Maverick first impression from an (spoiled) impact owner

Ha, I think I maybe the .25 thief....

Wasn't looking for a package deal as I have more accessories (scopes, bipods, moderators) than most retail stores but that is how Tony was selling it..

No messages from him so maybe I am wrong but mine is below...

.25 compact with all the bells and whistles shown as well as dual port transfer port and a couple mags...I did purchase a 580cc bottle and 700mm .30 and .25 barrel kits and mags so can swap between compact and sniper versions...

Photo_16069363023121.1607544637.jpg



 
Ha, I think I maybe the .25 thief....







LOL!!!! Hope you enjoy your .25 maverick!

talked to Tony this morning and he offered to send me a .25 barrel to swap but after some debating I’m just going to keep it as it is and save us both some trouble. Tony is great to deal with, a little mixup happens and not a big deal. The .25 barrel was for just in case I want to hunt with .25 pellets and sit in the parts bin anyways, for hunting and long distance target shooting I much prefer .22 slugs. 


I shot it a little more today and it’s ok, still a good upgrade to my dreamtac compact but my opinion of it hasn’t changed, still like my impact, in fact I still like no-longer mine dream-tac compact V1. Tempted to just swap it for an impact compact with Tony since he got some in but decided I’m going to wait for the next version or MK3 when it comes out. It will hold me over till then. Will swap to my TJ barrel like I planned for some testing then maybe put the .22 STX back for some 23 grain slug action if the TJ barrel doesn’t work out. 


the clank and the safety still annoy me but I’ll live with it till the next impact. Sorry, this isn’t a rosy Maverick thread and I sounds like a big spoil child......well, I kinda am. As a FX, correction; as an Impact fan I'm a little underwhelmed by the Maverick but it's also 500 dollars cheaper. 



IMPACT FOR LIFE! 👊





 
My Impact will be here Monday. I had one in 2017 but it was a chronic everything. The guy behind the gun didn’t help, nor did the caliber I chose. Right when I was notified that my gun was in this Maverick pops up. I hesitated but quickly realized if it was better, it would be $2,200. Seeing how they come from the same manufacturer. I’m still curious about the gun but I see through fluff reviews. I will continue to keep an eye on what you think.
 
My Impact will be here Monday. I had one in 2017 but it was a chronic everything. The guy behind the gun didn’t help, nor did the caliber I chose. Right when I was notified that my gun was in this Maverick pops up. I hesitated but quickly realized if it was better, it would be $2,200. Seeing how they come from the same manufacturer. I’m still curious about the gun but I see through fluff reviews. I will continue to keep an eye on what you think.



The more I mess with my Impact the more I realize just how well it's designed and thought out the Impact is! Everything is where it supposed to be and just butter smooth and quiet even at high power tune. Mine is currently setup to shoot at 56 FPE and it merely move a tad more compared to when I was shooting 30FPE, can hardly tell the difference. 



Also the way to tune it is awesome once you get hang of it and not complicate at all, I find it VERY easy to tune. Down side to that is my poor Impact probably had 30-40 different tunes in 8 months as I try different slugs, calibers, pellets at different power level. Mine never leaked or did anything wrong but it has only been 8 months of ownership. I'm super pleased to have bit the bullet and got the impact as my first serious PCP and learned a lot but set the bar really high for the next gun. Another way to look at it is it saved me a lot of money trying different guns till I finally end up with an Impact anyways. LOL!



EDIT: for disclosure I am a tinkerer, I can't leave a good thing alone and I like flexibilities and different setup/tunes. Impact ISN'T for everyone, especially for those who just want a gun to shoot well out of box and leave it. To me Impact is like the AR platform, adult lego set! Of course it has some shortcomings but those are few to me and relatively easy to address. 


 
The thing that sent me back to the Impact is the ability to control the valve. Found myself on other high end guns wishing I had this option. I may have been happier back when all I had was a BSA Ultra and only worried about shooting the hell out of it. Hoping this Impact relationship will be better because I can appreciate it. I also won’t have the I paid $2k and refuse to tear it apart attitude. At least this time, if I have issues, I have plenty of people to turn to. It was lonely back then.
 
