FX reveals the "Crown" and the Smooth Twist "X" barrel system!

Exciting design features, for sure. I certainly hope the gauges used on the new Crown are upgraded from the current production run of Impacts. If the end user can not trust the pressure gauges the adjustable HST and regulator settings would be disappointing!

"sniperlabyo"Hopefully I will be getting a preproduction to QA.

love the design, but at least it look like my impact mags will fit on the left side--hope so I got 12 mags.

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If FX is smart, they will take you up on your offer. It may not only save them some money and headaches that some of the FX Impacts caused, but also saves headaches and frustration for the customers.

"Yrrah"

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I will take a punt on the Crown if I can get one into Australia, minus the sound moderation, and work it over for the rest of my shooting days. ... Yrrah.

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That would amazingly beneficial for the airgun world. Looking forward the twist rate/pellet reviews and studies that you can share for the benefit of the rest of us,

The crown is a beautiful looking rifle and I can totally understand people's excitement about it. It's 
a traditional looking rifle and will have a broad appeal with the air gun community. The new barrel system
is at the heart of what will make this gun special. 
I am a little surprised not to here more impact owners asking will we able to use these barrels on our guns. 
I understand it's early days and the marketing for the new rifle is probably geared more to get sales
of the new gun and barrel system as it is but the impact was an expensive gun and I would like to think
fx would continue to offer improvements to it where possible. 
This may be in the pipeline once the hype about the new gun settles down which I can understand.
I can't see a reason why these barrel couldn't work on an impact. I suppose I'm a bit impatient and 
anxious to find out. 
Michael

I was planning on getting a Royale 400 in the laminate stock but it looks like I'll be holding out for the Crown. I was wondering about the Crown's AR-15 style safety selector and noticed it's on the right side of the rifle. Seems like it should be positioned on the left side of the rifle like a standard AR-15 or heck, even an ambidextrous or 60 degree selector would suffice.

AirSupply, I asked that very question about if the STX will be interchangeable on the Impact as well the day the new barrel and liners were announced. The chances for an answer on the question i'm sure is about 0% right about now. Maybe as the Crown goes from prototype to production the answer will surface. Way too many impact owners out there and i'm sure they all want to know. Currently barrels and probes for the impact are what 500 bucks. The crown system will be 99 bucks.

I think your right Ginuwine69. As in I have little chance of getting an answer. But doesn't hurt
to put our thoughts out there. You do wonder if maybe a little testing has gone on with 
the impact I mean how would you know? Barrel looks almost identical. They need to do there R&D 
and im fine with that if we all benefit eventually. 
Stiring the pot a bit I know. 
Bottom line is I love what fx is doing and I'm sure that takes money and time. 
I just want one of those barrels. Now!
Shall be watching with much anticipation. 

Isn't there a smaller magazine from another FX that fits the Impact, which would also fit the Crown? When I bought my Impact (.22), I ordered a second mag. When I picked it up there was the large 18 shot mag and a smaller mag (12-14 shot?) in the case. Seems there was an early shortage of the high capacity Impact mags so the smaller one was substituted. When questioned, I was assured it would function just fine. I declined and was given the larger 18 shot mag. 
Sorry I have forgotten which FX has the compatible magazine. Anyone know?

Bought an Impact, lucked out and found one. Seems like everyone is out of them now. Tried to buy a different caliber barrel, nope, had to preorder, that was a month ago, doesn't look good for the supply system.

I struggled with ordering an Impact for over a year. Loved the features but wanted them in a rifle config. I remember asking about the likelihood of that happening here on the AGN some time back and no one ever had any insight. Near the end of January I finally gave in and called AOA and placed a pre order for a .25 impact since they were still out of stock. Something came up and I had to cancel the order after it had already been in for about 45 days. Almost the very next day the Crown was announced here. I couldn't be happier with the timing of cancelling the order. It will be a while before I can place an order for one but I'm super excited to see the reviews start coming in and hear some first hand experiences. Awesome job on continuing meaningful innovations FX!! 

It would sure be nice to see some lengths posted for these. I've got an Impact on order, and prefer shorter rifles, but if these aren't too long, it would be be something else to consider. It sounds like adding new calibers would be quite a bit cheaper than the Impact, but all the figures we've heard a sort of tentative I guess. 

Rusty

I love the concept, but I'm going to wait until the testers get through with their evaluation. Let's see if Ted can clean house at the EBR.

I REALLY Like the Blue/Gray lam! Going to have to order that one as a second if it's not available initially. In fact, I may back down my order from a Walnut to a synthetic stock.

Reading through some of the posts...
It's tough to presume the release on this one. Fx has traditionally brought a new release to EBR. Then, the first shipment arrives about 5 months later. However, we've all seen reports of FX expanding its manufacturing capabilities which means that they should be able to bring new models to retail sooner than they have in the past. 
It would make sense, on many levels, to send them all with a standard smooth twist barrel and then custom request barrels only available afterwards. Reading through the AoA review it states to expect them in mid-April 2017! If that comes true then, WOW! Kudos!

