Shooting The FX Impact MKII

[Jan Pritchard]

In a previous thread, I proposed to test a new FX Impact MKII to see if it could be made competitive in ARA Unlimited competition.

Initial results indicate that attaining this result falls somewhere between “not bloody likely” and “when Hell freezes over.” That said, this is my first air rifle. It’s a complex machine with a relatively steep learning curve and I’ve only tried a small handful of available projectiles.

On the other side of the ledger, I’m a competitive schuetzen shooter with many years of cast-bullet benchrest experience. I have all the needed benchrest accouterments and I do all the set-up, tuning, maintenance, and ammo selection for my wife who is a highly accomplished ARA competitor.

Here’s what I’ve got to work with. The rifle is a new production FX Impact MKII. It’s equipped with a 54 cc adjustable-regulated “Power Plenum”, adjustable hammer spring, and adjustable valve closure spring. All of these things are designed to work together to achieve desired muzzle velocities with the most efficient use of air. The barrel is a 700 cm, 24-twist “Superior.”

I’ve removed the pistol grip and fitted a bag-rider parallel to the centerline of the barrel. I’ve also added a Sabre-Tech extended triggerguard which allows the installation of a three inch flat fore-end.

The front rest is a Hart pedestal with a Fudd windage top. The rear bag is an Edgewood. I have a Pro-Chrono chronograph mounted directly to the bench.

So there’s the set-up and that’s enough for one post. Hopefully, there will be more to come.

Jan

 

[tonykharper]

In a previous thread, I proposed to test a new FX Impact MKII to see if it could be made competitive in ARA Unlimited competition.

Initial results indicate that attaining this result falls somewhere between “not bloody likely” and “when Hell freezes over.” That said, this is my first air rifle. It’s a complex machine with a relatively steep learning curve and I’ve only tried a small handful of available projectiles.

On the other side of the ledger, I’m a competitive schuetzen shooter with many years of cast-bullet benchrest experience. I have all the needed benchrest accouterments and I do all the set-up, tuning, maintenance, and ammo selection for my wife who is a highly accomplished ARA competitor.

Here’s what I’ve got to work with. The rifle is a new production FX Impact MKII. It’s equipped with a 54 cc adjustable-regulated “Power Plenum”, adjustable hammer spring, and adjustable valve closure spring. All of these things are designed to work together to achieve desired muzzle velocities with the most efficient use of air. The barrel is a 700 cm, 24-twist “Superior.”

I’ve removed the pistol grip and fitted a bag-rider parallel to the centerline of the barrel. I’ve also added a Sabre-Tech extended triggerguard which allows the installation of a three inch flat fore-end.

The front rest is a Hart pedestal with a Fudd windage top. The rear bag is an Edgewood. I have a Pro-Chrono chronograph mounted directly to the bench.

So there’s the set-up and that’s enough for one post. Hopefully, there will be more to come.

Jan

Jan,

I'm so happy you have taken the plunge. I've been considering doing the same but now I will anxiously await your results.

Here is hoping air rifles can cut the mustard at 50 yards.

TKH

 

[Oklahoma Jim]

I've been considering this too. What are the most competitive rifles out there? Where can we learn more about them?

 

[19Turkeys]

I've been considering this too. What are the most competitive rifles out there? Where can we learn more about them?

It totally depends on your budget. If you are willing to empty your bank account & risk divorce, Thomas rifles are currently the best.

Steve W.

 

[Oklahoma Jim]

Thanks Steve! I'll check them out. I have had Anschutz and Air Arms rifles for a while, but they may not be competitive in BR.

 

[PedroS]

Anschutz 9015 is killer for BR25 (25m) in LV category. Now they offer it with a BR stock as well, not cheap, thought.

From 25m to 50m, you'll need a different beast. Also look ar RTI Prophet. No specific BR stock available, but conversion is not hard.

 

[Jan Pritchard]

FX Impact - Installment Two

This installment speaks to one of the more interesting features of the FX Impact – the barrel system.

