You’re buying an Impact! WOOHOO! Congratulations! 
If you’re in the first shipment, there’s not too much longer to wait! If you’re not, I hope time flies for you! A few questions you might want to ask yourself are...What are you going to use it for? How are you going to treat it, decorate it, and accessorize it? How much are you going to shoot it? What are you going to shoot at? I’m sure there’s many more questions that could be added to this small list. I’ve attempted to narrow down the majority of shooters into 4 main categories and then make a list of what I feel you might want to buy before you get “the call.”
BEGINNER/NOVICE SHOOTER - WOW! Good for you getting an Impact!
NOTEPAD/JOURNAL - I would HIGHLY recommend writing down, measuring, and/or marking ALL factory adjustments as soon as you get your rifle! If you decide to change your settings, you’ll have a guide to get you back to where you started.
Pellets - Lots of pellets!
Targets - What ever it is you're shooting at, you’ll need a bunch of them!
Scope - Pick out a nice scope for yourself.
Scope Mounts - Don't forget to get something to mount the scope with!
Bipod - I’d recommend a genuine Atlas but, they’re pricey. One of the reasons I like the Atlas is that it locks at 45º and that works very well with the balance of the Impact. Regardless, you’ll want to get a bipod with a small picatinny attachment. Or, you might go for a picatinny to sling stud adaptor and then go for a Harris type bipod.
HUNTERS - You guys probably already know what you want to take into the woods with you. So, I'm not going to try to guess everything that's involved. Everything from above plus maybe...
Sling - I found the Magpul MS4 Dual QD with RSA QD sling attachment to work nice.
Scope level - when it comes time to take the shot, you don't want a little scope canting to throw you off.
AR style grip of your choice for comfort, grip, and support out in the field.
BASIC AND BEGINNER TUNERS - Consider all of the above plus...
All Of the above mentioned items.
Start a journal! Really! Take the time to jot down and/or mark your factory settings right from the start. A graph paper style journal might make things a little easier when it comes time to making charts of power settings. I’m saying it again because I really think this is important.
More Pellets! LOTS of pellets in all the kinds and calibers you want!
Build a shot box of some kind - Here's my shot box plans - It would probably do you good to make something to catch all those tuning pellets and have it set up and tested to make sure it can handle the shooting that’s about to take place.
Chronograph - Get a good chrony that you can count on. Also, consider picking up some kind of light kit for it (depending on when/where you’ll be running your strings) and possibly a printing machine to keep you from having to hand write everything.
Figure out your air supply plan - Hopefully you have this planned out already but, if not, get a plan together.
Quality hex key set - You won’t need these for tuning at this level but they may come in handy for other things and a quality set should help combat stripping out any of the heads or the tool itself. The T style will work but, I’d recommend the standard L shape for tight spots such as the trigger adjustments.1mm hex key. I believe this is the size used on the trigger blade. You might want to adjust it and that size is generally not included in the commonly sold hex key sets.
ADVANCED TUNERS - You guys, like the hunters, are probably already pretty prepared for what you want to do. I would not consider myself an advanced tuner but, I’ll put a few more things up here for your consideration...
All of the above mentioned things, especially marking your starting points.
Pellets - Give another bump to your mountain of pellets you’ve already got.
Air Supply - Fill bottles and perform maintenance on compressors.
Quality ball end/wobble end hex key set - There’s ways around this but, those ways might be more of a pain then just picking up a set of hex keys.
Scope cam setup with a good camera.
Trap - Perform maintenance on your shot box or pellet trap.
Shooting bench, vise, rest - Something to hold your rifle in place during all this shooting.
Manometer - A nice high quality manometer might come in handy for fine tuning the reg.
Elbow fitting - If you're shooting tethered, it might make things easier if you put a 90º elbow on the foster fitting.
That should be a majority of what you might need/want. The hammer spring and valve return adjustments do not require any tools. Just those two things are going to give you lots of adjustments and lots of data to process! Think of it like this, if you only had a power wheel to adjust you’d have “X” amount of data. But, add a valve return adjustment and it can at least quadruple that amount of data! Then, multiply that by how many calibers you get with the Impact! Then, multiply that again by the amount of different pellets and pellet weights you get in each caliber! You might disagree with some of my math but it still adds up, one way or another, to a LOT of different settings and a LOT of data! Just take a minute to think it over... 7 power settings... a fine threaded screw adjustment for the valve return... 177, 22, 25, 30 calibers... different weights in all those calibers...
Don't forget to shoot me some accuracy, if you feel I deserve it.
I’m sure there is more that can be added to these lists. Feel free to add your thoughts!