Yup, there's always nay-sayers out there waiting to sling mud that they have no business slinging. In other words, taking about the way something performs without ever having it themselves. Presenting opinions as facts. Mine's better than yours but, I can't actually tell you why, just believe me because I say so. To those people... Without innovation, we will all stay stagnant. Without experimentation, we will never know. Without failure, we will not learn and progress. These words may not make sense to you. That's ok. You still have much to learn before you are able to join the rest of us in intelligent conversation. You'll get there, keep trying.

@Yrrah - I agree completely (as usual). The Impact has a tremendous amount of adjustments that can keep a tuner or "experimenter" busy for an incredible amount of time and provide vast amounts of information. Now, the Crown takes all those adjustments and adds the ability to change twist rates. 
Fine tuning to one pellet is one thing. Fine tuning to multiple calibers/pellet brands is much more in so many ways. Each variation compounds the amount of tweaking/tuning/ and results. I really look forward to your posts! They're over my head sometimes but, always chock full of info to ponder. If there's any way I can assist you getting a Crown, please ask. 

I'm always a sucker for a Grade 2 Walnut stock option. Or a limited edition perhaps? (hint hint FX)

This can be THE one gun in someone's collection that covers multiple shooting disciplines. But, I don't know that it would cover them all. There's a lot of things that this rifle is not - bullpup, fast/easy loader, semi-auto, ultralight... etc, etc. 

Accuracy speculation - Yeah, there's so many ways to look at this. It's a huge topic with way too many variables. Can a rifle that uses a detachable barrel be accurate? Is it the rifle or, is it the shooter and how much time they put in to learning their rifle? Not to lean on Ted again but, he proved it can be done with a detachable barreled rifle. He also did it on a bullpup platform (which is not known for long range shooting). Is it going to perform at a top level straight out of the box? Who can answer that really? I think it's going to perform like any other FX rifle does out of the box. I personally believe the relationship between the rifle and the shooter has to be right in order to achieve accuracy. Ted does really well with bullpups. I don't. I do better with long rifles. 

Interesting thoughts...
Will the ability to tailor the barrels choke result in the virtual elimination of fliers using pellets out of the tin?
Choke, coupled with a proven twist ratio and select pellets, could it prove to be a recipe that changes what we generally view as "long range" for an airgun? 

I hope they come out a single shot tray.
I hope they provide more accurate gauges as well but, it's not a deal breaker. In fact, it's barely a concern (for me anyway). I've learned to use the small gauges only as a guide and I bypass them when I need a true number. 
It would have been nice to have the safety on the left side. I wonder if it had to be on the right due to internal design.

When you look at the Royale vs. the Crown, you can see that the action is a bit taller and the scope is a bit higher overall. I can't help but wonder if this will have an effect on vertical stability. 
Regardless, I'll be keeping my .22 Royale. Might end up putting the .25 up FS, though.
Love the extendable shroud ability! That's pretty cool too. 

I, for one, am really excited about this one! And, once again, adding a Daystate to my collection may have to wait. 
Happy Shooting,
Tom

There's a vid of Ted on the AoA site where he's talking about the Crown. He mentions that it can also use Royale mags so this may mean that existing single pellet trays will work and that a scope can be mounted a little bit lower.

"Yrrah"

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Chuck,
My only word-of-mouth report so far was of a 10 shot half inch group at 100 metres with a test rifle.

Yrrah.

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Harry do you know what caliber Crown was used for the 10 shot group.

"jcjc"There's a vid of Ted on the AoA site where he's talking about the Crown. He mentions that it can also use Royale mags so this may mean that existing single pellet trays will work and that a scope can be mounted a little bit lower.

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You're right. I thought of that right after I posted but have not had time to edit the post. Stopped in at AoA today. Those guys are excited to get their hands on the Crowns and see what they're all about.
Tom

"jcjc"There's a vid of Ted on the AoA site where he's talking about the Crown. He mentions that it can also use Royale mags so this may mean that existing single pellet trays will work and that a scope can be mounted a little bit lower.

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I highly doubt if the Royale single shot trays will work, the new magazine is placed under an angle to clear the scope while using the big magazines. As a result, the ramp in the SST is probably not steep enough to roll the pellet in front of the barrel, unless you cant the rifle to the left.


"weatherby"

"jcjc"There's a vid of Ted on the AoA site where he's talking about the Crown. He mentions that it can also use Royale mags so this may mean that existing single pellet trays will work and that a scope can be mounted a little bit lower.

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I highly doubt if the Royale single shot trays will work, the new magazine is placed under an angle to clear the scope while using the big magazines. As a result, the ramp in the SST is probably not steep enough to roll the pellet in front of the barrel, unless you cant the rifle to the left.

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Good point. 

"weatherby"

"jcjc"There's a vid of Ted on the AoA site where he's talking about the Crown. He mentions that it can also use Royale mags so this may mean that existing single pellet trays will work and that a scope can be mounted a little bit lower.

Click to expand...

I highly doubt if the Royale single shot trays will work, the new magazine is placed under an angle to clear the scope while using the big magazines. As a result, the ramp in the SST is probably not steep enough to roll the pellet in front of the barrel, unless you cant the rifle to the left.

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I see what you mean. However, there are other trays out there that do not use the slide method. They should work pretty well. 

It would be fantastic if "Rowan Engineering" designed aftermarket pellet loading trays for FX in the same way they do for Daystate (http://www.rowanengineering.com/products10.htm#wolveringloader), as that may be a nice addition.