From part I you now know about the FX Wildcat in .22 caliber. Since that post I’ve had a chance to run some pellets through it and as fully expected it doesn’t disappoint. With a bullpup design, the balance will generally always feel good due to the grip and trigger being in the middle of the stock. Sporting a solid laminate wood stock and no polymer parts, it feels heavier and more substantial than its 6+ pounds would indicate, but the shooter will appreciate that when putting shot after shot into very small target areas.
The supplied FX optic, a 6-18x44mm unit paired well with this air rifle although I did not prefer it at the higher magnifications as I had more difficulty with getting my cheek weld situated due to the small exit pupil at the higher magnifications. However, at 6 to 8 times magnification it worked well and, as I alluded to with tongue-in-cheek in the previous blog, the Wildcat did the rest.
It digested everything I fed it with equal aplomb and I it seemed that accuracy appeared to be excellent with both lighter and heavier pellets as can be seen in the accompanying photo where 14.4 grain Crosman Copper Mags pointed pellets landed in a touching group along with 18.21 grain H&N Baracuda Hunter hollowpoints at 25 yards. Even with my less-than-stellar shooting skills, this was remarkable accuracy. I also had an opportunity to try out the new Rifle brand Super Mag 18.36 grain pellets. Rifle is a brand coming out of Brazil and a supplier to the Brazilian Olympic shooting team. They are a Field Point shape and gave the same level of performance as the others with only one slight outlier, which I’m sure can be chalked up to the shooter and not the pellet.
Light or heavy, the Wildcat liked them both!
As others have said of Fredrik Axelsson, the man is a genius when it comes to designing and building airguns. The valves he constructs allow for maximum power out of his airguns while providing plenty of shots on one reservoir of air. By the way, only HPA is to be used in this FX Wildcat, no nitrogen or other gases per the manual. For example, during one shooting session where 5 strings of full magazines (8 pellets) were fired, less than one quarter of the volume of air in the reservoir was used. This particular model does not come with a power adjustment like some of the other FX models.
Trigger pull was great, as could be expected. The average was 14.7 ounces on a very clean break out of the box. The take up was a little long for my tastes and could have been adjusted with the supplied hex wrenches, but requires separating the action from the stock which I won’t usually do with loaner airguns.
It really is a beautiful airgun and a real pleasure to shoot. You just can’t go wrong with any FX product and if you want to find out for yourself, or just need to add another to your collection, contact the good folks at www.airgunsofarizona.com.