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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By Infrared
Published: December 5, 2003
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The Mk23 US SOCOM (Special Operations Command) pistol holds a certain fascination for me. Well, just about all-special operations weapons do, but the Mk23 in particular. It's like an H&K USP on steroids as someone said earlier. A 12-shot .45 ACP combat handgun with built-in accessory rail and threaded barrel. The real SOCOM pistol uses a Wilcox universal aiming module, which has a number of goodies including visible and infrared tactical light, and visible and infrared laser. The real SOCOM is typically seen with a Knights Armament Corporation sound suppressor, which is one of the most efficient on the market. KSC's Mk23 Airsoft is incredible - it truly does justice to the original. You have to see it to believe it.
Appearance
KSC is very good at the Airsoft business. I gather they only make gas-powered Airsofts, but wow. This pistol is huge. The frame is made from the same material and has the exact same texture and markings as the real Mk23. A lot of metal parts are in evidence, including the inner barrel (the outer part is plastic), the "extractor", the slide stop/takedown lever, the magazine catch, the safety, the decocking lever, the sights, and the magazine. Let's talk about magazines. I need to say wow again. It looks as though KSC took an actual SOCOM magazine and installed a BB feeder and gas reservoir into it. It's even marked with round-count holes on the back. It weighs about as much as a fully loaded Mk23 magazine, and believe me, 12 rounds of .45 ACP hardball isn't exactly light. The weight of the magazine adds to the weapon for a very realistic feel. When field-stripped, the individual parts look so much like the real Mk23's parts it would fool even a Navy SEAL until he actually took a minute to look at everything carefully. The barrel (apart from being plastic on the outside) is superbly detailed, right down to the locking lug on the underside of the chamber and the green O-ring at the front of the barrel behind the threads. The recoil spring assembly looks just like an H&K two-stage unit. The suppressor, which is available separately, is also incredible. It is made from an aluminum outer tube with a matte black finish just like the real one, and it has plastic innards with an aluminum inner barrel. It probably weighs just as much as the real thing (which I unfortunately have not had the honor to handle yet), and when added to the Mk23 makes for an incredible package deal. The suppressor even has the military markings down to Knights Armament Company's address and the Navy serial number. From the front, the suppressor has a .45-sized hole, and you have to look hard to see the inner barrel. Talk about intimidating. Unfortunately, there are no replica aiming modules available, so if you absolutely have to have one, you'll be paying around $1200 for it from Wilcox. (Update) There is at least one company now offering an inexpensive copy of the Wilcox aiming module - the one I saw allowed you to encase a normal tactical light in it so it would be at least semi-functional. However, the Mk23 may take standard .45 USP accessories on its accessory rail. If that proves true, I will be sure to post that information.
Function
Again, I say wow. this is a gas-powered blowback pistol, which means it's semiautomatic and the slide recoils every time the pistol is fired. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Loading is easy. There's a loading tube that fits over the top of the magazine. You pour 28 BBs into it and push them down into the magazine with the plunger that's also included with the pistol. Then you turn the magazine upside down, insert the tip of the gas canister into the charging valve, and press down until liquid blows back out of the valve. Your magazine is now ready to be loaded. Once you've inserted the magazine into the Mk23, pull the slide back and let it go. If you're ready to rock, just pull the trigger. If you want to wait a while before shooting, you can apply the ambidextrous safety, or you can hit the decocking lever, which safely lowers the hammer, so your first shot will be double action. The decocking lever is a really neat feature.
When you're ready to start shooting, just pull the trigger. It's smooth and fairly crisp, and you'll hear the report as the slide flies back and then forward again to chamber another round. You can pull the trigger as fast as you want, but the more rapidly you fire, the less efficiently you use the gas. If you're doing rapid fire for the most part, you should be able to get two magazines' worth of BBs (around 50-60) out of one charging. If you're taking your time and allowing your magazine to warm up between shots or groups, you can shoot upwards of 90 BBs from one gas charging. Gas canisters seem to last a while - I've got a 400g (about 15 oz.) canister of Green Gas which is basically CO2 in a special can. I've been shooting about a magazine a day for a week and the can still feels mostly full. You can use other types of propellant (make sure it's nonflammable though!) such as Tech-Spray aerosol dusting canisters. If you use anything besides actual Airsoft propellant, be sure to occasionally spray a silicon-based lubricant into your magazine's charging valve. Green Gas has a silicon lubricant built-in so it lubricates your gun as you fire it. If you go a long time without proper lubrication, your valve seals can deteriorate. This pistol makes more noise than your average Airsoft (even with the suppressor which doesn't do anything - it's just for looks), but it's also more powerful. And when you're out of BBs, the slide locks back to show you that the magazine is empty, just like the real thing.
Accuracy
Excellent. Without the suppressor it shoots a little high, but this can be corrected by adjusting the Hop-up, which is accessible at the gun's chamber when the slide is locked open. When the suppressor is attached, the accuracy tightens right up. Adding the suppressor cut my group sizes in half. This was probably due to the fact that the weight of the suppressor acted to stabilize the barrel during firing. The gun still shot a little high and to the left, but again the Hop-up can be adjusted, and the rear sight can be adjusted to compensate for left-right point of impact. The Mk23 Handled both .2g and .25g ammo flawlessly, and the group shot with .25g ammo was incredible. I probably couldn't shoot that small a group with the real pistol (never mind the fact that the projectiles in the real handgun are nearly twice as big across as an Airsoft BB). Two shots were outside the ragged hole on the .25g target, and those were due to my own error - not pulling the trigger properly. UPDATE: I just had a chance to try the SOCOM on record at longer distances - 15, 20, and 25 yards. It still performed extremely well with the Hop-up tuned for the ammo I was using. I was able to reliably score hits on a human silhouette target at 25 yards, with or without the suppressor, and I bet if I cranked the target back to 40 or 50 yards, it would have performed similarly. I was able to keep all rounds on target out to 25 yards after dialing the Hop-up in. Of all the gas guns tested, this one is by far the most accurate and most powerful.
Overall Impressions
I can't say wow enough. This thing is incredible. If you have the money (around $225 retail for the pistol and between $75 and $150 retail for the suppressor) and you want an excellent weapon that can double as a backup or a primary for indoor or outdoor tournaments, as well as provide excellent service for general target practice, I highly recommend KSC's Mk23 SOCOM pistol. About the only thing I might consider doing is purchasing a set of actual SOCOM night sights and installing them on the Airsoft. Then it would be perfect for low-light engagements.
8.5x11" target fired at seven yards unsuppressed, approximately 50 rounds .2g
8.5x11" target fired at seven yards suppressed and unsuppressed, approximately 50rounds .2g
8.5x11" target fired at seven yards suppressed, approximately 60 rounds .25g
- Infrared
Team SASOT
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