Well it had to be done.

[philpot 5,073]

I sold my FX Impact .25 fac about 2-3 years ago purchasing an FX Wildcat  a .22 fac to replace it but if I am totally honest, I very quickly missed the power of the quarter bore rifle but as a retired old fart, I was not able to buy another so had to stick with the cat.  I must say however that it was not really the gun I missed, it was the calibre, the sheer umph from the .25 suited me very well with some very long range shooting using pellets not slugs and the desire was firmly stuck in my mind to get another.

I popped into my local rfd today to have a coffee , chat and to check zero in the range of my Wildcat, during our chat we were talking about my pal's Impact .25  Mk2 fac was still in the shop so we talked about how much my gun was worth etc etc................ I just suggested that we did a swap, my wildcat for my pal's Impact.  DEAL DONE

I took my Airmax scope off the cat and mounted it on the Impact, bugger no pellets so I took a tin of H&N Baracuda pellets, utter crap, kept on getting stuck in the mag then one stuck in the barrel..............................not impressed, not paying for them, well in fact they gave me the tin to melt down for fishing leads with more of them to follow so I am happy after all.  The only other .25 pellets in stock were JSB Hades, well these fed perfectly in the mag and spot on down range so this was my starter pellet although I have 7 new tins of AA Fields at home to use. My buddy and I have just gained another rabbit perm tonight and took the Impact with me although no rabbits around to shoot but I took a nice plump woodpigeon at about 40yds which seemed to impress the land owner so the perm was ours.  We popped in to another perm we have about 1 mile away just for a few quick shots before we lost daylight, 2 rabbits in the bag so the Hades did a good job. I do need to do some range work to sort out hold over at varying distance which I will do while we are on holiday next week in Suffolk at my favourite shooting ground.

I can really say I am so pleased to get back to quarter bore again.

Phil

[j j m 6,609]

mans got to do what a mans got to do

[bigmac 97kt 13,824]

Thats what i keep telling my lass Jeff

When she keeps asking 

Why do you need All these rifle

[philpot 5,073]

Sunday afternoon I was taking the impact for some sunbathing rabbit sport but as I topped up the gun with air, a hiss could be heard, from the 250 bar fill it dropped the pressure until it reached 200 bar then looked stable so I took it anyway.  It was of course dropping all the time but at a slower rate, overnight it was down to under 50bar so a new set of seals is needed.  Now the gun has been sat in the rfd stock room untouched for over 2 years so I am not surprised to see this problem and as it was running at 41fpe it is a bit on the low side as mu old one was sat at 52fpe and I do want to have it taken upto around 55 -60fpe so a trip over to Pickering guns later this week after I have spoken to Rob at the shop to see what he can do.  Pickering is 1.25hr drive which is a pain but he really knows his stuff when it comes to FX guns.

I took the Impact to suffolk last week whilst on holiday and ran some tests in the early evening after the clay shoot had closed for the day as I wanted to get some longer zero and holdover setting sorted.  Zero at 45yd,  at 59yd still zero,  at 69yd a tiny whisker of holdover but to be honest on the cross hairs was fine, at 100yd 1 mildot holdover and coming back down to 30yd still on zero.  I used AA Fields 25.4gr pellets with no breeze at all. this would make hunting a pretty straight forward affair.

Now I will find out how much this will cost tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed.

Phil

[philpot 5,073]

I have had the Impact in Pickering Guns for new seals all round, new reg, servicing and resetting the power level.  On Saturday we had the drive over to Pickering to collect the gun,  now running at 55fpe with JSB King Heavy Mk11 33.94gr.  I fitted the Airmax Compact SF back on and today popped over to the rfd to set an initial zero at 25mt as a start point ready for when these bloody winds bugger off so I can work it out to 100mt without a 50mph running sideways across the area I use for gun / pellet testing. Another brilliant reason for going to Pickering is to call in Pickering Farm Shop who sell the best vanilla slices on the planet so to ensure they did not run out, we ordered some the day before...................feckin hansome, we scoffed them in short time.

I sat myself down in the rfd range in the left lane whilst a real target shooter was concentrating on his shooting in the next lane and behind the lane seperating screen. His .177 leaving a delicate 'plink' on the metal backdrop when I released the first shot........................BANG as the 34gr pellet hammered the steel sheet,  a curious face popped round from behind the screen, ' what the hell was that' he said then looked at these huge .25 pellets comparing them with his own .177, his face made me quietly chuckle to myself.

Okay the basic zero is done and a quick test to compare my usual .25 AA Fields and a sample from my tin of Hades, both of which produced pellet on pellet so when wind conditions allow I will set zero on the Kings at 45mt then work out what holdovers are needed but I will also see how the other two performed under the same distances as the Kings and only then will I decide which pellet is going to be my start up pellet for hunting.

I was hoping to run slugs in the gun but I was advised by Pickering guns that my barrel was in fact a Mk1 series barrel which has choke in the muzzle and not suited to slugs which is a shame as our old friend Mitch (villaman) very kindly sent me a set of sample slugs so not sure if I should risk it or leave well alone.

It is really nice to get it back and now look forward to getting out for some serious testing.

Phil