Suggestions for .30 FX M3 Impact

[air-hunter_canyon]

Does anyone have suggestions on some great slugs? I have been using the NSA 47.2 and they're all over the place in terms of accuracy. I just ordered some 49 gr and 43 grain to see if they like the barrel better. I am shooting all stock .30 cal fx impact m3 @ 912 FPS with 47.2 grain slugs and i get about 2.5 magazines before i need to refill standard deviation is around 3.4

 

[MoeHofer]

Man, I dont know how to say this, but the sooner you get away from .30 with slugs the happier you will be. I spent over or at least 1000$ in slugs at every conceivable speed possible and only got mediocre groups. And if they were great, then 2ndays later they shot like crap again. I switched to a .25 superior heavy liner and started shooting 37 grain zan slugs at 1000 fps and my problems were OVER. that gun shot moa at 100 so consistently it was astounding. 

(Then I sold it.... sigh....) 

Please consider spending a couple hundred bucks and switching to .25

You will save yourself a lot of grief. There's a reason nobody posts their 100 yard groups with. 30 slugs. They suck. But nobody wants to admit it. 

 

[Wr250r]

I hope your wrong. I'll be testing 54 gr this weekend. Like I said all slugs were shooting every where exempt 54 gr. Hammered two quails. One 30 yards and one 50. Elevation was about the same .shot group less than 1/2 inch. Not shooting from table.50 yards. Glued liner with anaerobic rtv .sorry sealant.. people keep dumping trash here.

 

[air-hunter_canyon]

Yeah my groups haven’t been the best I’ll see about dropping down to a .22 or .25 unless I can try these 43 grains and 49s I’m sure something will make a difference 

 

[madeintheuk]

Man, I dont know how to say this, but the sooner you get away from .30 with slugs the happier you will be. I spent over or at least 1000$ in slugs at every conceivable speed possible and only got mediocre groups. And if they were great, then 2ndays later they shot like crap again. I switched to a .25 superior heavy liner and started shooting 37 grain zan slugs at 1000 fps and my problems were OVER. that gun shot moa at 100 so consistently it was astounding. 

(Then I sold it.... sigh....) 

Please consider spending a couple hundred bucks and switching to .25

You will save yourself a lot of grief. There's a reason nobody posts their 100 yard groups with. 30 slugs. They suck. But nobody wants to admit it.

While I have zero experience with this, watching the boys from 68whiskey hitting pigeons at 300yds with pinpoint accuracy out of their .30 impacts with varmint knocker slugs has me thinking maybe you just weren’t tuning properly for those slugs! 

 

[Impact701]

I shoot the NSA 49.5gr. through a 700mm superior liner 1:22. I have bumped the speed up to 980fps just to put a little extra smack on prairie dogs .





https://youtu.be/O8Z7GB7vxkI





https://youtu.be/90_1g8JAFSM



This is 88 yards shooting in my yard .

I copied Matt Dubber tuning method. I do have a MKII but it shouldnt matter for your M3 maybe a lower 2nd reg pressure. 

A small burst of 155 bar air is what I did.

 

[TDK]

I just finished my own testing and am getting ready to do a full write-up on my results, but the short version is this...

I tried 13 different .30 slugs from 4 makers:

#1 - FX Hybrid - 1MOA without any fussing. Core parts of groups frequently at 1/2MOA. I shot a quick 9 shot 200yd group when it was fairly still and 8 shots were in 0.81MOA and there was one flyer opening it up to 1.13MOA. I'm using the 1:22 Superior Standard barrel at 150bar, 960fps, but they still seemed good at 138bar and 940 fps. I'm embarrassed I didn't try them till last since it is the slug made for the barrel. It's also the second cheapest slug behind NSA, especially if Pyramyd ever gets them back in stock again and you use the buy 4 get 1 free. Its within 3 or 4 cents of NSA then.

#2 - Varmint Knocker 50gr - these were around 1-1.5MOA with just initial testing and no fine tuning. They also liked the 1:22 barrel best. Keith from 68 whiskey was shooting these at 917fps, and I found someone else comment to try them between 910-930 fps. I seemed to get a little better groups in the 910-925 range at 138bar. These also just had a price drop and are now $19/100 if you buy two or more.



Everything else (especially the new NSA versions) is a solid no-go. I have a stock M3 (pellet probe, no slug power kit).

 

[Jayson]

So which liner you are trying? As mentioned above, the 1/22 is critical with slugs in my experience, that 1/22 liner is a year old December so previous attempts would be pretty hard? I have also shot sub moa with that liner and hybrids, the problem is that they don’t shoot pellets all that great and some barrels were coming with that liner in a stock impact? So I suggest knowing what liner you have? If it’s 1/37 or 1/40? You are not likely to do real well with slugs? Great with pellets usually, If you have the 1/22? 950-980 seems pretty good, and run higher on the reg 135-145. That’s my 2 cents, but it’s just that, they are all truly different, so a little luck is in order Good luck!

 

[Pistonjohn]

While I have zero experience with this, watching the boys from 68whiskey hitting pigeons at 300yds with pinpoint accuracy out of their .30 impacts with varmint knocker slugs has me thinking maybe you just weren’t tuning properly for those slugs!

I don't really think a youtube montage is a good example to reference to, especially at distance like 300 yds; how many attempts it took to land a shot is what videos like that don't tell you. Yet again and again that's I see and misguides many new beginners with incorrect expectations about this sport.

 

[jps2486]

I get outstanding performance using 44 gr JSB pellets in my Impact MK2 at 100 yds. Haven’t shot a slug yet that equals them. I’m questioning this slug craze.

 

[TDK]

I get outstanding performance using 44 gr JSB pellets in my Impact MK2 at 100 yds. Haven’t shot a slug yet that equals them. I’m questioning this slug craze.

