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Must haves for new a PCP perspective

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Nuke307

Nuke307

Member
Dec 10, 2015
32
2
Hey guys!
I'm looking for the essentials for buying my first pcp rifle, I have a short list worked out for myself but I'm wondering if all of this is necessary or if I'm leaving things out.
Rifle: FX impact .25, I really liked the wildcat but as a lefty, I think it would be better to spring for the impact.
SCBA cylinder for charging
Scope: currently looking at the hawke sidewinder TAC 30 6.5-20x42
Bipod: Atlas
Chronograph and range finder? Are these necessities? My physics degree and love of tinkering tell me that these are a must have if I want to do any significant data collection/analysis. I'd also like to get a scope cam and mount to have a better idea of what the pellet is doing in flight, I haven't done much research on this yet and as ill be doing my "parts" buying in segments within the next 6 months, I have plenty of time to figure that out.
Tool kits? What will I need to work on my gun? 
Any recommended cleaning kits? 
I'll have a better idea of which pellets I'll be getting closer to the time I'll be purchasing the rifle, more reviews should be out by then and hopefully plenty of pellet benchmarks.

I realize I'm asking for a lot of information in one post but I've spent a few days lurking and figured I'd sign up and start trying to get my build together.
Looking to do a healthy mix of both hunting and target shooting.

Any advice is appreciated!
 
You'll need the proper adapter to fill your tank - scuba, paintball or firestation depending on where you will have it filled. Also need scope mounts and rings that fit your rail and scope. Tools usually consists of some allen keys. There are a lot of opinions on cleaning. Pull throughs are good if you find one that fits into the breech area. I have a wildcat and that area is small so I suck a long piece of yarn through using a shop vac at the end of the shroud with a few cleaning patches tied to the other end. I use wd40 on the first set of patches, pull it through, then some dry patches . Remove any shrouds first.
 
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Oh yeah, jsb kings 25.4 and heavies 33.95 mk1 or mk2 are fantastic in the smooth twist barrels. These are the only ones me and a lot of other people use with the fx guns. Predator polymags are also good. Cleaning and lubing pellets is something you'll have to test and decide. I've found by testing several different ways that just lubing I get the best accuracy . Some people just wash, some wash and lube, some just lube, and some shoot the pellets right out of the tin. If you experiment with this be sure to clean the barrel between each and shoot at least 40 rounds of each.
 
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A nice bit of kit that is often ignored is a proper scope mounting system such as the Wheeler Engineering level level. A hundred bucks gets you all you need to properly mount the scope. You are spending $2K on the gun, $500 minimum on air supply, $500+ on the scope and nobody talks about properly mounting and aligning the scope that puts the pellet on the mark.... As the local red-necks say, go figure. The bonus is that you can use it on your powder burners as well. Go ahead and admit it, you are also a powder burner, its ok, just admit it.
 
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As a fellow physicist I confirm: a chrony, a range finder and a scope cam are all a necessity :) If you are like me, you'll spend hours collecting and making sense of data.

Chrony: I use ProChrono - its OK, but I think its own precision is roughly around 0.5% (gathered from lining up more chronos and shooting through them simultaneously).
Range finder: on top of a regular hunting range finder (which works great for me) I also have a precision laser used in construction (using that for sighting in). I did not buy it specifically for airgun use, but find it more useful when target shooting.
Scope cam - is an awesome "learning accelerator". I use Canon Powershot N (did a video review on it here). Primary reasons for not going with traditional Casio cams are Canon's hackability and small size. 

You will also find that at some point you need to buy some lubes (for wiping/cleaning and perhaps to experiment with lubing the pellets).
Do you already have a bipod and shooting bags?
 
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"FastEddie"Oh yeah, jsb kings 25.4 and heavies 33.95 mk1 or mk2 are fantastic in the smooth twist barrels. These are the only ones me and a lot of other people use with the fx guns. Predator polymags are also good. Cleaning and lubing pellets is something you'll have to test and decide. I've found by testing several different ways that just lubing I get the best accuracy . Some people just wash, some wash and lube, some just lube, and some shoot the pellets right out of the tin. If you experiment with this be sure to clean the barrel between each and shoot at least 40 rounds of each.
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Thanks! Didn't even think of lubing and cleaning pellets, one more thing to add to the list to learn about! I can fill the scba cylinder myself using the stations fill system, ill just have to find an adapter for cylinder to gun.
 