The ability to control valve is the biggest differentiator for the Impact and makes tuning a lot easier and give you more ways to tune. The valve adjustment is why you can really crank up the power and still get good shot count/efficiency and less accuracy degradation from muzzle turbulence. Max power tuning Impact is really easy IMHO.

As you mentioned by now the Impact is really well sorted, a lot of people have it and Ernest's videos really help us understand the gun and how work on it. I know you will enjoy it this time, it really is an engineering marvel in airgun. 
 
If the Impact hadn't already been produced, the Maverick would be a huge hit with its innovations. Unfortunately the Maverick is getting compared to the Impact for many good innovative reasons the Impact has. The Maverick is kind of a setback in comparison if not looking at cost, which seems to be rarely ever mentioned.

The externally adjustable valve dwell and reg is the main reasons I went for the Impact. I couldn't pass up this feature knowing what I have experienced with other guns. The many other innovations of the Impact are bonuses.
 
What i would like an honest opinion on is, How does the power of the Maverick compare to the Impact? I have a Dreamtact compact that i bought instead of the impact but still wanting an impact


have not shot it a lot but did mess around with the tune and even with 500mm barrel I actually had a little bit difficult time to tune it down, at 100 bars it was shooting 14.3 grain at over 1000fps on power wheel setting 4 or the middle. Compared to impact in .22 I don’t think there is any sort of power and accuracy difference, it might be slightly more power due to the huge plenum. The impact’s advantages are no loose hammer, no ping in the ear, safety at trigger and the fine tuning capability with the valve adjustment. Keep in mind impact is also 500 dollars more on the dot and a LOT more complicated! If you can ignore the things I bitch about then it’s unbelievably good gun, best bull pup besides the impact IMHO. 
 
Interesting findings from my mucking around with the tune again.

Decided to put my TJ barrel on the Maverick tonight. I cranked up the regulator to about 120 bars and Maxed out the HS from the adjustment screw till the gun won't cock at 7 then back down half a turn. With excitement and curiosity I shot the 20 grain .216 slugs with the FX chorono and.........a little disappointed. The max speed I got is 826 FPS, I can try higher regulator pressure but HS is maxed. Even going from 110 bar to 120 bar I only saw 10 FPS increase so adding more probably won't do much. For reference on my Impact I had the same barrel with the same tin/box of 20 grain slugs I was shooting them at 860-870 FPS without really trying. Reg was at 90 bars and HS is somewhere in the middle of the adjustment or no where near maxed. To be fair I think the TJ barrel has ridiculously tight lands and choke, great for pellets but not so great for slugs but it isn't a slug barrel anyways. 



Sooooooo............from my experiment today the Mavrick is still no where near the power level Impact can achieve at same reg pressure. This isn't a huge surprise because the wildcat valves were never meant to compete with the Impact, the larger plenum helped a lot BUT it's no Impact! So Mavrick will forever be in it's bigger sibling's shadow in........EVERYTHING!!! Not to say it's no good, far from it! It simply isn't quite an Impact. It is a big upgrade from both the dreamline and wildcat still, it's a juiced up Wildcat afterall.



Keep in mind the maverik is still more gun than most people would ever need and 450 dollars less in price. Hopefully this information is helpful for others trying to make a decision between the two. If you can swing it financially the Impact wins hands down, it's one of those "no doubter"!
 
Interesting findings from my mucking around with the tune again.

Decided to put my TJ barrel on the Maverick tonight. I cranked up the regulator to about 120 bars and Maxed out the HS from the adjustment screw till the gun won't cock at 7 then back down half a turn. With excitement and curiosity I shot the 20 grain .216 slugs with the FX chorono and.........a little disappointed. The max speed I got is 826 FPS, I can try higher regulator pressure but HS is maxed. Even going from 110 bar to 120 bar I only saw 10 FPS increase so adding more probably won't do much. For reference on my Impact I had the same barrel with the same tin/box of 20 grain slugs I was shooting them at 860-870 FPS without really trying. Reg was at 90 bars and HS is somewhere in the middle of the adjustment or no where near maxed. To be fair I think the TJ barrel has ridiculously tight lands and choke, great for pellets but not so great for slugs but it isn't a slug barrel anyways. 



