Are FX Rifles Really This Unreliable?

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weevil said:
As I mentioned in the other thread, those tiny rings are so painful. I’m of the opinion that FX has taken a step backward with its regulators. First, the Panthera demonstrates that there isn’t a need to have two. Second, they are much smaller than the majority of regs found in other guns, which are often as wide as their air tubes. It’s a lot of stress to place on tiny pieces of rubber. Furthermore, having two high power Pantheras, with their gauges facing me as I shoot, I can tell you that the refresh rate with the FX reg is sub-par. I can dry fire 5 quick shots and drop the reg reading by 25 bar. Yet a Leshiy 2 (and presumably other semi-autos like the Huben) can hold it together during rapid fire?
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Apples to oranges. Semi's need fast refresh rates to operate in such a manner.

FX regs refresh slow because they deem it superior in shot to shot consistency, else they wouldn't use such small air passages for the reg to breathe. FX is trying to produce consistency for competition shooting, not that I agree with all their methods, but its their means to their end, to 'innovate' and sell you a new bell or whistle, such as double regulators, which I always found foolish, and am glad not every manufacturer 'followed the leader' so to speak.
 
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HogKiller said:
NICE tool. Did you lube the o-ring first? Where did you get the o-rings from? I've used McMaster-Carr and Global O-Ring, for breech O-rings I get as close a tolerance o-ring as i can, the tolerance stack and have the i.d's too large to seal nicely. All that said, you could retire nicely on selling those tools, among others to FX owners. I know I'd buy a few. Oh back to your first question, my first Maverick had a leaking front reg, that bottom o-ring was shredded from the factory, so even they have an issue assembling them.
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I definitely lubed them well. I left them sitting in "Slickoleum" while I disassembled the reg, removed one of the old o-rings from the adjustment screw and tested the old o-rings on the tool.
I've used the company linked below in the past and 50 complete sets of FX AMP reg o-ring rebuild sets only cost @ $32 with practically overnight delivery.

Common Metric O-Rings and Hard to Find Metric O-Rings in Stock

All O-Rings Online: An extensive selection of Metric O-Rings in Millimeters (mm), ISO 3601, Japanese Standard JIS B 2401 P, G, S and V O-Ring sizes in Viton®, Buna-N Nitrile, Silicone and EPDM. We make getting o-rings easy!
www.theoringstore.com
 
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Trucker3573 said:
The first reg really is set it and forget it. You want to maintain the 25 to 30 bar difference at least. Having more is no problem. I think I set mine at 145 bar as it’s a compact and I don’t plan to shoot massive projectiles out of it so I will never run a very high second reg. What caliber is yours and what are you shooting out of it ?
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1st off, it's a friend's rifle, not mine. It's a .22 cal and it was set by the retailer to shoot 15.9 grain to 22gr slugs depending on power wheel adjusters.
 
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For anyone needing to rebuild a FX AMP regulator, the sizes and specs shown below is what I ordered from the O-rings Store:

100 x​
1mm X 2mm (NBR) Buna-N 90 Duro Metric O-Ring (H1.00X002)
$4.000​
50 x​
1.5mm X 10mm (NBR) Buna-N 90 Duro Metric O-Ring (H1.50X010)
$5.000​
100 x​
1.5mm X 4mm (NBR) Buna-N 70 Duro Metric O-Ring (N1.50X004)
$8.300​
50 x​
2mm X 7.5mm (NBR) Buna-N 70 Duro Metric O-Ring (N2.00X007.5)
$4.500​
​
---------​
Sub-Total:​
$21.800​
FedEx Air Special (2-3 Day Air):​
$9.950​
Total:​
$31.750​
 
