When Mk II + Mk II = M3

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yenniedn

yenniedn

Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,677
1,235
Northern CA, United States
Hey AGN,

I had very little to no reason to buy a M3 but when I found out that a dealer had one in stock last Friday, I made the call and just received my 0.22/600mm M3 late last night. I've only taken it out of the box to visually inspect it and have not scoped it or even test fired it. For those who may be curious, there are some photos of the M3 next to my Mk II's below. BTW, these Mk II's are two of the best shooting PCP's I've ever owned and I highly doubt that the M3 will shoot any better than its older siblings. I didn't buy it thinking I could get more accurate, consistent with the M3 - instead, I had mentally set aside some play money for a Delta Wolf but its current unavailability, higher price and the fact that I don't think it's a very pretty gun made the impulse decision to buy the M3 much easier.

Here are some very early, gut reaction first impressions on the M3:

  • Cocking lever/handle: I love the beefy, oversized cocking handle - so much easier to grab onto compared to the previous version. The ability to switch the lever to either side of the action is awesome; still contemplating if I want to move mine over to the left side.
  • New butt pad: the waffled butt pad that started shipping with the newest Mk II's is really nice! It's lighter and would appear to have better shock absorption that the older, solid rubber one. I may even stick to using this waffled pad over the K&L butt pads I currently have.
  • New bottle/valve: I haven't taken the bottle off yet but it appears that the valve on the bottle is the same as before? The first regulator (the silver piece between the bottle and the action) appears to be attached to the action so it looks like you can unscrew the bottle and put on any previous gen FX valved bottle? If so, that would be ideal as I want to move one of my 580cc bottles onto this M3. I'll confirm this later tonight.
  • New 3rd (regulator) gauge: the new 3rd gauge on the left side of the action is smaller, looks kind of rinky-dink compared to the other two and will likely get swapped out for a better unit.
  • Trigger guard/pic rail: It's disappointing (but not surprising) that FX stuck with the same short trigger guard/pic rail that has essentially been the same since the first Impact shipped like 6 yrs ago. It gives very limited options to mount a bipod in a less than ideal position and with so many of us opting for longer aftermarket rails, you'd think this is one of the parts they would update. It doesn't have to be the full length Saber or K&L variety but maybe something just slightly longer.
  • Overall construction/build quality: it's everything you would expect from your high end FX model - nice fit & finish and feels solid. I forget how light these things can be before you slap a 2lb scope and a bunch of other accessories onto them!
  • Other notes: many of the parts appear to be interchangeable between the Mk II and M3 so many/most of your Saber Tactical and K&L aftermarket parts will transfer over without too much fuss.

m3a.1618940118.jpg
m3b.1618940118.jpg
m3c.1618940119.jpg
m3d.1618940119.jpg
m3e.1618940123.jpg
m3f.1618940126.jpg

 
The bottles on the M3's screw right off like the Mk1/Mk2's, but are not interchangeable in OEM form. The M3 bottle has, for lack of a better word, a 'cupped' pin, instead of the straight pin on the Mk2's and earlier. I guess that FX is calling it a 'bushing'.

Apparently you will be able to purchase just the bushing to convert an older valve to work with the M3.

I don't yet know whether the 'bushing' type pin will preclude that bottle from working on a Mk1/Mk2.
 
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No. Mk2 + mk2 = mk4. Not m3. Smh. I see someone skipped math class.

Have very little reason the buy a m3 but spent 2g+ on a m3 anyways lmao. Makes perfect sense.

Gratz on the new m3. I already have a mk2 so I won't be throwing away 2g for the m3. The only thing I wanted from the mk3 would be the dual reg. Such a shame fx didn't make it available to upgrade for the mk2. Other upgrades on the m3 is just gimmick for money grabs.
 
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No. Mk2 + mk2 = mk4. Not m3. Smh. I see someone skipped math class.

Have very little reason the buy a m3 but spent 2g+ on a m3 anyways lmao. Makes perfect sense.

Gratz on the new m3. I already have a mk2 so I won't be throwing away 2g for the m3. The only thing I wanted from the mk3 would be the dual reg. Such a shame fx didn't make it available to upgrade for the mk2. Other upgrades on the m3 is just gimmick for money grabs.
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That second reg is a pretty big deal and the main reason I bought one as well. The new regulator needed to be just a bit larger in diameter than the standard bottle adapters on the older Impact models just to be able function, like the AMP regs, or I expect it would have been made interchangeable. When the regs, on the Impacts, changed to the AMP reg on the MK2 they could not be retrofit to the MK1 either. Once again, to be improved, they needed to be larger in diameter. I was heartbroken when I found my early Impact-X did not have one as that was my main purpose for buying an Impact-X. It is what it is though. I'm sure we will both appreciate the rest of the improvements on the M3 as well.
 
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No. Mk2 + mk2 = mk4. Not m3. Smh. I see someone skipped math class.

Have very little reason the buy a m3 but spent 2g+ on a m3 anyways lmao. Makes perfect sense.

Gratz on the new m3. I already have a mk2 so I won't be throwing away 2g for the m3. The only thing I wanted from the mk3 would be the dual reg. Such a shame fx didn't make it available to upgrade for the mk2. Other upgrades on the m3 is just gimmick for money grabs.
Click to expand...

Don't get too stressed out about how I spend my money. It's in my play money slush fund for a reason; if I needed the money to pay the mortgage or feed my kids, it wouldn't be play money.

And clearly your math skills are so much better than mine . . . unless you're responding tongue in cheek - which doesn't always translate well on an online forum.

