30-Yard Challenge

[EPG]

Leaderboard Submissions:

Date: 7/7/25
Target: 30-Challenge 197 15X
Rifle: FX Crown .22 Synthetic (600mm superlight)
Pellet: FX 18.13g @ 885fps
Scope: Athlon Argos 10-40 SFP @ 32X

This is a brand new Crown (I'll do another post on the story behind it). This target was the 9th through 38th pellet (counting the 5 sighters shown) ever shot through the rifle - I kid you not!

Date: 7/7/25
Target 40-Masters 198 10X
Rifle: FX Crown .22 Synthetic (600mm SL)
Pellet: FX 18.13g @ 906fps (PW=17 - one click up from previous 30-Challenge card)
Scope: Athlon Argos 10-40 SFP @ 38X

I just shook my head that this thing shot a 197 30-Challenge and a 198 40-Masters "straight out of the box" - made Becky take my picture with the rifle and cards. In my next post, I'll explain what "straight out of the box" is for EPG, lol.

 

[EPG]

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New FX Crown Mk2 - Why it shot so well "out of the box"​

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Thought you guys might enjoy this progression...

So I bought a new FX Crown Mk2 .22 caliber - I got a great deal on it. It's what is called an FX Crown "base" - no stock or moderator supplied.

When it arrived from Texas, the seller included a nice case & magazine. It had the new 23 position power wheel. It also had a 600mm barrel (the seller advertised 500mm). That works out great because I already had 380, 500 and 700mm .22 Crown barrels - now I have a 600mm to complete my .22 barrel collection, lol.

The rifle was leaking air when it arrived. That worked out great because it gave me an excuse to tear it apart before shooting it. The leak was nothing - the tank pressure gauge was very loose - tightened and leak gone.

So, before ever taking a shot, I polished the barrel leade, the hammer, the hammer spring, the trigger sear, the trigger pac man, etc.

I put it all back together and slapped on a cheap $60 FX hollow moderator and a FX Crown synthetic stock that I had taken off my now Blue laminate Crown.

I set the turrets for about optical center on the scope, the power wheel on 1 and set up a pizza box lid at 30 yards. I hit it with the 1st shot - registered 796 on the FX chrono. I bumped up the power wheel for the next couple of shots - got to 875fps on shot 3. Then I adjusted the scope and hit my tiny white dot target - shot 4 more shots making it a 5-shot group... dang about 1/4" immediately.

Then I set up the 30-Challenge target and shot 197... "straight out of the box" , lol.

Check out my pictures. I'm pretty certain that no competition shooters are using "straight out of the box" rifles. If they don't work on their own rifles (like me) then they send them to a "tuner" who tears them down like I do and sets them up properly. I can't imagine using a trigger with all that black anodizing rough finish on all the sear faces. Barrels always need to be cleaned, polished, tweaked.

But I have to say - the Crown continues to impress.... even with my prep work... shooting a 198 40-Masters with about the 40th through 60th pellets ever down the barrel is freaking impressive. FX triggers still suck - just look at that thing - not worthy of the rifle.

So now I've got three Crowns... probably will set up as .177, .22 and .25

-Ed

 

[EPG]

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Leaderboard Submissions​

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Date: July 11, 2025
Target: 30-Challenge - 199 15X
Rifle: .22 Taipan Veteran 2 (550mm barrel)
Pellet: AEA 18.3g @ 909fps
Scope: Athlon Argos Gen 2 10-40x56 SFP @ 38X

Date: July 11, 2025
Target: 30-Masters - 196 15X
Rifle: .22 Taipan Veteran 2 (550mm barrel)
Pellet: AEA 18.3g @ 909fps
Scope: Athlon Argos Gen 2 10-40x56 SFP @ 38X

Two big red tailed hawks ate a squirrel the entire time I shot - they must have been in my fire pit area for 5 hours yesterday. They let me walk up to within 7 feet of them and take pictures and video. I dared not get closer, lol - they looked pretty tough up close.

Thursday morning it was raining, so I took apart my Taipan Vet 2, pulled out the Huma reg that the original owner installed, and set the regulator pressure back to 128bar(per the paper Huma scale) - which is about factory. The original owner installed the Huma and set power to 150bar - as they were focused on shooting 25.4 and 28g pellets.

