FX Wildcat Compact .30 Tuning

[Stretchearstrong]

I'm struggling to get my velocity up past ~844FPS with a variety of slugs I've tried 4 different weights.
Weights I've tried are: 56g, 50.15g, 44.5g, and 49g originally I had my regs set to 160/135 but had someone reccomend 130/110 and had the same issue.
I've got the slug power kit hammer weight installed (I think it's 13 grams) and I've tried maxing out my hammer tension and using different power wheel settings.
Do I need a heavier hammer weight? What could I be doing wrong?

 

[MongooseV8]

You are over hammered for a medium reg setting. For 135Bar the factory 30Cal hammer weight and spring is plenty. The heavier aftermarket hammer weights and springs are meant for high reg settings. You will likely need to increase your reg pressures, but FX recommends not going over 170Bar on AMP regs. What size barrel do you have? The shorter barrels really give up a lot of velocity no matter what you do. In my Wildcat Compact at 140-145Bar with the 13gram hammer and correct 52mm spring I was only able to get about 70fpe with Nielsen's lightest 30Cal slug...43.8g?

EDIT: Sorry I forgot the Wildcat/Maverick Slug Kit hammer weight is the same 13gram the 30Cal should have installed from the factory. But the rest of my above thoughts should still steer you in a direction, maybe even the right one haha.

 

[Vetmx]

A 500mm barrel in .30 with slugs puts you waaaaay behind the 8 ball. You have almost no choice but to run the gun pedal to the metal. If it doesn’t like it, you’re done. You’ll need at least a 600mm to have a chance of finding something decent. Not sure what a Wildcats power potential is but I’m sure it would be quite fine if you stuck to pellets. With 30 cal and slugs, you want a gun that has beastly power potential.

 

[Stretchearstrong]

A 500mm barrel in .30 with slugs puts you waaaaay behind the 8 ball. You have almost no choice but to run the gun pedal to the metal. If it doesn’t like it, you’re done. You’ll need at least a 600mm to have a chance of finding something decent. Not sure what a Wildcats power potential is but I’m sure it would be quite fine if you stuck to pellets. With 30 cal and slugs, you want a gun that has beastly power potential.

Appreciate it. I got the feeling that I was asking too much from it, but wanted to make sure. I think I'll probably sell off the barrel and mags I have for it, and get something like the Panthera or the Impact

 

[Stretchearstrong]

You are over hammered for a medium reg setting. For 135Bar the factory 30Cal hammer weight and spring is plenty. The heavier aftermarket hammer weights and springs are meant for high reg settings. You will likely need to increase your reg pressures, but FX recommends not going over 170Bar on AMP regs. What size barrel do you have? The shorter barrels really give up a lot of velocity no matter what you do. In my Wildcat Compact at 140-145Bar with the 13gram hammer and correct 52mm spring I was only able to get about 70fpe with Nielsen's lightest 30Cal slug...43.8g?

EDIT: Sorry I forgot the Wildcat/Maverick Slug Kit hammer weight is the same 13gram the 30Cal should have installed from the factory. But the rest of my above thoughts should still steer you in a direction, maybe even the right one haha.

I've got a 500mm barrel. Would a 600mm barrel get me closer to my desired velocity or should I just get the 700mm? Do you think my 160/135 likely closer to my desired result of ~900fps. ?

 

[MongooseV8]

In my opinion if you want to shoot slugs, especially 30Cal, a 700mm is the way to go. I have done quite a bit of testing in 22 and 25 Cals with the 500mm and 700mm barrels. Same settings and ammo, I get a lot more fps with the 700mm barrels. In my 25Cal MK2 Impact the difference is 200+fps lol. In 22Cal the Compact 500mm barrel can workout great since you dont need a lot of fpe to push the little slugs to max speeds. But 30Cal needs a lot of air and power to get things moving, so the longer the better. I only have tested the 500mm 30Cal in my Wildcat, so I cant tell you exactly what the gain would be with a 600mm or 700mm. But I can safely say a 700mm 30Cal should have no problem hitting ~100fpe box stock. That would put your ~50g slugs in the ~950fps range, and the lighter slugs even faster. FX advertises the Bottle Version Wildcats in 30Cal at 93fpe for the 500mm Compact and 113fpe for the 700mm version. Those numbers are with the slug kit installed, which isnt really an upgrade for the 30Cal models. If I were in your shoes and wanted to hit max performance I would trade somebody here for a 700mm barrel assembly if you can find one. You could also just buy a new kit and sell your 500mm here. And I would also upgrade to the Huma High Flow Transferport, and Huma High Flow Probe. In my 22 and 25 Cals the Huma parts added 10-20fps per. The Wildcat has a lot of power, there isnt really a need to buy a Panthera or Impact. And with the 700mm you can hit your fps goals without stressing out your regs and hammer etc. All that being said you can still increase your rear reg and try for more fps as is, but why are you set on 900fps? Just curious, since the specific number isnt as important as accuracy in my book.

