Posts by Jock Elliott:
A Conversation with Fredrik Axelsson, Owner of FX Airguns – Part II
Recently I had the opportunity to speak at length by telephone with Fredrik Axelsson, owner of FX Airguns. This is the second part of that conversation.
JE: So what happened next?
FA: In 2001, I called Ingvar Alm and asked him who should I deal with in America? He said try Airguns of Arizona. Robert Buchanan agreed to have one or two samples of the FX2000 and the Excalibur, and he was over the moon about them. The accuracy is fantastic, he said.
JE: How do you achieve that accuracy?
FA: When I set out to design an airgun or something for an airgun, I don’t look at other people’s stuff at all. When I made my PCP rifle, all the ideas came from myself, and what I came up with was a very small valve and very small striker. That makes a difference. When you pull the trigger, you have very little mass moving inside the gun, compared to other designs. Some of the others have very heavy hammers and valves, and they are almost as bad as a springer when you pull the trigger. As a result, you need to build a heavy gun to compensate for all the mass moving inside it. An FX gun can be relatively lighter because you don’t need to compensate for a heavy valve and striker.
JE: What are some of the other things that have happened during the evolution of FX as a company?
FA: One key event was that I got fed up with the Italian company that was supplying us with stocks, so we started making our own synthetic stocks. That was very hard; we had to select a material that would do the job and build the machines that would make the stocks. At the beginning, that was a big negative, because nobody wanted synthetic stocks, but I didn’t care because at last I had a reliable supply of stocks.
JE: What else?
FA: Later we came up with the power adjuster and interchangeable air tubes. I made the power adjuster for hunting. I wanted to do the ultimate hunting rifle, one that would be quick for reloading and that you didn’t have to shoot at the same power all the time. Here’s the basic idea: at 50-60 meters, you shoot high power; at 30 meters or so, medium power; and if you are shooting pigeons inside a barn at 15 meters and don’t want the pellet to go all the way through, you use low power. Because you’re simply changing the orifice that the air flows through with the rotation of a wheel, you don’t have to fiddle with all the adjustments that you do with some other guns.
JE: How important is the US market to you?
FA: The US market is getting more and more important for us. We look to that more than anything else right now. I think the attitude toward airguns in the US is changing, and the market is growing quite dramatically. I love America because you don’t have restrictions on airguns at all. That’s not the case in Sweden where we are based.
JE: What is your philosophy when it comes to designing airguns?
FA: I do things that appeal to myself, and they seem to appeal to Americans as well. I love to build guns that a harmonious. They are light, quick, and everything works together well. The guns you love are the guns that deliver great accuracy and handle well. If you turn up the power too much, it’s a completely different feeling when you fire it. If you aren’t happy with the power of a .22, you should go to a .25. If you’re not happy with the energy of a .25, you need to go to an even bigger caliber. If you go too fast, you ruin accuracy. I refuse to do bad rifles.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
- Jock Elliott
A Conversation with Fredrik Axelsson, Owner of FX Airguns – Part I
Recently I had the opportunity to speak at length by telephone with Fredrik Axelsson, owner of FX Airguns. JE: How did you get involved with airguns? FA: I had my first airgun when I was five years old. I have been told that I had problems operating that rifle because I was a little too [...]
A “Primitive” Airgun
No one knows for sure exactly when it happened, or where. Some estimate it was sometime in the fifteenth century. Others say it was perhaps thousands of years earlier. Whenever it was, at some point in the mists of time, some intrepid innovator discovered what every kid who has blown the wrapper off a soda [...]
The HW70A Pistol – What fun!
Okay, I’ll admit it; I was prejudiced. Before I explain why, let’s back up for just a moment. At the heart of the word “prejudiced” is the notion of “pre-judging,” and that carries with it the underlying concept of forming an opinion without sufficient facts to back it up. We certainly see prejudice at work [...]
A conversation with Stefano Gervasoni, Export director of Daystate
In May, 2009, Daystate was acquired by the same group that owns Marocchi Arms. For the past two-and-a-half years, Stefano Gervasoni has been Export Director of Daystate. JE: How did you get involved with airguns? SG: In my last job, I was sales manager for Minelli an Italian company that made wooden stocks for airguns [...]
Airguns of Arizona – the International Connection
If you think that Airguns of Arizona is content to rest on its laurels, quietly baking in the Arizona sun, think again. Recently I spoke with Robert Buchanan, president of AoA, about the company’s international connection. “At least once a year, I go to Europe. Frequently, it is to visit the IWA Fair, which is [...]
In which Mr. Murphy and I do a dance, and I invent a new game
It all started innocently enough. My wife noticed me staring into space with a distant look in my eye and asked what I was doing. “Well, I’m trying to come up with a topic for the next blog,” I said. She replied, “Why don’t you go for something that is just pure fun?” I looked [...]
FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber – Part II
To ready the FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber for shooting, attach the filling probe to your high pressure pump or SCUBA tank and charge the reservoir to 200 BAR. Now it’s time to load the magazine. Begin by turning the transparent lid to the magazine counterclockwise until it stops. Put one pellet in the [...]
FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber – Part I
FX airguns enjoy a well-deserved reputation for excellence and accuracy, and the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber is no exception. It is a big airgun – 45.5 inches from end to end – that weighs just 6.7 lbs. and delivers a tremendous wallop, nearly 44 foot-pounds at the muzzle. Starting at the extreme [...]
How Airguns of Arizona preps guns before you get them
I came upon the subject for this blog quite by accident, and it was all my fault. A while back I had been whining to Greg, my chief contact at Airguns of Arizona, about how winter was coming in big, bad upstate New York, and if the winter was anything like last year, there was [...]
