FX Impact Pellet Spiral - Possible Root Cause Found

"travels4fun"I was able to make it over to AOA with afternoon. They modified the magazine by filing down some of the metal casing around the opening in the casing where the pellet exits the magazine (see pic). I had hoped to have time to see if that fixed the issue but ran out of time. I should have more time tomorrow and will provide an update in the evening.

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Is that a metal magazine?

I've got same problem with my Impact magazine, but it feels a lot and looks a lot like plastic.

and by the way, the clear acryllic plastic desen't move at all by it self when i'm reloading, i really don't know if that's good or bad..

The case is metal and the clear is plastic.

Should the "clear" move, when released after being turned a little bit? Mine stay's where i release it.

Good news but did you shoot against a white background? Assuming you did.

It's just you can see the pellet flight in the first vid, but not the second (against the black)

I know the POI speaks a fair bit, but would the pellet be able to strike the same place if you zeroed a spiralling gun? ie same damage to pellet, same entry into barrel so at 30m it's done exactly 300 corkscrews (for guess sake) and the point of impact may stay the same? It's when you point the gun up to a different target and it corkscrews half a turn more and suddenly it's an inch out?

FX mags need some improvement. Many I have seen have way too much spring tension, need the opening enlarged or the rotor debuted or opened up. Cocking an fx should be butter smooth the only resistance should be the last couple mm as you pass the breach oring. If it is at all notchy you have a mag issue. Load a mag shoot a group, then load a mag worth of pellets single shot and look at the groups. If your top cover feels like it has lots of tension a d when you let it go it moves a lot on it's own that is bad. Should barely move when you let go of it. One I checked had like 3 turns of preload on it. Mags equal hunting and plinking single shot tray equal ultimate precision.

travels4fun - not sure if I missed the post but did AOA eventually replace your magazine or did you get stuck with the original one that's filed down?
I got my brand new impact a month ago and it's been shooting corkscrews since day one with about 2" of deviation in all directions at 50 yards (at 90 - 100 yards forget it landing anywhere you intended). Tried all 3 of the same pellets as you and ended up with the same results. Paid $60 bucks to send the gun in (including another $15 to find a box that would fit) and finally got it the other day still doing the same thing. And of course noticed tonight that my magazine was also filed down the same way as yours except that I wasn't told that was the "adjustment". Going to call Monday to see what gives...

Tank, i'm interested in what you find out, i too have had issues spiraling, be believe that it is a pellet speed issue not the magazine. I've shot over 500 rounds hand loaded not using the magazine and still had spiraling. When i get back state side i'm going to continue trouble shooting but i believe if i can get my MKII's shooting at 860-880 FPS they will fly straight. AOA (repair department) does not accept pellet spiraling being an issues or it causing accuracy concerns, they reported it is normal. My barrel has been inspected and polished end cap enlarged and still getting spiraling, I've shot heavies from 800 thru 850 FPS and i do get less spiraling towards at 850 but they are still there. I've shot 5 with the shroud off and witness 3 fliers, but its just too loud to continue to do so. If you are going to shoot kings I would do some testing speeds between 820-910 FPS(try increaseing 10 FPS per group) 10 shots each and see if they all spiral.