At 150bar, it shot fantastic with the heavier pellets, but I didn't use it that much for 30/40 yard challenge - as 40 ft/lbs seemed a bit much. I recall I immediately shot a 200 at 30 yards last year when I 1st received the rifle - and basically never shot it at 30 again. I put up some good scores with it at 47 yards using 25.4g last year - which was impressive.

With the reg at 128bar, I can use 18g and even 16g pellets. I immediately shot a 198 13X with 15.89 FX Atomics (JSB Hades) and a 198 13X with the AEA 18.3g at 30-Challenge.

Yesterday, I shot the 199 15X. It was dang close to a 200 - I sent Tommy and Greg a close up photo and asked them to weigh in on 1B - tough judges they both scored it a 9. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to keep shooting for a 200 with the Taipan.

As a side effect of lowering the reg pressure, I went from a shots per fill of about 48 with the reg at 150 using 21+ grain pellets to over 80 shots per fill using 18g pellets with the 128bar reg. Also, on the 199 card, I chronoed throughout the card and I'd say about 18 of the 24 shots were exactly 909fps - with a 5fps extreme spread - so the Taipan seems very happy at the factory reg pressure.

Taking the rifle apart, I was super impressed by the parts and machining quality - definitely seems a level above all the other rifles that I have stripped down: Daystate, FX, RTI, even Weihrauch.

Keep getting that lead downrange - July Leaderboard update is fast approaching !!

-Ed

 

[nomojo65]

Set my “pistol” up real quick shot 2- 30yd targets off bi-pod, this is my property critter gitter! (I threw a cheap buttstock on it ) both 191-8x! Also these were shot on 16x

 

[NAProf]

Hi Guys,
Have been on the road for the last week in our annual "Escape from July" trip. Went to Maine to see if we could get some cool air. We did for part of the time but didn't need the sweatshirt I brought. Figured I needed a good start to the week so I got out the GM Crown and shot a 30 yd Masters card
**** For the Leaderboard ****
198-14X
FX Crown MkII GM 500mm in .177
FX 13.4 gr @ 820 fps (I think - didn't measure).
Falcon X50FT 10-50x60 SFP @25x

Light breeze but very muggy and warm. I have accumulate a bunch of 4.52mm head FX 13.4 gr pellets and this Crown likes those a bunch more than it likes the 4.54mm head ones. I'll be keeping the 4.52's for FT and shotting Cards here.

Cheers,
Greg

 

[tommyb]

Hi Guys,
Have been on the road for the last week in our annual "Escape from July" trip. Went to Maine to see if we could get some cool air. We did for part of the time but didn't need the sweatshirt I brought. Figured I needed a good start to the week so I got out the GM Crown and shot a 30 yd Masters card
**** For the Leaderboard ****
198-14X
FX Crown MkII GM 500mm in .177
FX 13.4 gr @ 820 fps (I think - didn't measure).
Falcon X50FT 10-50x60 SFP @25x

Light breeze but very muggy and warm. I have accumulate a bunch of 4.52mm head FX 13.4 gr pellets and this Crown likes those a bunch more than it likes the 4.54mm head ones. I'll be keeping the 4.52's for FT and shotting Cards here.

Cheers,
GregView attachment 579810

Excellent shooting Greg!

re. 4.52 vs. 4.54 mm head size pellets - Can I specify / request getting 4.52mm head size when ordering, or do I have to buy a pellet gauge and sort to get the correct size? I don’t shoot FT, but my RAW TM1000x may like them also.

Thus far, I shoot straight from the tin with my FX 13.4 trash cans. I would prefer not sorting or sizing.

Thanks
Tom

 

[tommyb]

Shot my recently repaired RAW TM1000X .177 today. Martin fixed my barrel/thimble set up to ‘center’ pellet from probe to chamber. Previously the pellet probe was slightly tilting pellet into chamber causing frequent random flyers.

Shot 5 cards, one card with 10.3g at 937 fps was a throw away. I need to lower velocity, but not sure at what speed? The ES was less than 10, but I think to fast as I was getting some slight unexpected flyers.

Here are the four cards:

192-13X
194-12X
197-14X
199-15X ( previous 199-17X )

Wind was light at start, but picked up in the last hour.

Very pleased now with buttery smooth cycle action. No random flyers.

Still trying for a 200 30Y Masters with this rifle.

 

[tommyb]

Shot my recently repaired RAW TM1000X .177 today. Martin fixed my barrel/thimble set up to ‘center’ pellet from probe to chamber. Previously the pellet probe was slightly tilting pellet into chamber causing frequent random flyers.

