A question for "left handed" current FX Wildcat .25 owners ?

[tommyb]

I am thinking of purchasing the Wildcat Mark ll in .25 caliber. Q. Does the magazine get in the way of your left cheek, when you shoot the gun? I have looked at some reviews on YouTube, and cannot honestly tell if this will be a problem for me or not. Don't have anyone local to try and shoot either. It does look like the magazine 'could' be in the way when you lay your cheek on the stock. I understand they do not make a U.S. Ambi or Left hand version.

Would appreciate hearing from any "lefties" out there who actually have this gun.

Thanks, Tom

 

[Metalmaniac]

I have a gen 1 .25 W/C in walnut. I am left handed. I have no problem shooting left handed with this gun. If you set the scope up with enough distance from magazine there should be no problem but everyone is different. I also shoot right handed because of side parallax adjustment on scope while standing and shooting. It is very convienient to shoot with either hand. The cocking lever is far enough forward that cocking the gun is easy with the right hand but the weight of the gun is shifted to left hand. It is a right handed world so us lefties have to learn to do things both ways! Hope this helps, MM.

Love my W/C 

 

[tommyb]

Metal, 

Very helpful and thank you.

 

[eodman]

I have a Wildcat .25 compact and love it. I'm left handed and have no problem shooting it. I did find a left hand cheekpiece on line from England and it cost around $50.00 US. I have had no problem with the magazine even when it touches my cheek it still works fine and is no bother. I am making a butt stock spacer to get a little more eye relief but that is just me.

You will have no problem shooting the Wildcat left handed. 

 

[AirgunBill]

I have the Wildcat .25 cal. and shoot left hand without problem. I did make my own custom cheek round over piece to make it more comfortable to shoot. I see you can order a left hand cheek rest online. Bill

 

[BigTinBoat]

Mine was a .177 (same receiver) and the mag never got in the way. Here is a post I made about making your own cheek piece.



https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/fx-wildcat-ambi-cheek-piece/

 

[BeemanR7]

Shooting a Wildcat left-handed isn't a problem unless you have whiskers. My wife is left handed and she shoots my Wildcat and gets along just fine. She just shaves a patch on her left cheek and she's good to go! 

 

[MartinT]

Do left handed .22's count as well? Of course they are not as cool as a .25, (not by a long shot (pun intended, but a .22 did win the EBR in 2018... ;-) ) but the Wildcat .22 magazine is the exact same diameter as the .25! (who would have guessed? )

Well, anyway, the mag is not in the way of any notice, but the plastic cheekpiece is sharply angled on the right side of the stock. Whereas on the left side is nicely rouded and super smooth rest your cheek on when you are right handed.

For lefties the sharp angled piece is not uncomfortable or hurting in any way, (it's very well machined) but it's not comfortable either. Meaning: you can perfectly shoot the gun and get great accuracy all day, but it's just not fully optimal, e.g. like when your scope mounts are not at the optimum height: you still can get perfectly good results with that anyway, but again it's not fully optimal. And if you're bearded you do want to get your face away from the magazine when you index the gun, or else your hairs get snagged sometimes. (that does hurt! ;-))



So... there are a few things you can do to make it fully southpaw/ambidextrous compatible:

1. Reverse the standard plastic cheekpiece, this will require some DIY, there is a post here on the AGN from a gentleman who did it with a perfect writeup and great illustrating pictures. But I don't know how easy it is to find with the search function. And it lowers the resale value, as you need to drill extra holes in the cheekpiece, and it is quite labor intensive.

2. Print a lefthand cheekpiece by means of using a 3D printer, there is a free design readily at your disposal on I believe it was the Thingyverse site. This is the cheapest solution, and a pretty good one too if you ask me.

3. Make one yourself out of a piece of wood (broomstick), there is another gentleman here on the AGN who did this, with a very acceptable result. Another cheap solution in terms of cost, but it is somewhat labor intensive as well.

4. Order one from Airfective in the UK, they make them from delrin and are of very high quality, in fact if you didn't know better you'd think this came from FX... The most expensive solution, but the most professional one. (and get their adjustable buttstock piece as well, another very much needed improvement on the Wildcat!)

So there's your options, good luck!

The FX Airguns aftermarket Airfective lefthand cheekpiece:

 

[tommyb]

Everyone - Thanks for your responses. 

Based on one of the responses, I did check and Air-effective in the UK has a custom left hand cheek piece for about 60 dollars ( can't find the pound monetary symbol ) which is fine for my needs. I also like the 3D idea as well. 

Candidly, an as an aside, I really do not understand why FX would not have an "ambi" and/or a left handed stock for the WC for the U.S. market. I can't imagine there would not be a high enough demand of lefty potential buyers, to justify incorporating for such a popular platform. Especially since the FX boss is a lefty.