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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By Meatball
Published: December 12, 2003
Updated: October 10, 2008
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The Real Steel M733 Commando
Well While doing some research on the weapon, I realised that M733 is kind of a side name, and it is better known as the Colt Commando (at least on the internet). When I typed in M733 in the search engine, only airsoft sites came up.
Specifications:
Caliber: 5.56x45 mm (.223 Remington)
Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt
Overall length: 680 - 762 mm
Barrel length: 292 mm
Weigth: 2.44 kg empty
Rate of fire: 750 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds (or any other M16 type magazine)
Colt started their Carbine series, based off their M16 assault rifles with the CAR-15 in the Vietnam era. They had to fix a number of problems with the gun, and did so when producing the M609 Commando, better known as the XM-177E1. With more minor improvements in mid 1967, Colt produced the XM-177E2.
Today's current Colt Commando Carbines (the M733) are basically M16a2's or M16a3's with shortened handguards, and a retractable stock. There are commandos with the a3's flat top for mounting accessories, and there are ones with the a2's top non-removable handle. The flat top (a3) version is known as the M933 while the handle the M733. There is also a shortened outer barrel, but they still have identical flash surpressors. There are commando's available in both full auto, and three round burst modes. The three round burst modes are known as M735 (a2) and M935(flat top a3). This gun was made popular in the movie Black Hawk Down. In 1994 Colt introduced their M4 Carbine. That kind of overshadowed the M733 Commando.
First Impressions
The gun comes in a reasonably sized box, with army green background, and black lettering. I got this gun from Combat Club. They are selling M733's there for only $168 plus shipping! By far the best price for this gun on the internet. They got it to me very quickly (4 days to the US east coast) and provided me with great service, and I highly reccomend them.
Anyway, I pulled the gun out of the box, and noticed that it came with a orange cap, and they sent the original flash hider, with no paint on it. I was very happy with this, the orange piece came off with a little twisting, and the original went on just as easily. So now that I have that settled, I turned to the trade marks. They had a easily removable tape (that leaves a tiny bit of rims, but can be removed). So of course I took off the tape to find the trademarks. It clearly is a M16a2 version gun since it says "M16a2" on it, along with the same images as on my M16a2, as you can see below.
 
After this excitement I inspected the gun. I noticed that the handguards were not as shiny as on my M16a2, which I feel makes it look not only more realistic, but better. It is kind of hard to tell from a distance, but you can when they are box in your hands right next to one another. I opened the handguards to see the battery combartments (more on that later), and made my way up to the outer barrel. The outer barrel is shorter then the M4a1, and M16, and is made of a more polished metal. Kind of resembling plastic, but it is clearly metal from every angle. This appears to be a lighter weight metal, which really improves the front heavy issue.
M733's outer barrel.
Then I made my way back to the stock. It has a very sturdy feel, with the dull metal sliding bar, and the actual stock being plastic (sturdy, and dull plastic). I was very pleased with this build, it has the three different positions, fully extended, half extended, and not extended. All proving to be very usefull positions. Fully extended allows for better shouldering and aiming of the rifle, and not extended takes away a lot of length, to make it a CQB weapon, that can easily turn in corners and turn around in hall ways. Here are the lengths of the 4 extensions:
- No extension: 27.25 inches
- Sightly Extended: 28.75 inches
- Almost fully extended: 29.5 inches
- Fully Extended: 30.5 inches
(thanks Blackghost for correcting me)
Please keep in mind these are estimates, and I did them on the spot, so are subject to error. If you have better, or more accurate measurements, contact the site.
 
On the left you'll see the stock fully extended. You should also be able to tell the dull, sturdy plastic I as refering to. On the right you'll see the butt plate of the stock (not removable) that has the grips, and the end of the pole the stock glides on.
The Little Knick Knacks
Well first you have the hop-up, no different from any M16 version hop-up, and exactly the same as the M16a2. For those newbies out there I will give a brief description of the idea of hop-up and how to operate this particular one.
Hop-up is basically putting back spin on the BB, in order to give it more range. This prevents it from going straight down, it instead (if arranged right) makes it go about three times as far, and in a straight line. The back spin is applied by putting a bump in the top of the inner barrel, for the BB to hit. This is where the hop up unit comes in. The un it is made of little sprockets, that make their way to the bucking. Turning the main sprocket to the right, makes the BB go up, and the bucking go down (puts more spin). Turning the sprocket to the left will make the BB go down, and the bucking go up (releasing and lowering the spin). The main sprocket is simply accessed by Pulling back the T-charging handle. If you look at the above stock photo, you'll see it on your far left, under the sight adjustments. Pulling this back flaps down the dust cover, and pulls back the black plastic sheild. On the real gun this is where the Shells would come out. When the plastic peice goes back you can see the hop-up unit. Releasing the charging handle would cause the plastic piece to go forward, closing back up the hop-up. So you have to hold the handle back to adjust it, which is pretty easy to get used to. The dust cover has to be locked back into place manually. Pulling the handle gives a good gun loading sound of 'chuck-chook', and a good sound of metal and realism.
Now you have the gun's sights. They are the exact same as the M16a2's, meaning there are two sites. The sharpshooting one (small pin hole), and the assault one (larger hole). They can easily be switching by flipping them up or down. You look down the sights, lining it up with the front sight, in between the handguard and outer barrel which comes up in a triangle shape. There are three adjustments on the sights:
Adjustment One: You can turn the horizontal cylinder underneath te sites to raise, or lower the rear sight.
Adjustment Two: You can turn the vertical cylinder to the right of the sight, to shift the sight, left and right.
Adjustment Three: The front sight on the triangular structure can be lowered or raised with a piece included with the gun.
 
