|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Please select a poll for this category from the admin panel. |
|
|
|
|
Meatball's Featured Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
Airsoft Core |
By Dwayne Dees
Published: September 6, 2004
Print
Email
| 
I was asked to review this pistol by an airsoft retailer and fellow teammate. He asked me because I have, and still do, own several airsoft and ‘real steel’ 1911 handguns of various manufacturers and style. I’ve also fired several different kinds of pistols, rifles and support weapons while serving as an infantryman in the Marine Corps. To this day, a 1911 remains as my first choice of a sidearm for on- or off-duty gun.
The KWC 1911 I was given came in two versions, a plain gray model with a threaded barrel and a “traditional” 1911 with full trademarks from Caspian. Since both pistols are made with the same internal parts and operate in the same way I picked the plain gray “tactical model” to use for the majority of this review. The differences are small enough not to worry about.
I agreed to write this review so readers and potential buyers of the KWC 1911 gas-blow-back gun can get one persons impression of the product. I didn’t get to keep the 1911 when I was done nor did I accept any monies for the writing. I just wish I had found reviews on some of the airsoft guns I have bought in the past so I could have saved myself some money, time and wasted efforts. Hopefully this helps someone avoid mistakes I have made in the past.
Opening the box
When the package with the 1911 arrived I noticed how heavy it was. I opened the box to find the gun incased in a Styrofoam cut-out sealed over with plastic. It came with a manual (in English), five small paper targets, an all metal screw-on suppressor, one magazine, 200 BB’s and a CO2 adapter valve. Originally I had been warned, by Dwayne Dees of Dees LTD, who asked me to write the review, that the 1911 had been rumored to function poorly on green gas compared to CO2. Well I don’t have CO2 so I used nothing but green gas for this testing.
I removed the gun from the packaging to find it heavy enough that I almost wondered if some mistake had been made and I had been sent a real 1911. More than a quarter of an inch of the front of the slide and barrel was painted ‘safety orange’. I ejected the magazine, racked the slide to the rear, then physically check for a BB in the barrel. Sure enough it was an airsoft pistol.
The grip on the KWC 1911 is an awesome replica of the ‘real steel’ firearm, with synthetic grip panels and front strap checkering of about 20 lines-per-inch. The exterior finish is a smooth matte gray which looks very stylish yet simple. It also has a high beaver-tail grip safety, to help mate your hand higher up on the grip, yet preventing “slide-bite” while firing the gun. However, I should mention that the beaver-tail is only for looks and feel, it does not act as a secondary safety to prevent an unintentional firing. The “tactical” 1911 has no trademarks or markings on the outside, except for “Made in Taiwan” on the right-hand side of the frame.
The airsoft pistol disassembles in the same way a real 1911 firearm does, so anyone familiar with them can clean, lubricate and maintain either KWC version. Inside the pistol-grip you can find a few lead weights to add heft. The barrel and magazine are metal as well, making the “feel” and balance of the weapon solid and comfortable. When extending the gun straight out from the body, with your arm parallel to the ground it settles evenly, causing the sights to come level naturally.
One of the main reasons I have used so many 1911's for both airsoft and in the real world is not being the biggest person in the world, I can easily reach all of the controls on them with my firing (strong) hand.
A fantastic feature I noticed right from the start was the beveled magazine well on the bottom of the pistol grip. This assists in quickly reloading a fresh magazine, and is a wise choice for anyone who wants to use their pistol a lot in firefights. It also allows a shooter, with some practice for novices, to keep their eyes on the target during an engagement without having to look down when reloading.
On top of the slide the adjustable rear sight stands out and should be left alone, no matter what the sight picture looks like until a few shots are fired. However, when taking aim the groove in the rear sight is a touch on the small side for quick alignment with the front sight post. Neither of the KWC 1911's came with any “paint” or markings on the sights to help with low-light shooting. I added my own to the front sight post, but the rear sight, to my great disappointment has no pre-made place to put any kind of markings. I prefer the 3-dot sight picture on my handguns, which I wasn’t able to do on the KWC. The rear sights have ridges on the surface that faces the shooter when griping the weapon. You would have to cut your own place to apply glow-paint or even white-out, as I’ve seen done on some airsoft guns.
I checked the operation of all the controls on the pistol to ensure they worked before I began testing. Everything worked properly, but the wide ambidextrous thumb-safety is a bit stiff right out of the box. People who purchase one of these pistols should lube the safety to make it function better. Sanding lightly along the edges of the thumb-safety wouldn’t hurt either so take off rough/sharp points. I followed another usual procedure I have of spraying silicone lube on the mag, inside the pistol and wiping a light coating along the inside of the slide rails to reduce friction during the “break-in” period.
