Regulator and .25 barrel repair ---
My comment to AoA on the regulator was "I am seeing 30+ fps variation in extreme spread shots with sorted (weight/head size) pellets. I would expect a regulated gun to be under 10 ES with pellets of the same weight / head size". AoA's repair notes are "Rebuilt regulator"
I just got done checking the regulator for consistency. Here are three strings from my 20, 30, and 40 yard accuracy checks with the new .25 barrel on the Impact. I forgot to start the recorder on the 50 yard group..
It still shows a 20-30 fps spread over 16 shots. The numbers would be better, but it's always slow on it's first shot (still). I really think a $1900 regulated gun should be under 10 fps with prepared pellets. My "unregulated" Airwolf for example is under 10 fps. The new BWalton BT 65 that is on the way has a ES of 4 and SD of 0 over 14 shots!!
From BWalton:
Here is your shot string @ 220bar fill I tune it for shot count, power, and accuracy.
1-910
2-910
3-908
4-907
5-908
6-910
7-908
8-908
9-910
10-906
11-908
12-909
13-907
14-907
AVG-908
ES-4
SD-0
I think FX could/should have put a better regulator into this gun. I'm an accuracy person, so if I wanted to keep the Impact I'd wind up sending it to Ernest for a aftermarket regulator job. But should that really be necessary? I'll leave that to you folks to answer for yourselves.
On the .25 barrel I returned for repair I commented "I am getting 1+ inch groups at 50 yards with sorted pellets out of both the 25 and 30 barrels. I would expect ½ inch groups or better. My Steyr’s, FWB’s and Daystates all shoot into ¼ at 50 yards".
AoAs repair notes are "Replaced .25 caliber barrel and accurized. Replaced and accurized .30 caliber barrel"
AoA nailed the .25 barrel repair!! Here are groups shot at 20, 30, 40, and 50 yards. Each group is a full magazine (16 rounds) of Air Arms 25.4s These are the first 4 groups I've shot with the 25 barrel. I literally just put the scope on the gun (it also went to AoA for review) and shot.
So here is the good news and the bad news with that target. The good news is i now have a very solid .25 barrel. It's putting 16 shots into 1/4 inch at 20, 30, and 40 yards!! It's shooting into a dime at 50 yards! I called out the two shots that I knew I pulled. I have 2 shots at 50 that I can't explain other than maybe pellet damage. I'll do some more groups later, but I bet that .25 barrel with a better fps variation would be 1/4 at 50 yards as well. I also did 10 shots with the Airwolf .22 at 50 for comparison ( I didn't have the elevation turret set right, so I just put the other 9 shots there as well).
Here is the bad news: I reported to AoA "The barrel to scope rail alignment is far enough off that my scope (included) cannot be adjusted to the POI under 40 yards without shimming the rear scope mount with aluminum foil. Needing to shim a $1900 rifle with aluminum foil is not acceptable."
AoA's repair note is "Tested with customer scope and shop scope, both ran out of elevation adjustment. In addition also tested with same result on 2 different barrels. Scope rail is parallel with base to .001 parallelism or less (so is every other one in inventory). Adjustable scope rings are the only answer".
My aimpoint for the Impact was the top row of targets! My scope sits 3.2" over the barrel and at 20 yards and 30 yards the pellet is 2" low on impact even at my and AoAs scopes extreme limits. That tells me there isn't enough upward slant on the barrel in the receiver or downward slant on the scope rail in the current batch of Impacts to send the pellet at an trajectory that crosses over a scopes cross hairs even at the extreme adjustment of my and AoA's scopes. Could this be 'fixed' by a pair of FX No Limit rings? Yep. Am I going to reward FX with buying $80 rings to fix their design or manufacturing issue? NOPE. And that is what I told Kevin at AoA. I think in addition to giving out a free fittings to fix the air fill issues FX should be giving away a free pair of FX no limit rings to fix this issue on any Impact where the owner can't get their scope zero'd from 20-50 yards.
So in conclusion for this part of the repair review, AoA did a great job - and a special call out to Kevin - on trying to address the issues in this post. I just don't think certain items on this gun (or batch of guns) are either designed or manufactured correctly.