The Impact does not utilize a traditional barrel. Instead, the system starts with a lightweight, rifled barrel liner. This barrel liner is then installed inside a steel support tube with three o-rings used to support and center the liner. The muzzle end of the support tube is internally threaded and a device that resembles a male pipe coupler is used to hold the liner in place.

The completed liner/support tube (“barrel assembly)” is then installed in the chassis using another series of o-rings for centering and support. A single grub screw near the breach end holds the barrel assembly in place.

Then a shroud is fitted to the barrel assembly using – wait for it – more o-rings.

Since most everyone on this forum is a precision shooter of some short, I imagine your all scratching your heads at the thought of using this novel layered, o-ring based barrel system to challenge ARA-competitive rifles. Yeah, that same thought has crossed my mind a time or two.

That’s enough for now; save to say that extreme spreads and standard deviations are very good but accuracy still leaves much to be desired.

Jan

 

[tonykharper]

This installment speaks to one of the more interesting features of the FX Impact – the barrel system.

The Impact does not utilize a traditional barrel. Instead, the system starts with a lightweight, rifled barrel liner. This barrel liner is then installed inside a steel support tube with three o-rings used to support and center the liner. The muzzle end of the support tube is internally threaded and a device that resembles a male pipe coupler is used to hold the liner in place.

The completed liner/support tube (“barrel assembly)” is then installed in the chassis using another series of o-rings for centering and support. A single grub screw near the breach end holds the barrel assembly in place.

Then a shroud is fitted to the barrel assembly using – wait for it – more o-rings.

Since most everyone on this forum is a precision shooter of some short, I imagine your all scratching your heads at the thought of using this novel layered, o-ring based barrel system to challenge ARA-competitive rifles. Yeah, that same thought has crossed my mind a time or two.

That’s enough for now; save to say that extreme spreads and standard deviations are very good but accuracy still leaves much to be desired.

Jan

Do other popular air rifles use this type of barrel set up?

Hard to wrap your head around how that could possibly be consistent day in day out.

TKH

 

[Jan Pritchard]

To answer Tony's question, no. I'm reasonably sure that this barrel system is unique to FX air rifles.

The FX barrel liners are also unique inasmuch as the rifling is pressed into the liner from the outside in. This is a bit hard to describe so I'll try to attach a picture of several Superior barrel liners.

The FX Superior barrel liners have a choke at the muzzle end. However, this is not a smooth transition .0005" choke. When I push a patch through the liner from the breech end, the patch stops dead about 1/2" from the muzzle. It takes substantial effort to push the patch past this"choke" and out the muzzle. This is not confidence inspiring.

In a previous thread, Mike related his experience with a new FX Superior liner. He said that the liner felt rough on the inside and was not suitable for his purpose. My Superior liner is not rough inside but it does collect more lead than one would expect. My liner requires a lot of cleaning.

I guess the next question might be "Why did you buy an FX Impact in the first place?" This is my first ever air rifle. I didn't want to start with an inexpensive rifle with known limitations and I didn't want to spend $4,000 and then find out I didn't enjoy the experience. The FX Impact costs a bit over $2,000. It is generally well reviewed and there are many positive YouTube videos regarding its performance. It just seemed like a good place to start. And, it might turn out to be a very competent rifle. The design just runs counter to everything I know to be right about competition centerfire and rimfire rifles.

I have a lot more testing to do.

Jan

 

[PedroS]

Yes, in fact the rifling process of FX is IP from them and patent protected.
Looks like, at least making confidence on the reviewers, this riffling is helpful for long distances. in YouTube you can find so interesting videos about FX and their riffling.
LW barrels also have an octagon profile, in 5.5mm, choked or not, that is best suited too to high velocities and long distances. RTI, Daystate, just to name a few, use them.

Everything else, is used by others too, like the easy caliber change, shroud, bulb type, plenum, and so on.

 

[Pete Wass]

So here's something that is always an issue

In a previous thread, I proposed to test a new FX Impact MKII to see if it could be made competitive in ARA Unlimited competition.

Initial results indicate that attaining this result falls somewhere between “not bloody likely” and “when Hell freezes over.” That said, this is my first air rifle. It’s a complex machine with a relatively steep learning curve and I’ve only tried a small handful of available projectiles.