Shot 5 cards, one card with 10.3g at 937 fps was a throw away. I need to lower velocity, but not sure to what speed? The ES was less than 10, but I think it is toofast as I was getting some slight unexpected flyers.

Here are the four cards:

192-13X
194-12X
197-14X
199-15X ( previous 199-17X )

Wind was light at start, but picked up in the last hour.

Very pleased now with buttery smooth cycle action. No random flyers.

Still trying for a 200 30Y Masters with this rifle.

 

[NAProf]

Excellent shooting Greg!

re. 4.52 vs. 4.54 mm head size pellets - Can I specify / request getting 4.52mm head size when ordering, or do I have to buy a pellet gauge and sort to get the correct size? I don’t shoot FT, but my RAW TM1000x may like them also.

Thus far, I shoot straight from the tin with my FX 13.4 trash cans. I would prefer not sorting or sizing.

Thanks
Tom

Tom,
The reason I know that Crown likes the 4.52's better than the 4.54's is because of the extensive pellet testing I did right after I bought that rifle.

I shot 10 30-yd Challenge cards using pellets randomly chosen from three different tins of FX 13.4 gr pellets purchased from three different vendors (not on purpose - I was shopping around for the best deal). I weighed and measured the head of each pellet and put them in a 100 shot tray (numbered) so I could keep track of them. I then shot them with an SSL each at a single bull on the card, recording the velocity (kept the same tune). After shooting the whole card I would measure the POI of each shot and record. This gave me a ton of data to sort through and to simulate selecting only a certain head size or weight and see what my score would have been.
My conclusion was, for this rifle, there was a slight increase in the average score and a slightly smaller variation in score when I only selected the 4.52's (no matter the weight or velocity). I scored the target our usual way but also looked at vertical dispersion only (to try and eliminate wind as a variable). The 4.52's had a slightly smaller vertical dispersion also. To be honest, this didn't pass the statistical significance test at 95% confidence, but it was close.
This same thing did not happen in my other Crown with either .177 or .22 pellets. I found almost no difference (statistically not close at 95%) from sorting in any way. That was also true with my now long gone .177 Brocock Sniper and .22 and .25 FX King.

My current batch of FX 13.4 gr trash cans from Utah Airguns came with a sticker on the back saying it was 4.52. I have a Pellet Gager set (4.53, 4.52, and 4.51) that lets me check 48 pellets at a time. I use that to see if the first tin in the group gives me good results, then just pull randomly. For FT, I put then in a pellet tray I 3d printed with the skirts up so I can do a visual check to make sure none are badly damaged.

It is amazing what you can do with evenings when you don't watch TV and you are not grading homework, lab reports or tests!

Cheers,
Greg

 

[tommyb]

Tom,
The reason I know that Crown likes the 4.52's better than the 4.54's is because of the extensive pellet testing I did right after I bought that rifle.

I shot 10 30-yd Challenge cards using pellets randomly chosen from three different tins of FX 13.4 gr pellets purchased from three different vendors (not on purpose - I was shopping around for the best deal). I weighed and measured the head of each pellet and put them in a 100 shot tray (numbered) so I could keep track of them. I then shot them with an SSL each at a single bull on the card, recording the velocity (kept the same tune). After shooting the whole card I would measure the POI of each shot and record. This gave me a ton of data to sort through and to simulate selecting only a certain head size or weight and see what my score would have been.
My conclusion was, for this rifle, there was a slight increase in the average score and a slightly smaller variation in score when I only selected the 4.52's (no matter the weight or velocity). I scored the target our usual way but also looked at vertical dispersion only (to try and eliminate wind as a variable). The 4.52's had a slightly smaller vertical dispersion also. To be honest, this didn't pass the statistical significance test at 95% confidence, but it was close.
This same thing did not happen in my other Crown with either .177 or .22 pellets. I found almost no difference (statistically not close at 95%) from sorting in any way. That was also true with my now long gone .177 Brocock Sniper and .22 and .25 FX King.

My current batch of FX 13.4 gr trash cans from Utah Airguns came with a sticker on the back saying it was 4.52. I have a Pellet Gager set (4.53, 4.52, and 4.51) that lets me check 48 pellets at a time. I use that to see if the first tin in the group gives me good results, then just pull randomly. For FT, I put then in a pellet tray I 3d printed with the skirts up so I can do a visual check to make sure none are badly damaged.

