The 21" barrel rides just forward of an eight-round rotary magazine. Like many other airguns, this one uses a side-lever bolt to set the trigger and advance the magazine. The magazine operates like a ratchet-driven socket wrench. Teeth on the exterior of the magazine “disc” advance pellets into position. The system is about the most reliable magazine operation I’ve found. The action is effortless and you can cycle the action without removing the rifle from your cheek.
The trigger is beautiful and adjustable for nearly everything. You can move the trigger face up and down. You can move the trigger back and forth to fine tune the length of pull. You can adjust the travel for the first stage of the trigger press and you can adjust the weight of the second stage and break. From the factory, the trigger on this particular Wildcat MkII measured — well, I don’t know what it measured because it was somewhere less than the 8-oz. starting graduation on my trigger weight scale. Let’s just go with a trigger sensation and weight description of “superb.”
The fill port uses a probe system — not my favorite method. Either I’m spastic or you really have to position and fit probes and their seals perfectly to get them to work. To be clear, this is a knock on the probe system as a whole, not this rifle. Give me a positively locking Foster connection any day.
The FX Wildcat ‘Airpup’
This puppy can run with the big dogs
If you can handle a yardstick, you can handle the FX Wildcat MkII air rifle. The bullpup
design makes it feel light and easy to handle as the weight is close to your body.
I’d describe the FX Wildcat MkII Air Rifle much like I would one of my all-time favorite football running backs.
Years ago, Mike Alstott (“The A-Train”) played the position of Bruiser in Chief for the Tampa Bay Bucs. His build was interesting: He looked twice as wide as tall — a classic fireplug. He was able to pack copious amounts of maneuverability and power into the fullback-position package.
Bullpup-style airguns are similar in many ways. The FX Airguns Wildcat MkII air rifle is short and stocky like the A-Train but also handles effortlessly and is always ready to unleash plenty of power. This particular model is a .25 caliber but you can also get a Wildcat (MarkIII’s are hitting the streets now) in .177, .22 and .30 caliber.
Premium Bullpup
The FX Wildcat MkII packs the heavy stuff close into the body. When you think about it, a bullpup design makes a lot of sense for airguns — especially larger caliber airguns. While an airgun barrel doesn’t have to be as sturdy (and heavy) as a centerfire, it has to carry other gear like the air cylinder, often up front. This .25 caliber rifle uses lots of air to fling its jumbo pellets so a large air cylinder has to reside somewhere. With its bullpup design, the weight is distributed in front of, and behind, the pistol grip. Ipso facto e pluribus unum, the weight of the rifle is tucked in close to the body so it handles beautifully.
The “put important and heavy stuff in the back” design keeps the overall package at just 31″. This is impressive when you consider everything packed into the Wildcat MkII and MkIII rifles. The 230-bar (3,336 psi) air reservoir packs enough compressed air to give you 50 to 60 shots before you need to top off the air supply.
You can fill the 3,336 psi air reservoir with a hand pump but it’ll go a lot easier using a compressor or large filling tank.
Airpup Performance
The .25 gives you a great balance of capacity and power. Regular pellets weigh in the 25- to 30-gr. range so they carry varmint levels of energy and do a better job of not blowing all over the place with a moderate crosswind. I have to admit the 12-year-old boy in me also likes the authoritative feel and impact “thud” on the target with the bigger .25 pellets.
The rotary magazine works brilliantly. It couldn’t be easier to load and the ratchet drive is near flawless.
On the range, this Wildcat MkII bullpup shines. I spent some time with the FX Wildcat MKII using three different .25 caliber pellets: JSB Exact King 25.39-gr., H&N Sport Barracuda Hunter 27.47-gr. and H&N Sport Barracuda 30.86-gr. I chronographed the Exact King at 830.5 fps and the Barracuda Hunter and Sport Barracuda at 823.5 and 792.3 fps.
I started with targets at 25 yards and fired groups of five while waiting for reasonable pauses in the 6-8 mph crosswinds. All three pellet brands printed groups of about a third of an inch with the Exact Kings averaging 0.33″. Since those results were impressive, I moved targets out to 50 yards where I measured the first group at 0.62″.
What’s not to love? This package is accurate, powerful, and handles more like a pistol than a rifle. It’s got plenty of power for small game hunting, silhouette shooting, or just plain plinking, all in a package shorter than a yardstick.