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IRBent said:
1st off, it's a friend's rifle, not mine. It's a .22 cal and it was set by the retailer to shoot 15.9 grain to 22gr slugs depending on power wheel adjusters.
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Ok…135 bar reg is a lot in my opinion. I know many people use the power wheel to shoot a wide array of ammo off one tune. I have found, at least with my compact 25, that approach really doesn’t work well for a consistent tune across all those projectiles. If you set pw 7 to shoot 22 gr slugs at a consistent speed by the time you dial down far enough to shoot 15.89 the extreme spread will open up a lot. I guess it depends how picky you want to be. I pretty much tune for one projectile at a time slightly varying the speeds of that projectile between pw 5-7. With pw 7 being the max speed your gun will produce with the given reg pressure, the velocities produced will be incredibly consistent. Six will just be a little slower but very consistent. At 5 the spread starts to open but acceptable. At 4 it gets rather inconsistent. Different gun configurations may respond differently? Just some food for thought. I would also experiment with some lower 2nd reg pressures.
 
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Stubbers said:
Apples to oranges. Semi's need fast refresh rates to operate in such a manner.

FX regs refresh slow because they deem it superior in shot to shot consistency, else they wouldn't use such small air passages for the reg to breathe. FX is trying to produce consistency for competition shooting, not that I agree with all their methods, but its their means to their end, to 'innovate' and sell you a new bell or whistle, such as double regulators, which I always found foolish, and am glad not every manufacturer 'followed the leader' so to speak.
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Plenty of L2s have single digit ESs and there are many people with Pantheras waiting 20+ seconds between shots for the reg/plenum to recover so that single digit ES can be achieved. Not so great for its intended PRS with 10 shots in 120 seconds. There are also many non-semis that have fast and accurate regs.
 
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Trucker3573 said:
Ok…135 bar reg is a lot in my opinion. I know many people use the power wheel to shoot a wide array of ammo off one tune. I have found, at least with my compact 25, that approach really doesn’t work well for a consistent tune across all those projectiles. If you set pw 7 to shoot 22 gr slugs at a consistent speed by the time you dial down far enough to shoot 15.89 the extreme spread will open up a lot. I guess it depends how picky you want to be. I pretty much tune for one projectile at a time slightly varying the speeds of that projectile between pw 5-7. With pw 7 being the max speed your gun will produce with the given reg pressure
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I understand. The gun was set up for a lady (who is a first time PCP owner) by the retailer so it could shoot FX Hybrids on power wheel 7. Basically set up for ease of use, not necessarily for accuracy. Turning it down to 0 it could shoot Hades @ 900. The gun hasn't been operable enough to even consider tinkering with reg settings yet. We'll get around to it once the gun is reliable to adjust without blowing out a reg seal.
 
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weevil said:
Plenty of L2s have single digit ESs and there are many people with Pantheras waiting 20+ seconds between shots for the reg/plenum to recover so that single digit ES can be achieved. Not so great for its intended PRS with 10 shots in 120 seconds. There are also many non-semis that have fast and accurate regs.
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Think you're missing my point, re-read what I said...

Btw I run lane regulators that refresh 10x faster than L2's...so if you think I am defending fx and their use of tiny air passages in their regs, then you're mistaken. I only offer an explanation, argue all you want till your blue in the face, won't change history, history I tried explaining to you...
 
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Here you go, fellas, for the ones seeking a store bought commercial o ring install tool.

DCI #9316 - O - Ring Tool Kit - DCI9316 - Dental Supplies at 55dental.com

DCI #9316 - O - Ring Tool Kit , DCI9316 , DCI Parts , Dental Supplies at 55dental.com
www.55dental.com
I personally own this set and it was the middle of the three tools that somewhat worked on getting the 2 x 1 o rings onto the adjustment screw. I used it for awhile but wanted a design where when I slipped the tool over the end that meets with the piston, I wanted the tool to insert the lowest of o rings directly onto its groove first, then the top o ring was easy as I didn’t lower my tool as deep onto the adj screw. So I had to design my own and had it made. But in a pinch, this stainless 3 pack will work, as I have used them.
This three pack kit can be found on amazon, eBay, and prices go from mid $30’s all the way to mid $20’s. I just did a quick search and this was the lowest I found them to cost.

