FX FX Airguns DRS Pro: How Significant is This Really?

[UpNorthAirGunner]

It’s here! The FX DRS Pro! There is gonna be a lot of excitement and discussion around this design approach by FX. Here’s my hot take!

I’ve been waiting MONTHS to give you all my thoughts on this topic as my excitement is gonna be a bit different with my love for the history of shooting innovation. We are witnessing CENTURIES of Airgun innovation coming to life and perfection by FX Airguns in the FX Dynamic and FX DRS designs. Let me explain my backstory….

So there I was…. Knife in hand standing over the biggest buck I’ve ever shot with a crossbow back in October of last year. Blood up to my elbows finishing up field dressing this Deer and my phone rings. It’s Fredrik from FX Sweden and he’s got some cool things to show and discuss.

The second I saw the FX DRS design I immediately knew what this meant from a historical perspective of innovation in the broader shooting sports. Fredrik, Johan, and FX Airguns had perfected what Airgun designers have been trying to do for centuries. Yes… Centuries! This DRS design approach of a fully regulated precision Airgun with an over-the-barrel main air source with plenum under the rifle in what would normally be in the magazine well, bedded in an MDT Chassis, all culminated into an Airgun design our sport has been striving for 100s of years.

I have seen a few comments about the over-the-barrel main fill source and how it isn't "new" and other companies have done it. If you want to be academically accurate, yes it has been done and has been done since the 18th century. They are missing the point. What FX has done is how they have perfected this approach as well as the use of a plenum where normally the magazine would go. More importantly, this is now commercially available to us shooters through a partnership with MDT who is arguably one of the best and most recognized precision shooting / chassis companies in all of shooting sports.

I'd like to point out that inventors and companies have been striving for an Airgun design that has a familiar manual of arms and ergonomic firearm familiarity for the shooter even before repeating firearms was even a reality. This history dates back to the 18th-century Girardoni air rifle with rear buttstock air reservoir, the 18th-century Edward Bate design with over-the-barrel air reservoir, and the 19th-century Pritchard Ball Reservoir. Notice even back then their inclusion of a somewhat meaningless flint/percussion hammer. Why? Shooter familiarity with a commonly accepted platform. All of these designs were the beginnings of an attempt to build an air rifle that operated and felt like a firearm. FX has masterfully combined these design approaches into one platform with the DRS design concept.

Now with 21st-century modern materials and superior FX Airguns manufacturing capabilities, all of those design concepts have been perfected and rolled into the FX Dynamic and now FX DRS Pro. Airheads we are living in the golden era of airgunning! Enjoy it. I know I am!

 

[Peashooter]

Well i am not a PRO kind of guy, that crawling all over stuff and getting up and getting down, that i leave to the young folks.
I want the DRS Classic to be a fine FAC shooter, able to push reasonable weights ( up to 20 gr in my .177 case ) if it can do that, well then maybe a heavy liner are in order to try the no brake parachute equipped ammo.

PRO is going to price wise be wayyyy outside of my comfort zone even if i was disregarding the stuff its made for and my age.

 

[mubhaur]

It's a beautiful gun. However I feel that the liner inside that barrel has been placed to avoid POI shift as it is a known phenomenon in stx liner system.

 

[tsakula]

I am also interested in barrel system. I hope Air pressure wont affect POI

 

[allinssd]

I'd only be interested if they lengthened the magazine depth to .8-.9" and could power a 185-220gr slug 950+FPS

 

[frankie]

Estimated price for the pro, so I can start saving up?

 

[Peashooter]

At least Impact MK3 territory, maybe King

 

[MadCowCrazy2]

Estimated price for the pro, so I can start saving up?

