FX M4 - best setup for bench?

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dasenahk

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Feb 22, 2025
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Have seen a ton of videos on the new m4. I am just looking to shoot paper with pellets (at 100 yards), and am wondering what the ideal caliber / barrel combo is. @UpNorthAirGunner called 0.30 cal, "Gods caliber", and makes a compelling case! If I do go for 30 (or 25) cal, would it be better to pair that with a 700mm barrel, for maximum accuracy and consistency? Or would a standard 600mm or compact 500mm be equally good, if I plan on shooting pellets 95 percent of the time ?

Thank you !
 
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dasenahk said:
Have seen a ton of videos on the new m4. I am just looking to shoot paper with pellets (at 100 yards), and am wondering what the ideal caliber / barrel combo is. @UpNorthAirGunner called 0.30 cal, "Gods caliber", and makes a compelling case! If I do go for 30 (or 25) cal, would it be better to pair that with a 700mm barrel, for maximum accuracy and consistency? Or would a standard 600mm or compact 500mm be equally good, if I plan on shooting pellets 95 percent of the time ?

Thank you !
Click to expand...
Suggestion for you: read on the m4 here and forget YouTube vids on it ;) most of them are sponsored, affiliated or, best case, depending on getting the rifles for free to create content… if you buy the gun, you’ll not receive the YouTube M4. Not saying you can’t make it a great bench rifle but that’s not what you’re buying out of the box.
 
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greenbeans said:
Suggestion for you: read on the m4 here and forget YouTube vids on it ;) most of them are sponsored, affiliated or, best case, depending on getting the rifles for free to create content… if you buy the gun, you’ll not receive the YouTube M4. Not saying you can’t make it a great bench rifle but that’s not what you’re buying out of the box.
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Truer words have never been spoken.
 
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greenbeans said:
Suggestion for you: read on the m4 here and forget YouTube vids on it ;) most of them are sponsored, affiliated or, best case, depending on getting the rifles for free to create content… if you buy the gun, you’ll not receive the YouTube M4. Not saying you can’t make it a great bench rifle but that’s not what you’re buying out of the box.
Click to expand...
This is gonna be long, but @dasenahk tagged me so I will bite and jump in here.

You're not wrong about some of the YouTube content out there. There are YouTubers that just want the free stuff to keep their channel relevant. With that said, there are some channels that CHOOSE to shoot and highlight FX Airguns because sponsored or not, it is what we choose to shoot competitively. I'll put my channel into that category.

I have access to and have shot most of the airguns you will see on the line during competition and have even turned down paid opportunities to shoot other brands. Not saying that won't change ever in the future because I am going to shoot the airgun that gives me the bet opportunity for a podium spot. For me, what you will see in my hands during competition is the airgun I have worked with the most and trust the most to put me into the finals and a shot at $20,000 at RMAC and big money at all the other competitions. That for me right now is the FX King (Dynamic) or the FX Impact M4 in .30 cal with a 700mm barrel system.

Yes... .30 cal has become GOD's caliber for airgun benchrest. The BC profiles we are getting with AEA and Zan pellets are crazy good and give us such an advantage with wind drift over any other pellet caliber while allowing the gun to not work so hard shooting such a heavy for caliber projectile (ie. high ballistic coefficient).

With that said, I would keep your eye on what Karma Airguns and Skout are doing. Lots of crazy advancement going on there and the Karma Red Panda barrel system is FIRE! My point is this... YouTubers or not, competition results don't lie and every single competition there are DayStates and RAW and FX and Karma and Skout all being represented and the finals list of competitors and their airguns don't lie.

I personally think an analysis of the statistical finals representation is a better metric vs. podiums. I know that sounds backwards, but podiums represent a SINGLE scoring card, but if you looked at all three cards from every major benchrest event, you will see consistency of what are the proven platforms to be considering. So take this from someone who has shot almost every airgun that you will see on the line at RMAC and the FX Impact M4 has a TON of reasons as to why you will see a TON of them on the shooting line come RMAC. Not to mention the insane advancement around pellet innovation right now in .30 cal from ZAN and AEA and if I was a betting man, JSB ain't gonna roll over on coming out with a high BC option that actually works.