What makes the o rings tough to install is trying to hold the tiny reg screw with one hand in the first place. If you invert the screw so the threads and Allen socket point down, and thread it onto the reg body(which is out of the gun), now you have a “platform” holding the reg screw for you, allowing install of these o rings to be more of a two handed job
 
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Bigragu said:
Here you go, fellas, for the ones seeking a store bought commercial o ring install tool.

DCI #9316 - O - Ring Tool Kit - DCI9316 - Dental Supplies at 55dental.com

DCI #9316 - O - Ring Tool Kit , DCI9316 , DCI Parts , Dental Supplies at 55dental.com
www.55dental.com
I personally own this set and it was the middle of the three tools that somewhat worked on getting the 2 x 1 o rings onto the adjustment screw. I used it for awhile but wanted a design where when I slipped the tool over the end that meets with the piston, I wanted the tool to insert the lowest of o rings directly onto its groove first, then the top o ring was easy as I didn’t lower my tool as deep onto the adj screw. So I had to design my own and had it made. But in a pinch, this stainless 3 pack will work, as I have used them.
This three pack kit can be found on amazon, eBay, and prices go from mid $30’s all the way to mid $20’s. I just did a quick search and this was the lowest I found them to cost.

What makes the o rings tough to install is trying to hold the tiny reg screw with one hand in the first place. If you invert the screw so the threads and Allen socket point down, and thread it onto the reg body(which is out of the gun), now you have a “platform” holding the reg screw for you, allowing install of these o rings to be more of a two handed job
Click to expand...
I use a brass set by Hoops https://www.amazon.com/Hoppes-T03-h...944347&sprefix=brass+gun+picks,aps,258&sr=8-1 and a large very sharp needle to poke it and pull it out. I've ground down a small hemostat to get in and pull them out, per Ernst Rowe.
 
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Stubbers said:
Think you're missing my point, re-read what I said...

Btw I run lane regulators that refresh 10x faster than L2's...so if you think I am defending fx and their use of tiny air passages in their regs, then you're mistaken. I only offer an explanation, argue all you want till your blue in the face, won't change history, history I tried explaining to you...
Click to expand...
I’m not arguing - simply stating some facts relating to many L2 shot strings and two Panthera that I own.
 
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IRBent said:
10 days in and a brand new Wildcat MK3 BT hasn't functioned more than a few mags without having to be worked on. The gun arrived with @ 195 bar and we shot 3 mags through it, maybe 10 pellets sighting it in then 2 mags each. We filled the bottle and left. The next morning it had leaked about half the bottle out. Refill and I could hear a small hiss coming from the bottle area. Pulled the bottle and the stock then screwed the bottle on. The hissing turned or grew into a full blown rush of air coming out around the reg adjusting screw. Received a reg rebuild kit a week later and installed all new o-rings. Filled the bottle and found it about half full the next morning. Pulled the bottle, degassed and removed the reg adjusting screw to find the outer o-ring all chewed up when the reg was only ran up to 150bar. Ordered 50 sets of o-rings and installed 2 new ones on the reg screw this evening. Filled the bottle and slowly began to open the first reg. When it got up near 100bar I could hear air rushing through and filling the plenum but it never equalized. Found it leaking out the barrel. So now I assume the main valve seals have given up the ghost

I hear these guns can be iffy, but once you work out the bugs they can be reliable. However I'm so tired of fighting it already and since it's under warranty, I suppose it will be going in for warranty work. Any advice or personal experiences you guys can share would be welcomed.

View attachment 358843
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Definitely no expert here, but it sounds like your reg screw was adjusted out too far. When you go past the top of the reg body with the top of the screw, it wrecks the top o-ring. Been there, done that. It’s a PITA to replace, but not impossible.
 
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