FX Royale 500 Kurtz

I recently decided to turn my Royale 500 into a carbine of similar size of the Royale 400.

I bought a 400 at Christmas time and loved the way it handled and the consistancy of the accuracy. It was was a difficult descision on whether to purchase a 400 or a 500, but I wanted a rifle to knock starlings out of the tops of Doug Firs around the vineyard, and I did not want to impart too much carnage on my neighbors when those pellets went to ground.

But I do love 25 caliber rifles and King pellets. I had turned my King shooting AF rifles into 25 LBT shooters and do not regret it, but I needed another king shooter, and the FX 500 seemed to fit the bill. So last month I purchased a used Royale 500.

I loved the way it shot, but it was about as clumsy to carry as a full length Condor with a shroud on it. The stock and receiver were the same as the 400 so I decided to have it shortened.

I sent it off to a good air gun smith that Tof had recomended and soon had it back. In the mean time I sold my 500 tank and ordered a 400 tank to replace it from AOA.

I also at the same time sent the scope that was on the 500 back to Leupold to get M1 turrents on it and took the time to Alumahyde the SF wheel that Doug, Dayotat, had made for me. The VXIII 4.5×14 LR 30 MM SF Hollands is still at Leupold, so I had to rob the Bushnell 5×15 Tactical off the Royale 400 to test the 500 Kurtz.

The finished product is a Roylae 500 Kurtz that is 1 inch longer than the Royale 400 so 40.5 and 41.5 inches. A further 1.5 inches could be trimmed from the Royales by setting the shroud back 1.5 inches, but once you do that, you can’t take the tank off without removing the barrel.

Before the modification the 500 was slightly quieter than the 400, now the 500 is slightly louder, a hair curler mod or baffeles or an insert of some sort could rectify that, but where I live no body hears me shoot the Royales anyway and even if they did it is a free fire zone here and they are used to centerfire pistols and rifles.

Accuracy just might be a little better than it was before, and it was fantastic before.

I had no trouble getting the velocity dialed in that I wanted, 880 to 900 FPS, The full length 500 had been shooting Kings at 890 FPS and after the surgery it shot them at 835 FPS, so I lost 45 FPS by trimming the barrel 4.5 inches.

The shot string is considerably shorter, 44 shots. But you must realize that I took a 20% hit going from 400 to 500 cc’s and I had to turn it up some from the setting I had it on before to make up for the lost velocity from the shorter barrel and that takes more air from a 20% smaller tank. But thanks to Tom Kaye and his Shoebox compressor, that is only a slight irratation.

Here are Royale Flush photos before and after.

Before

After

11 shot groups from a experimental fill that was too fast from the 500 Kurtz

Regards,

Roachcreek