On the other side of the ledger, I’m a competitive schuetzen shooter with many years of cast-bullet benchrest experience. I have all the needed benchrest accouterments and I do all the set-up, tuning, maintenance, and ammo selection for my wife who is a highly accomplished ARA competitor.

Here’s what I’ve got to work with. The rifle is a new production FX Impact MKII. It’s equipped with a 54 cc adjustable-regulated “Power Plenum”, adjustable hammer spring, and adjustable valve closure spring. All of these things are designed to work together to achieve desired muzzle velocities with the most efficient use of air. The barrel is a 700 cm, 24-twist “Superior.”

I’ve removed the pistol grip and fitted a bag-rider parallel to the centerline of the barrel. I’ve also added a Sabre-Tech extended triggerguard which allows the installation of a three inch flat fore-end.

The front rest is a Hart pedestal with a Fudd windage top. The rear bag is an Edgewood. I have a Pro-Chrono chronograph mounted directly to the bench.

So there’s the set-up and that’s enough for one post. Hopefully, there will be more to come.

Jan

BARRELS.

No matter what rifle one works with the rest of the gun is ultimately only as good as the barrel on it so it's a big system. The right lot of pellets is another issue when one gets down to the real nitty gritty, as they use to say. All of this stuff is fun but there isn't anything easy about it. If I were to get back into it, I'd buy one of Mike's rifles and not have to fool with anything.

Pete

 

[Jan Pritchard]

FX Impact Installment Three

This is a short one.

I was testing JSB "Redesigned" 25.39 grain pellets and achieving some accuracy on IR 50-50 targets at 890 fps - approximately 44 FPe. Exteme spreads were 11 fps with SD's of 3. So far, so good.

After a few targets, the extreme spreads increased dramatically and there were problem with the Power Wheel moving position when the rifle was cocked. The Power Wheel is aluminum and responds poorly to high levels of hammer spring preload.

It tuen out that FX designed a rifle easily capable of generating 44 (and even more) foot-pounds of muzzle energy but FX also recommends keeping its .22 caliber rifles at 29 FPe or below.

So, I've reset the rifle back to its as-delivered configuration and hope to be able to get back to the range tomorrow, slowly build up to a manageable energy output, and see if 50 yard accuracy can be achieved at 29 FPe or below. If not, then I'll set up a 25 yard target and see what's up with that.

Jan

 

[tonykharper]

This is a short one.

I was testing JSB "Redesigned" 25.39 grain pellets and achieving some accuracy on IR 50-50 targets at 890 fps - approximately 44 FPe. Exteme spreads were 11 fps with SD's of 3. So far, so good.

After a few targets, the extreme spreads increased dramatically and there were problem with the Power Wheel moving position when the rifle was cocked. The Power Wheel is aluminum and responds poorly to high levels of hammer spring preload.

It tuen out that FX designed a rifle easily capable of generating 44 (and even more) foot-pounds of muzzle energy but FX also recommends keeping its .22 caliber rifles at 29 FPe or below.

So, I've reset the rifle back to its as-delivered configuration and hope to be able to get back to the range tomorrow, slowly build up to a manageable energy output, and see if 50 yard accuracy can be achieved at 29 FPe or below. If not, then I'll set up a 25 yard target and see what's up with that.

Jan

Jan,

I'm following your progress with great interest. Got to admit I nearly fell off the chair when I saw those pics of the barrels.

As you so aptly said it runs contrary to everything I think I know about rimfire.

I certain understand why you went with the FX. I've saw those same youtube videos. Not to mention the price point is attractive.

Hang in there, awaiting you next up date.

TKH

 

[Jan Pritchard]

FX Impact - Installment 4

This isn't much of an installment - more like a "lack of progress" report.

The barrel supplied with my rifle is a certified lead-mine. I've tried a variety of pellets and slugs - both lubed and not lubed, cleaned and not cleaned - all shot over a wide band of muzzle velocities. So far, there is no combination that does not produce significant lead fouling.

All I have to show for a lot of testing is large extreme spreads, high SD's, and erratic downrange performance.