With that in mind, having access to a company that can roll out new barrel liner profiles with a touch of a button with custom rifling depth, choke profiles, and twist rates aligned with new ammo options with a touch of a button and now you can buy that new barrel liner for $100?! Ya, you can hate on FX all you want and the promotional machine they have created, but that barrel liner technology is what has made 100 yard benchrest scores statistically soar. Go look at scores from 8 years ago.... Seeing someone in the 220s was someone who was blowing away the competition. Now 220s doesn't get you into the finals.

So to your point of an FX M4 or FX King right out of the box not being able to hang and you have to put a bunch of money into the platform to perform is BS. I made the finals and came in 6th overall with a BONE STOCK FX King at the 2024 NE Airguns Classic. I dropped it into a Saber Tactical Chassis and shot the best season of my life with that airgun, but it has ZERO internal mods. There are bone stock FX Impacts every year though that make the finals and the shooters aren't sponsored. Hell, Dusty Powers came out of no where a few years ago and kicked all of our asses with an FX Crown in .22 cal!

I will leave you with this.... To quote Mike Tyson, ""Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face!" Well, at RMAC that punch in the face is wind you have never seen before in your life and I've seen the very best tuned airguns and shooters barely break 200 points. To say this has become an equipment race is total BS. Yes the innovation has enabled 230s and 240 with 8x by Thayne Simmons last year with his Red Panda, but you still gotta know when to take the shot, because that wind will blow your pellet out of the ENTIRE scoring ring. That is my two cents, and thanks for listening to the rant. LOL!
 
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UpNorthAirGunner said:
This is gonna be long, but @dasenahk tagged me so I will bite and jump in here.

You're not wrong about some of the YouTube content out there. There are YouTubers that just want the free stuff to keep their channel relevant. With that said, there are some channels that CHOOSE to shoot and highlight FX Airguns because sponsored or not, it is what we choose to shoot competitively. I'll put my channel into that category.

I have access to and have shot most of the airguns you will see on the line during competition and have even turned down paid opportunities to shoot other brands. Not saying that won't change ever in the future because I am going to shoot the airgun that gives me the bet opportunity for a podium spot. For me, what you will see in my hands during competition is the airgun I have worked with the most and trust the most to put me into the finals and a shot at $20,000 at RMAC and big money at all the other competitions. That for me right now is the FX King (Dynamic) or the FX Impact M4 in .30 cal with a 700mm barrel system.

Yes... .30 cal has become GOD's caliber for airgun benchrest. The BC profiles we are getting with ZEA and Zan pellets are crazy good and give us such an advantage with wind drift over any other pellet caliber while allowing the gun to not work so hard shooting such a heavy for caliber projectile (ie. high ballistic coefficient).

With that said, I would keep your eye on what Karma Airguns and Skout are doing. Lots of crazy advancement going on there and the Karma Red Panda barrel system is FIRE! My point is this... YouTubers or not, competition results don't lie and every single competition there are DayStates and RAW and FX and Karma and Skout all being represented and the finals list of competitors and their airguns don't lie.

I personally think an analysis of the statistical finals representation is a better metric vs. podiums. I know that sounds backwards, but podiums represent a SINGLE scoring card, but if you looked at all three cards from every major benchrest event, you will see consistency of what are the proven platforms to be considering. So take this from someone who has shot almost every airgun that you will see on the line at RMAC and the FX Impact M4 has a TON of reasons as to why you will see a TON of them on the shooting line come RMAC. Not to mention the insane advancement around pellet innovation right now in .30 cal from ZAN and AEA and if I was a betting man, JSB ain't gonna roll over on coming out with a high BC option that actually works.

