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FX Maverick FULL REVIEW by Baker Airguns!

A few months back, way before the new FX Maverick was announced, I was introduced to one of the prototypes.  As soon as I held the gun I thought to myself, “Man!  This thing is really awesome!”  Having first hand experience with most high end airguns, only the finest will really….take my breath away.  The Maverick did just that.  It’s kind of an amalgamation of an Impact and a Wildcat.  “What will this mean to my beloved Impact?”, I wondered.  “Have I….lost that loving feeling…for my Impact?”  As far as I could tell, I was on the….highway to the danger zone.  But alas, the new Maverick is it’s own gun altogether.  It replaces neither the Impact or the Wildcat.  All three of the guns have their own unique attributes, and there is room in any collection for all three.  The link below is to the full review video that accompanies this written report.  I suggest taking them both in for the full story.

As I said above, the Maverick has attributes of both the Wildcat and the Impact….but it’s definitely it’s own gun.  It has and extremely large 89cc plenum, and is designed to shoot heavy pellets and slugs.  It has not one, but two AMP regulators that work in tandem.  FX says that this will result in a more consistent working pressure.  There is also a slug power kit that will soon be available for the gun, which will really wring the most power possible out of the gun.  All Maverick’s ship with the Smooth Twist X Superior Standard liner that works well with pellets, FX Hybrid Slugs, and other lighter slugs.

There are three versions of the new Maverick.  There’s the Sniper that sports a 700mm barrel and a 580cc carbon fiber bottle, a Compact with a 500mm barrel and a 300cc carbon fiber bottle, and a VP version with a 600mm barrel and a 400cc aluminum bottle.  While the Maverick has it’s own chassis…you’ll find the familiar Impact style buttpad, AR-15 pistol grip, and picatinny rails on all four sides of the gun.  From the Wildcat…you’ll find the MkIII hammer adjustment system, breech, standard Side Shot magazine, trigger system, and Smooth Twist X barrel system.  While the safety is in the same place as the Wildcat, it’s now a switch instead of the wire lever.  All versions of the Maverick have 20MOA built right into the scope rail, and are available with or without the DonnyFL moderator.

My test gun for the review, the Sniper 25 version with DonnyFL moderator and Element Titan scope

The gun I used for my review is the .25 caliber Sniper version with the DonnyFL moderator.  While you can obviously tame the gun down with tuning, what I wanted to know was how powerful could I make it in stock form?  Therefore, I maxed out the hammer spring adjuster and adjusted the second regulator to 150BAR and the first regulator to about 180BAR.  A thirty to thirty-five bar difference between the two regulators is what FX recommends for the best performance.  There is a great FX Masterclass video with Ernest Rowe showing you the correct procedure to adjust the regulators.  It’s very simple, and I suggest watching it if you have a Maverick.  Keep in mind, FX lists the maximum power output of the guns as tested with the slug power kit installed.  The guns do not ship with this kit installed and it must be purchased separately.  Having said that…I easily achieved about a 940fps average with the FX 33.9gr pellets, producing about 65fpe using the tune listed above.  That’s some serious “How do you do?” from a .25 caliber airgun. What is even more astonishing, is that I got over 90 shots per fill at that tune.  That’s right, over 90 shots!

Of course, all that power is worthless if the gun isn’t accurate….so just how accurate is the new Maverick?  I used both the FX 33.9gr pellets and the 26gr Hybrid slugs to test the accuracy of the gun at 100yds.  As expected, the pellets were the more accurate of the two projectiles.  As you can see in the two photos below, I got less than a 1″ five shot group with the pellets.  After zeroing, it was my first group of the day.  I stopped shooting the pellets right after that because why continue?  That’s pretty damn accurate!  I then rezeroed the gun for the Hybrid slugs.  The next, and best, five shot group I shot with the Hybrids was just about 1.5″.  Again, that’s pretty good.  The Maverick is capable of some serious accuracy, just as you’d expect from any FX product.

100 yards, 5 shots, FX 33.9gr pellets, 940fps average
100 yards, 5 shots, FX Hybrid Slugs 26gr, 1015fps average

Part of the reason this gun is so accurate is because it’s very easy to shoot.  Not only does it have some great ergonomics, but it also has a top quality FX trigger.  As I understand, it’s the exact same trigger and linkage that is used on the Wildcat MkIII.  Bone stock, right out of the box without any adjustment…the trigger was a wonderful two stage pull with a solid wall and a light, crisp break of less than a pound.  FX produces some of the best bullpup style triggers on the market, and the Maverick certainly has one.

As with any FX product, there is already great demand for this gun.  We’ve got some of them in stock right now here at Baker Airguns, and have more on the way.  Do yourself a favor and check one of these guns out ASAP….as they’re sure to sell out quickly.  Also, I’m very sorry for all of the cheesy Top Gun references….but how could I not?  It’s the Maverick!  Oh, and though I couldn’t find an appropriate place to use this one….I’d just like to say…..because I was inverted.

 

 

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