Article on the PCP FN8 Falcon
( Caliber .22 ),from Rada's
airgun collection. When I decided to do some serious
airgun silhouette, it occurred to me, I did not have the appropriate pistol.
At the time I had the 6M and the Daisy 717. Only the Daisy showed some
promise on the range. IN fact with a scope mounted I could watch the pellets
fly toward the target. And in too many cases watch the wind move the pellet
by the silhouette. There had to be something better, so I did my research.
Naturally I looked toward the 10 meter pistols. Velocity was good in the 500
feet per second range. Grips were not too bad for a two handed hold. In most
cases that is. During this search someone mentioned I should look at the FN8
Falcon. So I looked for information about the pistol. What little I could
find I liked what I was reading. There simply is very little published about
the pistol. Ron Robinson did publish a book Misadventures of Manic
Compressive that has a complete chapter on hunting with the pistol. The
whole book is a great read in my opinion. But that was after I purchased my
Falcon.
My wish list of attributes the silhouette pistols should have, are as
follows. Velocity over 500 fps., grip comfortable for standing silhouette.
Caliber .22, maximum allowed by NRA, capable of mounting a scope easily.
Good iron sights for open sight category. And perhaps the most important to
be very accurate out to the ram line at 18 yards. With these requirements I
had in mind was to get couple more Grand Slam pins, one in any sight indoor
and any sight outdoor.
Lets see how the Falcon stacks up. It has a 8 inch barrel under that is the
air reservoir. A standard configuration as far as PCP rifles and pistols
goes. The air tube is rather small at one inch outside diameter. Stock is
walnut no great figuring but nice. Grips are sort of reminiscent of a XP-
100. At one time I shot the XP and liked the stock very much, another big
plus for the Falcon in my opinion. But unlike the XP all controls for the
pistol are on the left hand side. The cocking handle is on the left as is
the bolt. That way a shooter does not have to change his grip every time
he/she shoots. Since I had no way of checking the accuracy or the velocity I
had to take some articles as fact. Iron sights were a disappointment. Only
one picture I seen had them installed. But when I ordered the pistol none
were available. A set back but not a big one, I was planning to shoot open
sight category with a Tau-7 anyway. So I ordered the Falcon with only one
extra, a match trigger set to about 6 ounces. Can't remember what the total
cost was but I don't remember much change from a thousand dollar bill. No
matter, when the pistol arrived I knew I could get my Grand Slam pins with
this piece of machinery.
First thing I did was mount a Tasco 2-7x32 scope with parallax adjustment.
This scope seemed to compliment the pistol very well. Not too large or long
and the magnification is more than I need. Mounts are made by Millet and fit
the 11 mm rail perfect. After a zero was established I was set for some hard
data. Before the inevitable pellet testing I wanted to set the velocity.
With a full charge of air the first pellet went over the Chrony chronograph
doing 576.5 fps. Using a 16. grain pellet that calculated to 11.44 foot
pounds. If anyone participated in any air gun silhouette they would have
noticed the animals are not hard to knock over. Once they are hit that is.
When using the Daisy I know a split pellet will only turn the animals. Not
so with the power of the Falcon. Any shrapnel from the .22 pellet seems to
knock the animals down. Better shooting would do the same as far as knock
down is concerned but, that is besides the point.
For a split second I even gave some thought to increasing the power. As is
just under the 12 foot pound range the pistol barks with authority. But just
in case someone wants to adjust the power it is a simple procedure. First
the grip has to be removed. Then the rear action plug is removed to expose
the hammer spring tension control. The hammer spring can also be changed to
meet your particular needs. But I did not change anything as far as power.
In fact I did not change the trigger setting either. No changes at all, and
that is very unusual for me.
So lets get to the accuracy part. I chose for the test some pellets that
performed well in other rifles and pistols. Crossman Premier, JSB Straton,
Beeman Silver Ace, JSB Exact, RWS Superdome and JSB Jumbo. JSB Straton is a
semi pointed pellet. I also heard it referred to as,( truncated ). And the
JSB Jumbo is a standard match type flat head pellet. Silver Ace has rounded
edges otherwise it could be a flat head also, the rest are round nose. All
groups were shot at 18 yards ram line. Since the Falcon will be used for
silhouette that is the longest yardage I wanted to see how accurate it is. I
do remember some articles shooting at 30 yards and one at 50 yards. Can't
seem to recall what the group was at the 50 yard line, but at 30 yards .50
inch spread was normal for three different pellets. I tested in ten shot
groups. Pistol was refilled after every 20 shots. I could shoot more than 20
in fact I went the complete match of 40 shots one time with one fill. But at
20 it is easy to remember to fill and the hold is pretty much the same
through the match. All pellets were lubed with Balistol. Here is how they
stack up:
Biggest surprise was the Silver
Ace. Normally they shoot far better than this. But that is what makes
airguning so interesting to see how pellets behave in different air guns.
Looking at the groups the first three pellets is all a shooter needs for a
perfect score. I also noticed shooting several 10 shot groups the JSB Exact
and Premier are interchangeable. However, the JSB Straton is consistently
better performer. And with more aerodynamic shape I will stick to that
pellet indoor and out. As of this writing I have not shot the Falcon very
much. Sort of placed it into temporary retirement after setting two range
records. And winning the two Grand Slam pins I was after. But the range
record is not a perfect score so the Falcon still has work to do.
Are there any faults? Lets just say all equipment has some shortcomings in
my opinion. The only question is can they be overlooked when considering the
job the equipment has to do. In this case the Falcon is one heck of a nice
piece of equipment.
Len Tlapa Falcon .177
Falcon .177 precharg pistol with QuickFill.
Weight about 48 oz. 8 inch barrel
Adjusable power up to about 12-13 ft lbs40 excellent shots at 675 fps
with 7.9g pellets 2700 psi fill.
Match trigger at 5.29 oz
when velocity set as above.
Scoped accuracy at 25 yds = 3/8" ten shot groups
Scope Beeman. 2x7.Model 66R
......Pistol $619 ..................Match Trigger $60
.....Quick Fill $60 .... .........Hose & Gauge$89 HOME