With that in mind, having access to a company that can roll out new barrel liner profiles with a touch of a button with custom rifling depth, choke profiles, and twist rates aligned with new ammo options with a touch of a button and now you can buy that new barrel liner for $100?! Ya, you can hate on FX all you want and the promotional machine they have created, but that barrel liner technology is what has made 100 yard benchrest scores statistically soar. Go look at scores from 8 years ago.... Seeing someone in the 220s was someone who was blowing away the competition. Now 220s doesn't get you into the finals.

So to your point of an FX M4 or FX King right out of the box not being able to hang and you have to put a bunch of money into the platform to perform is BS. I made the finals and came in 6th overall with a BONE STOCK FX King at the 2024 NE Airguns Classic. I dropped it into a Saber Tactical Chassis and shot the best season of my life with that airgun, but it has ZERO internal mods. There are bone stock FX Impacts every year though that make the finals and the shooters aren't sponsored. Hell, Dusty Powers came out of no where a few years ago and kicked all of our asses with an FX Crown in .22 cal!

I will leave you with this.... To quote Mike Tyson, ""Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face!" Well, at RMAC that punch in the face is wind you have never seen before in your life and I've seen the very best tuned airguns and shooters barely break 200 points. To say this has become an equipment race is total BS. Yes the innovation has enabled 230s and 240 with 8x by Thayne Simmons last year with his Red Panda, but you still gotta know when to take the shot, because that wind will blow your pellet out of the ENTIRE scoring ring. That is my two cents, and thanks for listening to the rant. LOL!
Click to expand...
Appreciate the perspective and insight!! A couple of things though just to avoid misunderstandings:

First, I don’t hate FX in a way, shape or form. I have an M4. Plus currently 4 more FX in the stable.

Second, I didn’t mean to put “all” YouTubers in the same category and actually didn’t even notice that you were tagged, my comment was in no way directed to you, sorry in case it came across that way.

Third, my basic point is that the number of “I bought an M4 but now I have this and that problem” post by people simply buying them because of “pointing out the positive and omitting the negative” videos (or straightforward hype-vids) is just insane these days. Just look on the forum. A large number of the M4s have crazy issues right out of the box. Good for you that yours doesn’t but a lot have. All of them are solvable but wanted to make sure that @dasenahk is AWARE of what he was potentially going to buy before he buys it. You are obviously capable of dealing with such issues and so are others. But some M4 buyers are not (or not willing and I don’t blame them given it’s a +2k gun). And someone asking about the benefit of a longer barrel may not (yet) be an airgunsmith who’d just rip into the gun and fix what needs fixing.

Last, my comment was to the M4. If the question would have been King or Panthera, I would have said “go for it”. The impact is a different animal imho, both in terms of how it functions and how it is marketed.

P.S.: So can you in all honesty say that you never got a freebie FX (whether as a loaner or for good)?! Just curious, not implying that your opinions are not genuine if so.
 
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greenbeans said:
Appreciate the perspective and insight!! A couple of things though just to avoid misunderstandings:

First, I don’t hate FX in a way, shape or form. I have an M4. Plus currently 4 more FX in the stable.

Second, I didn’t mean to put “all” YouTubers in the same category and actually didn’t even notice that you were tagged, my comment was in no way directed to you, sorry in case it came across that way.

Third, my basic point is that the number of “I bought an M4 but now I have this and that problem” post by people simply buying them because of “pointing out the positive and omitting the negative” videos (or straightforward hype-vids) is just insane these days. Just look on the forum. A large number of the M4s have crazy issues right out of the box. Good for you that yours doesn’t but a lot have. All of them are solvable but wanted to make sure that @dasenahk is AWARE of what he was potentially going to buy before he buys it. You are obviously capable of dealing with such issues and so are others. But some M4 buyers are not (or not willing and I don’t blame them given it’s a +2k gun). And someone asking about the benefit of a longer barrel may not (yet) be an airgunsmith who’d just rip into the gun and fix what needs fixing.

