FX Impact M3 Power Adjustments

[PaulFWI]

My gun in .22 from Utah has the first reg at 140, 2nd at 95, hammer at 16.

It is shooting 25.39gr pellets at 750 FPS. If I wanted to get them hotter, what should I do?

The thing is the manual indicates the 2nd reg pressure is already too high:

Default regulator setting for pellets, full power (second regulator): 70-75 BAR for .22 cal

I think there might be a bit of room to back out the valve a bit more. Can that make a substantial difference?

Thanks in advance!

[ranchibi]

My friend has an M3 700mm .22 and doesn't know much about tuning and I helped him tune it to shoot 18gr @ 970fps. I adjusted the second reg to 105-110psi-ish but I do not remember the macro micro wheel adjustments. On AGN there are threads for tuning for all M3 calibers with detailed settings FYI.

[triggertreat]

What line is the valve on?  You could go to line four and see what you get.  It would be better to increase the hammer strike up until the velocity peaks and then back off on the hammer 5% from that peak velocity found.  If you don't like that resulting velocity, then you want to increase the regulator pressure a little more and start over.  You always want to keep the tuned balanced like this or you will be wasting air, and the gun will shoot louder than it should be.

[GSu]

The amount the Macro and Micro adjustments provide is quite a bit.  The Macro changes the fps somewhat but the Micro is is the one that compresses the hammer spring more with each click. 110-115 reg setting is a good starting point. As is the suggested valve adjuster settings from Keith.  As you turn the valve adjuster in it increases the tension of the valve spring causing the valve to close sooner.  Thus the fps will also change, more spring less fps and vicer versa.
Have fun take your time and have a good supply of pellets.

[PaulFWI]

What line is the valve on?  You could go to line four and see what you get.  It would be better to increase the hammer strike up until the velocity peaks and then back off on the hammer 5% from that peak velocity found.  If you don't like that resulting velocity, then you want to increase the regulator pressure a little more and start over.  You always want to keep the tuned balanced like this or you will be wasting air, and the gun will shoot louder than it should be.

Hammer is at max (16). Micro wheel at max. Valve shows 4 lines so I think it's almost all the way out.

I guess I should start by increasing the 2nd reg to 115 then - even tho the manual indicates that's well above max.

Incidentally, when I got the gun, about a month ago, the first reg was right at 150, but it has sagged to 140. Is that a matter of concern? (This is my first FX gun with two regs; this never happened with my Wildcat or Crowns.)

[ranchibi]

What line is the valve on?  You could go to line four and see what you get.  It would be better to increase the hammer strike up until the velocity peaks and then back off on the hammer 5% from that peak velocity found.  If you don't like that resulting velocity, then you want to increase the regulator pressure a little more and start over.  You always want to keep the tuned balanced like this or you will be wasting air, and the gun will shoot louder than it should be.

Hammer is at max (16). Micro wheel at max. Valve shows 4 lines so I think it's almost all the way out.

I guess I should start by increasing the 2nd reg to 115 then - even tho the manual indicates that's well above max.

Incidentally, when I got the gun, about a month ago, the first reg was right at 150, but it has sagged to 140. Is that a matter of concern? (This is my first FX gun with two regs; this never happened with my Wildcat or Crowns.)

The drop in pressure from the reg sounds like intial reg creep that some regs will have and has settled in...👍

[triggertreat]

I would not mess with the first reg.  It may start to act up on you if disturbed.  I would remove the bottle and bleed the remaining reg air before turning up the second reg. If you can still remove the bottle like with the MKII under pressure.  You can always turn the second reg back down with pressure applied without risking much.  Doing all of this should keep all working good.  FWIW:  I only have an MKII with one reg but have read enough posts that if I had an M3 I would be mostly familiar with it already except for the bottle valve.  I am very familiar with tuning an Impact.

[PaulFWI]

I would not mess with the first reg.  It may start to act up on you if disturbed.  I would remove the bottle and bleed the remaining reg air before turning up the second reg. If you can still remove the bottle like with the MKII under pressure.  You can always turn the second reg back down with pressure applied without risking much.  Doing all of this should keep all working good.  FWIW:  I only have an MKII with one reg but have read enough posts that if I had an M3 I would be mostly familiar with it already except for the bottle valve.  I am very familiar with tuning an Impact.

I had no plans to adjust the 1st reg, which the manual says should not be done. (It does say to remove the bottle if you do.)

The Mk3 manual does NOT say to remove the bottle for adjusting the 2nd reg - in fact, it says:

"Make sure you have full pressure (200+bar) in the tank before starting this
adjustment."

[GSu]

With your Macro and Micro maxed out you might benefit from a slightly heavier hammer weight.  My .25 and .30 Impact MKII's have a couple of the washers/weight, spacer installed to bring the weight up to 8.4 grams.  The weight change made a world of difference in getting up in fps without maxing out the gun.  Stock spring nothing else.

[triggertreat]

I would not mess with the first reg.  It may start to act up on you if disturbed.  I would remove the bottle and bleed the remaining reg air before turning up the second reg. If you can still remove the bottle like with the MKII under pressure.  You can always turn the second reg back down with pressure applied without risking much.  Doing all of this should keep all working good.  FWIW:  I only have an MKII with one reg but have read enough posts that if I had an M3 I would be mostly familiar with it already except for the bottle valve.  I am very familiar with tuning an Impact.

I had no plans to adjust the 1st reg, which the manual says should not be done. (It does say to remove the bottle if you do.)

The Mk3 manual does NOT say to remove the bottle for adjusting the 2nd reg - in fact, it says:

"Make sure you have full pressure (200+bar) in the tank before starting this
adjustment."

As stated, my experience is limited to the MKII utilizing the FX Amp reg.  FX said you could adjust the MKII reg under pressure also, but many found out it is best to only do this when decreasing reg pressure.  However, some have figured out they could increase the reg under pressure if they were fast and did so right after firing the gun and making small 1/4" turns on the reg when the pressure against the reg was reduced.  So, IDK.  Maybe do some more research or search for some YT videos.  Maybe FX has improved the reg and now you can adjust them up under pressure.  At any rate you need to increase the reg pressure to increase the velocity.  Increasing the valve dwell time by adding more hammer weight is not the best course to take unless you have already increased the reg setpoint and need more hammer weight.

[GSu]

Yes you can increase the #2 regulator pressure without issue.  Just be sure to turn counter clock wise in tiny increments.  It will take a number of shots for the gun to equalize to the new settings. FX regulators can be turned down but again very tiny increments.  Make one adjustment and shoot 5-10 shots and continue and see where you end up.  The Huma regulators need to be reduced after the airgun is completely emptied. They will fail ( leak badly) if you reduce the settings while pressurized.