It is amazing what you can do with evenings when you don't watch TV and you are not grading homework, lab reports or tests!

Cheers,
Greg

Greg, you’re a better man than most. My brain hurts thinking of the extensive testing you did, but we all benefit from your research and testing results.

My FX Trash Cans are 4.52mm

btw, what speed does your Crown like for 10.3g?

 

[NAProf]

Greg, you’re a better man than most. My brain hurts thinking of the extensive testing you did, but we all benefit from your research and testing results.

My FX Trash Cans are 4.52mm

btw, what speed does your Crown like for 10.3g?

Tom,
Probably should check with Ed on the 10.3's. He has shot those a lot more than I have. I decided early on I wanted the heaviest .177 pellet that shot well for FT. Wind is a huge part of the FT problem at the longer ranges.

Cheers,
Greg

 

[EPG]

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Leaderboard Submission - .22 Crown Synthetic​

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Date: July 21, 2025 (shot at dusk)
Target: 30-Challenge - 200 14X
Rifle: .22 FX Crown Mk2 (600mm superlight barrel )
Pellet: FX Atomic 15.89g @ 865fps (reg=120 PW=15)
Scope: Athlon Argos Gen 2 10-40x56 SFP @ 35X

I shot these two cards yesteday - late in the day when the wind was lower. The 200 beats my 199 15X shot with this new Crown on July 11th.

I don't usually shoot 30-Challenge with .22 Crowns, but I needed a boost - I had planned to shoot 100 yards earlier in the day, drove all the way to my brother's house - then realized I forgot to pack my front tripod rest.

This was just kind of random, trying out the 15.89 Atomics in the Crown. I just kind of randomly picked the 865fps velocity. The 1st card was a 198 - so I shot another and hit 200. This barrel likes this pellet - of course, FX barrels usually like JSB/FX soft lead pellets.

Interesting thing about my experience with JSB Hades / FX Atomic pellets. The FX Atomics are exactly the same pellet, but in my experience they have been noticiably more accurate (in various rifles) that the JSB Hades - perhaps just my samples...?

-Ed

 

[DaleR]

Here is my story:

I have shot powder burner "varmint for score" and other score type matches. I was cruising around Airgun Nation as a new guy. I found this thread and I was in trouble. I have an AvengeX that I was messing with. I was having the dreaded POI shift every time I just looked at the darn barrel/shroud. My primary reason for airguns is to kill invasive birds (sparrows and Starlings) from near my Purple Martin racks. My AvengeX was not cutting it. It was accurate enough, but I could not trust where it was going to hit day in and day out. I have the luxury of being isolated enough in South Dakota that I can shoot in my yard. I still use the moderator since I have neighbors 1/4 mile away.

So, I did some asking and reading wanting to "upgrade" my PCP family without getting crazy. I landed on the Brocock brand even though the name made me giggle. I found one on the classifieds and BOOM..it was in my house a week later!! I had a big selection of .25 pellets from my AvengX testing. I dove into testing the BRK. It SEEMS to like the heavier pellets. JTS 33.80 seemed to be the best at this point in my first round of testing. I decided to shoot a 30 yard Challenge Target. Now I am no expert in this airgun game. I did find a .22 plug. I tried to score it as best I could. If I did something wrong, please tell me. I am a big boy..lol. Since it is not some record or anything, I could be off a point or 2 but who cares!! My goal is to break 190 someday. And if I know me, I will be spending a flippin' 2.5k someday since I have a habit of chasing accuracy.

I did break out one of my old benchrest wind flags. I realized the area I picked behind my house has some swirling winds! I took the time to find a condition and ran with it. I shot the BRK Sniper Sahara .25/ Athlon Heras 15-60x56 at 60 power (because..why not?)/JTS 33.80 pellets @ 765fps. on 7/22/25. I used crappy printer paper from a crappy printer. I used my Bald Eagle front rest with a poor generic front sandbag. Rear sandbag. I was shooting off a folding table. I could do better. I did not sort pellets in any way
So here is the first ok target for better or worse I had several other shot targets, and I was stuck at 184 on almost all of them! One with 11x, but I dropped some bad shots to end at 184 regretfully.... Thanks!
Dale R.

 

[nomojo65]

I know this isn’t technically the 30yd masters but I wanted to get out and shoot competitively so I threw up my 25m practice target the dimensions of 10 ring is almost identical “actually a .01 smaller?” Shot 50 and only counted x’s if they totally covered the blue ring.

