Really want to like the air force airguns but

I agree.....would love an SS model but I have read the same about the trigger, etc. If it needs work, then $700.00 turns into $1,000.00 pretty quickly.

But on the other hand you get a lot of gun for 1000$ and a bit of tinkering.

Especially if youre after power and/or want to use slugs

Anyone know why Snow Peak hasn't shown up to rain on this parade yet? Genuinely curious. 

If you want a ton of flexibility and dig experimenting with various set-ups, Airforce is the way to go. Most pellets can be tuned to shoot the way you want them. Out of the box, it's pretty darn good as well. American made, tons of parts, lot's of mods available.

I know very little of the AF rifles except the gunpower ( ugh ). 

They have traditionally been THE slowest to make ANY change. Used to have a trigger design so poor another company they contracted with ( or other company purchased & modified & ??? ) that that particular set was DROP LIKE A HOT ROCK.

Then a slightly better trigger became available.

Now while they are THE slowest to redesign/improve, 

I have heard and looked at the info and it does seem that now things are a bit different ( at least some models ?). As in the easy change flow restricters - don't know the name- so with a single factory wrench and factory ports ( whatever the word is) you can adjust to to cal. change fast & easy, or just up or down power.

They did come out with the .257 folks wanted, finally a spinlonk tank, other ......... .

I think a lot of the "must add's" do not necessarily apply to todays models?





John

I owned a condor ss and two talon ss at one time. Theres several things about the platform that ruined it for me and why I eventually sold them all.

First is the ergonomics of the AF rifles. The scopes sit really high and using the tank as the stock caused issues. Since the tank is larger than a stock would be it pushes your head away from the center line of the rifle. So you find yourself rolling your head over the top of the tank to get lined up to the scope. So it feels like you are half way between laying on a pillow and sitting up if that makes sense. It puts your head at more of an angle than it should be while shooting. 

You can buy a stock to help with the way the AF feels when holding it. The stock is suppose to help with frame flex as well. The price of the stocks start at $215 and top out at over $500 depending on the model you want. The stock puts a condor at $1,000 for a starting point if you choose the cheaper model. Again you are back to adding money on top of the base price to get out shooting and have the ergonomics you want. I am skeptical if the stock makes much difference in the way the cheek weld feels since you are still using the tank as your cheek weld.

I didnt like the triggers pull at all. None of mine were gritty but they were allot harder to pull than I like. That wouldnt be a problem if they were like my BSA, Daystate and AA rifles and had adjustable triggers. Yes you can buy a drop in sear thats suppose to help but then your back to the point of dropping money into a rifle instead of just going shooting. I also doubt the drop in sear will make the trigger as good as my BSA or Daystate.

AF markets the condor and talons as modular and that you can switch out calibers easily to suit every shooting scenario you encounter. Thats only partially true and its not as easy as having a couple extra barrels on hand. First off they have way to many screws in the setup for holding the barrel in place. You would think well thats good the barrel should never get loose but thats exactly the issue. Theres two bushings on each barrel and theres one screw per bushing to hold them on the barrel. The bushings and the screws holding the bushing in place are all hidden in the frame. Then you have two screws per bushing going thru the frame and bushings to hold the barrel assembly in the frame. They didnt use a backing grub screw to lock these screws into place. So on my AF rifles I would constantly fight screws coming loose and causing accuracy issues. The outer screws going thru the frame were fairly easy to keep track of but the ones hidden inside the frame required a complete stripping to get at. 

After all that if you have a condor you have to have two tanks in order to shoot .177 thru .25. The .177 and .20 cal condor need a valve with a stiffer valve spring to avoid tank dumps in the condor platform. Thats not a huge deal but its something you have to consider cause theres another $215 to be able to use your AF rifle to its full ability.

At the end of the day if you add up all the extra cost for those parts you could have bought a really nice AA, BSA, Daystate or some other higher end $1200 PCP that you just took out of the box and shot.

You will find people who are die hard supporters who dont care what you have to do to keep them working and swear theres nothing that will shoot better. I just couldnt get over all the times I had to tighten this or tighten that after I took a shot and it didnt hit where I was aiming. They are one of the easiest platforms to mod into a slug rifle so if you wanted to go that rout then I would consider them and just improve the areas that needed it. For just a pellet shooting airgun I believe theres much better out there especially for the cost.