The gun is shooting Heavy's at ~850fps and Kings at ~953fps on Max power. I think it's actually a combination of several factors causing my problems and the ST barrel being the biggest one. Velocity, twist rate, projectile size, weight and shape are all part of the equation. If you dump any projectile out of a barrel with enough power, they will fly straight up to a certain point due to kinetic energy alone just simply because it can counteract all of the other forces acting against it. Not much different than my 12gauge Berretta shooting a slug or a smooth bore muzzle loader or even a Red Rider BB gun. The heavier the projectile, and the more force it has behind it, the further it will go straighter - But only up to a certain point. Beyond that, rifling/aerodynamics play a huge factor. This is why I'm convinced that I have a barrel issue. At 40-50 yards, the pellets begin to corkscrew. Yes they still make it to the target due to the kinetic energy alone but they are no longer accurate. So yes if I increase power, the groups do tighten up a bit, but only marginally. The pellets are already unstable and all I am really doing is postponing the inevitable and losing efficiency downrange. In some instances I can see the sides of the pellets because they are literally sideways in flight. This is true for all pellets tested (including the kings which is what the gun was tested with at the dealer). So all of the energy from the projectile is being spent on the sideways tumbling and corkscrew flight rather than forward travel to the target. By the time the pellet reaches 90 yards, it's nearly falling out of the sky. And when we pay $2k for a gun, this is not an acceptable compensation, this includes having a brand new magazine filed down to cycle properly. Even so, if the gun shot straight after the mod, I would honestly be okay with it. But it absolutely does not. I can still see that it's off but just not sure to what extent yet. I won't know until I put out targets this week to test. The literature claims 1/2" groups at 50 yards so that's what I will set out to reproduce. New out of the box I was getting 2" groups at 50 and a crapshoot at 90-100. We will see how it does now after warranty repair. What I do know is that testing at the repair center was done at 25 yards only so I have very little confidence that much will have change since my problems start at 40 - 50 yards. My final thoughts after reading about all the other people with these issues are that the ST barrel is the culprit. Not saying all of them, just some. I believe they are highly susceptible to minor inconsistencies in manufacturing. Factors that may not affect a LW or GM barrel "as much" seem to have a dramatic affect on ST barrels. So when they are good, they are really good (as proven by the numerous wins at Extreme BR). When they are less than perfect, this is what you get. I say this because this anomaly doesn't exist in my other guns. I saw a vid showing Frederick Axelsson personally tuning EVERY barrel before it went out. Maybe that's what it takes to get these barrels to shoot properly? In my case, maybe someone dropped or tripped over mine after he got done with it. Who knows.. Either way, if after my testing and I still can't get 1/2" groups as the factory claims then I will keep paying to send it back until it does. In the interim, I think I'll nickname this one Tebow for now....
https://youtu.be/QlRQUZQfLf8

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... sorry, I am too stupid to post. : )

"Dan25"$2,000 for a gun that should have never passed QC. I wouldn't waste my time tinkering with it. Just bring it back and change it out for one without the problem and let FX figure out the issue. That's what warranty service is for.

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+1

"Tactical"They did not give you a new mag?

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I was thinking the same thing? What the heck?

EDIT: I just read that they are out of magazines... That explains it. Glad the "fix" did fix your problem. : )

"KenSkylight"I would be surprised if the little damaged skirt is the cause of the wobble.
The head must not be damaged!
Here is a video that shows this.

I think the barrel is the cause, perhaps the pellet scrape on the Shroud exit hole?

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What, they do not have, "What is most important in airgun accuracy ? pellet head or skirt ?" in Arabic? (Assuming this is Arabic). I hate nothing more than when people use ENGLISH for the title, and then NOT speak English in the video? What the heck?

Regarding the magazines being out of stock- that's an entirely different story. When I initially received the gun, I had several tins of JSB Heavy MK1's and MK2's to test with. I noticed that the MK1's were sticking during loading which caused me to have to push the first pellet the rest of the way in with the subsequent pellet, just so the mag would rotate. I called in and inquired about this but apparently they hadn't heard of such a problem but they graciously offered to take a look at it if I sent it in. I really did not want to wait around with no gun to play with so I just simply ordered another mag (I needed a 2nd mag anyways). Of course it was back ordered, so while waiting for the new mag, it gave me time to figure out why it was shooting so poorly. This is when I noticed the corkscrew issue. That was when I made the decision to send the whole thing back for warranty repair. And no sooner than I shipped the gun out, the new mag arrived at my doorstep. Of course the new one feeds just fine so go figure. Can't make this stuff up...