FX DRS Classic .177 Initial Review

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bfloyd1095

bfloyd1095

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Sep 11, 2018
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Conroe Texas, United States
Hey Guys,

I wanted to put up an initial review with some information on the New DRS Classic.
If you have been looking at this New gun you know there is Not a whole lot of info out just yet.

I received the gun from a friend of mine who asked me to set it up for him.
He wanted to use it as a FT gun shooting the 13.4gr pellets.
With the limited info out there I was a little hesitant, but he assured me he wouldn't hold it against me if I screwed it up... Lol

So here we go :
step 1, clean the barrel which was a straight forward deal. The patch worm went right on through the barrel since there are no baffles, Good Job on that FX.

next up, do a good general inspection of the gun making sure everything functioned as it should.. Good there as well.

next up, remove the stock and then fill it to the recommended 230bar max for the initial shots.

Next up, filled a few mags with the forementioned 13.4gr pellets and headed out to the backyard for some chrony numbers. The gun was Way low on power from the factory (400fps) , so I knew this was gonna be a long-term adventure...

Since the gun has no regulator gauge, I had no idea where it was set. so obviously the logical step is to look into the hammer spring setting.
The initial setting on it was 3 threads into the block, I started moving it in @ 1/4 turn increments until I hit the max numbers on the chrony, then backed it off.

I went ahead and shot the gun down on the pressure until I had a half ass idea where the reg was set once it started falling of it.
Nearest I could tell it was 90-100 ish.
This drove me batpoop, and it makes the tuning more difficult than it should be..
So I start looking into adding a reg gauge, sent a couple of emails to US dealers looking for the thread pitch and if the small plenum would even allow a gauge, The large plenum is shown in Matt's video with an angled gauge setup ...(see more below on thread size)
That was a waiste of time, I'll just leave it at that.
I did find a plug in the front of the plenum that had a 5mm hex drive , and after reviewing the manual in a pdf i found on the web it did show a gauge installed on the front of the plenum.
So here we go, degas the gun9 Unscrew the pressure gauge to do so) fired a shot or two after the pressure gauge read zero to clear the plenum. Unscrewed the plug from the front of the plenum and installed a spare gauge I had laying around.
refilled the gun, now we are in business, as susped the reg was at the 90-95, I set it at 100bar and back to the chrony we go....

After Many, Many hours of shooting this thing, playing with hammer spring settings, reg settings I finally got the gun to the numbers below on the chrony sheets.
Top sheet is with the 13.4
Bottom sheet is with the 10.3
The numbers look Fantastic on both pellets, BUT don't let them fool ya....
Take a look at the pics of the targets below ofor the accuracy results..
Top is the 13.4 @35 yards
Bottom is the 10.3 @35 yards

Info from above about the regulator gauge
1) The threads on the gauge needed are 1/8BSPP

I hope this information helps in some small manner.




IMG_1231.PNG



IMG_1230.PNG



Target using 13.4gr @ 35 Yards 10 shot group

IMG_1229.jpg



Target using 10.3gr @35 Yards 10 shot group

IMG_1228.jpg
 
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Great review! Is it the 500mm barrel or 600mm barrel? I have done the same with my 600mm barreled .22. Regulator from the factory on mine was way high, set at 136 BAR! dropped it to 110 BAR and am getting good numbers and accuracy now. 18 grain domes averaging 900 FPS and 16 grain domes averaging 940 FPS.

For future reference, the small brass set screw on the lower center location of the block is the degassing port. It will degas the air cylinder and plenum, so no need to mess with loosening the gauge or dry firing to empty the plenum. I find this a nice feature!


IMG_4432.jpg


I also found I needed to use a bonding washer to get a good seal in the gauge when attaching it to the plenum. There is no ledge or sill inside the hole, so you can't use a deleon gasket or o-ring.


IMG_4435.jpg


The thread on that port is 1/8BSPP. I really wish they would have put that port on the side or the bottom instead of the front, where it is very difficult to see while tuning.
 
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qball said:
Very good shot count all things considered, pretty much same as a tubed dreamline at same power level. Surprised the high reg pressure produced poor accuracy, might need some fine tuning but if it's accurate now then don't need to change. Very cool, can't wait for mine.
Click to expand...
Yeah I did try a multitude of different reg pressures, starting at 90 and worked up to 120 slowly and methodically, as well as adjusting the hammer spring accordingly. I just never could get the 13.4gr pellets to group all that well.
I tried both the JSB and FX with basically the same groups.
The settings I mentioned in the OP as the end settings worked Very well with the 10.3gr, which surprised me a bit at that speed, I normally don't shoot them anywhere near that hot.

