My talontunes tophat failure.... UPDATE:)

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rwsmike

Member
Jul 8, 2015
1,886
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Rhode Island, United States
This cap is a little over two yrs old and I'm taking a rough guess of 7000-8000 shots through it . I contacted the dealer talon tunes about warranty on this product with no response yet....I was pretty happy with the product until now . MAKE A NOTE WHEN THIS BROKE IT FORCED ME TO TAKE THE WHOLE VALVE APART TO REMOVE THE OTHER HALF O
1542551327_4862988465bf1771f0f19b6.53963009_20181118_091806.jpg
F STEM....CAN YOU SAY DISSAPOINTED :(
 
This is the first I've heard of Tony's top hat breaking. Thanks for the heads-up.

I guess now would be a good time for me to tell of my experience. Several months ago I experienced a catastrophic failure of a stock AirForce Condor breech. After examining the pieces it was blatantly obvious that the failure occurred on the longitudinal centerline of the breech intersecting right through the hole for the breech cocking knob. The hole for the breech cocking knob was drilled all the way through the breech leaving too little material to withstand the pressure. A factory replacement breech was sent by Tony. I examined it thoroughly before installing it and this one was bored completely through also. As fortune would have it, Tony had already begun making available an aftermarket breech made entirely of aluminum and was careful not to bore the cocking knob hole so deep. So far it is working out great.

WARNING!!!: If your AirForce Condor is set up with the heavy hammer and spring and running the carbon fiber bottle and tuned to shoot anywhere near 100 FPE, your stock AirForce Condor breech may not be able to handle the pressure, especially if the cocking knob hole is drilled all the way through the breech. I highly recommend that AirForce re-design their Condor breech by at least not drilling the cocking knob hole so deep. This is a "NO-BRAINER"!!! Better yet, contact Tony for his new aluminum replacement breech. And when you get Tony's new aluminum breech, carefully grind a thread or two off the end of the cocking knob stud so that it doesn't bottom out in the hole and cause a stress riser.

When the stock AirForce Condor breech let go, it exploded and sent high velocity shrapnel in all directions. I was shooting from indoors through a window and all the shrapnel was contained within the room. That's how I was able to gather up all the pieces and do a thorough re-assembly and investigation to positively determine the cause of the failure. 

BeemanR7
 
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This is the first I've heard of Tony's top hat breaking. Thanks for the heads-up.

I guess now would be a good time for me to tell of my experience. Several months ago I experienced a catastrophic failure of a stock AirForce Condor breech. After examining the pieces it was blatantly obvious that the failure occurred on the longitudinal centerline of the breech intersecting right through the hole for the breech cocking knob. The hole for the breech cocking knob was drilled all the way through the breech leaving too little material to withstand the pressure. A factory replacement breech was sent by Tony. I examined it thoroughly before installing it and this one was bored completely through also. As fortune would have it, Tony had already begun making available an aftermarket breech made entirely of aluminum and was careful not to bore the cocking knob hole so deep. So far it is working out great.

WARNING!!!: If your AirForce Condor is set up with the heavy hammer and spring and running the carbon fiber bottle and tuned to shoot anywhere near 100 FPE, your stock AirForce Condor breech may not be able to handle the pressure, especially if the cocking knob hole is drilled all the way through the breech. I highly recommend that AirForce re-design their Condor breech by at least not drilling the cocking knob hole so deep. This is a "NO-BRAINER"!!! Better yet, contact Tony for his new aluminum replacement breech. And when you get Tony's new aluminum breech, carefully grind a thread or two off the end of the cocking knob stud so that it doesn't bottom out in the hole and cause a stress riser.

When the stock AirForce Condor breech let go, it exploded and sent high velocity shrapnel in all directions. I was shooting from indoors through a window and all the shrapnel was contained within the room. That's how I was able to gather up all the pieces and do a thorough re-assembly and investigation to positively determine the cause of the failure. 

BeemanR7
Click to expand...


Yikes! That's insane that it did that, you have any pictures?
 
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This is the first I've heard of Tony's top hat breaking. Thanks for the heads-up.

I guess now would be a good time for me to tell of my experience. Several months ago I experienced a catastrophic failure of a stock AirForce Condor breech. After examining the pieces it was blatantly obvious that the failure occurred on the longitudinal centerline of the breech intersecting right through the hole for the breech cocking knob. The hole for the breech cocking knob was drilled all the way through the breech leaving too little material to withstand the pressure. A factory replacement breech was sent by Tony. I examined it thoroughly before installing it and this one was bored completely through also. As fortune would have it, Tony had already begun making available an aftermarket breech made entirely of aluminum and was careful not to bore the cocking knob hole so deep. So far it is working out great.

WARNING!!!: If your AirForce Condor is set up with the heavy hammer and spring and running the carbon fiber bottle and tuned to shoot anywhere near 100 FPE, your stock AirForce Condor breech may not be able to handle the pressure, especially if the cocking knob hole is drilled all the way through the breech. I highly recommend that AirForce re-design their Condor breech by at least not drilling the cocking knob hole so deep. This is a "NO-BRAINER"!!! Better yet, contact Tony for his new aluminum replacement breech. And when you get Tony's new aluminum breech, carefully grind a thread or two off the end of the cocking knob stud so that it doesn't bottom out in the hole and cause a stress riser.

When the stock AirForce Condor breech let go, it exploded and sent high velocity shrapnel in all directions. I was shooting from indoors through a window and all the shrapnel was contained within the room. That's how I was able to gather up all the pieces and do a thorough re-assembly and investigation to positively determine the cause of the failure. 

BeemanR7
Click to expand...


Yikes! That's insane that it did that, you have any pictures?
Click to expand...

Sorry, no pics. I have a camera but I regret that I didn't use it in this case. Had I taken pics, they would show details of the main fracture running longitudinally through the centerline of the breech and intersecting the breech cocking knob stud hole. The cause of the failure is obvious. It is shocking to me that AirForce hasn't caught this dangerous error in manufacturing.
 
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rwsmike,

Yours is the first Talon Tunes top hat that I've heard of breaking. I have one too and, so far, I've had no problems with it. Next time that I have my Condor down for cleaning, I'll check mine and remove any burrs from the openings and check for any cracks that may be starting. I have Tony's heavy hammer and hammer spring and I'm smacking the valve hard enough to produce 100 FPE. I'm running a .25 cal barrel and shooting 36, 37, and 39 grain slugs. My power wheel is set to 5, about mid-range. But it smacks the valve HARD to get that much power. That top hat is taking a hell of a whop each shot. I've put at least 4000 rounds through it so far, but most were around 80-90 FPE. When I found the sweet spot (accuracy) at 100ish FPE, the breech exploded. That was the fault of an error in manufacturing of the breech. But I've not experienced any damage to Tony's top hat. I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the heads-up.

BeemanR7
 
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