Last, my comment was to the M4. If the question would have been King or Panthera, I would have said “go for it”. The impact is a different animal imho, both in terms of how it functions and how it is marketed.

P.S.: So can you in all honesty say that you never got a freebie FX (whether as a loaner or for good)?! Just curious, not implying that your opinions are not genuine if so.
Click to expand...

No worries on your first and second points as my comments were more broad brush strokes responding to common narrative I have heard out there on some of these things I addressed.

I'll answer your P.S. first. Getting gear for review for "Free" indicates the total lack of understanding of what it takes to run a YouTube channel or content creation or the R&D work supporting these companies, giving feedback as new products come out or to make current products better. I would be better off working a part-time job and just buying this stuff outright if I did the math on the time and effort I put into this.

But I do it for the love of this sport and is a great distraction from my full-time job which has a very high level of stress. I have had people ask me over the years about how to get into becoming a YouTuber. I try and redirect the question to: "How do I get into becoming an educator and sharing my passion for this sport on video and social media regardless of sponsorship or not?"

I don't see that as work because I love storytelling and sharing my journey on video and social media and help get feedback to companies to make their products better. That is the right way to look at this vs. getting freebies.

I will say this about the FX Impact M4. It is the most advanced airgun system on the market and you can get yourself into some problems if you don't go slow and understand how it functions. Any real issues with it, retailers and approved dealers like Utah Airguns are gonna stand by the product. For a benchrest rig, the M4's trigger is hands down the best in the industry and if you do want to run it as a true benchrest rig you can run it bone stock, but you can ring out some better results with a better lower rail and top rail to add some weight. But overall it is still one of the leading rigs I would start with for Benchrest because of the adjustability and tuneability, but that can also be a double-edged sword if you're just jumping into this. I've seen a lot of people jack up their tunes and try wrenching on these things not knowing what they are doing.

But that can be true of any rig. Trust me, I have jacked up quite a few RAW and FX and AirForce and... and... and... I don't trust myself around a Skout or Daystate. I would probably electrocute myself. LOL!
 
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UpNorthAirGunner said:
No worries on your first and second points as my comments were more broad brush strokes responding to common narrative I have heard out there on some of these things I addressed.

I'll answer your P.S. first. Getting gear for review for "Free" indicates the total lack of understanding of what it takes to run a YouTube channel or content creation or the R&D work supporting these companies, giving feedback as new products come out or to make current products better. I would be better off working a part-time job and just buying this stuff outright if I did the math on the time and effort I put into this.

But I do it for the love of this sport and is a great distraction from my full-time job which has a very high level of stress. I have had people ask me over the years about how to get into becoming a YouTuber. I try and redirect the question to: "How do I get into becoming an educator and sharing my passion for this sport on video and social media regardless of sponsorship or not?"

I don't see that as work because I love storytelling and sharing my journey on video and social media and help get feedback to companies to make their products better. That is the right way to look at this vs. getting freebies.

I will say this about the FX Impact M4. It is the most advanced airgun system on the market and you can get yourself into some problems if you don't go slow and understand how it functions. Any real issues with it, retailers and approved dealers like Utah Airguns are gonna stand by the product. For a benchrest rig, the M4's trigger is hands down the best in the industry and if you do want to run it as a true benchrest rig you can run it bone stock, but you can ring out some better results with a better lower rail and top rail to add some weight. But overall it is still one of the leading rigs I would start with for Benchrest because of the adjustability and tuneability, but that can also be a double-edged sword if you're just jumping into this. I've seen a lot of people jack up their tunes and try wrenching on these things not knowing what they are doing.

But that can be true of any rig. Trust me, I have jacked up quite a few RAW and FX and AirForce and... and... and... I don't trust myself around a Skout or Daystate. I would probably electrocute myself. LOL!
Click to expand...
I can only imagine the amount of work needed to run the channel and appreciate what you’re doing on and off camera for the community. But I’d wager that it’s also a ton of fun (editing videos aside maybe :)).

