you is that at 40 yards I was blasting through my 3/4 inch plywood   target backing with ease and I didn't even have the rifle cranked up to full power.  

As for the longer barrels giving more FPE or FPS I guess the longer barrels permit the pellet to obtain more energy from the available amount of air???  I don't know,,,, but I'll bet PeakChic or one of the others who are good at that stuff could explain it easily.  Me???  I just point my gun at critters and take em down for dinner  without doing the math   :)    Seriously though,  I'd like to hear a simple, clear explanation myself.....  

As for being fun,,,,,  Harry I had such a blast with this rifle yesterday that I'm actually depressed that I have to go back to work today and won't be able to go out for another hunt....  This rifle is really gonna be a fantastic hunting tool for me.  It's small, light, easy to swing on target, easy to shoot, easy to load, accurate, has adjustable power settings to suit my hunting needs, has a ton of accessories that can be obtained, can be changed to a different caliber in a matter of minutes,,,, heck,,,, the only thing the rifle doesn't do is run out and pick up the game for you after you kill it  :)   I know I still have alot of shooting and experimenting to do with the rifle before I will be able to fully utilize it's capabilities but that's gonna be 1/2 the fun.  

I still love my springers and will continue to do most of my hunting with them, but I'm really glad I decided to enter the DARK SIDE  :)

Jeff

[hunter220]

Nice shooting!  Pretty easy to hit whatever you are shooting at once you get accustomed to it.  

About  the barrel length affecting velocity, the longer the barrel, the more time the pellet spends in the barrel thus resulting in a faster pellet because more of the available air energy is used.  Hope this helps.

[longislandhunter]

That certainly explains it pretty clearly :)

Jeff

[dw33]

Jeff, I really enjoy reading your stories and seeing your pictures.  Nice looking rifle, and I can tell how much you like shooting it.  Good shooting on the birds, and congratulations on your new rifle.