OK Everyone,
I was just as concerned as the original poster so I contacted FX Service. I must say this was my first time doing so and they are awesome! Here is the real deal facts from FX:
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FX Service's first reply:
Thank you for reaching out to us with your question! As well as your interest in our rifles.
I am more than happy to clarify any questions you may have and to help you come to a resolution as to what you can do.
The FX Impact as you know is one of the easiest air rifles in the world to tune without having to disassemble the rifle completely and manipulate springs and washers manually. The .357 Impact is a vision of the market's desires and a result of our company listening to our customers' desires. This was not a caliber intended in the beginning of the Impacts design, but much later added to.
The .357 Impact does have some special parts that are required to achieve the advertised 150 Ft-Lbs, which it will come with as standard in the .357 format. There are added hammer spring spacers as well as a different valve adjuster spring (These are the only parts that are different, the hammer, spring, and hammer weight are the same). Note that you can use the .357 without these spacers and valve spring but will likely only see around 120 Ft-Lbs.
To remove these items you will need to break down the rifle. The valve adjuster spring is fairly easy to remove and so is the hammer spring spacers. You would need to remove the hammer spring adjuster knob, then remove the spring. Then pull out the valve pin to unscrew the C1 hammer stop. Once the hammer stop is removed you can remove the hammer, hammer weight, hammer spring, and in turn the spacers located behind it. Then reinsert the hammer spring hammer weight and hammer itself. Reinstall the C1 hammer stop, place the proper valve adjuster spring, and then the adjuster knob and you have successfully changed the parts for the .357 back to the original .177-.30 caliber Impact MKII defaults.
It is worth noting that you can also just turn down the hammer spring adjuster knob and adjust your regulator to also achieve a tune that will work with other calibers even with the .357 additional parts installed.
Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Thank you for choosing FX Airguns.
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My next reply
Thank you for sending me a reply. It was helpful for you to give a history and explain what is different from this new .357 to your older model versions as the internet seems to have so many incorrect information on your new rifle.
I just want to be clear, so I can leave the spacers and the valve adjuster spring in the rifle (which are the only different parts mated to the .357) and if I want to change the rifle caliber to the .25 caliber barrel kit, I can just reduce the hammer spring tension and the regulator pressure down to achieve a tune setting that will enable that smaller caliber barrel and pellet to shoot accurately without taking the rifle apart further, is that correct? I just want to be sure as that sounds like something I can be comfortable to do versus changing the spring and removing the spacers makes me nervous. I just want to have two settings I can easily change to so that I can go between those two calibers and have fun shooting.
I just want to use the .357 to hunt and shoot with big power and also have the ability to switch to a .25 with a shorter barrel to just plink targets. One last question is the new .357 barrel able to shoot slugs decently or is it required to have some slug liner? I understand that your new barrels available for your other calibers can shoot both pellets and slugs well so it would be great that the barrel on the new .357 can do that as well so that I do not need to change liners. Can you tell me which is the name of the new barrels that can shoot both pellets and slugs well, so that I order the correct type since there are other variants out there?
Thank you for your help and I think once I hear back from you on the questions I posed on this email that I now am feeling comfortable to likely order the .357 Impact MK2 along with a .25 barrel kit.
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FX Service's confirmation to my email:
Yes, you can still tune down the .357 Impact to shoot the .25 caliber, .30 caliber and even the .22 caliber. The .177 may have a bit of issue however getting low enough to be accurate without removing the additional parts.
The .357 barrel will shoot slugs fine as they will come with the new "Superior STX Liners" that we recently released. You will not need to order any additional liners to shoot slugs.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.