Just to clarify the time I spent on this thing, I kept the OP relatively short due short attention spans.. Lol
I worked on this thing 3 days straight, 6 plus hours a day, and that was after the initial, cleaning, and overall inspection, plus the 500 rounds of my standard, initial, break in procedure.
There were Many times where I just had to walk away due to the gun pissing me off...
The aggravation was mostly caused by the attempt to get the 13.4gr to shoot worth a damn, which never really did happen No Matter what i did.

Hope this info helps someone down the line
 
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bfloyd1095 said:
Yeah I did try a multitude of different reg pressures, starting at 90 and worked up to 120 slowly and methodically, as well as adjusting the hammer spring accordingly. I just never could get the 13.4gr pellets to group all that well.
I tried both the JSB and FX with basically the same groups.
The settings I mentioned in the OP as the end settings worked Very well with the 10.3gr, which surprised me a bit at that speed, I normally don't shoot them anywhere near that hot.

Just to clarify the time I spent on this thing, I kept the OP relatively short due short attention spans.. Lol
I worked on this thing 3 days straight, 6 plus hours a day, and that was after the initial, cleaning, and overall inspection, plus the 500 rounds of my standard, initial, break in procedure.
There were Many times where I just had to walk away due to the gun pissing me off...
The aggravation was mostly caused by the attempt to get the 13.4gr to shoot worth a damn, which never really did happen No Matter what i did.

Hope this info helps someone down the line
Click to expand...


For the 13.4 grain pellets you might want to try higher reg, like between 130-150. The 177 caliber is less efficient because of the small bore size for the air pressure to work on. Key is to find the knee of the power curve. I know FX barrels can shoot the 13.4 grain pellets very well, you probably just need a bit higher reg pressure.
 
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qball said:
For the 13.4 grain pellets you might want to try higher reg, like between 130-150. The 177 caliber is less efficient because of the small bore size for the air pressure to work on. Key is to find the knee of the power curve. I know FX barrels can shoot the 13.4 grain pellets very well, you probably just need a bit higher reg pressure.
Click to expand...
Hi mate, thx for help. New in .177 and 13 gr wad pain for me. Tried your reco, reg to 135 bar and slowly up to 880fps. Literaly one hole in 46m(50y).
 
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Hello,
I too am trying to set up a DRS Classic as a Field Target (hunter Class) rifle. I currently have only looked at the 13.4 gr pellets (old design) as I have been using those for several years in FT with pretty good success in my Crown Mk II. I am certainly going to give the 10.3gr pellets a try.

Tuning the DRS is more difficult than tuning the crown only in the fact that I need to degas the rifle, pull off the stock, and install a gage on the plenum. I then mount the block and barrel in a stand and shoot to find the reg pressure which gets me a max velocity of about 835-840 fps using the 13.4 gr pellets. I have drilled out the synthetic stock so I can adjust the hammer spring with the stock on. So I put the stock back on and tune with the hammer spring setting until I get a good 5 shot group on a 30 yd target. Then I play some more tweaking it around. Lots of pellets shot.

I am currently at 110 Bar on the reg pressure with the hammer spring 4.35 mm in from the back edge of the block. With that setting I shot a 70-shot string (shot at bulls) with an average of 820 fps and ES of 10, SD of 2.3. Below is a 30 yd Challenge (from the AGN Challenge Thread) I shot just during that string.

30yd Challenge 5-10-25.jpg


For this particular target challenge you get to throw out your two worst blocks of two. Thus I threw out block 5 (with the crazy flyer after 5 x's) and block 10 with the 8. Note that the scoring is done with a .177 scoring pin that has a .22 head so that we can compare .22 and .177 scores.

This is a very good score, but not a great score as there have been a bunch of 200 cards shot by folks in this Challenge. But to give you an idea of what this might mean for FT, I measure each shot and plotted them on a graph to show a 20-shot group. (The scales are in millimeters).

195-15x 30yd Challenge Card.png


I think 20 shots under a dime at 30yds is probably good for FT. I will be shooting some 40 yd targets when the wind stops howling and then move on to the 10.3s .

Cheers,
Greg
 
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Solo1 said:
Just so you know 13.5 jsb @ 810 is 19.5 fpe 840 is over 20 fpe which is the limit for ft.
Click to expand...
Hi Solo1,
I am not sure if your comment was addressed to me or to the OP. You are correct about the energy for the pellets at the velocities. My discussion was to find a maximum velocity that is 15-20 fps faster than I want to shoot, then back off to the best tune velocity.

For a 13.4 gr pellet a velocity of 820 fps gives almost exactly 20 FPE. Note that in completion the AAFTA allows 2% over velocity due to variations in Chronographs and temperature. So, for a 13.4gr pellet you can get a Chrony reading of 836 fps and be considered legal. When my rifle shot just over 830 fps on the chrony at the Pyramid Cup last year, the Marshal doing the testing asked me to shoot a 2nd shot. An 819 on the second shot satisfied him.

Cheers,
Greg
 
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