Sooooooo............from my experiment today the Mavrick is still no where near the power level Impact can achieve at same reg pressure. This isn't a huge surprise because the wildcat valves were never meant to compete with the Impact, the larger plenum helped a lot BUT it's no Impact! So Mavrick will forever be in it's bigger sibling's shadow in........EVERYTHING!!! Not to say it's no good, far from it! It simply isn't quite an Impact. It is a big upgrade from both the dreamline and wildcat still, it's a juiced up Wildcat afterall.



Keep in mind the maverik is still more gun than most people would ever need and 450 dollars less in price. Hopefully this information is helpful for others trying to make a decision between the two. If you can swing it financially the Impact wins hands down, it's one of those "no doubter"!



I wouldn't call it a jucied up Wildcat. I can get 75 foot pounds out of my .25 cal. MK3 Wildcat and i don't have to deal with a second regulator. And my regulator is set at 128 bar. The Maverick is just a tactical Wildcat with a bottle.
 
I have two Impacts, one a MKII in .25 cal and a MKII PP in 30 cal. I really got to like those rifles and they shoot amazingly well. I have done my share of fiddling/tuning with these with my trusty FX tuning kit as seen below. I thought I had the ultimate guns, until...........

FX Tuning kit.1607865639.jpg


Until I saw the new Crown MKII with the Saber Tactical stock! I immediately ordered one in .22 cal and was impressed on how well it shot right out of the box with JSB KO slugs. Wow. 

Crown Saber Tactical right side.1607866017.jpg


Then, while visiting my local dealer, he had one of the last Crown MKIs in his shop and figured that now the new MKIIs are out, he couldn't get rid of this so he made me a deal I couldn't refuse. Took it home and voila! It shot as good as the MKII. I always kinda like a conventional wood stocked rifle, but never could get my courage up to buying a Crown, but I'm glad I did. Now, I won't have much need for the tuning kit. Does the new Maverick appeal to me?? NAH!

Crown right.1607866116.jpg

 
Interesting findings from my mucking around with the tune again.

Decided to put my TJ barrel on the Maverick tonight. I cranked up the regulator to about 120 bars and Maxed out the HS from the adjustment screw till the gun won't cock at 7 then back down half a turn. With excitement and curiosity I shot the 20 grain .216 slugs with the FX chorono and.........a little disappointed. The max speed I got is 826 FPS, I can try higher regulator pressure but HS is maxed. Even going from 110 bar to 120 bar I only saw 10 FPS increase so adding more probably won't do much. For reference on my Impact I had the same barrel with the same tin/box of 20 grain slugs I was shooting them at 860-870 FPS without really trying. Reg was at 90 bars and HS is somewhere in the middle of the adjustment or no where near maxed. To be fair I think the TJ barrel has ridiculously tight lands and choke, great for pellets but not so great for slugs but it isn't a slug barrel anyways. 



Sooooooo............from my experiment today the Mavrick is still no where near the power level Impact can achieve at same reg pressure. This isn't a huge surprise because the wildcat valves were never meant to compete with the Impact, the larger plenum helped a lot BUT it's no Impact! So Mavrick will forever be in it's bigger sibling's shadow in........EVERYTHING!!! Not to say it's no good, far from it! It simply isn't quite an Impact. It is a big upgrade from both the dreamline and wildcat still, it's a juiced up Wildcat afterall.



Keep in mind the maverik is still more gun than most people would ever need and 450 dollars less in price. Hopefully this information is helpful for others trying to make a decision between the two. If you can swing it financially the Impact wins hands down, it's one of those "no doubter"!

So with some port work, a bigger valve, and some hammer weight the thing will breath better and thus send slugs faster in the smaller caliber's? FX is advertising 116 PFE in .30 with a Maverick Slug Power Kit shooting 65.5 grain slugs @ 895 FPS (without port work).