After much anticipation and checking of UPS tracking updates my FX Whisper arrived yesterday! These are some initial impressions, more detailed review coming later.
I was worried the instant I picked up the box as it did not feel like it had an airgun in it. Awww crap, did they only ship the scope and other parts? Where is the box with my gun!?!??! But once I opened it up I saw that it was in there. Man, this thing is light!!! I guess the synthetic stock keeps the weight down? I gave it a good once over visual inspection and it seemed OK. Maybe a minor scratch here or there (probably from AoA handling it less-gently than I do with my own guns) but the manufacturing finish seems very good. My Hawke Airmax 4-12x40IR Scope was pre-mounted by AoA (I'll probably need to remove and reinstall as the ring screws were tightened unevenly) and it looked fine. I ordered mine with the factory extended air tube - AoA calls it the MkII model - and it looked well done. The picture below is from AoA and my air tube is almost to the end of the barrel.
OK, enough of that, time to put some rounds downrange. Did my very first PCP fill from my used 120cf scuba tank I picked up yesterday and using my fill adapter I bought from "Joe". Was surprised to see the FX gauge is still in BAR and so small it is near useless but guess I can live with that as I will use the fill gauge that came with my adapter. Filled to 3000 psi, loaded up the 12 round magazine and shot a large tree a few times across the yard. Hmmm, gun sounded
very weak....worry sets in. I set up a few large silhouettes at 20 yards and let one fly at the pink pig. PUH-TANGGGG!!!! I registered a solid, authoritative hit and it was hammered and somersaulted across the ground. The gun is so quiet I thought it was shooting weak. It is not weak.
The short story on the initial accuracy tests is that it likes JSB Exacts (15.9) and Jumbo Heavies (18.1) with ragged 5 shot groups at 20 yards. There was some nice sweet spot action but I was feeding it different pellets so need more time with the chrony and shot strings. Was getting 26/27 fpe. H&N Baracudas did OK but sad to see Predators shooting wild. Funny thing with the Predators is the chrony spread was real tight for them, about 3 fps difference, but 1.25" at only 20 yards. Did not try any other pellets yet.
Sadly I had to put the gun away as it arrived the day before a planned vacation and we have a lot of getting ready to do. I'll be somewhere that prohibits guns so can't take it with me or I would. I am really, really liking what I am seeing and can't wait to shoot it some more when I get back!
