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When Mk II + Mk II = M3

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That brass bushing should be able to pull off the bottle's valve pin:

2021-04-21 13_43_26-Manual-Impact-M3.pdf Mozilla Firefox.1619030639.png


Source (page 25): https://fxairguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manual-Impact-M3.pdf
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That almost seems too easy...too good to be true ;) but hopefully I can (easily) retrofit my 580cc bottles for use with the M3! Thx!
 
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That's the exact scope and rings I have on my MKII. I really like it...Very clear, bright and solid, and can easily see 50 yards into the woods here at home at dusk off the deck. There's a lot of glass in there for sure, but I'm not having any issues with weight, but always want lighter like the rest. I just took it on a hunting trip awhile back utilizing a single point sling. It was fine and really didn't have any issues walking around with it. The scope came in real handy when popping squirrels in the head at 85 yards. I couldn't tell much difference between 85 yard and 25 yard head shots with this scope really. It made the task so simple at either range. I say get what you want...It's your money after all.
 
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TL;DR: The M3 is very easy to work on and the Power Plenum 720 allows you to lower reg by about 15bars to achieve the same fps compared to a MkII PP... 



It's been nearly two weeks since I took delivery of the M3 but it's been so busy at work that I haven't been able to put a scope on it and fire some rounds through it until today. This M3 is intended to replace the all black MkII shown in photos from the original post in this thread. That all black MkII is my 0.22 slug setup and it has the reg set at 125bar, power wheel on MAX and shoots the NSA 24.8 218 slugs through the slug liner at 880-890fps with incredible accuracy and consistency. This 0.22 MkII is one of the best shooting rifles I've ever owned and I really have zero business replacing it but . . . stupid is as stupid does. So here's what I learned about the M3 in getting it set up to replicate the 0.22 MkII:

  • REGULATOR SETTINGS & ADJUSTMENTS: My M3 shipped with only 100bar in the tank so the 1st regulator also only showed 100bar on the gauge and the 2nd regular was set at 75bar (which is the factory default for a 0.22 per the owner's manual).
    • I loaded up some of the NSA 24.8g 218 slugs just to see what they would shoot at and found that they were only doing 510fps!
    • I figured I'd have to up the 1st reg to something like 150bar so I could set the 2nd reg at 110-120bar to shoot the NSA's at 880-890fps but the manual said to not adjust the 1st reg unless you really had to so I was a bit perplexed as to why it was set so low at the factory (thus, I thought, limiting how much I could increase the 2nd reg to since you can have the 2nd reg be higher than the 1st)!
    • Luckily, as soon as I went to fill the tank up to 250bar, the 1st reg gauge climbed to 150bar . . . which is actually where it's set at - so now I could easily up my 2nd reg without having to mess with the 1st reg.
    • It was very fast and easy to get the 2nd reg upto about 115bar, which then sent the NSA's out at about 890fps but the factory Superior liner didn't group nearly as well as the slug liner . . . so I went to swap out the Superior liner in favor of the slug liner and that's when I remembered that these new barrels come with two different transfer ports (1 for pellets and 1 for slugs).
  • BARREL SYSTEM:
    • FX wasn't kidding when they said the tolerances for the barrels are much tighter on the M3! It took several attempts and a lot of effort just to slide the barrel out. The tighter fit does give you more confidence that the barrel is less likely to move around and change the POI.
    • The barrel/transfer port was set up to shoot pellets from the factory so I turned it 180* to use the larger dual slug transfer port. Just switching over to the slug transfer port bumped to the fps to about 900-910fps (or a gain of about 20-25fps over the smaller pellet transfer port)
      • This allowed me to back the 2nd reg down to 110bar to get the 890fps I wanted.
    • Once the Superior liner was swapped out for the slug liner, I got the same ragged one hole groups at 40yd that I was expecting and I was able to confirm that this M3 can shoot just as well as its predecessor!
  • OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS:
    • The FPS spread was a little sporadic over the first few magazines - jumping back and forth about 20fps at times. This seemed to get better the more I shot so it looks like the regs just need to settle in and hopefully become much more consistent.
    • The fit of the magazine on the M3 is much, much better than the MkII. It fits nice and snug with little to no wiggle room.
    • The factory trigger setting is heavier/stiffer than my MkII so I'll need to learn to adjust that next.
    • The larger cocking knob along with the short throw lever both help to make the M3 easier to cock compared to the MkII.
    • The reversed safety is much more intuitive since I always thought the safety on the MkII was backwards.
    • The Quick Tune System is definitely way easier to use than the tiny allen wrench adjustments needed on the MkII.
    • The larger Power Plenum 720 takes noticeably longer to refill/recover compared to the MkII PP.

