- Thread starter MtnGhost
- Start date
The 700 panthera is honestly no longer than your typical hunting rifle. They shoot great, but are air hogs
Yeah, there's not enough valve spring resistance along some other inefficiencies with the design. With slugs, I've always found the utmost efficiency is seen with running higher air pressure.
My Taipan builds in .22 were getting conservatively 13 full power shots per fill shooting 40gn Griffin RBT slugs at 1130FPS with a shorter 600mm (FX) barrel, 80cc plenum and a 280cc air cylinder. That was around 178bar. I'd be nervous trying to lean too hard on the Panthera valves though lol
I have been looking at these two guns as well. Just getting into PCP stuff and loving it so far. Have a AirForce Condor in .22 and a Condor SS in .25 that I just picked up. Really liking the extra oomf the .25 offers and planning on getting a barrel to make the Condor a .25 as well.
Had a question for those more knowledgeable than myself. What PCP guns would make your short list of what you would consider the most accurate/furthest shooting PCP gun? Would it be down to these two, or what else would you include on the list? Thanks in advance!
Had a question for those more knowledgeable than myself. What PCP guns would make your short list of what you would consider the most accurate/furthest shooting PCP gun? Would it be down to these two, or what else would you include on the list? Thanks in advance!
Definitely wouldn't add the Panthera to that list. The valve is terrible and it has some other design flaws that I won't unpack. You also have to re-zero most FX rifles with the factory liner system, so that's a deal breaker for people who expect to pick up a rifle that's been sitting in the case for a while and be certain the POI isn't an inch of two off at 50.
Not saying it isn't possible to setup an FX rifle to shoot right, but it requires a fair bit of customization to get them shooting heavier lead right at high power. My primary .30 is an FX Maverick, but it barely resembles the original inside and out. I run a 600mm TJ barrel with a 26" twist shooting the original / "old style" 62gn Varmint Knockers with it tuned anywhere from 900FPS to 1060FPS. It blew a limb off a yote in my backyard shooting in the low 900's at night (88-90y out).
Anyway, I usually tell people with similar questions to determine the rifle and barrel to use by figuring out which slug to use first and foremost. I build rifles around the projectile vs. trying to force an inadequate a rifle to shoot them. That comes down to how far out you expect MOA precision, steel / plinking or hunting, and if you're hunting the type / size of the game. Figure out how far out you expect to be able to shoot realistically, and these other parameters and you can narrow down to the right ammo to build around. Proper barrel machining and high quality barrels make ALL the difference. Like firearms, there's a thin margin of error between projectile vs. barrel specs (twist, bore/groove, chamber throat, etc).
It gets pretty windy in WA state (in WV now, but I lived there 16 years) so IME higher BC ammo is ideal. What's also important though is predictability and repeatability. I posted a YT video a few years ago shooting one of my custom Taipan builds at LT Murray using low BC NSA slugs (24.8gn .217). Wind was ferocious, but my ES/SD was under 1FPS and I machined the barrel correctly for the ammo I was using, so even in that cross wind it got boring shooting a 6" steel target over 200 meters. Point being - even low BC ammo can shoot extremely well at longer range from the right bore in a consistent rifle. Never had any of the POI drift / re-zeroing issues in those builds like you'll find with stock FX rifles.
Also, swaged ammo is obviously much more consistent than cast, but I've seen guys shooting fist size groups at 390y with ~70gn .25 cast slugs. I run some ammo in my custom .45 Texan that has to use G7 drag profiles for ballistic solving. Posted some scope cam videos shooting single hole groups with it, and I've used it to harvest whitetail for 2 seasons now. For smaller bore ammo, I try to use ammo with at least a 0.12 RA4 BC for hunting and shooting at longer ranges (NRL22 for example).
You can add the AGT Vulcan 3 to your list. Mine was tuned by Derrick at Tenacious Airguns, is 25 cal, holds zero well, and sends 60gr Altaros slugs at 862 fps which is 99 fpe. The G1 BC of this slug is .245 so they don't blow in the wind much compared to most other slugs. This combo in my gun is a consistent 1.1 MOA at 100Y with the net result of helping win quite a few Ultimate Field Target matches.
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