FX Monsoon

[fullmetaljacket]

I got my grubby mitts on an FX Monsoon earlier this year, aside from its voracious appetite for air and lead as well as a fiddly magazine loading procedure I have nothing bad to say about it. So far it's been soldiering on with a Russian ПДК-23 red-dot sight - good for 1" knockdowns at 45 yards but it deserved something better, so it's now fitted with a massive Simalux 8.5-34x52 (cheers flims ) and Harris bipod, I can't wait to exploit its long range potential. This is the beauty of this rifle, it's great for short range empty-the-mag-as-fast-as-you-can-pull-the-trigger plinking, while at the same time being capable of the sort of consistency that would put many bolt action rifles to shame.

I ran three mags through my CB-625 from a 200 bar fill, data in feet per second for 16 grain JSB exact pellets:

907, 906, 906, 905, 900, 904, 900, 902, 899, 896, 894, 889

896, 892, 891, 886, 887, 881, 878, 876, 875, 866, 863, 863

862, 860, 852, 847, 846, 841, 833, 826, 820, 815, 809, 805

On the 20th shot, the rifle failed to cycle and had to be recocked manually. Peak muzzle energy is just over 29 ft/lbs for the first shot, tapering off to a still very respectable 23 ft/lbs for the 32nd shot.

Some pictures:

left profile, red dot fitted

red dot detail

left profile, scope and bipod fitted

bipod legs extended

scope detail 1

scope detail 2

[David Snook]

The shot capacity would appear to be a little disappointing, however scrutiny of your muzzle velocities seem to indicate that the gun has not been filled to a high enough pressure.

To pressurise a gun to the "heart of the fill" and maximise the natural sweet spot, the velocity should rise slightly, then fall, I would suggest a fill pressure of at least 220BAR after looking at your results.

It would be worth while experimenting if the gun can be safely filled to higher pressures.

David

[fullmetaljacket]

I'm aware of this trend but the manufacturer specifies a maximum of 200 bar, I'm worried that going over this would overstress the fairly finely balanced bolt mechanism that is sensitive enough not to work reliably with pellets over 16 grains.

[Tranquil]

hmm somethings not right, my monsoon would cycle 5-6 mags no problem at all.
And a deviation of over 100fps is unusual, myne was more like 40-50fps over 36 shots from a 195bar fill.

With the cycling issue you could try a different mag and/or pellet. One of the mags i had would occasionally fail to cycle on AA fields/JSB's. Where as the other 2 mags worked perfectly. H&N FTT's and Premiers/Accupels would cycle on all 3 mags without drama

[fullmetaljacket]

hmm somethings not right, my monsoon would cycle 5-6 mags no problem at all.
And a deviation of over 100fps is unusual, myne was more like 40-50fps over 36 shots from a 195bar fill.

Are you sure you're not confusing the Monsoon with the Revolution? The manual I have cleary states that the number of "usable, consistent shots using the air cylinder provided with the rifle" is 24, ie 2 magazines. The Revolution on the other hand has a much larger air cylinder and consequently gives more shots per fill.

[Crete]

I also have a .22 cal. Monsoon and have recently took a deeeeep breath and disassembled the reservoir. There is nothing to it really. The reason was to add a 45cc extension tube (Euro 120.00) to the 180cc that came with the rifle, which has transformed the overall shot capacity.

It may not seem spectacular to get an extra 12-shot mag in semiauto (instead of two or three), but I get five (5) 12-shot mags in semi-auto with a 200 Bar fill and more importantly as the Air Tank drops in pressure, I can still shoot three consistent 12-shot mags manually with just 50 Bar fill (YES 50 Bar!), which is brill.

[fullmetaljacket]

Is there some kind of online manual/patent drawing with details of the inner workings?

[Crete]

Here

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...alexploded.jpg

[flims]

crete do you also have a shot string so we can compare how yours and Fullmetaljacket's velocity compare? can the rifles be chronoed and set to shoot at the same velocity so you can have 2 rifles with equal ballistic performance?

[Crete]

Sorry, but I do not.

I may get a CHRONY at some point and do a comparison.

My Monsoon developed a leak at some point so I took it apart. I disassembled it completely. I used the pic and some others as guides. I even took the valve apart.

Finally, I put everything back together and used teflon tape in all threaded joints. It leakes air no more.

I start with 200 BAR fill from a bottle and continue to shoot all the way down to 50BAR, and below that. Today I shot 5 magazines @ 30BAR. I had to aim several inches above the target (placed @ 80m) but I was hitting everything consistently. This simply stated to show that the Monsoon can work (manually cycling of course), with little pressure, which I find brill. It sounds quieter than a Anschutz 2008 or Steyr 110, FWB 700 etc. At 10m (.22 cal.) it remains dead-on.

Of course with a fresh 200BAR fill it wakes up and shoots like every other Monsoon I see groups of (120m, 55m, 40m etc.).

The CHRONY figures tell the story and I am convinced that there is little difference between one Monsoon (.22 cal.) and another. Except -- perhaps -- with the addition of a tube extension in the factory reservoir, which increases the shot capacity by one magazine in semi-auto, but several magazines in manual-cycling.

[simmmo]

I am sorry to appear rude but David Snook in my opinion tends to know what he is talking about so I would suggest you revisit what he is talking about.


Andy

[bengarzy]

The shot capacity would appear to be a little disappointing, however scrutiny of your muzzle velocities seem to indicate that the gun has not been filled to a high enough pressure.

To pressurise a gun to the "heart of the fill" and maximise the natural sweet spot, the velocity should rise slightly, then fall, I would suggest a fill pressure of at least 220BAR after looking at your results.

It would be worth while experimenting if the gun can be safely filled to higher pressures.

David

Its a semi-auto David and uses the muzzle blast in the silencer to cycle and things "change" over 200 BAR that effects the cycling of the action so 200 BAR is max. Having said that it looks like a little less hammer spring would not go amiss and give anice power curve instead of a slope.

Ben

[ash bom]

where can you buy a fx monsoon in the uk.

[Gavlar]

You can't. The only semi auto sec 1 is .22LR, unless I am mistaken.

[big louie]

You can't. The only semi auto sec 1 is .22LR, unless I am mistaken.

no you are correct