If I hadn’t previously tested a Reximex rifle, I’d have been genuinely shocked at the amount of features this month’s test rifle has to its credit, for the price tag it carries. My exploration of the Reximex Pretensis a few months ago, and the research I carried out on the company that produced it, helped me avoid that shock, but not entirely. Make no mistake, the Ixia Compact bullpup you see here, is most definitely a rifle that will raise more than its fair share of eyebrows, especially among those who have yet to become acquainted with the Reximex brand. Over the next four pages, prepare to be surprised.
REXIMEX IXIA COMPACT OVERVIEW
The Reximex Ixia Compact is an ambidextrous, pre-charged pneumatic, side-lever activated, fully-regulated, multi-shot bullpup, with adjustable power and an impressive list of mini features. The recommended retail price is £845, and for that, in addition to the rifle, you get two magazines, a single-shot pellet loader, the filling probe, some ‘O’ ring seals, a hex wrench, an instruction booklet and a padded hard case. Now let’s break down the features.
First, the Ixia Compact is regulated. I believe that this model marks the first venture into regulated energy output for Reximex, and it’s an impressive debut. The .177 test rifle came fitted with a 300cc, carbon-fibre buddy bottle air reservoir, which when charged to 250 bar, can produce over 150 shots at 11.4 ft.lbs. Add 50 shots for the .22 calibre version, but the most remarkable stat about the Ixia’s output, is the performance of that reg’.
REGULATOR AND POWER-ADJUSTMENT
Using my precious prepared pellets, and after two ‘clearing’ shots following a fresh charge, the test rifle clocked an overall variation of just 11 fps during the following 102 shots. That worked out at a practically ignorable average deviation, and far more importantly, it let me put all thoughts of mechanical variation from my mind, and concentrate on my shooting.
According to the gauge above the rifle’s grip, the regulator pressure is set at a fraction under 100 bar, which is pleasingly low. The Ixia’s reg’ runs off a ‘pre-chamber’ sited immediately in front of the breech, and within the breech area is where the rifle’s power-adjusters can be found.
There’s a hammer-spring tension adjuster wheel at the right-rear of the action, plus a smaller wheel on the left-hand side. Rotating the smaller wheel varied the test rifle’s output from its maximum of 11.4 ft.lbs., right down to a minimum of 5.8 ft.lbs. Dialling the hammer tension wheel produced … nothing at all, and I suspect that, like the regulator adjustment wheel that Reximex fits to the unrestricted examples of the Ixia, it’s been disabled for the non-FAC UK market.
For the high-power, full length models and their fully-certificated owners, the ability to balance reg’ pressure and hammer spring tension to the requirements of various pellets and slugs, would undoubtedly be a useful feature, but the performance of the test rifle as supplied proved that such tweakery simply wasn’t required. The ‘standard’ power-adjustment feature could earn its keep in certain situations, but even that would be used rarely, at least in my world.
THE MAGAZINE SYSTEM
The Ixia’s removable, rotary magazines offer a capacity of 12 shots in .22 and 14 in .177. To load them, simply pre-tension the internal drive spring by rotating the clear cover in the direction indicated by the arrow, holding the cover in place, and placing a fingertip over the ‘exit’ hole of the first open chamber, before dropping in the first pellet, nose-first. Now, release the tension on the magazine cover - the first pellet keeps it held in place – and load each empty chamber, as you rotate the cover back to its closed position.
Now comes the unconventional bit. To load the magazine in the action, make sure the rifle is fully cocked and the safety’s on. Next, insert the mag’ from the LEFT-HAND side, rounded end first, with the clear cover facing you, until the magazine reaches the stop and its vertical section sits flush with the action block. There’s a keyway in the mag’ and breech face, and you’ll probably struggle a bit to engage the two for the first few uses, but in no time, you’ll be changing mags in seconds. Things are still a bit unconventional, though.
First, the numbers on the magazine’s shooter-visible face that indicate how many pellets are available, are presented upside-down. No big deal, but a bit odd all the same. Next, although the Ixia is described as a fully ambidextrous rifle, and indeed its sidelever can be switched to accommodate southpaws, the magazine can only be loaded from the left, leaving it protruding from the right-hand face of the action.
Now here’s the really weird thing; the three lefties who shot the test rifle couldn’t feel the magazine on their faces, or the knurled barrel-fixing screw. In fact, two of the three said they’d leave the cocking lever on the right, rather than swap it over. Bonkers, or what?
SAFETY CATCH AND TRIGGER PERFORMANCE
The fact that I’m even mentioning the rifle’s safety-catch this early in the review tells you that it’s a departure from the norm, and it is. Instead of a button, slide, or remote lever, the Ixia Compact uses a section of its trigger guard to lock and unlock the trigger blade itself. The photos show the how the system works, but they can’t demonstrate how ‘solid’ it feels, and that’s important.
This safety-catch locks the bar on which the trigger shoe is mounted, and it does so in a way that the slightest touch of the trigger tells you the status of the rifle. There’s no movement of any kind, and that totally avoids the frustration of getting all the way to the point of trigger-release, only to find you’ve left the safety on – and we’ve all done that many, many times. This simply can’t happen with this safety-catch, and it’s a seriously useful feature, hence my early mention.