 

[Stretchearstrong]

In my opinion if you want to shoot slugs, especially 30Cal, a 700mm is the way to go. I have done quite a bit of testing in 22 and 25 Cals with the 500mm and 700mm barrels. Same settings and ammo, I get a lot more fps with the 700mm barrels. In my 25Cal MK2 Impact the difference is 200+fps lol. In 22Cal the Compact 500mm barrel can workout great since you dont need a lot of fpe to push the little slugs to max speeds. But 30Cal needs a lot of air and power to get things moving, so the longer the better. I only have tested the 500mm 30Cal in my Wildcat, so I cant tell you exactly what the gain would be with a 600mm or 700mm. But I can safely say a 700mm 30Cal should have no problem hitting ~100fpe box stock. That would put your ~50g slugs in the ~950fps range, and the lighter slugs even faster. FX advertises the Bottle Version Wildcats in 30Cal at 93fpe for the 500mm Compact and 113fpe for the 700mm version. Those numbers are with the slug kit installed, which isnt really an upgrade for the 30Cal models. If I were in your shoes and wanted to hit max performance I would trade somebody here for a 700mm barrel assembly if you can find one. You could also just buy a new kit and sell your 500mm here. And I would also upgrade to the Huma High Flow Transferport, and Huma High Flow Probe. In my 22 and 25 Cals the Huma parts added 10-20fps per. The Wildcat has a lot of power, there isnt really a need to buy a Panthera or Impact. And with the 700mm you can hit your fps goals without stressing out your regs and hammer etc. All that being said you can still increase your rear reg and try for more fps as is, but why are you set on 900fps? Just curious, since the specific number isnt as important as accuracy in my book.

Accuracy is definitely king, but I'd love to see just how much power I can eek out of it.
900 is just ~100 fpe with the 49g, and that number is attractive for any hunting I would want to do.
Even at 800fps the 49g slugs are about 20 FPE above my .22 @ ~960fps.
I'm trying to get my posts up so I can sell on the classifieds ASAP. I'll probably check the accuracy and play with the 500mm until then.

 

[huntr]

Accuracy is definitely king, but I'd love to see just how much power I can eek out of it.
900 is just ~100 fpe with the 49g, and that number is attractive for any hunting I would want to do.
Even at 800fps the 49g slugs are about 20 FPE above my .22 @ ~960fps.
I'm trying to get my posts up so I can sell on the classifieds ASAP. I'll probably check the accuracy and play with the 500mm until then.

I have a .30 cal. Maverick, so basically same gun, 700mm 1:18 twist pellet liner, regs. @ 170/150, stock hammer & spring. I didn't find any slugs, out of the five I tried, that shot great in the pellet liner. Fx, 50 gr. pellets shoot very good, out to 55 yds. (longest I've shot) @ 934 fps and that's around 96 fpe. So, you're going to have to get more than 900 fps to get 100 fpe. 50 gr. @ 905 is about 90 fpe., according to FX Chrony with my gun.
I was getting 979 w/ FX Hybrids, 940 w/ Wildman 50's and 953 w/ ZAN 49's.

 

[bowopt]

You are over hammered for a medium reg setting. For 135Bar the factory 30Cal hammer weight and spring is plenty. The heavier aftermarket hammer weights and springs are meant for high reg settings. You will likely need to increase your reg pressures, but FX recommends not going over 170Bar on AMP regs. What size barrel do you have? The shorter barrels really give up a lot of velocity no matter what you do. In my Wildcat Compact at 140-145Bar with the 13gram hammer and correct 52mm spring I was only able to get about 70fpe with Nielsen's lightest 30Cal slug...43.8g?

EDIT: Sorry I forgot the Wildcat/Maverick Slug Kit hammer weight is the same 13gram the 30Cal should have installed from the factory. But the rest of my above thoughts should still steer you in a direction, maybe even the right one haha.

I have to agree that the hammer weight might be too heavy for the reg pressure. I have a number of hammer weights, 11.5 gram (or 11 grams, I can't remember), a 12 gram, and a 13 gram also the 14.5 gram from the power kit. Purchasing hammer weights is a cheap way to experiment with velocity tuning. And you might want to invest in Huma harder spring and FX additional hammer weight, if my memory serves me well, it is about 1 gram each.

FyI. I always try with the stock hammer weight and if the result isn't good. I'll play with different hammer weights to get the gun to shoot at the velocity that I want at the lowest reg pressure. The heavier the hammer weight will require higher pressure.

I hope this helps.