Love hate relationship with my FX Impact

[Jeff Slowdogs 5]

My first PCP was a Benjamin Marauder in .25, which I still have but was years of shooting it before I started changing any of the factory setting or changing any parts. Next up was the Sam Yang Recluse .357/9mm. I sent the Recluse directly to a guy known for tuning them for best efficiency before even shooting it, Been a slew of others between then and now including a couple more Korean guns, an FX Bobcat and I have several from Airforce in .22, custom build .30 and .308, but I am currently steadily involved with my FX Impact, for better or worse. This thing is by far my favorite and most hated! I ordered it as soon as the MK2 in 357 was available. Started with 81 gr JSB Exacts and found it to be accurate but underwhelming for a 357. That barrel did not like slugs no matter how I tried to tune it. I waited a bit thinking someone would soon come out with some great mods but with no slug liner being offered I figured that was pointless. I ordered a slug probe, 30 cal liner and magazine to make the switch to 30. Still plenty of energy for the 35-40# coyotes where I live and hopefully a flatter trajectory for long distance ground squirrel pesting.  After experimenting with many weights and styles I decided, for now, I am using the 50 gr Varmint Knocker slugs. By this time I have still killed no more than a few pigeons, crows and bunnies with my new "coyote" gun and have logged in many, many, many hours and what seems like a ton of lead changing reg pressure, changing hammer setting, changing probe seat depth then making one little adjustment that has me back to square one re-tuning for that little adjustment. Well, in the course of all this shooting I got lax and double fed the gun and pushed too hard on the cocking handle when I thought it was just being sticky and damaged the cocking block. Today I got my new block in the mail and put it in. I've got the 50 gr HP slugs doing around 985-990 fps and grouping 3/4" (19mm) at 70 yards(64 meters) in the yard. Maybe soon, with any luck, I'll get this one out for a night or early morning of calling in coyotes and an afternoon of thinning out the ground squirrels at the ranch.  Moral of the story; if you are someone who has to constantly change any thing that can be changed do yourself a favor and stick with a basic cock and shoot gun unless you really enjoy constant tinkering! 

[villaman 9,983]

Not the gun at fault but the owners most of the time 

best is the .25  then after that go for rimfire or CF 

[Jeff Slowdogs 5]

Not at all implying fault. Like I said it’s my favorite by far. It will drive you nuts if your a bit ocd like me cause you can constantly change your settings as you change your mind

[philpot 4,969]

Welcome aboard Jeff.

In the Uk most of the Impacts sold here are Sub 12 ft/lb unlike the USA although a few of us have full power versions which are classed in the UK as fac ( firearms certificate required ) but so many people were trying to tune them at the lower power level causing all kinds of damage to the guns.  I recently sold my .25 fac Impact but that was because mine was a Mk1 and over 5 years old having done huge amounts of work but I left mine alone as I am incapable of tuning anything and it remained reliable as ever but then it had a n air leak and cutting a long story short, parts have become an issue with my older gun so it was time to go.

Phil

 

 

[villaman 9,983]

5 hours ago, Jeff Slowdogs said:

Not at all implying fault. Like I said it’s my favorite by far. It will drive you nuts if your a bit ocd like me cause you can constantly change your settings as you change your mind

Jeff , I have fallen back in in love again with the .25 impact . Have it tuned to where I want it to be 970 FPS with ZAN 33 gr slugs and sub inch at 100 yards 

[Metalman2 45]

Welcome to the forum Jeff,

of course you jotted down your settings before any fiddle 

[Jeff Slowdogs 5]

Villaman I’m reading a lot of good comments about ZAN slugs will have to try them too 

[Jeff Slowdogs 5]

Metalman2 haha. Yes I was real good about that at first. I’ve started documenting again but missed a lot I wish I had written down in between

[Metalman2 45]

I was ready to bin my .25 FAC Impact, until I Carbon sleeved it. Now a “Happy Chappy”

[villaman 9,983]

1 hour ago, Metalman2 said:

I was ready to bin my .25 FAC Impact, until I Carbon sleeved it. Now a “Happy Chappy”

Why , wasn’t it accurate 

[JakeFury 225]

Got a love a bit of a tinker. But I feel so insubstantial on a calibre level. 

[j j m 6,536]

my mates 25 is awsome

[Metalman2 45]

On 22/04/2022 at 19:20, villaman said:

Why , wasn’t it accurate 

First of all I made the mistake of cleaning the liner before I shot it (as I would with any newly acquired gun), not knowing a simple “tube” might not be straight

I then went through the indexing process which opened my eyes as to how out of true the liner could be. Finally I fitted a Carbon sleeve and low and behold I now have complete confidence shooting out to 100 yds with a 25 g pellet off a wing mirror (truck gun)