It's a $300-500 gun in a €1600 chassi so I'd guess $1999-2399 or some such.
I might consider buying one just to get the chassi if it's cheap enough.
The gun itself seems really cheap to manufacture as there are much fewer parts.
The biggest price on an airgun is time spent on the mill, if there are tons of parts to make the gun will be more expensive.
In this case there seems to be very few parts: Body, trigger mechanism, picatinny/dovetail mount, bolt and probe mechanism, liner, airtank shroud with end cap and plenum magazine.
On the other hand there seems to be close to $1000 in upgrades available for the gun at launch. Tungsten hammer and CF barrel shroud seems like a must to me. I don't get why they don't come with tungsten hammer to begin with, it's like a $5 part for them.

I'd be happy if it was $1999 and disappointed if it was over $2500.
The gun

The chassi

 

[msg1979]

At least Impact MK3 territory, maybe King

Which of the King and M3 is considered the most precise?

 

[qball]

That chassis is way too pro for me, is there a cheaper semi pro chassis?

 

[ctshooter]

Sounds like quite a s h i l l to me. Considering 95% of your YT videos are on the FX platform.

This is definitely NOT the innovation us airgunners have been waiting for. At least not the group of arigunners I've been talking to since this first popped over the weekend. Where's the game changer here? Who wants their airgun to be a replica of a pb? Not I. And I definitely do not want my airgun to have a 'magazine' that makes it look even more real.

IMO FX has missed the whole point of airgunning with this release.

 

[spinj]

Sounds like quite a s h i l l to me. Considering 95% of your YT videos are on the FX platform.

This is definitely NOT the innovation us airgunners have been waiting for. At least not the group of arigunners I've been talking to since this first popped over the weekend. Where's the game changer here? Who wants their airgun to be a replica of a pb? Not I. And I definitely do not want my airgun to have a 'magazine' that makes it look even more real.

IMO FX has missed the whole point of airgunning with this release.

I would agree with this. I think airguns like the DRS Pro are just placing airgunning ever closer to the crosshairs (no pun intended) of lobbyists and cultivating interest for the wrong reasons from likely idiot customers. I’d like airguns to remain looking like airguns and not firearms.

 

[Peashooter]

The buyers of the PRO here in Denmark will be buying the wrong rifle, CUZ as far as i know there is no shooting of PRS here, no matter the propellant.
There is strangely ISPC going on here, which i do think is sort of the same with another tool, and that i have know off for years but at this stage my exploding head are still expanding at ever increasing speeds, it is that blown over that fact.

Dukduk smarter i now know something called IPRS exist here.
OKAY. so PRS also here, but i doubt they welcome airheads. there are 2 PRS clubs here, one in the Capitol area and one not terrible far from where i live.

I sit corrected by myself in front of my computer.

 

[Peashooter]

Which of the King and M3 is considered the most precise

I think that would be a toss up, they use the same barrels ASO, the heart are different but as i understand equally tuneable, the impact is a bullpup and the King is a regular rifle.

 

[anorphirith]

very cool, what's the tank capacity ? , max pressure is probably lower than circular tanks, less rigid

 

[Trucker3573]

Couple tweaks here and there, a new name and the minions will flock to another bullot slinger that will do the same damn thing the previous model did. Lol

 

[spinj]

Couple tweaks here and there, a new name and the minions will flock to another bullot slinger that will do the same damn thing the previous model did. Lol

Haha! Yep. The kind of innovation I’d like to see in airgunning, rather, is something like an airgun that has the capability of recycling used pellets to be shot again … and again … and again

 

[EPG]

If the new impulse valve technology enabled 300+ shots per fill at 30-40 ft/lbs in a rifle that looked like an FX Crown or Dreamline Classic… that would get me very interested.

 

[cahil_2]

I don’t see any external adjustments.

 

[Lewis]

I had the chance to talk with Johan today at the Shot Show. He is very enthusiastic about the platform and it's potential.
The biggest drawback for me is the Magazine style plenum. It just looks out of place and hokey on a dedicated air rifle. I'm not in favor of trying to look like something it isn't.

The trigger is a major improvement over the Impact.