Introduction:
As someone who grew up shooting an air rifle (and a recurve bow), I shot a springer most of my life. Ten years ago, I bought my first pcp and shortly after my second pcp: an Air Arms S510 Xtra FAC (without the power wheel) that I still shoot to this day. Two weeks ago I had the chance to shoot an FX for the first time, a Panthera 500 in .22 shooting pellets. I thought Panthera’s were pure slug guns (and I’m not that interested in slugs). Turns out the 500 is geared more toward pellet shooting. In the end a very expensive round of shooting, as it caused me to buy a Panthera 500 in .25.
First thoughts:
The first shots came across as unusually quiet. Too quiet, even with a Donnyfl Tatsu at the end of the barrel. Measured the pellet speed at 152 m/s with FX 25.4 gr pellets. And that’s where it begins: I never had an airgun with tuning knobs and power wheels attached to it. Let alone something with tunable regulator pressures. Turns out YouTube is your friend in this matter.
Getting things up to speed:
Regulator pressure was set at 110 bar at the factory so I let the regulator alone thinking FX should know what they’re doing. Turning the power wheel to 13 and slowly increasing hammer spring tension with the barrel adjuster got me to 194 m/s with FX 25.4 gr pellets. At home I’m shooting at 25m and the accuracy wasn’t all that great. At the 50m range it fell apart even further. Weird flyers and pellets wobbling through the air. A single 250 bar fill barely made it through two magazines (32 pellets). Back at home switched to the heavy 34gr FX pellets. Accuracy leaped forward, although one pellet every magazine managed to stray every time and pellet speed dropped to 261 m/s with these heavy pellets.
After a few days of turning knobs I finally gave it two clicks less on the barrel adjuster and landed at 260 m/s average speed. Air consumption went down as I can now get two magazines with room to spare off a 230 bar fill (divers tank dropped to 230 bar). And the gun is a bit quieter now.
Tune settings:
As someone who grew up shooting an air rifle (and a recurve bow), I shot a springer most of my life. Ten years ago, I bought my first pcp and shortly after my second pcp: an Air Arms S510 Xtra FAC (without the power wheel) that I still shoot to this day. Two weeks ago I had the chance to shoot an FX for the first time, a Panthera 500 in .22 shooting pellets. I thought Panthera’s were pure slug guns (and I’m not that interested in slugs). Turns out the 500 is geared more toward pellet shooting. In the end a very expensive round of shooting, as it caused me to buy a Panthera 500 in .25.
First thoughts:
The first shots came across as unusually quiet. Too quiet, even with a Donnyfl Tatsu at the end of the barrel. Measured the pellet speed at 152 m/s with FX 25.4 gr pellets. And that’s where it begins: I never had an airgun with tuning knobs and power wheels attached to it. Let alone something with tunable regulator pressures. Turns out YouTube is your friend in this matter.
Getting things up to speed:
Regulator pressure was set at 110 bar at the factory so I let the regulator alone thinking FX should know what they’re doing. Turning the power wheel to 13 and slowly increasing hammer spring tension with the barrel adjuster got me to 194 m/s with FX 25.4 gr pellets. At home I’m shooting at 25m and the accuracy wasn’t all that great. At the 50m range it fell apart even further. Weird flyers and pellets wobbling through the air. A single 250 bar fill barely made it through two magazines (32 pellets). Back at home switched to the heavy 34gr FX pellets. Accuracy leaped forward, although one pellet every magazine managed to stray every time and pellet speed dropped to 261 m/s with these heavy pellets.
After a few days of turning knobs I finally gave it two clicks less on the barrel adjuster and landed at 260 m/s average speed. Air consumption went down as I can now get two magazines with room to spare off a 230 bar fill (divers tank dropped to 230 bar). And the gun is a bit quieter now.
Tune settings:
