Ordering:
About 2 weeks ago my friends starting upgrading their arsenals. I had been in the lead with my TM SPAS, but then 2 of my friends got GBB Sigma's as sidearms. I quickly realized that when it came down to a pistol fight, I was a bit outgunned with just my KWC 1911 spring pistol. I started looking around both locally and online for a gas powered pistol with respectable FPS. My first choice was the clear Crosman USP Co2 NBB, but Kmart was sold out. After a bit of searching it came down (as it has for many people in airsoft history) to a choice between the UHC USP NBB, or the HFC M80 commander NBB. I chose the HFC for a few reasons:
>Higher advertised FPS than the USP (230 vs 280 with .20g).
>Very few gas leaks reported.
>I hate USP's, I love 1911's.
>Mags for the HFC are cheap.
>I wanted a semi-compact gun
I ordered the M80 itself, plus a 1110ml can of green gas, which came out to $59 shipped. I ordered the gun on the friday before the memorial day weekend, so of course it took a whole week for it to get from Newark to Orlando.
What you get:
The gun comes in a standard styrofoam package with a green cardboard lid. The gun comes with a small can of HFC134a(not the one in the picture), a tiny squeeze bottle of sillicon lube, and a bag of about 100 decent .12's.
Looks/feel:
The M80 is a replica of the series 80 Colt Commander 1911 in .45 ACP. Its slide is about a half inch shorter than a standard 1911. I chose the two tone version of the gun. The slide is made of nice, non reflective plastic, very similar to the slide on my KWC Gold cup. The frame is made of decently done stainless steel colored plastic. Textured and non reflective, but with a nice shine in the right light. The external metal parts of the gun are: The muzzel cowling and outer barrel, the trigger, the safety, and the hammer. The metal is not well finished, but it is strong. the weight of the gun is good, the box says 1.15 lbs ,and that feels about right. it has nice diamond checkered grips too.
Trigger mechansim:
this being a Non blowback pistol, it uses a double/single action trigger. I dont have a scale I can use to measure, but its definatly a lighter pull in DA than my Co2 BB gun. The pull is smooth and breaks clean, and the trigger resets quickly. Single action of course gives you a shorter pull ,but otherwise feels the same as double action. I would definatly reccomend carrying this cocked and locked if you are using it as a sidearm. The gun chamberes the BB in the same way as my daisy co2 1911 BB gun. pulling the trigger moves the barrel backward, allowing a BB to feed up into the chamber.
Sights:
The HFC M80 uses a set of target sights. These are not as well suited to combat as other types of sights, but they work well enough. The rear sight is adjustable for elevation, but not windage. This isnt a problem as the gun comes from the factory pretty much dead on at 60 feet.*EDIT8 I painted an outline on the rear sight, and a dot on the front sight. This makes the sights very easy to aquire, so the problem of them being blocky is basicly eliminated.
Magazine:
This is one area where this pistol could have been done better. The magazine itself is a 14 round stick type mag, similar to what is used in the TM AEP's, but single stacked. Its made of cheapish feeling plastic, and the stopper and spring release are basicly springy peices of sheet metal. If mags werent so inexpensive for this gun, I would be worried about it breaking. The biggest gripe I have with the magazine system is that you have to pull it out of the gun! No mag release, just pull it out like an EBB pistol mag. It sits in the gun well ,and I know its not going to fall out or anything, but it really cuts down on the realism of the gun.
Firing.
Filling this gun with gas is suprisingly easy compared to my friends KWA M93R. The big difference is of course that in this case you are filling the gun with gas rather than the mag. You dont have to be holding the can at just the right angle, and its very easy to tell when the tank is full. I always fill for 4 seconds, and I get about 6 mags woth of gas out of every fill (very efficiant). Loading the mags is easy, but a little time consuming. The mags are not designed to be filled with a speed loader, but you could do it fairly easily.
The guns advertised FPS on shorty is 280 with .20g, and on HFC's website its 265 with .20g. id say its actually right in the middle. Its equal, if not slightly nore powerful than my friends UHC Mp5. Accuracy is great for a pistol aswell. Off hand I was shooting about 4-5 inch groups at 40 feet, which is more than adequate for a sidearm. The most suprising thing about this gun was its noise level. With .20g BB's ,and the HFC134a the gun came with, its pretty much dead quiet. I could easily make a small silencer to mount to this thing(it has provisions for an adapter, so you could even buy one), and it would be absolutely unhearable.
Conclusions.
Not having a UHC USP to compare this to, i cant really say which is better. I can only go by what ive heard. The USP has the upper hand in realism and features, but as far as performance goes the M80 would win hands down. I have only had the gun for one day, so I cant say anything about the long term relaibility, but given the simple design ,and the fact that most if not all lof the internal peices on this gun are metal, I dont see having any problems. Here are the pros and cons of the gun.
+ Powerful
+ Accurate
+ Comfortable
+ Gas efficiant
+ Inexpensive
+ Uses a well designed firing system
+ Extra mags are inexpensive
+ Quiet (wont give away your position)
- Finish on the metal parts could be better
- Slide does not move (but is a seperate peice)
- Sights are not the best for combat*
- Lowish mag capacity
- Quiet (Wont scare or intimidate your opponents)
- Magazine is unrealistic, ugly, and somewhat cheaply made.
All in all, I like the gun, and I feel it was a smart choice given my budget. If you are looking for an inexpensive NBB pistol, you should seriously concider the HFC M80 Commander 1911.