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"Barbarian"Probably need a new wife if married once she finds out how much you just spent, and how much you'll end up spending once your addicted to air.
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Hahaha, not married yet! But it was either spend the time and money on a reloading kit and buy some more powder guns or get something (hopefully) cheaper in the long run; at least as far as ammo goes, and having the ability to shoot in the back yard is great! I love my .308 but after about 60 rounds the shoulder and wallet are crying lol But hey, I'm young, I'm sure I've got time for both one day.
 
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"Dan25"A nice bit of kit that is often ignored is a proper scope mounting system such as the Wheeler Engineering level level. A hundred bucks gets you all you need to properly mount the scope. You are spending $2K on the gun, $500 minimum on air supply, $500+ on the scope and nobody talks about properly mounting and aligning the scope that puts the pellet on the mark.... As the local red-necks say, go figure. The bonus is that you can use it on your powder burners as well. Go ahead and admit it, you are also a powder burner, its ok, just admit it.
Click to expand...
I do have a few powder burners but they are anything but backyard friendly! I'll have to look into that for sure, seems like it would be well worth it in the long run!
 
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"greg"As a fellow physicist I confirm: a chrony, a range finder and a scope cam are all a necessity :) If you are like me, you'll spend hours collecting and making sense of data.

Chrony: I use ProChrono - its OK, but I think its own precision is roughly around 0.5% (gathered from lining up more chronos and shooting through them simultaneously).
Range finder: on top of a regular hunting range finder (which works great for me) I also have a precision laser used in construction (using that for sighting in). I did not buy it specifically for airgun use, but find it more useful when target shooting.
Scope cam - is an awesome "learning accelerator". I use Canon Powershot N (did a video review on it here). Primary reasons for not going with traditional Casio cams are Canon's hackability and small size. 

You will also find that at some point you need to buy some lubes (for wiping/cleaning and perhaps to experiment with lubing the pellets).
Do you already have a bipod and shooting bags?
Click to expand...
Haha thanks for the conformation! I'll definitely check out that video! Cant wait to see all the results you guys post on here, I might even have to break out my introduction to error analysis book!
As for lubes all I have at the moment is some regular gun oil I use on my other guns, what would you recommend?
I am looking at picking up an atlas bipod for the impact, I have a harris on another rifle but It looks like the atlas would fit better on the impact.
I've got a lead sled for my rifles but ill probably get some bags for the pcp, lead sled is a bit overkill for that.
 
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For pellet lube I would stay away from anything petroleum based as it could lead to dieseling in the barrel. There is Napier power pellet lube and 1or 2 more mass produced lubricants as well as some homemade versions. I use Napier and Abu Garcia reel oil, a full synthetic oil with water displacing properties. It works great and a lot cheaper than Napier.You can find it at Dicks sporting goods. I've also used Pledge furniture polish. I would coat the pellets and cook off any 'nasties' in oven leaving a waxy coating. Research pellet lubes and there are a lot of options
 
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Here's a similar topic I started that should help you out quite a bit. 
Also, the Tominco's Impact thread has a lot of info and questions being answered as well as my video series. 
Michaels thread and videos are awesome as well. 

If you're a tinkerer then, all this stuff is good advise. The Impact certainly does lend itself to tinkering better than any other PCP created (IMO). Give the rifle a little time to break in before really digging in. And, really follow the directions on adjusting stuff. The last thing you'd want to have happen is to try a shortcut and mess something up. 

IMO - The most important item you could get is a notepad and a pencil to start a journal with. Jot down your starting points right away, then start your story. I wish I had done this with my Impact and I ended up spending some time chasing my tail trying to get back to factory settings. I'd recommend a spiral bound, graph paper style, with tear out sheets. 

Buy more pellets! :)

Happy shooting! 
Tom
 
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