It’s a happy fact of modern airgun life, that having a bullpup no longer means compromising on trigger performance. Most bullpups use a long, remote linkage to connect finger pressure on the trigger blade, to activation of the trigger mechanism itself, and some early examples struggled with that translation. Not these days, though, and certainly not with this particular rifle. In fact, my first attempt at creating a precise let-off setting resulted in a too-light trigger, and I had to back it off a bit.
I suspect that, after all adjustment had been carried out, I was back at the setting as supplied by Range Right, but whatever it was, it suits me, and I’m sure there’s a setting in there for you, too.
I really appreciate the accommodating range of movement a trigger shoe provides, as it shifts up, down and around its post, and Reximex has nailed this trigger system, no doubt about it.
BUTT AND GRIP CONFIGURATION
With no proper cheekpiece to speak of, just a curved synthetic plate on which to park your cheek, the rifle’s butt pad and grip play an ever-more important role in the scheme of handling and on-aim stability. The fact that the butt pad can be shifted up and down at the press of a button is a major plus, as is the grippy surface of the raked, drop-down grip. The combination means that the shooter’s cheek is used more as a reference point than a full-contact surface. Now add the forehand-friendly curve of the rifle’s carbon-fibre buddy bottle, and the on-aim stability deal is almost complete.
I say ‘almost complete’, only because, as ever, there’s a bit of juggling to do between the scope position, butt pad height, front hand contact point, and even the trigger shoe setting, before the absolute ideal configuration is reached … and believe me when I tell you that getting to that point could, and should, take you several weeks and a dozen tweaks. Yes, really, unless you want to introduce compromise into your set-up – and you don’t, trust me on this. Meanwhile, I’ve still got several more features, and a couple of criticisms, to highlight.
CONSIDERATIONS IF YOU BUY ONE...
This rifle absolutely demands a silencer, and for two reasons. In keeping with the unconventional theme of the Ixia Compact, the first reason I’d advise you to fit a silencer, isn’t to make the rifle quieter. It’s because there’s just 50mm between the front face of the buddy bottle, and the exit point of the pellet, as it emerges through the threaded silencer adaptor. A silencer will completely prevent the, albeit unlikely, chance of a fingertip straying too close to the muzzle, by placing a physical barrier between the two. My concerns aside, get a silencer anyway, and make the rifle’s performance a most pleasantly subdued affair.
Charging the rifle is the usual uncomplicated routine of snapping on the adaptor and injecting the required 250 bar into the buddy bottle. Here’s where we encounter my first nit-pick. Please Reximex, sort this great little rifle a proper inlet valve dust cap. The slippery yellow teat supplied with the test rifle will keep out crud, but it looks naff and I hate it. I’ll reveal here and now that I intend to add one of these rifles to my collection, and I’ll be getting a clever person to make me a dust cover befitting the Ixia.
While I’m having a moan, does the regulator pressure gauge really need to stick out quite so far? Could its threaded mounting be shortened to bring the gauge closer to the face of the action? I’ll be exploring that option, too, and herewith ends my moaning.
THE IXIA IN ACTION
With the magazine loaded and installed, the trigger adjusted, and a still day to aid an honest accuracy return from the targets placed 40 and 50 yards downrange, it was time to settle at my sturdy bench, and push the test rifle’s accuracy envelope. I was helped in this by Range Right’s provision of the outstanding Konuspro 6-24 x 50 scope, cranked to its full magnification, and focused pin-sharp on my first target.
The zeroing process had shown how smoothly the rifle cocked, and how fuss-free it was to operate, and now I had to establish its accuracy standard. Here’s where the effort invested in setting up the trigger and butt pad pays me back, and I can shoot on autopilot, within my preferred world.
Two empty magazines later, I took a break and retrieved my targets, which proved that this .177 Ixia Compact will group its shots inside 13mm at 40 yards, and just 16mm at 50, using Air Arms Diabolo Field pellets, prepared by my own ageing hands.
VERDICT
I will improve on those groups, but I already know what this rifle can do, and its build quality convinces me that it will keep on doing it. I like the smooth, easy way it goes about its business, and with an addition or two from my custom airgun contacts, I also know this, already special, little bullpup will become even more so. Welcome to my gun room, the Reximex Ixia.
TECH SPECS
Name: Ixia Compact
Manufacturer: Reximex
Country of origin: Turkey
Overall length: 711mm (28ins)
Barrel length: 381mm (15ins) plus 152mm (6ins) of muzzle shroud
Air cylinder capacity: 300cc
Weight unscoped: 3.5kg (7.8lbs)
Available calibres: .177, .22
Loading: Multi-shot magazine, or single-shot tray
Cocking: Sidelever
Magazine: 14-shot (.177), 12-shot (.22)
Fill Pressure: Up to 250 bar
Shots per charge: .177 – 1500 plus. .22 – 200 plus.
Trigger: Two-stage adjustable, post-and-shoe type
Safety: Manual, resettable
Stock: Ambidextrous, black synthetic
Supplied with: two magazines, single-shot adaptor, hex keys, charging adaptor, multiple seals, and instruction manual
RRP: £845
Contact: Range Right