THE X ‘TWIST' FACTOR!

Tighter groups and jaw-dropping accuracy put a smile on Mick Garvey’s face

The time finally arrived. The FX Airguns X-Twist barrel had landed and it was a beast; 700mm long was longer than I expected, and it would take care of the heavier 34-grain pellets and the much talked about slugs that seem to be all the rage recently, but in all honesty, the 25gn AA Diablos take care of most, if not all of my needs. I have to admit the long shots shown all over social media are very impressive, but I’m happy with a 70-yard maximum and generally no more than 60 to 65-yard shots are my self-set rules. In the past, I have taken over 90 pigeons in a session and regularly got into the 80s, so walking out that far to either pick up or to set up a woodie would be a pain, and besides, the skill is getting the birds, or whatever the target species is, to come to the pattern or feeder – as they say in golf, ‘long shots for show, short shots for dough’.

When I first received the .25 FAC Impact, I was using JSB heavies with great results, but I was introduced to the AA Diablos by a good mate, Wes, and I went from thumbnail, full mag’ groups at 50 yards, to little fingernail size groups, and I have never looked back. This was all done with the original Smooth-Twist barrel and I was as happy as a sandboy with things, but the X-Twist broke onto the scene, and after several conversations with Johan at FX it was decided to give the ‘X Factor’ a go. Could it be any better than my trusty, smoothie? Well, all indications suggested that it would be. The harvest was long gone so a comparison day on the stubble was out of the question, in fact the comparison would be difficult altogether because no two days were the same. So, some target shooting and a trip to one of my favoured squirrel areas would have to do.

SECOND TO NONE