GUNS Magazine FX Impact Mk II Air Rifle

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The FX Impact Mk II is a beautiful rifle all around. If you appreciate the finer things, you’ll love it.

There are some shooting disciplines that call for reloading at the bench, making match ammo round-by-round right on the shooting line. In theory, the approach allows the performance-conscious shooter to optimize each round for range and atmospheric conditions.

The new FX Airguns Impact Mk II air rifle does the same thing in its own air-powered way too, with no risk of spilling flammables all over the shooting line. I’ve found neighboring shooters on the line tend to frown upon being set on fire.

The adjustable nature of this decidedly high-tech rifle makes sense. Serious airgunning is a game of precision, maybe even more so than traditionally “finicky” fire and brimstone activities like bench rest rifle. Pellets come in all weights and sizes for any given caliber and with light projectile weights, environmental factors like wind make a big difference in outcomes. So, being able to tune pressure and velocity is a natural benefit when you think about it.

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Power Trip

The FX Airguns Impact Mk II is an engineer’s airgunning fantasy. Yes, you can adjust power levels for each shot but there’s more to it.

There are two ways to adjust shot pressure — the combination of these dual adjustments give you precise control over your muzzle velocity for any given pellet. An adjustment knob on the front of the receiver completes an overall power adjustment.

Once you have your overall adjustment in the vicinity you want, turn to the fine tuning power wheel on the left side of the receiver. This dial features a set of unique graduations on each half of the wheel to help you achieve predictable and repeatable power levels. Labeled “A” through “E” on one side and “1” through “5” on the opposite, plus a “MIN” and MAX” setting, you get 12 unique settings. This feature is handy for dialing in specific power levels for specific pellet types. If you like to geek out experimenting with a near-infinite number of power/pellet permutations, the Impact Mk II is your huckleberry.

Behind the trigger you’ll find a screw heading up into the action. This allows you to adjust the regulator pressure up or down. Keep in mind you’ll need to dry fire a shot to empty the regulator between each adjustment. Lest this sound too complicated, there’s a second manometer (pressure gauge) to give you an idea of your current regulator setting.

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Tom used the FX 81-grain .35 caliber pellets. At 50 yards he got
groups ranging from 1-1.5" on a windy day — spectacular for an air rifle!

Caliber Flexibility

The Impact Mk II is caliber adjustable. The rifle shown here arrived ready to go for .35 caliber pellets and slugs, but it’s easily changed. The barrel on this design is easily swappable as is the caliber-specific pellet probe. Once you’ve determined your ideal caliber or calibers, you can also swap out the barrel liner to tune within a single pellet diameter. Want a faster or slower twist rate? No problem, change out the barrel liner.

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The magazine (above) is fantastic, one of the most reliable designs Tom has tested.

Walking Tour

The .35 caliber Impact Mk II shown here packs a 580cc carbon fiber air cylinder. It’s built to contain 250 bar (about 3,600 psi) of pressure. A primary manometer near the fill port lets you see current tank status. The number of shots you’ll get on a cylinder fill depends on your caliber choice.

For the .35 caliber rifle, you can figure on about 40 shots, give or take, before you need to top off the air supply. As with most FX designs, it mounts forward of the receiver. I appreciated the connection type — a positive-locking Foster fitting so you won’t have to tinker around with finicky probes and fragile “O” rings.

Pellets feed via a rotary magazine with capacity dependent on caliber. The .35 caliber Impact holds 18 pellets in the large rotary mag while the .22 and .25 models hold up to 28. The magazine design is stellar and not persnickety like many airgun mags. It’s easy to load by removing the clear cover and rotating the internal sprocket to apply initial tension. Then, just drop the pellets in place, replace the cover and commence firing. I found the system to be utterly reliable in my testing.

As with everything else on the Impact Mk II, the trigger system is adjustable too — you can adjust the height of the trigger face, the take-up distance, and the break weight. Knock yourself out tinkering with this one.

The action will spoil you rotten. The straight pull bolt operates with the same smoothness as new leather shoes on ice. It just glides effortlessly so you can operate it with a finger or two while maintaining a firing grip.

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The secondary manometer helps you control regulator pressure
adjustment — and is also customizable.

Shooting Time

I tested the FX Impact Mk II using FX-brand 81-grain pellets. To check out the range of velocities with the adjustable power system, I clocked various scenarios using the exceptionally handy FX Pocket Chronograph.

At the MIN power setting, the 81-grain pellets measured 666 feet per second. Moving up to power level “1” increased to 704 fps. Moving to power “3” on the dial, velocity increased to 779 fps while the full MAX setting yielded 877 fps — quite a range, exceeding 200 fps and I didn’t even get into the receiver or regulator adjustments.

Given the quality of this rifle, I set up targets at 50 yards for accuracy testing. The wind conditions were tough for airgunning, with 12 mph winds coming across the range at a 45-degree angle. For centerfires, this wouldn’t have mattered much but remember, we’re talking about 81-grain pellets moving well under subsonic velocity. I did my best to time shots between gusts and finished with groups ranging from 1.04 to 1.52″ depending on the power level selected. My best results came from the mid-level power settings at number “4” on the dial.

I’ve yet to be disappointed with an FX air rifle. You’ll pay, but there’s no question you get your money’s worth. It’s a finely crafted “machine” you’ll appreciate for years to come.
“Street Price”: around $2,000.

FXAirguns.com

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