Anyway, being provided with free stuff to do and promote something we all love probably makes it a little harder to point out the not so great things about said stuff. Look, as said I love my m4 but it needed work (work, not necessarily money). Mine was one of the many with the sticky valve rod and 20plus warmup shots. Screws were loose in the top rail. At some point (granted after a couple of 1000 of shots or so) my trigger decided to stick and then fire with a delay of 5-10 seconds WITH the safety on (unadjusted out of the box trigger - which is an awesome trigger so wholeheartedly agree with you). All more or less easy fixes and UA was great shipping warranty parts fast. But I’d still have preferred to not need them. There is another guy on here that had a wrong bolt on the grip hanging on by a thread and poorly machined parts with out of spec holes. And there are many others. None of these or any other issues are mentioned on the usual YT channels. Makes a guy wonder…
 
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I don’t think some of us need to understand what it takes to run a YouTube channel. We only care about the final product that people watch, then are influenced by. To me, your reply is that of someone who is sponsored. Not the end of the world but we are probably not going to get the whole truth. It’s honest about the good and brushing lightly over the bad at best in most cases. I have been in love with quality airguns since 1983. That‘s when I sold my $1k BMX bike, big money at that time, to buy a great springer and scope. My love for this has me spend 10k a year on guns to give my opinion influenced by nobody. Not even a smidge. Had I decided I liked hearing my own voice enough to make videos over the years about my journeys with a lot of top PCP’s, I don’t know if even I could have stayed my course without the fear of being blackballed from the industry.

Helping companies make their products better? Do YouTubers really do that? A bunch of us forum knuckleheads fixed a major known issue on the Impact dating back to the introduction of the MKll. If YouTubers and their honest, and that’s a key word, feedback would have been doing what you claim, the M4 wouldn’t have the same issue. Heck, the M3 wouldn’t have had it. It’s a very easy fix for a company.
 
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Vetmx said:
I don’t think some of us need to understand what it takes to run a YouTube channel. We only care about the final product that people watch, then are influenced by. To me, your reply is that of someone who is sponsored. Not the end of the world but we are probably not going to get the whole truth. It’s honest about the good and brushing lightly over the bad at best in most cases. I have been in love with quality airguns since 1983. That‘s when I sold my $1k BMX bike, big money at that time, to buy a great springer and scope. My love for this has me spend 10k a year on guns to give my opinion influenced by nobody. Not even a smidge. Had I decided I liked hearing my own voice enough to make videos over the years about my journeys with a lot of top PCP’s, I don’t know if even I could have stayed my course without the fear of being blackballed from the industry.

Helping companies make their products better? Do YouTubers really do that? A bunch of us forum knuckleheads fixed a major known issue on the Impact dating back to the introduction of the MKll. If YouTubers and their honest, and that’s a key word, feedback would have been doing what you claim, the M4 wouldn’t have the same issue. Heck, the M3 wouldn’t have had it. It’s a very easy fix for a company.
Click to expand...
According to Ernest he flagged it as well years ago but was told “too many parts on the shelves, gotta get through those first”. And then they never changed it…
 
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dasenahk said:
Have seen a ton of videos on the new m4. I am just looking to shoot paper with pellets (at 100 yards), and am wondering what the ideal caliber / barrel combo is. @UpNorthAirGunner called 0.30 cal, "Gods caliber", and makes a compelling case! If I do go for 30 (or 25) cal, would it be better to pair that with a 700mm barrel, for maximum accuracy and consistency? Or would a standard 600mm or compact 500mm be equally good, if I plan on shooting pellets 95 percent of the time ?