I had a rare dead calm evening here and shot a 1MOA 23-shot group at 100yds with JSB 44gr in the 1:37 liner. Next time I went out, it was back to light breeze conditions and 2-3MOA at 100yd. That's what got me really looking into slugs. The no wind accuracy of the JSB 44gr is addicting and I want that in more normal conditions. I also want to shoot out to 200 yards and pellets are not doing that. The big problem with .30 slugs right now is that the selection is really poor compared to .22 and .25. With the same selection, I'm sure .30 would to just as well as the smaller calibers.



Another note on barrels - everyone needs to pay close attention not to the name, but actual twist rate of their .30 superior barrels since twist rates have changed 3 times. The first .30 Superior barrel was 1:40 or 1:37. Then later, the first standard hybrid liner was introduced at 1:26 and the heavy liner at that time was 1:22. Not long after, the standard liner was changed to 1:22 and heavy liner to 1:18. We still have the 1:37 liner also, but it is now called 'slow twist pellet liner' or something. What I suspect happened was that the 1:26 liner wasn't stabilizing the hybrid slugs at anything but really high speeds (which is what some initial user reports on the hybrid slugs were saying), so they dropped it to 1:22 to work across a wider range of speeds. Who knows what slug weights are best for the 1:18 heavy now. My 1:18 liner did worse for all slug weights up to and including the new NSA 54.5gr, so maybe its a bad liner or maybe the 1:22 is good for a wider range than expected?

 

[jps2486]

Another note on barrels - everyone needs to pay close attention not to the name, but actual twist rate of their .30 superior barrels since twist rates have changed 3 times. The first .30 Superior barrel was 1:40 or 1:37. Then later, the first standard hybrid liner was introduced at 1:26 and the heavy liner at that time was 1:22. Not long after, the standard liner was changed to 1:22 and heavy liner to 1:18. We still have the 1:37 liner also, but it is now called 'slow twist pellet liner' or something. What I suspect happened was that the 1:26 liner wasn't stabilizing the hybrid slugs at anything but really high speeds (which is what some initial user reports on the hybrid slugs were saying), so they dropped it to 1:22 to work across a wider range of speeds. Who knows what slug weights are best for the 1:18 heavy now. My 1:18 liner did worse for all slug weights up to and including the new NSA 54.5gr, so maybe its a bad liner or maybe the 1:22 is good for a wider range than expected?

Yep, barrels and set up for slugs is an art. There are no rifles that shoot slugs well out of the box. You need the correct barrel and have to modify the internals to boost velocity. I never shoot beyond 100 yards and don’t hunt. I’ve spent more money on slugs only to find that none of them shoot particularly well. Yes, wind affects pellets more than slugs, so I increase the holdover proportionately. It gets the job done.

 

[Impact701]

 

[Ydunn.223]

Ran across this video yesterday on Youtube , 62 grain slugs shooting very well .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-t3Qy8dwGM 

 

[Emily]

Good information

 

[Skidoo165]

My 30 cal shoots slugs just as good as my .22 and .25 slug guns, I use the slug A liner for the 30 and it's a laser, just have to spend time finding the right tune

 

[arrietamauricio]

Man, I dont know how to say this, but the sooner you get away from .30 with slugs the happier you will be. I spent over or at least 1000$ in slugs at every conceivable speed possible and only got mediocre groups. And if they were great, then 2ndays later they shot like crap again. I switched to a .25 superior heavy liner and started shooting 37 grain zan slugs at 1000 fps and my problems were OVER. that gun shot moa at 100 so consistently it was astounding.

(Then I sold it.... sigh....)

Please consider spending a couple hundred bucks and switching to .25

You will save yourself a lot of grief. There's a reason nobody posts their 100 yard groups with. 30 slugs. They suck. But nobody wants to admit it.

 

[arrietamauricio]

Man you are so right. 7

Man, I dont know how to say this, but the sooner you get away from .30 with slugs the happier you will be. I spent over or at least 1000$ in slugs at every conceivable speed possible and only got mediocre groups. And if they were great, then 2ndays later they shot like crap again. I switched to a .25 superior heavy liner and started shooting 37 grain zan slugs at 1000 fps and my problems were OVER. that gun shot moa at 100 so consistently it was astounding.

(Then I sold it.... sigh....)

Please consider spending a couple hundred bucks and switching to .25

You will save yourself a lot of grief. There's a reason nobody posts their 100 yard groups with. 30 slugs. They suck. But nobody wants to admit it. Absolutely correct. FX Impact M3 in .30 cal and slugs really, really sucks. And no wonder nobody posting any 100 yard groups. Who would? The accuracy of .30 slugs at 100 yards and beyond simply does not exist yet. Hopefully, the slugs manufacturing for .30 calls will get better.

 

[arrietamauricio]

Absolutely correct. FX Impact M3 in .30 cal and slugs really, really sucks. And no wonder nobody posting any 100 yard groups. Who would? The accuracy of .30 slugs at 100 yards and beyond simply does not exist yet. Hopefully, the slugs manufacturing for .30 calls will get better.

 

[arrietamauricio]

Does anyone have suggestions on some great slugs? I have been using the NSA 47.2 and they're all over the place in terms of accuracy. I just ordered some 49 gr and 43 grain to see if they like the barrel better. I am shooting all stock .30 cal fx impact m3 @ 912 FPS with 47.2 grain slugs and i get about 2.5 magazines before i need to refill standard deviation is around 3.4

FX Impact M3 in .30 cal and slugs really, really sucks. And no wonder nobody posting any 100 yard groups. Who would? The accuracy of .30 slugs at 100 yards and beyond simply does not exist yet. Hopefully, the slugs manufacturing for .30 call will get better.