Tuning New owner FX Impact M3 Sniper .30 Regulator questions

[Er1ckNL]

Hi All,

First of all great community, a lot of useful information going around. I have been thinking about purchasing a PCP rifle for quite some time now, this week I couldn't hold myself anymore and decided to purchase a FX Impact M3 Sniper .30. Quite an upgrade from my old Gamo .177 cal.

After reading and watching a lot of Youtube video's about the rifle, especially the tuning part, it got me raising a few questions.

I have not fired the FX Impact yet or tinkered with any of the adjustments (gets dark early here). Here are a few of my concerns, or perhaps not interpreting things properly.

1) The No1 regulator pressure is at 190bar, while the manual says never adjust it above 170bar. It came this way out of the factory I guess.

Here is a part of the manual:

It says that "The first regulator is set from factory and should in most cases not be altered". It seems mine came at 190bar? Should I remove the bottle and set it lower to around 150 bar?

2) "Never adjust the regulator above 170bar as damage to the system may occur and will void your warranty". Are they talking about the first regulator or the second one?

3) "Never use the gun below the set regulator pressure as damage to the system may occur and will void your warranty". I don't understand this one. Does it mean never use the rifle if the tank bottle is below the pressure of regulator no1?

4) The second regulator is set slightly over 100bar seems tuned for .30, I might set that to ~110bar later on. To increase I have to slightly rotate it counter clockwise. Do I have to take the air out if I want to decrease again, or will that harm the rifle? Or can I just decrease and take a blank shot to see where it's at.

I know these questions might sound really dumb, but the more I'm reading the more I seem to get a in a deadlock, hoping you guys might take my concerns away and teach me a thing or two

Thanks in advance.

 

[TMH]

1) What is the pressure in the air tank? Unfortunately there have been cases in the new M3 where the front regulator (#1) is creeping up, sometimes to the point where it matches the bottle pressure. When you dry fire a few shots, does Reg #1 pressure settle down to a lower value? As one data point, when I received my M3 .30 cal Reg#1=165 and Reg#2=114.

2) I believe both regulators have this limit.

3) Refers to the Reg#2 set point.

4) It is always safest to remove air from the gun (and the plenum) when adjusting the regulator down, but not necessary. FX says you can turn the regs down by 1/4 turn and dry fire a few shots. Instead, be safer to your reg and only adjust it down 1/8 turn, then dry fire 2-3 shots, and repeat as necessary. Removing air from the gun and plenum is best when making large regulator adjustments (down). When gun is de-aired you can turn it way down, below your ultimate goal. Re-attach the bottle, dry fire a couple shots to let the regs settle, and then just increase the reg pressure at will to your chosen point.

Just don't try to turn reg pressure down too far in one action (between dry firing), and you will be fine, and won't damage your reg.

 

[Wr250r]

I just installed 1 reg delete. Works great three 963 in a row. Takes less two seconds for second shots. Now I shoot close to my 160 bar second reg . I don't think you will have a problem shooting pellets. My problem is trying to get new nsa slugs to group like before. Hopefully avs slugs work.

 

[Er1ckNL]

1) What is the pressure in the air tank? Unfortunately there have been cases in the new M3 where the front regulator (#1) is creeping up, sometimes to the point where it matches the bottle pressure. When you dry fire a few shots, does Reg #1 pressure settle down to a lower value? As one data point, when I received my M3 .30 cal Reg#1=165 and Reg#2=114.

2) I believe both regulators have this limit.

3) Refers to the Reg#2 set point.

4) It is always safest to remove air from the gun (and the plenum) when adjusting the regulator down, but not necessary. FX says you can turn the regs down by 1/4 turn and dry fire a few shots. Instead, be safer to your reg and only adjust it down 1/8 turn, then dry fire 2-3 shots, and repeat as necessary. Removing air from the gun and plenum is best when making large regulator adjustments (down). When gun is de-aired you can turn it way down, below your ultimate goal. Re-attach the bottle, dry fire a couple shots to let the regs settle, and then just increase the reg pressure at will to your chosen point.