This is not to knock FX in any way. I've had a number of new barrels, both rimfire and centerfire, that just don't shoot. I'm sure that most of you have had similar experiences.

At this point, I'm not inclined to put any more money in this project so there are no new barrels in my future. I will, nonetheless continue to experiment with what I've got. Perhaps things will improve.

Jan

 

[PedroS]

Well, I have more or less the same feeling, and not using FX.
Maybe, we are expecting too much from them, because we are used to rimfire performance.

I'm testing/using/modifying/returning to basis/... a RTI Prophet .22. No slugs allowed, so only driven by pellets. And pellets are picky things, and on the long range ~50m hummm...
Field target shooters told you a lot of success with their 12fp power and .177 pellets, but being also there for some years ago, one thing is hitting a 4cm bull and other totally different thing is hitting our needle point...

 

[michaelthomas]

The problem lies with the pellets. They are the limiting factor. 3x the drag or more than rimfire....they work fine, but just blow like crazy at 50.

Instead of waiting for the world to come around, we are going to create a new org that is specifically for 50y air rifle shooting.

Mike

 

[Pete Wass]

Good For You Mike

The problem lies with the pellets. They are the limiting factor. 3x the drag or more than rimfire....they work fine, but just blow like crazy at 50.

Instead of waiting for the world to come around, we are going to create a new org that is specifically for 50y air rifle shooting.

Mike

I wish you the best of luck.

Pete

 

[Jan Pritchard]

FX IMapct - Installment 5

Mike sent me a practice National Fifty target in PDF. I made a .350 plug for pellet scoring.

Attached is a National Fifty target I shot this morning. I think that the NF target combined with the .350 plug accomplishes Mike's objectives because it shows that a factory air rifle can be competitive in the pellet class.

I started with lighter pellets at higher velocities and then shifted to heavier pellets. Average MV's are shown on the target.

The heavy pellets performed well - for a while. Extreme spreads were less than 10 and accuracy was quite good. However, when I tried a second target, MV's were all over the place and accuracy was abysmal.

This is the same condition I encountered when I last tried shooting heavy pellets. At approximately 44 FPE the rifle shoots well for a while and then loses shot-to-shot consistency. It could be a regulator problem, a valve seat failure, or perhaps something simpler like overloading the o-ring that seals the probe in the breech.

So, next time out I'll be back to lighter pellets.

Jan

 

[Joe Friedrich]

Jan,

There is another gentleman here that has a new FX Impact, and has been working on just getting his speed up, haven't looked at it but can see his frustration plus am anxious to see the difference to the crown.

What is the tuner you are using mentioned on the target?

There's no confidence with slugs in the crown, they will stay put then wander.

Also like the new target, that little bit extra for the ten ring plus the plug does make it nice.

Joe

 

[Jan Pritchard]

Jan,

There is another gentleman here that has a new FX Impact, and has been working on just getting his speed up, haven't looked at it but can see his frustration plus am anxious to see the difference to the crown.

What is the tuner you are using mentioned on the target?

There's no confidence with slugs in the crown, they will stay put then wander.

Also like the new target, that little bit extra for the ten ring plus the plug does make it nice.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Good luck to the other FX Impact shooter. If his rifle is like mine, the factory regulator setting is 85 bar and the hammer spring preload is set to zero.

If he hasn't already done so, he might try upping the regulator pressure to 110 bar and then increasing hammer spring preload until he achieves 925-950 fps with 15.89 grain pellets. This seems to be the sweet spot so far - good accuracy well within the mechanical limits of the rifles internal components.

I removed both the factory moderator and barrel shroud, This leaves a short length of exposed 1/2" x 20 male thread at the muzzle end. My "tuners" consist of: a hex nut, a half nut, a lug nut, and a coupler. I've tried all of these with a variety of pellets, slugs, and MV's. The only combination that appears to have any beneficial effect is using the coupler (the heaviest weight) along with 15.89 slugs at 950 fps.

The moderator is comprised of three components threaded together. I've also tried using combinations of those components as bloop tubes. None of those combinations helped accuracy.

I only have the one air rifle so I'll keep tinkering and maybe score a breakthrough some day. As they say, Hope Springs Eternal.

Jan