Weird discovery.

[daved]

I got my first PCP, a Talon SS, just about a year ago.  Along with that gun came a standard Air Force scuba fill adapter.  Been using it ever since, even after modifying it for use with a nitrogen tank.  Cobbled together a filler whip when I got a B50, then modified stuff again to work with my "new" AA S400E.  Which is where it gets weird.

When I got the 400, I read through the manual, said fill to 200 bar max.  No problem, that's about 2900 psi, not that much difference from my Talons.  One of the cool things about the Air Arms S4XX series rifles is the fill level gauge on the rifle.  This gauge can only be used to keep track of how much air you have left, it responds too slowly for filling.  But it's a nice feature.  Oddly enough, when I filled it to 200 bar according to my filler gauge, the rifle gauge only showed 150 bar.  So which one do I believe?  Being conservative with these things, I decided to assume the filler gauge was the correct one.

I have a second gauge on my filler setup, it lets me keep track of how much pressure is left in my nitrogen tank.  It's a glycerin filled gauge, and has leaked both air and glycerin since I installed it.  I finally got a replacement for it today, but other than the leaks, it still seemed to work fine.  Since there was a question mark about my old Air Force gauge, I went ahead and swapped them out, and then refilled the S400.  This time, 200 bar on the filler gauge showed up as 200 bar on the rifle gauge.

So it looks like all this time I thought I was filling my Talons to 3K psi, I was only filling to 2300 psi.  No wonder I never had a problem with valve lock!  What's really amazing is the performance I've gotten at rather low fill levels.  Or maybe my chrony has been lying to me all this time too...

Dave

[3n00n]

Usually a few dozen consistant huntingshots out to about50m to 60m or so. Can't really ask much more from an accurate, lightweight, adaptable small gamerig . . .

[Jaymo]

All this talk about the Talon is not helping me to curtail my airgun spending. I have a jones for a Talon SS .22.

[daved]

I doubt you'll be sorry if you get one, just be prepared.  A chronograph is just about required to get them properly dialed in, and a large supply of pellets and patience needs to be on hand too :-).  Don't get me wrong, they're really good guns, but they need some time invested to get the most out of them.  If you prefer a gun that you can take out of the box, fill, load and shoot, then DON'T get an Air Force rifle, you won't be happy with it.  If you like tinkering, if you like modding, if you like being able to make the gun uniquely yours, then go for it.  Also, I wouldn't recommend one as a first PCP.  If you can afford it, get an Air Arms S4XX.  If that's out of budget range, get a Big Ed tuned B50/51.  

One suggestion, keep a clear idea of what you want to do with it.  I've tried the 12" barrels in both .177 and .22, came to the conclusion that I don't shoot the short barrels that well, not a barrel issue, a weight/balance issue.  Went for power with a 24" .22 and custom valve, incredible accuracy but still weight/balance issues in the other direction.  Finally settled on the 18" barrels, had a .177, really nice combo of power, accuracy, shot count and weight/balance, but needed more for that custom valve mentioned earlier.  So now I have an 18" .22 and custom valve, so it must be perfect, right?  Not quite :-).  That custom valve is really too much for an 18" barrel, even dialed back it's tough to keep Kodiaks down close to 900 fps.  And having recently gotten an AA S400E (in trade for my other Talon SS), I've gotten reacquainted with the fill it, load it, shoot it genre of air rifle, and it's kind of nice NOT tinkering for a change.  So at the moment, I'm trying to make up my mind between getting rid of the valve, or getting rid of the whole rifle in favor of perhaps another Air Arms, or a repeater of some kind.  Guess I've rambled long enough, time for another beer.  Later.

Dave

[melloroadman]

I don't know first hand but you might give Tim a call . I know his Discovery's are good and he is a devoted air gunner. He sells tuned Talons. I thought about a Air Arms 200's and kind of looked at the Talon and almost called Tim . But I ended up with a Career 201'S 9 mm this time . Which led to a Tank which led to a compressor . So be aware of the dark side .Here is his link. Marvin
http://www.mac1airgun.com/aftalon.html