I see them similar to a Marauder in a way. I do not have airforce airgun so Im just going on what I have read about on the net. I do have a Mrod though. People like to mod them, tweak them, or do whatever they can to improve the performance in one form or another. 

The way I see it, its not a high end PcP so a lot of the fine tunning you see with airguns in the $1000 and up range is not there. Dont get me wrong, I do think that Airforce make some really nice airguns for the money. There is always room or improvement with them. Any reason to make a trigger smoother on any airgun is something wee would all take advantage of given the opportunity. Again its is not so much of an issue with higher end airguns.

Airforce IMO make some of the best big bore hunters if not the best and even their smaller caliber airguns pack a punch. I would like to think that the reason is to push a much heaver round at still a reasonable fps. Producing more energy on impact. There are options, and a lot of them to be had for the airforce airguns, and some other sub $1000 airguns. Its also nice to be able to work on your own airguns with little fear of not being able to get parts. Airforce parts and after market upgrades are easy to come by. Higher end guns are a bit different.

I shoot both my AF Texans 45 and 357 right out of the box and they are great but they are loud, I put MadDog stocks on both and I put a LDC on my .357 other then that I have left them alone and they shoot just fine, just need to find the slug they like and your set, my 357 likes the 127gr slugs from Hunter Supply and my .45 likes the 220gr from NSA Ammo.

i feel the same as you fix the issues and add the cost to the rifle to perform out of the box ,,i do like the MAD DOG stocks and they do stop the flex ,There was some talk about AIR FORCE making upgrades ,such as a mag feed rifle,, ,then the RAPID AIR MERGER happened and it feels as though priority was put into reviving the THEOBEN line,,,WELL my choice is to wait to see what the future brings ,i do like the added caliber choices ,but the issues remain,PAT

I have two Condors, .22 and .25, they both needed a lot work/money to shoot the way I wanted, my .25 has an Altaros reg, custom trigger, modified tophat and some of the internals, also you might heard about the flexing issues with this guns, but once you have all this taking care of they are really fun to shoot.

I have a 25 cal condor ss and love it. It is a great rifle for $735. There are not too many guns that shoot this accurate and this powerful for the money. Yes there are lots of aftermarket parts and mods that "can" be done. It is not necessary but it can be fun to play around with it over time and to have that flexibility if you so desire. Im not super gung ho like some people and Im sure if I was I would have some issues. Like the flexing of the aluminum frame. If you understand it will flex under pressure dont twist the gun.(you shouldnt anyway) I have never had an issue. The trigger is a little tough at first but it wears in and isnt bad. I added some stuff over a couple of years to have fun, not because it was necessary. The only thing I dont like is the height of the scope over the barrel. It is very high. But once you make a range card it doesnt matter anymore. You cant compare it to a $2000 gun. Its not a Daystate. But I can consistently hit golf balls at over 100 yards with pellets and slugs and have fun doing it. Basically unless your competition shooting this gun will do more than you can ask for and have the power to put down game at longer ranges. Not everyone can afford $2000 at one shot for just a gun. Find someone who has one and shoot it. You may have a change of mind. Just my 2 cents.

I just saw a condor ss 25 for $400 on aa forum which is a huge score . If you bought a condor ss in 25 then spent $60 on a talon tunes tophat then it would shoot 40 shots at 820-860 fps jsb 25 grain and that's from 2500-1500 fps which is awesome. Keep in mind you could put in a different insert for less power and no insert for super power....my did 980 fps with jsb 33s with no insert. Another note is no other rifle can change there barrel for less money....like $145 & you have another cal. I just shot a squirrel today at 97 yards in my backyard. With my ss ....very easy body shot .

Crittahitta....explains it much better but I feel I can hang on paper against any airgun on the market. Keep in mind I have had them all so I know exactly what a fx,cricket, edgun can do.

There are two basic shooter types I have observed. Those who adjust to the gun no matter what they are shooting and those who have to adjust the gun to themselves no matter what they are shooting. In my shooting it is my way to adjust myself to whatever happens to be in my hand at the time. That is how it was years ago before any of the myriad of adjustments were offered on guns! 

Been having my condor ss .25 bout 3 years are more...haven’t done nothing but clean the barrel...still knocking down squirrels past 70 with easy!!!!love mines