Just don't try to turn reg pressure down too far in one action (between dry firing), and you will be fine, and won't damage your reg.

Hi TMH,

Thanks for answering my questions.

About (1. The air tank sits around ~210 bar. I dry fired 5 shots, the Regulator No1 went down to about 165-168 after 2 shots, fired 3 more to make sure:

Is there any reason to be concerned that the reg no1 is creeping up? I do have to mention that the rifle has been sitting in the case for about a week.

3) Makes sense now when you say it, never fire below the pressure you SET on Reg nr2.

4) Thanks for the explanation, I will keep things on the safe side. I will have to tune for my FX .30 50.14 Grain pellets and NSA Slugs 43.8 Grain.

I just installed 1 reg delete. Works great three 963 in a row. Takes less two seconds for second shots. Now I shoot close to my 160 bar second reg . I don't think you will have a problem shooting pellets. My problem is trying to get new nsa slugs to group like before. Hopefully avs slugs work.

I've heard great things about the NSA slugs, they are nicely finished. Not sure how much grains you are shooting, but isn't 160bar at the high side? Perhaps they are swaying because you shoot them too fast?

Here in The Netherlands .30 cal are very hard to come by, they are sold out constantly.

 

[TMH]

Is there any reason to be concerned that the reg no1 is creeping up? I do have to mention that the rifle has been sitting in the case for about a week.

I'm glad that your Reg#1 went down to a more normal value after dry firing. Yes, there is reason to at least monitor Reg#1 pressure. Perhaps what you originally saw was just due to the new regulator breaking in. Or perhaps you have an issue with your Reg#1. It really should not creep up after sitting, even for a week or so. If it continues to do so, you should contact your dealer or FX about a warranty repair.

It is not that Reg#1 creeping up should cause any damage or any poorer shooting performance. That is still mostly based on the performance of Reg#2. But the whole idea of the 2 regs in the M3's is to 'protect' Reg#2 from high pressures, and thereby prolong its life and reduce its potential for creeping.

 

[Er1ckNL]

Is there any reason to be concerned that the reg no1 is creeping up? I do have to mention that the rifle has been sitting in the case for about a week.

I'm glad that your Reg#1 went down to a more normal value after dry firing. Yes, there is reason to at least monitor Reg#1 pressure. Perhaps what you originally saw was just due to the new regulator breaking in. Or perhaps you have an issue with your Reg#1. It really should not creep up after sitting, even for a week or so. If it continues to do so, you should contact your dealer or FX about a warranty repair.

It is not that Reg#1 creeping up should cause any damage or any poorer shooting performance. That is still mostly based on the performance of Reg#2. But the whole idea of the 2 regs in the M3's is to 'protect' Reg#2 from high pressures, and thereby prolong its life and reduce its potential for creeping.

Thanks for the great help TMH. Took my worries away. I will monitor my Reg no1, just saw it creep up a little to exact 170bar and has been there for the last two hours. Will leave it overnight to see what it does.

I will do some proper shooting, perhaps it needs to break in like you said. I will update this post.

 

[TDK]

Reg #1 is not a precise regulator and doesn't have to be. The impact MkII did not have it and shot great. Reg #1 is difficult to adjust the set point precisely within 10-20bar, and it can have a lot of overnight creep. If Reg#1 is set really high, you essentially have a MKII. If Reg#1 is set too low and too close to Reg#2 setting, it can slow down refresh speeds of Reg#1, and can also have weird behavior. If you are in between those, just shoot it. Your ~70bar reg delta sounds fine for now. Mess with it down the road if you are doing some specific tuning and it is limiting you. Reg#2's purpose was to allow for 300bar bottles down the road and maybe provide more consistency by feeding Reg#1 with a more constant input pressure.