In summary, here are the MkII vs M3 settings needed to shoot the NSA 24.8g 218 slugs at 880-890fps:

-MkII: Reg @ 125bar, valve adjuster @ just over 3 lines, power wheel @ MAX

-M3: 1st reg @ 150bar, 2nd reg @ 105bar, valve adjust @ 3.5 lines, power wheel @ 8, Quick Tune System @ 3.5

So basically the larger Power Plenum 720 on the M3 allows me to set the M3 regulator about 15bar lower than the MkII to achieve the same fps!
 
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It's been a long three weeks - I had one of my new M3's all apart and unable to shoot while waiting for the parts to get cerakoted. The shop I went to last time wanted to charge me 4X what I paid just a few months ago to do only a few more parts this time around. Had to trim down the number of parts to be cerakoted but it still ended up costing me about 2X as much to do roughly the same number of parts as last time but in the end, it was worth it as they did a really nice job. Here is the 0.25 Bronze M3 Compact as of today in Magpul FDE cerakote:

m3fde1.1623461433.jpg
m3fde2.1623461433.jpg

 
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It's been a long three weeks - I had one of my new M3's all apart and unable to shoot while waiting for the parts to get cerakoted. The shop I went to last time wanted to charge me 4X what I paid just a few months ago to do only a few more parts this time around. Had to trim down the number of parts to be cerakoted but it still ended up costing me about 2X as much to do roughly the same number of parts as last time but in the end, it was worth it as they did a really nice job. Here is the 0.25 Bronze M3 Compact as of today in Magpul FDE cerakote:

m3fde1.1623461433.jpg
m3fde2.1623461433.jpg
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Yen, that M3 compact is drop dead gorgeous! 
 
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I would return the titan, it's simply too heavy!!! But if don't mind the weight and want better glass it's hard to beat this little made in japan sleeper. It's the same scope as Crimson Trace series 5 but with cleaner reticle, best value at $1000 dollar range. Everything else under 1200 dollars are all made in china now. Or you can still get the crimson trace series 5 for 700 dollars from midway. The element do have better feeling turrets but it's just feel, both the brownell and CT turrets track accurately. 

https://www.brownells.com/optics-mounting/scopes/rifle-scopes/match-precision-optic-mpo-5-25x56mm-rifle-scope-prod124967.aspx



honestly really like the Element Helix SFP, it's one of the best do it all scopes.
 
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Yen, that M3 compact is drop dead gorgeous!
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Thanks, Jack! Thanks also for topping off my tanks; all the recent testing with these M3's and the L2 has caused me to go through more air than usual!



I would return the titan, it's simply too heavy!!! But if don't mind the weight and want better glass it's hard to beat this little made in japan sleeper. It's the same scope as Crimson Trace series 5 but with cleaner reticle, best value at $1000 dollar range. Everything else under 1200 dollars are all made in china now. Or you can still get the crimson trace series 5 for 700 dollars from midway. The element do have better feeling turrets but it's just feel, both the brownell and CT turrets track accurately. 

https://www.brownells.com/optics-mounting/scopes/rifle-scopes/match-precision-optic-mpo-5-25x56mm-rifle-scope-prod124967.aspx



honestly really like the Element Helix SFP, it's one of the best do it all scopes.
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Yes, the Titan is a nice scope but it is ridiculously heavy. I'm trying to find a Nexus to compare it to as the Nexus should be noticeably lighter. Just picked up a NightForce 4-32 for 3x the cost of the Titan but can't tell any noticeable difference in brightness or clarity.
 
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Yes, the Titan is a nice scope but it is ridiculously heavy. I'm trying to find a Nexus to compare it to as the Nexus should be noticeably lighter. Just picked up a NightForce 4-32 for 3x the cost of the Titan but can't tell any noticeable difference in brightness or clarity.
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The titan is pretty darn good optically but does fade a little at pass 20x, however most people don't use max zoom much so not a huge deal. Also when it comes to optical quality at that price range it's hard to tell the different by just looking at them casually. The price increase to 2k scopes and then 3-4k scope isn't huge unless you look through them side by side at the same object at distance. Then the higher end priced scope would shine, you will see very small details and colors the lower end scope simply won't pick up. For airgun most of it is kind of a waste because we aren't looking at much more than 100 yards and the higher end scope really starts to shine pass 500 yards. One of the biggest differencebetween 2000 dollars and up scopes compared to the chinese 1200 dollar scopes is the agility to clearly see the bullet trace which airguns won't have most of the time with even slugs. Also at under 100 yards the depth of field isn't wide enough to see that well anyways. Sounds like you got the new NX8 4-32, it should blow the Titan out of the water once you look at targets at 100+ yards, you should see ants crawling on it!



At 700 dollars and 1000 dollar the CT5 and brownell scopes can't really be beat until you get to the NX8, tract toric or PTS Gen2 or deltra stryker or 1800+ dollar range scope. The resolution and color at 100 yards can't be beat with the Titan, you have to look for it though. But do you really need/justify it is the question since the element Helix are simply awesome at half the price and at 100 yards they all work very well. 
 
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