Impact probe screw failure & solution

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I ordered my .30 cal FX Impact back in May and, as per expected, waited a bit over 4 months to receive it. I've had it since October 4th and have been having a fair amount of fun with it. I've read several threads in which other Impact owners spoke of issues like screws coming loose, in particular, the set screw for the pellet plunger. I checked mine, and have had no such issues... Until tonight, that is. I'm just glad no one was standing behind me...

I had no clue that the plunger set screw had come all the way out. *** CORRECTION!! The pellet probe set screw DID NOT work its way out. Upon further inspection, it is still in the probe block. The set screw sheered off where it makes contact with the pellet probe! My allen key goes clear through it. This means that this could happen again at ANY time! No way, that I can think of, to assure safety from this happening again!*** Which, just to be clear, is absolutely NOT something ANYONE who pays $2K for a supposed high-quality, precision air rifle should have to be concerned with in the first place. I'd shot through one magazine tonight and was on the third (correction... second) shot of my second mag. I cocked the rifle as usual and it felt like it always did... smooth as glass as the pellet was pushed into the chamber. I took aim and put my finger on the trigger. But instead of the incredibly quiet shot that I'm used to when I pull the trigger, I got a BANG that was every bit as loud as if I'd popped a round from my wife's S&W 9mm. I felt a significant amount of air blow past my face and my right ear is STILL ringing from the sound of the blast. This occurred at about 6:30pm. The pellet plunger hit my right shoulder as it was sent FLYING out the back of the rifle due to the set screw having come out, leaving quite a welp. The plunger then bounced off the metal door behind me, leaving 2 small dents and small gouges in the paint, and landed about 8 feet in front of me. The plunger is now bent and the clear plastic side of the magazine is cracked as well. 

To say I'm furious that I paid $2000 and waited over 4 months for a rifle, just to have a VERY dangerous malfunction after only 3 weeks of ownership is a **** understatement. If my wife or son had been directly behind me and struck when this occurred, I would most DEFINITELY be consulting an attorney. And given the situation as it is, I'm not sure that I won't consult an attorney anyway. This is absolutely unacceptable out of a piece of equipment that's supposed to be such a high quality and precision instrument. Something had better be done to make this right. Will be calling AOA as soon as they open tomorrow morning.









MOD EDIT: REMOVED LANGUAGE
 
Glad that you and your family escaped bad injury! Yes, you should get it resolved where you bought it from. Also, in my opinion the possibility of this happening is something the manufacturer should be aware of. May want to post about it in the "manufacturer feedback" section.

I have an FX Impact in .22 and only shot about 500 pellets with it but without any issues. But based on reports such as yours I will be checking the barrel set-screw and the pellet probe periodically. Seems that with some FX Impact rifles this needs to be done before each shooting event. There are some fixes for the barrel set-screw, not sure about the pellet-probe.
 
Really glad you were',nt "hurt" ( looks like a heck of a bit of force you got hit with).
Taking everything here at face ( posted eh?) value - I have never personally seen the impact model- this would be to me a factory recall.
"I" like you would attempt to be only furious but if my family member had such a mark from this, well.
I also feel this should be in the manufacture section for feed back, also just to be nice ( as you seem to be trying to be ) someone should call you and at no cost over night make things right. 


John

 
Man I think I'm with Dodge . I would want a refund . Years ago I had a Remington 5mm rimfire that malfunctioned and the bolt stop let the bolt slid directly out of the back of the rifle .
Scared the Hell outta me and Remington offered me an exchange rifle ...After spending a couple of days flushing powder and grit outta my eye I just wanted my money back . No way would I trust one of those again . If you are cool with a repair then do that , the impact looks like an incredible gun . But if your always gonna have this in the back of you head when you shoulder the gun then you'll never be able to enjoy it like you should . And ask for a refund and find a different gun to enjoy
 
Dang dude... Sorry to see and glad you weren't hurt. 

It is absolutely insane all of the problems the Impacts have been having since there release. I know plenty of people out there have functioning rifles that shoot lights out, but it sure seems that almost every time I visit this page, someone is having what I would consider to be a serious issue with an Impact. I wanted one for a very long time and had a deposit on one. I have since moved away from that desire and will not be purchasing one until FX figures out how to fix the issues that exist. 
 
"fe7565"Glad that you and your family escaped bad injury! Yes, you should get it resolved where you bought it from. Also, in my opinion the possibility of this happening is something the manufacturer should be aware of. May want to post about it in the "manufacturer feedback" section.

I have an FX Impact in .22 and only shot about 500 pellets with it but without any issues. But based on reports such as yours I will be checking the barrel set-screw and the pellet probe periodically. Seems that with some FX Impact rifles this needs to be done before each shooting event. There are some fixes for the barrel set-screw, not sure about the pellet-probe.
I've put just under 900 rounds through my rifle at this point. I would definitely keep an eye on the probe set-screw. To be on the 100% safe side, if I were you, I'd keep a small allen wrench with the rifle and check the probe before every shooting session. This situation could've been MUCH worse. My wife and 4 year-old son, while not directly behind me (and obviously not in front of me), were only about 10 feet to my right and slightly to the rear. My son LOVES to watch me shoot and is often directly behind me or beside me as he does. VERY glad last night wasn't one of those times...
 
"BenSeager"Ya thats bad but that retainer bolt getting loose should have hung up the action as it worked its way out. You have to line it up in the little slots to even undo it so I would be seeing if there is a piece of it still in the little block it may have snapped.
WOW! You were ABSOLUTELY correct. I just checked the probe block and, sure enough, the set screw is still in there. I used an allen key to thread it further in to see if the it had just backed out or if it sheered. The allen key went all the through the set screw. The set screw was sheered off where it made contact with the pellet probe. So basically, what this means is that this could happen again at any time, to anyone that owns this rifle, with absolutely no way to know for certain that you had effectively remedied the situation. My confidence in the safety of this rifle has now hit bottom.






 
I would love to see your set screw beside a new screw when you get it replaced. I would keep the screw if you send it back or at least some close up pictures of it. Could you tell if the set screw had backed out a little or is it in the normal depth. From your pictures you can tell the set screw allen key hole went to the point and broke where the walls of the screw are very thin? You always hope a rifle is engineered to work perfectly but as we see in all of those Remington 700s that have a recall on them. It is not always the case.

Edit: could you post a close up of the part the set screw goes into and show both pieces of the screw?
 
Can you try to explain how you think this happened. On my Impact (& any others I've inspected) the set screw for the probe must be fully seated before it will cock. Meaning that the tolerances are so tight that if the set screw did become lose (or I forgot to tighten it all the way) that the screw would prevent the probe block from moving at all. Therefore the action could not be cocked. Can your Impact be cocked with the set screw protruding outside of the probe block?
 
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