Reg #2 at 100bar is the most efficient tune for shooting JSB 44.75 pellets at 880-900fps. I was getting 92 shots or 4 full mags out of a fill and it was very accurate.

The warnings from the manual snippet about 170bar max and not shooting below reg set pressure are referring to the second reg.

 

[Er1ckNL]

Reg #1 is not a precise regulator and doesn't have to be. The impact MkII did not have it and shot great. Reg #1 is difficult to adjust the set point precisely within 10-20bar, and it can have a lot of overnight creep. If Reg#1 is set really high, you essentially have a MKII. If Reg#1 is set too low and too close to Reg#2 setting, it can slow down refresh speeds of Reg#1, and can also have weird behavior. If you are in between those, just shoot it. Your ~70bar reg delta sounds fine for now. Mess with it down the road if you are doing some specific tuning and it is limiting you. Reg#2's purpose was to allow for 300bar bottles down the road and maybe provide more consistency by feeding Reg#1 with a more constant input pressure.

Reg #2 at 100bar is the most efficient tune for shooting JSB 44.75 pellets at 880-900fps. I was getting 92 shots or 4 full mags out of a fill and it was very accurate.

The warnings from the manual snippet about 170bar max and not shooting below reg set pressure are referring to the second reg.

Thanks. I will have to tune at some point, because .30 cal is sold out everywhere. I only have 50 grain+ pellets/slugs.

92 shots is pretty impressive, to what pressure do you fill the bottle?

 

[TDK]

Reg #1 is not a precise regulator and doesn't have to be. The impact MkII did not have it and shot great. Reg #1 is difficult to adjust the set point precisely within 10-20bar, and it can have a lot of overnight creep. If Reg#1 is set really high, you essentially have a MKII. If Reg#1 is set too low and too close to Reg#2 setting, it can slow down refresh speeds of Reg#1, and can also have weird behavior. If you are in between those, just shoot it. Your ~70bar reg delta sounds fine for now. Mess with it down the road if you are doing some specific tuning and it is limiting you. Reg#2's purpose was to allow for 300bar bottles down the road and maybe provide more consistency by feeding Reg#1 with a more constant input pressure.

Reg #2 at 100bar is the most efficient tune for shooting JSB 44.75 pellets at 880-900fps. I was getting 92 shots or 4 full mags out of a fill and it was very accurate.

The warnings from the manual snippet about 170bar max and not shooting below reg set pressure are referring to the second reg.

Thanks. I will have to tune at some point, because .30 cal is sold out everywhere. I only have 50 grain+ pellets/slugs.

92 shots is pretty impressive, to what pressure do you fill the bottle?

I am filling to 250bar.

Regulated PCP tuning in a nutshell is that you want to be shooting at 95-97% of max speed at a given reg pressure setting. If you are too close to max fps for a given reg pressure, the valve will be open when the projectile leaves the barrel which is wasteful, noisy, and inaccurate. If you are below the 95-97% range, then you may see higher ES and standard deviation. This is better than being close to max and can still be accurate in some guns. The impact seems to be one of these that is forgiving in this area. The reg gauges, even wika, can be off by quite a bit, so you really want to pay attention to your gun's speeds/feedback if you want to tune precisely. Posted tune reg pressures are a nice starting point, and in a lot of cases will probably good enough if you just want to get shooting and not mess with anything.

ZAN appears to have JSB 44.75s in stock: https://www.zanprojectiles.com/jsb-diabolopellets/30-762mmjsbdiabolopellets/airgun-pelletsjsbexact762mm4475grain

 

[AirgunLR]

For that same point I had to modify regulator 1 because it was causing problems, but I do not keep quiet and all the problems that happen with an fx I make it public so that the company takes into account working with quality, not selling such an expensive product and cheap that of problems without using, here I leave some photos and my YouTube channel


https://youtu.be/PfSGDExGaJI