Thank you !
Click to expand...
For punching paper 30 might get pricey for ammo. I have a 700mm 22 m3 setup for bench my shooting partner has a maverick in 500 mm in 22. The 500mm is at the upper end of its performance level, my m3 is at the bottom and both shoot the same projectile at the same speed. Neither gun is stock for hammers or reg pressures or liners(heavy liners) and we shoot heavy for caliber pellets and light slugs. That said..... If it were MY money and MY shot to do things over, I'd probably go for a 600mm 22(high bc's) or 25. My pellet only compact dreamline tactical in 25 shoots lights out at longer ranges with standard jsb kings and really well with hades, whereas the 22 guns with 25 grain pellets seen to fall apart near 100 yards where the 380 dreamline is solid to 150.

700mm has some resonance/barrel whip/flexibility sensitivity that it's taken me some work to rectify (i can machine my own parts)and this might not be feasible for most. The air efficiency and power of the 700 is neat, but i dont think I'd do it again now that I have all the air for how sensitive it is, long and heavy.

When I shoot up my vast collection of 22 ammo I might rebarrel in 600mm 25 cal and fabricate a new carbon tensioner tube. Hope this helps inform your decision in some way.
 
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greenbeans said:
According to Ernest he flagged it as well years ago but was told “too many parts on the shelves, gotta get through those first”. And then they never changed it…
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A Peek disc would have done the trick until the shelves were cleared. Then they could have just at the very least machined all plenum plugs flat internally moving forward. Easy.
 
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6gun said:
For punching paper 30 might get pricey for ammo. I have a 700mm 22 m3 setup for bench my shooting partner has a maverick in 500 mm in 22. The 500mm is at the upper end of its performance level, my m3 is at the bottom and both shoot the same projectile at the same speed. Neither gun is stock for hammers or reg pressures or liners(heavy liners) and we shoot heavy for caliber pellets and light slugs. That said..... If it were MY money and MY shot to do things over, I'd probably go for a 600mm 22(high bc's) or 25. My pellet only compact dreamline tactical in 25 shoots lights out at longer ranges with standard jsb kings and really well with hades, whereas the 22 guns with 25 grain pellets seen to fall apart near 100 yards where the 380 dreamline is solid to 150.

700mm has some resonance/barrel whip/flexibility sensitivity that it's taken me some work to rectify (i can machine my own parts)and this might not be feasible for most. The air efficiency and power of the 700 is neat, but i dont think I'd do it again now that I have all the air for how sensitive it is, long and heavy.

When I shoot up my vast collection of 22 ammo I might rebarrel in 600mm 25 cal and fabricate a new carbon tensioner tube. Hope this helps inform your decision in some way.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Interesting point on the additional whip on the 700 - would a carbon sleeve mitigate that ?
 
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greenbeans said:
I can only imagine the amount of work needed to run the channel and appreciate what you’re doing on and off camera for the community. But I’d wager that it’s also a ton of fun (editing videos aside maybe :)).

Anyway, being provided with free stuff to do and promote something we all love probably makes it a little harder to point out the not so great things about said stuff. Look, as said I love my m4 but it needed work (work, not necessarily money). Mine was one of the many with the sticky valve rod and 20plus warmup shots. Screws were loose in the top rail. At some point (granted after a couple of 1000 of shots or so) my trigger decided to stick and then fire with a delay of 5-10 seconds WITH the safety on (unadjusted out of the box trigger - which is an awesome trigger so wholeheartedly agree with you). All more or less easy fixes and UA was great shipping warranty parts fast. But I’d still have preferred to not need them. There is another guy on here that had a wrong bolt on the grip hanging on by a thread and poorly machined parts with out of spec holes. And there are many others. None of these or any other issues are mentioned on the usual YT channels. Makes a guy wonder…
Click to expand...
I got an early m3 (pre power block) oddly my valve rod stuff was well stuck and the top strap was OK till i took it apart to tungsten hammer it. Maybe fx just needs more stringent qc on assembly if there's good and bad examples. Both that I own and the other 2 I work on for people have been good examples. As most of us know bad news travels several times faster and wider than good news however.
 
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