Happy Shooting!
Tom
If you’re in the first shipment, there’s not too much longer to wait! If you’re not, I hope time flies for you! A few questions you might want to ask yourself are...What are you going to use it for? How are you going to treat it, decorate it, and accessorize it? How much are you going to shoot it? What are you going to shoot at? I’m sure there’s many more questions that could be added to this small list. I’ve attempted to narrow down the majority of shooters into 4 main categories and then make a list of what I feel you might want to buy before you get “the call.”
BEGINNER/NOVICE SHOOTER - WOW! Good for you getting an Impact!
NOTEPAD/JOURNAL - I would HIGHLY recommend writing down, measuring, and/or marking ALL factory adjustments as soon as you get your rifle! If you decide to change your settings, you’ll have a guide to get you back to where you started.
Pellets - Lots of pellets!
Targets - What ever it is you're shooting at, you’ll need a bunch of them!
Scope - Pick out a nice scope for yourself.
Scope Mounts - Don't forget to get something to mount the scope with!
Bipod - I’d recommend a genuine Atlas but, they’re pricey. One of the reasons I like the Atlas is that it locks at 45º and that works very well with the balance of the Impact. Regardless, you’ll want to get a bipod with a small picatinny attachment. Or, you might go for a picatinny to sling stud adaptor and then go for a Harris type bipod.
HUNTERS - You guys probably already know what you want to take into the woods with you. So, I'm not going to try to guess everything that's involved. Everything from above plus maybe...
Sling - I found the Magpul MS4 Dual QD with RSA QD sling attachment to work nice.
Scope level - when it comes time to take the shot, you don't want a little scope canting to throw you off.
AR style grip of your choice for comfort, grip, and support out in the field.
BASIC AND BEGINNER TUNERS - Consider all of the above plus...
All Of the above mentioned items.
Start a journal! Really! Take the time to jot down and/or mark your factory settings right from the start. A graph paper style journal might make things a little easier when it comes time to making charts of power settings. I’m saying it again because I really think this is important.
More Pellets! LOTS of pellets in all the kinds and calibers you want!
Build a shot box of some kind - Here's my shot box plans - It would probably do you good to make something to catch all those tuning pellets and have it set up and tested to make sure it can handle the shooting that’s about to take place.
Chronograph - Get a good chrony that you can count on. Also, consider picking up some kind of light kit for it (depending on when/where you’ll be running your strings) and possibly a printing machine to keep you from having to hand write everything.
Figure out your air supply plan - Hopefully you have this planned out already but, if not, get a plan together.
Quality hex key set - You won’t need these for tuning at this level but they may come in handy for other things and a quality set should help combat stripping out any of the heads or the tool itself. The T style will work but, I’d recommend the standard L shape for tight spots such as the trigger adjustments.1mm hex key. I believe this is the size used on the trigger blade. You might want to adjust it and that size is generally not included in the commonly sold hex key sets.
ADVANCED TUNERS - You guys, like the hunters, are probably already pretty prepared for what you want to do. I would not consider myself an advanced tuner but, I’ll put a few more things up here for your consideration...
All of the above mentioned things, especially marking your starting points.
Pellets - Give another bump to your mountain of pellets you’ve already got.
Air Supply - Fill bottles and perform maintenance on compressors.
Quality ball end/wobble end hex key set - There’s ways around this but, those ways might be more of a pain then just picking up a set of hex keys.
Scope cam setup with a good camera.
Trap - Perform maintenance on your shot box or pellet trap.
Shooting bench, vise, rest - Something to hold your rifle in place during all this shooting.
Manometer - A nice high quality manometer might come in handy for fine tuning the reg.
Elbow fitting - If you're shooting tethered, it might make things easier if you put a 90º elbow on the foster fitting.
That should be a majority of what you might need/want. The hammer spring and valve return adjustments do not require any tools. Just those two things are going to give you lots of adjustments and lots of data to process! Think of it like this, if you only had a power wheel to adjust you’d have “X” amount of data. But, add a valve return adjustment and it can at least quadruple that amount of data! Then, multiply that by how many calibers you get with the Impact! Then, multiply that again by the amount of different pellets and pellet weights you get in each caliber! You might disagree with some of my math but it still adds up, one way or another, to a LOT of different settings and a LOT of data! Just take a minute to think it over... 7 power settings... a fine threaded screw adjustment for the valve return... 177, 22, 25, 30 calibers... different weights in all those calibers...
Don't forget to shoot me some accuracy, if you feel I deserve it.
I’m sure there is more that can be added to these lists. Feel free to add your thoughts!
Happy Shooting!
Tom