 

[Jonnes]

On the advice of @JimD I shot this 30-yard challenge today. Took me about 20 minutes so no rush, with a nice result. I'll be shooting this challenge with my heavly tuned HW97K in .177 also in the coming days. The conditions were perfect today; slightly overhanging clouds and no wind at all. Pellets were all weighted and sorted.

Date: July 23, 2025
Target: 30-Challenge - 200 / 22X
Rifle: .22 FX Dreamline GRS (500mm Superior STX Liner barrel)
Pellet: JSB Jumbo 18.3g @ 877fps
Scope: Element Optics Helix 6-24/50 @ 24x

 

[EPG]

On the advice of @JimD I shot this 30-yard challenge today. Took me about 20 minutes so no rush, with a nice result. I'll be shooting this challenge with my heavly tuned HW97K in .177 also in the coming days. The conditions were perfect today; slightly overhanging clouds and no wind at all. Pellets were all weighted and sorted.

Date: July 23, 2025
Target: 30-Challenge - 200 / 22X
Rifle: .22 FX Dreamline GRS (500mm Superior STX Liner barrel)
Pellet: JSB Jumbo 18.3g @ 877fps
Scope: Element Optics Helix 6-24/50 @ 24x

View attachment 580299View attachment 580300

Wow! Welcome to our Challenges Jonnes!

Since you discard your two lowest scoring pairs on the Challenge cards, you scored a 200 20X !

There have been very few 200 20X cards submitted each year - well done.

It seems you have your Dreamline performing extremely well. I’ve got a couple Dreamlines myself (one is a PowerPup and one is a Classic). Have you done any tweaks to yours to get it performing at such a high level?

Do you shoot in any formal competitions?

-Ed

 

[Jonnes]

There have been very few 200 20X cards submitted each year - well done.

Cheers mate!

It seems you have your Dreamline performing extremely well. I’ve got a couple Dreamlines myself (one is a PowerPup and one is a Classic). Have you done any tweaks to yours to get it performing at such a high level?

Sure did. I've spent well over a year finetuning this thing and have made some internal adjustments also, like adding barel weights inside the shroud to get the harmonics right.

Do you shoot in any formal competitions?

I do to be honest, since 1987 (I l know, I'm an old fart). Not to sound arrogant, but I'm a 12x national champion, won 76 regional championships and 3 European championships in my category. So yeah, I'm not entirely new to the game.

I shoot mostly ISSF 10-meter air rifle competitions, 50-meter ISSF rimfire (both in 3-positions with diopter sights), and 10- and 25-meter air pistol, rimfire and, centerfire pistol competitions. My favorite discipline is 300-meter standard rifle (centerfire) with diopter sights. Here's where reloading your own ammo and things like reading the environmental conditions like mirage and wind come in to play.

 

[tommyb]

Last time out to the range for a couple of weeks. Have a family wedding in San Francisco next week in Sonoma, then a few extra days to enjoy.

RAW HM1000x .22
Athlon Heras 15-60X56 mm
1 near flag
Accu-Tac BiPod
Protector rear bag

Wind: 5-7/8 mph. Way too many switches, but I was shooting 22.07g and 25.39g at high enough velocities to help. I did get burned a few times.

The JTS 22.07g at 995fps is surprisingly very accurate. The JSB 25.39 at 940 range is very solid also.

Shot six 30Y Masters cards:

192-8X
194-9X
195-11X
195-14X
196-11X
199-17X ( Leaderboard, replaces January 199-11X )

I’m bound and determined to get a 200 Masters with this great air rifle, some day

 

[tommyb]

I know this isn’t technically the 30yd masters but I wanted to get out and shoot competitively so I threw up my 25m practice target the dimensions of 10 ring is almost identical “actually a .01 smaller?” Shot 50 and only counted x’s if they totally covered the blue ring.View attachment 580260

Joe

Nice shooting. These would be really good Masters targets.

Those Thomas rifles shoot very well.

You’re not so bad either.

 

[TheAirgunnero]

Prepping for an August 9th tournament

Rifle: FX Panthera 700mm Superior Heavy Liner
Scope: Athlon Midas TAC 5-25x56
Pellets: WS (Warren Sumaylo) 22.3+gr unsorted @965fps
Bipod: ACCU-TAC FC-4 G2 Arca Spec
Rear rest: Protektor rabbot ear rear bag
Wind: 20-40mph according to the weather app