 Welcome to the Pyramid Insider. I'm Tyler Patner. Today we're going to be taking a look at a brand-new one from Air Force Air Guns, the Texan SS in 457. So we saw the Texan SS at the Shacho 2017 back in January, and now it's finally here. Not a lot of changes from the traditional Texan platform, at least from the back half of the gun. You're still talking about a 490cc bottle, the same non-adjustable trigger as you're going to find on the rest of the Air Force line, side cocking mechanism and single loading, of course, which all functions flawlessly. The Texan is a tried-and-true platform at this point, with the 45 caliber being the most popular of the three. So the Texan SS made sense to come out in that 45 caliber. Now, what Air Force has changed about this gun, of course, is a shorter barrel. So we're going from 34 inches to 24 and 3 quarter inches and, of course, a full-length shroud system that's going to sit off the front of the barrel, making the total gun about 45 inches. The Moniker SS fits on many of the Air Force guns. They have an Escape SS, a Talon SS, a Condor SS, and now, of course, the Texan SS. SS standing for super silent, meaning that the gun is supposed to be quieter than the non-trouted version. Now with the small bore guns, that's always proven to be very true, and in all cases, they're very, very quiet. But we don't know how that's going to happen with a big bore here. We have a very large shroud, a lot of volume. It is a very large diameter can here. And you have about four baffles inside, as best as I can tell, that should dampen the noise significantly. Now, I'm going to guess that we're talking still on the relative loud side for most air gunners out there. Probably not going to be a backyard friendly gun, but for those of you that are hunting out in the field, using this in big, wide open spaces, this is going to alleviate the need for hearing protection, which is something that, quite frankly, I don't like wearing big earphones, and I don't find that the little earbuds do it for me in most cases, especially when you're talking about guns that go over 120 decibels, for example, like the normal Texans do. So this SS model should give us the ability to remove that hearing protection, as well as keep a little bit of that silence factor, especially if we're going after some larger game. Now, we're going to take the Texan SS out to the range, put it through the normal battery of tests. We got a couple of bullets lined up. I've already done a little bit of pre-shooting, haven't put it on our sound meter yet, and obviously haven't chronographed it yet for you guys either. So they're claiming 400 foot-pounds out of this, and you really shouldn't see any diminished accuracy with that shorter barrel, but we're going to find out what it does at 45 yards. Let's head out to the range and check it out. All right, guys, before we get to the accuracy and the velocities and all that stuff, you'll notice I'm not wearing hearing protection. With the SS, it's really not needed, in my opinion, even though we are in a pretty tight confined space. So if you're going to be outside, you're probably not going to need hearing protection, at least I wouldn't. But right now indoors, with the noise bouncing off the walls, it's definitely a little bit louder than it's going to be outside. And we're going to throw it on the sound meter compared to a regular Texan and show you guys that difference. But just my take on it, don't need hearing protection, which means that SS is doing its job well. So let's head down range and see what we can do with these slugs. All right, guys, so we tested pretty much all the ammo options that we offer here at Pyramid in this 457 size. Came down to four that basically did the best for us out of the Texan SS here. First off, they got the JSB, the 234 grain, XXLs. About an inch and a quarter group, maybe a little bit smaller than that and 323 foot-pounds. So definitely moving pretty good, although not our most accurate option. You do have the 350 grainers coming in right again about an inch and a quarter or so and generating 431 foot-pounds. That's a lot of power and our most powerful projectile here out of this Texan SS, but still not terribly satisfied with the group. And then coming in at 407 foot-pounds is that 411 grain slug. That's a big freaking chunk of lead, guys. Pretty impressive results, obviously three shots with one going into that same hole there. This is going to be a lot of power and very accurate, but our most accurate is definitely going to be the 405 grain, 406 foot-pounds of energy out of the 405s, about 670 feet per second at their highest. Guys, this is absolutely phenomenal grouping right here out of this Texan SS. Again, about three shots is what you're going to get on a fill from something this heavy, but awesome groups. Definitely get yourself some of these 405s and the 411s if you're going to get you a Texan SS. All right, guys. You'll notice we use the 357 Texan and not a 457 Texan here for the untrouted testing purely because it's what we had on hand. The 457 is definitely a little bit louder in that untrouted version, but that said, if we look at the audio files here, you can see just how much higher those peaks are for the sound on the 357 untrouted Texan versus the Texan SS. So while that 5 dB difference may not seem like that much, it's actually very significant. It's a completely different sound profile, which really gives the Texan SS a huge advantage. All right, guys. So to wrap things up on the Texan SS here, obviously very impressive results downrange. 45 yards, half inch group, basically clover leaf in them at that 45 yard mark with 400 plus foot-pounds at the muzzle. These 405s, the 411 grain slugs definitely going to be the ones to get. The 350s are all right and they do produce a little bit more energy, but I'm sticking to those 400 plus grain slugs. They are very impressive downrange. One thing definitely want to note there, we did three shot groups, obviously. The gun only does about three shots per fill. You're sure you could eke out a fourth if you really had to in the field, but for our purposes to get that best accuracy, we're refilling after three. So that's why we did three shot groups. Overall, though, I got to say that SS, the super silent, the sound moderator on the end of this guys is doing its job well. To be able to take the earphones off and be able to shoot comfortably without any hearing protection is a big plus in my book. And if you're looking for some extra self in the field, this is definitely going to give it to you without compromising too much in the way of power. So if you are going after some big game or if you want to shoot long range with the Air Force air gun, the Texan SS is definitely going to be one to check out and compare. As always, guys, we want to hear back from you. Tell us what you thought of the video and if there's anything else you'd like to see, comment down below. Don't forget to subscribe, hit us with that like button. For the insider, I'm Tyler Patner. We'll see you guys at the next one.