One gun I haven’t reviewed before is the FX Impact, not that I haven’t tried to review it, but getting hold of one has always been the issue for me.
Just when I thought I had one available, the phone would ring and a “sorry, we’ve sold it” was how the narrative would play out. Then, out of the blue, not one but 2 FX impacts available and because of the Coronavirus I had time to spend with them. This week it’s impact week in large and small, short and long, .177 and .22 calibres. It feels a little like his and hers, which gives me an idea, now where did I leave Mrs AAR?
To start with though, it’s probably worth pointing out this isn’t the budget end of Airguns with price tags of £1688 U.K. for the standard Impact mk2 and surprisingly £1688 U.K. for the much shorter compact version. So not everyone will be able to afford either of these, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting, more, maybe, something to aim for? ...if they’re any good that is.
Right then, let’s have the usual walk around.
Firstly the standard version.
All black, all metal and only non metal materials have been used where they are really needed. This very much has the feel of being engineered about it, which you would expect in this price bracket.
Overall length is 87 cms or 34 1/4 inches and weighs in at 2.97 kilograms or around 6.5 lbs unscoped.
There is so much to show you on this, like, if we start from the front, the first thing we see is a silencer/moderator/suppressor which fits nicely onto the shrouded smooth twist barrel.
This silencer is worth just taking apart, to find out its secret to its ability to quieten this already quiet rifle even more so. Opening it up the secret is exactly the same as the secret ingredient in the Kung foo panda noodles....there isn’t anything... There are no baffles or anything, just empty space! Blimey, right then off with this little item and on with a Donny FL and guess what.. nothing, no difference, not audiably any quieter... bazaar!
Below the barrel is the oversized 480cc air cylinder which is a carbon fibre item and in U.K. sub 12 ft/lb version is good for 600-700 shots. In either .22 or .177 calibres, naturally this reduces greatly in the higher power and higher calibre versions.
The impact is available in .177, .22, .25 and .30 calibres with power levels going up as high as 75 ft/lbs.
Nestled around the neck of the bottle you find the bolted on and very much external pressure gauge, which is a white on black and very easy to read item, so filling to the maximum 250 bar fill is easy and accurate.
There are also weaver rails on the side and underside around this area, but with the smaller size of the bottom rail, your choice of bipod etc is restricted, however, there are lots of ancillary items available to extend this, Airgun 101 has quite a selection of accessories for the impact infact.
The filler port is on the very bottom, and this is basically a foster fitting, BUT, beware the supplied fitting that comes with the gun is a long reach item and using a standard item that may be sat on your pump or tank will fit, but getting it back off is not easy, so do fit the supplied item and save yourselves a lot of effort. This is then topped off with a nice tight fitting and secure dust cover.
On the top is the scope rail, which again is a weaver rail, which is becoming more and more popular on Airguns these days. In the interests of accuracy for the target work, I fitted a 6-24 x 50 Hawke Airmax.
The trigger on this is beautiful and fully adjustable, a dream to use. The safety is a military style item and as you would expect is very sure footed, but without being too stiff. Sadly this is only on one side, which helps right handed shooters, but a little more awkward for left handed individuals.
The side lever action is also on the right hand side and is as smooth as the proverbial baby’s... it’s here where you start to realise why the higher price tag.
The grip is an ar15 type, is rubberised for grip and is very comfortable.
Moving back down the skeleton stock we come to the very external “bolt on” regulator gauge meaning this should be very consistent on power.
Behind this is the slot for the dinner plate, sorry, high capacity magazine. You don’t so much as talk about these in terms of numbers of pellets, more percentage of full tins.. these things are like the magazines out of a 1920’s gangster Tommy gun.
The .177 holds 38 rounds
The .22 holds 28 rounds
.25 holds 28 rounds
.30 a meagre 23 Rounds.
You could probably put legs on this and King Arthur could invite all his mates round for dinner.
Spare magazines are available, but blimey how many shots do you need instantly available? After saying that about the amount these mags hold, beware!..you fill them up and you just keep shooting, the next thing is you go to the tin of pellets and you find the cupboard is empty very quickly.
The one thing that was a shock, was just how this huge magazine doesn’t actually get in the way at all, when your shooting.
It has a lock open after last shot system that I rather like too. The release is a small lever just infront and again is a dream to use.
The butt pad at the very end is a hard rubberised item and is adjustable up and down using the knob on the side.
Finally on the top of the rear stock is a chin rest to take off the cold edge of the metal, and as hard a material as this is, was, really quite comfortable.
Well there is your walk around apart from one final thing, the power adjuster on the left side. In the past I have done power tests on these on every setting, taking up more time than a little.
I don’t intend to do that here, just to say the minimum was 3.65 ft/lb and the highest was 11.67 ft/lb. now this is a sub 12 ft/lb version so the differences are slight by comparison to a full power or FAC.
So how does this differ from the smaller, shorter compact...
Well the overall length is down to 68 cms or 26 and 3/4 inches and the weight is very slightly lower at 2.76 kg or just over 6lbs.
The silencer with its magic internals is shorter, but if this one is replaced with the same Donny FL there is a difference in noise output, size does matter... obviously!
The air cylinder is also smaller at 300cc and will mean a lower shot count but at the time of filming, we didn’t have any official figures.
Everything else on this version is the same, including the size of the included quality hardcase, naturally the barrel is considerably shorter.
But the testing showed this to be just as powerful, certainly in the sub 12 ft/lb versions, indeed this one was shooting just over the 12 ft/lb figure hitting over 13 ft/lb and will naturally need to go back in to be adjusted.
Even fitted an eBay special scope the .22 still proved to be very accurate, the .177 was more accurate but maybe due to being in the hands of an experienced shooter.
In conclusion, these are not cheap at that £1688 U.K. price tag, but as I’ve said before to a great extent, you get what you pay for. The design may not suit everyone and the price will not fit everyone’s budget, but this is a quality tool with a big enough magazine to take out a flock of Chris Packham’s Pets.
And you’re not likely to miss very often, whoever you are.
We’ve enjoyed our time with these rifles.
We’ll see you next Friday.