WOW! I was 100% WRONG! I just got to test the Constant Acceleration Pneumatic Arms C.A.P. Dragon .50 cal today and holy crap! Mark Cherry from C.A.P. has somehow found a way to fricken DOUBLE the foot pounds of energy from the Air Venturi Seneca Dragon Claw .50 cal from around 230 FPE bone stock to over 460 FPE with good ol' fashioned high pressure air!
Mark calls this the C.A.P. Dragon, but I am calling this thing PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON CLAW .50 cal! Here is another example shot string on top of what I show in this video:
300 grain full power 6 shot string:
861 FPS - 494 ft-lbs
821 FPS - 449 ft-lbs
766 FPS - 391 ft-lbs
717 FPS - 342 ft-lbs
660 FPS - 290 ft-lbs
605 FPS - 244 ft-lbs
So a bit of a backstory of why I was totally WRONG and VERY skeptical. I get hit up on private messenger and email from wanna be entrepreneur airgunners and self proclaimed expert machinists / engineers all the time with their ideas or "super secret / patent pending" prototypes that are often ALL sizzle and no steak. I blow most of it off.
To be fully honest, when I saw a few highlights about C.A.P. from SHOT SHOW on various channels I rolled my eyes when I heard about their "technology" and "light air" that was pushing slug based airgun projectiles supersonic. Based on my own testing, I knew right away these numbers were being accomplished with a technique any CLOWN can do and I mean that literally - go find a clown. Go find a clown carrying a bouquet of Helium (HE) balloons and go to the tank from which that clown blew up said balloons and fill your airgun's bottle with the same HE you use for your kid's birthday party balloons. Poof! You have MASSIVE velocity and FPE gains using the same or even lower pressures as compared to regular high pressure air (HPA).
It is simple chemistry and physics by shooting a gas with a smaller molecule that wants to escape as fast as possible out of your valve! But...... Helium also wants to escape seals equally as fast and can permeate seals on your airgun not designed to hold back those sneaky HE molecules and your gun loses pressure and most likely voiding any warranty.
So after really digging in deep through conversations with Mark, come to find out his company TOTALLY understands this and completely reseals their modded guns with seals made to withstand HE AND they warranty their work. Furthermore, they are engineering their valves to maximize the benefits HE can provide to give even higher performance vs. just dumping in high pressure HE into the gun. Ok - so positive check #1 on that issue, but what about these massive gains on just regular HPA?
This is where PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON really comes to life! Mark and his team at C.A.P. have re-engineered the guts (valve) of a bone stock Dragon Claw .50 cal and have more than DOUBLED the FPE as compared to the bone stock gun on just HPA! When a mod can DOUBLE the power of an airgun, it was time for me to pay attention.
So get this.... They are doing it on stock air pressures of 3000 PSI and NOT with some crazy hammer / spring combo beating the crap out of the valve. They are doing this on a relatively short barrel length as well. That is what got my attention!
Throw HE on top of the already massive gains they are getting with HPA and now you have a massive Deer or Pig smackin' heavy hitter from a relatively small and compact (and gorgeous) big bore rifle.