I'm not "throwing away" 2G for the M3 - from what I can tell, I got a pretty decent PCP for that money. If it performs the way it should, then one of the Mk II's will get to go to a new owner and I'll only be out a few hundred dollars net for the move to the M3 . . . which more than I can say for most of the upgrades in my other hobbies like golf, computers, etc.
 
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The bottles on the M3's screw right off like the Mk1/Mk2's, but are not interchangeable in OEM form. The M3 bottle has, for lack of a better word, a 'cupped' pin, instead of the straight pin on the Mk2's and earlier. I guess that FX is calling it a 'bushing'.

Apparently you will be able to purchase just the bushing to convert an older valve to work with the M3.

I don't yet know whether the 'bushing' type pin will preclude that bottle from working on a Mk1/Mk2.
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Thanks for this info . . . it probably saved me from doing something stupid later today when try to swap bottles around!

Thanks for the information yen, so all 3 gauges are not wika gauges? Kind of a let down
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I believe the two larger gauges are WIKA (without the branding and with a black face instead of white) and the new third gauge is a smaller size, FX branded and more like the gauges found on the Maverick and other FX models. No biggie, I was going to put Sekhmet gauges on the rifle anyways.
 
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Very Nice! I am just glad FX finally got the safety labeled correctly (how I see it) now with the safety lever pointing towards or inline with the barrel for fire instead of the opposite way like is on the MKIIs. You may have a hard time keeping up with that change between models now, so be careful.
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Good point . . . but if I'm honest with myself, both of my Mk II's will be outta here within the next couple of months when the other one will eventually get replaced by another M3. So I'll just have to get used to the new safety configuration on the two M3's going forward ;)
 
Upvote 0
No. Mk2 + mk2 = mk4. Not m3. Smh. I see someone skipped math class.

Have very little reason the buy a m3 but spent 2g+ on a m3 anyways lmao. Makes perfect sense.

Gratz on the new m3. I already have a mk2 so I won't be throwing away 2g for the m3. The only thing I wanted from the mk3 would be the dual reg. Such a shame fx didn't make it available to upgrade for the mk2. Other upgrades on the m3 is just gimmick for money grabs.
Click to expand...

Don't get too stressed out about how I spend my money. It's in my play money slush fund for a reason; if I needed the money to pay the mortgage or feed my kids, it wouldn't be play money.

And clearly your math skills are so much better than mine . . . unless you're responding tongue in cheek - which doesn't always translate well on an online forum.

I'm not "throwing away" 2G for the M3 - from what I can tell, I got a pretty decent PCP for that money. If it performs the way it should, then one of the Mk II's will get to go to a new owner and I'll only be out a few hundred dollars net for the move to the M3 . . . which more than I can say for most of the upgrades in my other hobbies like golf, computers, etc.
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I do like your math/logic on this one, having both the MK1/MK2 and Maverick as a comparison. For a new / upgrading buyer moving to an M3 platform at an entry level price point <=10% more than a Gen3 MK2 is a phenomenal value IMO. And it looks good too.
 
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The bottles on the M3's screw right off like the Mk1/Mk2's, but are not interchangeable in OEM form. The M3 bottle has, for lack of a better word, a 'cupped' pin, instead of the straight pin on the Mk2's and earlier. I guess that FX is calling it a 'bushing'.

Apparently you will be able to purchase just the bushing to convert an older valve to work with the M3.

I don't yet know whether the 'bushing' type pin will preclude that bottle from working on a Mk1/Mk2.
Click to expand...

I finally had time to sit down and spend some time with the M3. The scope I plan on putting on it doesn't arrive until tomorrow so all I did tonight was to change out all of the visible bolts for stainless steel replacements. As a part of that process, I did take the bottle off and confirmed the change in the valve pin.

Here is the "cupped" pin in the new M3 bottle:

new fx impact m3 bottle.1618978873.jpg


And here is the straight pin from my older MkII bottles:

old fx impact mkii bottle.1618978897.jpg


It doesn't look like it would be a simple process to replace just the pin by itself; it seems like you would be better off replacing the entire valve once the new valve is available.
 
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Thanks for the write up and pictures, I've ordered my M3 today, but it won't be here for a while so the MK2 is staying.

Having looked at the exploded diagrams, the sear on the new trigger is the same part number as the old, so I wonder if the new trigger will retrofit onto the MK2. The 720 Power Plenum will apparently fit. When mine arrives, I also want to see if the new barrel support, reloading block and the other support will swap across....time will tell.

Enjoy your new rifle
 
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I have my M3 arriving on Friday, but haven't chosen an optic. Like to know what you picked for yours? 😉
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I'm really not trying to be a cliche FX fanboi but I've got an Element Titan coming today that I wanted to try out 😂. I looked through a local friend's Titan and it was surprisingly clear so wanted to put it through its paces against my current scopes. I haven't gotten into the $3,000+ scopes yet and try to limit myself to the $1,000-$1200 maximum range for optics. Within that range, I was very pleasantly surprised to see how nice the newer Hawke Frontier 5-25x56 FFP (#18540) and Aztec 5.5x25x50 FFP were - and that's why those two are currently on the Mk II's. I really didn't want to like the Aztec because I always thought it was a pretty meh scope before I got my hands on one . . . having owned one now, it's hard to argue against it at its price point!

I'm unsure that I'll keep the Titan because it has to be REALLY good in order to justify the 2lb+ weight that comes along with it! Otherwise, I'll put one of the Frontiers on the M3 because it's the best all around scope I've owned from a size, weight, clarity and reticle perspective.
 
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