New FX M3 - things to do first before shooting

[Cjjr2318]

Brand new to the sport. M3 .25 700mm arriving tomorrow. Need to know what i need to do first before shooting. I have a CF sleeve arriving as well. Was wondering if i should take the barrel off and inspect it and polish if needed before shooting. Compressor won't be arriving till next monday so i have a little time on my hands.

Thanks for any info about this subject.

 

[E_Welch]

I'm new to the hobby as well . I received an M3 Compact in November . I really didn't do anything too special . I ran a patch worm through the barrel but it came out clean . After that I mounted my scope and went to town . I ordered mine through Utah Air guns , its my understanding that they take a little time with each one before they go out the door so your experience may vary depending on where it came from? 

 

[WorriedMan]

Cjjr,

I've had the same M3 in bronze a little while now. All I did was give barrel a good cleaning with Patch Worm and Ballistol, then mounted scope. No barrel polishing or CF sleeve, but nothing against it. Gun was highly accurate with JSB Exact King .25 (25.39 grain) right out of the box. Had recent problem with 28 round magazine mis-feed, but FX-USA said they'd replace with new style 25 round one. (That was 12/13, still waiting.) I ordered new 25 round center insert from Orion Hunter to repair original magazine, that works great. Best of Luck, WM

 

[WorriedMan]

Cjjr,

Here are some other items you might find helpful. Please note there are many suppliers of similar parts, these happen to be what I chose.

Ajoite UUQ Carbon Fiber Bipod from Amazon ($70.) Extended Quick-disconnect from eBay and a Kraford&Lypt Trigger Guard ($95) for mounting bipod. (The OEM trigger guard is shown, picatinny rail was too recessed to mount bipod.) WM

 

[Westwind]

If you are going to install the cf sleeve you will need to remove the barrel liner because there are three O rings on it and I 

would clean the barrel will it is out of the gun. Mine was hard to get out I needed to lightly twist it back and forth with a 

needle nose pliers if you can do it with your fingers so much the better.

 

[5thumbs]

Here is my suggestion. For sure, clean the barrel liner. I would NOT suggest polishing it at this point. I ended up doing a very light polish on mine (.177, 600mm) as it would loose accuracy after about 150-200 shots. The light polish helped a little bit but I wont polish more unless I can get a spare liner. On the flip side, many say they NEVER clean the liner and shoot thousands of shots without having to clean. Time will tell.

With a little luck, your M3 may come with enough air to shoot a bit. Mine did. Just make sure the tank pressure is higher than the regulator(s) pressure. The instructions say not to fire if it is not.

If you like to tinker, I'd shoot without the liner for a bit to see how things operate before installing it. Maybe your M3 will be spooky accurate out of the box and you wont need to deal with the liner. Down the road, if you install it you can index your liner and put on the CF sleeve. then report back on the forum what you found!!

As Westwind suggested, if you take off the shroud to either look at what is in there or install the CF sleeve, why not take off the liner, spray the inside with ballistol and let that soak in. Then pull through your patches.

If you did not any air in your cylinder to shoot and your waiting for your air compressor and want to play with your M3, then maybe take the time to do the following:

• The barrel/shroud/liner are all straigtforward to remove and putting them back together is easy and has maintained accuracy for me. If you have any specific questions post or PM me directly
• is super easy to label the valve knob for your own reference to tune and or to share your tunes. https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/your-m3-tunes-here/page/4/#post-1106066
• if you have a FX radar and want to build one of these it can be a fun project . Here is a pic of one I built and I got all the parts from amazon, Shoot me a PM if you want those parts.

Have fun with your new toy!!!

 

[Cjjr2318]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I have 4 tins of the JSB exact kings (25.39 gr) and 2 tins of FX slugs coming along with a extended disconnect, digital manometer along with the angled bracket for it on saturday. Will follow all of the advice and see what works. Wife is already looking at me funny about how much this is costing. Will have to wait a little longer to get some of the other things. Daughter and i are going to the Rolex 24 hr sports car race at the end of the month in florida. Glad i already paid for that. 

Once again, thank you all so much for your help.

 

[biohazardman]

Congrats on yer new gun! Your going to love it.

First thing I did when I got mine was install all of the accessories I had purchased while waiting, for six months, to receive my gun.

K&L trigger guard, thinner Ergo grip, lighter valve spring, USO scope and a STO moderator. Got a 700cc bottle and mono pod set up later.

You likely won't be able to see anything wrong when inspecting your barrel. But a light polishing will help with the number of shots you get between cleanings.

I just used a patch with Turtle Wax polishing compound cuz that is what I had. I did 50 to 100 strokes, that usually does it, and then you don't need all of the break in shots.

Then while the barrel was apart I installed my carbon fiber liner. Had to sand on mine a little but not too much.

Shot sub MOA at 100 yards second time out while tuning with the 44.75 JSB pellets.

 

[douger]

clean the barrel mount the scope write down all the settings gun is set at. then air it up, shooot away and enjoy it