On the left you'll see the assault sight looking down through the front sight. On the right you'll see the sharpshooting sight. It was too small to align with the front sight.
The Battery
The M733 has a mini battery, that is held in the front hand guard, like most guns with out solid stocks. I did not bother getting a custom battery, I'm just sticking with the Sanyo 600 mAh batteries. You place the mini battery in the bottom handguard (it has little slits to keep it in place so it won't make noise and move all around).
In the above picture you can see the bottom handgauard with the little pieces made to hold the batter in place while skirmishing. It does very well!
So once the handguard is in place you hook up the battery. You can then close up the comparment with the top handguard. Below You'll see other pictures of the battery compartment to give you a better idea.
 
Performance
Note: Through out this section I will be placing random pictures just for you to look at. They most likely won't have anything to do with the text surrounding it.
I charged up the 600 mAh battery in my slow 200 mAh charger. So 3 hours later I was good to go. I also had my M16a2 handy to compare how they shot. The M16a2 is a year old, so I was interested to see how it compared to this brand new gun. So I began shooting the M733... It shot very well, powerful, and smoothly. Thats what I expected since all Tokyo Marui's do that. After plinking around for awhile I decided to compare it with my M16. The M733 had nearly the same range as the M16a2 (falling a little short) but this also may be due to the fact that my M16's spring is a year old, and therefore a year worn. Either way it had quite impressive range for the small size and barrel.
The accuracy was pretty good, but I did begin to appreciate my M16a2's long barrel after this since the M733 was not as consistent as my M16a2. But of course it was only the difference of a couple feet from 100 ft away, so its not too big of a deal. The M733 is still quite accurate, and I believe can compete quite well in the outdoors. But the long barrels really make a difference here. Of course everything else was your typical Marui, good ROF, durability (so far) and pretty much flawless to start with.
 
In Battle
It worked out so I was able to use this gun in both CQB and out door environments immediately after getting it. I had previously used the M16a2 in some CQB (mainly fooling around) but this time I could acutally manuever myself, my gun, and perform at the top. The gun is designed perfectly for CQB, and with the stock in, it is small, and powerful. In doors and in close range, the accuracy is pretty much perfect. It really doesn't lack until you get outdoors. So for CQB this is a great weapon to have. It is not even hard to waive it with one hand around corners. It is very easy to maintain in battle, since under fire you tend to make quick, and careless movements, that would damage a M16, but with the shortened outer barrel, the whole gun is basically right with your body, and arms.
Outdoors, it would be capable of skirmishing with out much problems. Of course a longer barrel would be a lot nicer, but you'll be able to put up a great fight, and you probably will hardly notice the accuracy difference since the difference in inches, with 800 RPM's does not affect much. But in certain situations you will realize the handicap.
 
Which CQB Colt?
I would imagine that a common question would be which of the CQB capable Colts... The M4a1, CAR-15 (discontinued), XM-177, SR-16, or the M733. I'm going to start off by immediately taking out the XM-177 and CAR-15. The XM-177 is a old version, and is completely made of plastic. It also only has a eg700 motor, making it difficult to get a good upgrade. It is probably worth the extra $40 to not get the XM. The CAR-15 was discontinued and so they won't be available in a few months. Now if you want either of these two, then go ahead. I'm just judging on the best gun for CQB. The XM-177 may be a better choice since its $40 cheaper then the M4 and M733.
So now you have the M4, SR-16, and M733. (of course the SR-16 is an M4, and I left out the RIS version since it only adds the RIS) Now the SR-16 is evenly weighted, you can easily add accessories, and has the large battery in the full stock. These are all great features, and it all depends on if you prefer that or not. It is a bigger gun then the other two, making it difficult in a few situations.
Now the M4a1 or M733. I would say M733. The only pull back is it does not come with a mount like the M4 does under the carry handle. They are similar designs, prices, and designs. But the M733 has two key features. One, you have the shorter and lighter outer barrel, which makes it hardly front heavy. The M733's outer barrel is made of aluminum while the M4's is Iron. So the M4 is signifficantly front heavy and you can hardly feel the M733 being front heavy. The M4 just weighs you down after awhile. That shorter barrel also allows for easier manuevering in CQB. The mount can easily be made up for with a $10 carry handle mount. But I understand some might not want that, or may prefer the M4's looks. So that is them compared.
M16a2 and M733 Comparison
Since the M733 is considered a M16a2 version, I figured I would compar them. I'll start off by saying that the only similar things are the body, and the flash hider. The bodies are identical including the sights, print on the right side, and some of the trade marks are the same. The hop-up is the same, along with selector switch and everything else. The flash hiders are identical, I can easily exchange them between my guns.
There are quite a few important differences. The main two are the stock, and handgaurds. The stock is retractable, allowing to to be the same size as the M16's stock or 3.5 inches shorter. And those inches are HUGE! The front handguards are much shorter then the M16's which really make the gun much smaller, and manueverable. Then of course inside the handguard there is quite a bit of differences, especially the battery, and everything else seen in the pictures.
 
Conclusion
I am very pleased that I got this gun over some other guns that crossed my mind. At first I wondered why Toyko Marui made this gun, but now I realise that it was well worth the few new pieces being designed (all the other pieces are found in the M16a2, and M4a1). I highly reccomend this gun for being a pretty much all around gun. A gun you can manuever around, use outdoors, indoors, dense woods, anywhere. It becomes quite obvious why special forces use these guns, and guns similar to this.
If you didn't see something that you wanted to contact me at webmaster@airsoftcore.com
- Meatball
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