Firing
Before ‘live’ firing a weapon of any kind, I practice my grip, dry-firing and sight picture. With all of the different kinds of airsoft pistols on the market modeled after the same infinite number of real firearms I think it is important to become comfortable with everything on a weapon before using it. For the KWC 1911, I would have to say it has a good solid feel of weight and not the plastic kind of feel a lot of airsoft guns have. As I mentioned before the grip of the 1911 is very comfortable. Even if your hands have some sweat on them, the checkering on the side panels, front and rear strap of this model will hold fast and not cause significant fatigue in wrists or hands. Balance on this airsoft gun is very even, coming to a natural point of aim easily. This does change some when the metal suppressor is added to the barrel, making it muzzle heavy, but not so much that it would discourage a person from firing one-handed if they had to.
Both of the KWC’s have a crisp, reasonable trigger pull (at my guess around 3 pounds), which is about what my real 1911's are set to. There is just a fraction of play in the trigger, which I find is often the opposite in airsoft guns, and don’t like in excess. The small amount of play could allow someone to “milk the trigger” before firing, but in this KWC weapon it’s a bad idea to start such a habit.
One of my standards for evaluating a pistol of any kind is firing a minimum of 300 rounds in a single setting without much of a break for the weapon or myself. I find this usually tells me if the sidearm is going to start acting up quickly after use, or fire reliably. With airsoft it is different due to a slower loading time of BB’s and using gas powered magazines, but it retains the principle objective of this test; function-ability and reliability.
I did all of my test firing indoors, to limit variables like wind or temperature for the gas powered magazines. My target was an open sided heavy cardboard box stuffed tightly with lots of newspaper, covered with one of the paper targets included and the rear of the box reinforced using duct-tape. I’ve found over time this kind of target-box will hold up to even an AEG firing at 400fps. Distances were two-to-25 feet away from the target.
The magazine holds 14 BB’s and takes between four-to-seven seconds to fill with a gas charge. The mag was inserted with the slide locked to the rear, then the slide release catch was hit to chamber a BB. I put the safety on. (Don’t forget to have your safety glasses on.) On a brand new target 15 feet away, I fired 5 aimed shots from a braced position. The BB’s hit the target high and slightly left of the bull’s-eye. A quick adjustment of the rear sight towards the right was made. To do this all you need is a standard slotted screw-driver. I emptied the rest of that magazine right on target, having about a quarter sized grouping.
Recoil when firing is firm and controllable, not overdone like some of the cheaper-made gas guns, which allows for double-taps and quick sight recovery. With the metal suppressor on, the KWC fires awesome with no real need to recover the sight picture. It does change the noise the 1911 makes when firing, but it does not make it any quieter.
After the sight was adjusted I found the weapon to be very much a point-of-aim shooting gun. A great feature for shooting in a close-quarters environment or when in close contact with an opposing force when your primary weapon runs out of ammo. In my firing test with the KWC 1911 it twice failed to chamber a BB from the magazine.
The Cons
After considering the experience I had while shooting both of these 1911 style airsoft guns by KWC (also the Caspian mentioned earlier) some drawbacks came to my attention. First is the extra-wide thumb safety. Is has those sharp edges, which I’m sure will wear down with time, but I would expect better when paying for a product. Also with the large safety, it snags or has a hard time fitting into holsters. I used a nylon drop-leg (thigh) holster and a leather belt holster for testing.
To improve the thumb safety, I would cut the width of the safety in half and file off the edges a bit if the KWC was added to my arsenal. I compared it to my Western Arms (WA) HRT 1911 model, and the WA has the better safety, hands down. Smoother on the edges and in operation, it’s a normal sized control comparable to “tactical” thumb-safeties on real steel. To someone who has practiced “thumbing” the safety off while drawing the weapon from a holster, it can really throw your grip and rhythm off.
The second problem is the front sight post. It is too big and hangs-up the weapon clearing the holster when drawn. Gas usage in the magazine is an area of concern as well. On a proper filling of the magazine with gas, you can be sure it will empty all the BB’s, but don’t count on getting much of a second magazine out of it. However, if you only do a partial fill on gas, the 1911 will probably not cycle the slide all the way or run out of gas before the BB’s are gone. As of right now no one I’ve contacted, including the retailer who asked for this review, can get spare magazines for this model of airsoft gun. I’d never carry any weapon without at least one spare mag on me. Hopefully this situation will resolve itself soon.
Conclusion
In the end, I think that the KWC is a solid, realistic and reliable product that only needs a few minor alterations to make it completely serviceable. I would also recommend that spare magazines be made available so people who purchase the 1911's can use it as a real back-up weapon in an airsoft game. But that said, I would not even consider carrying it to a game. If you want something just for shooting around the house or to use in the back yard it would be an excellent choice for reliability, feel and accuracy.
by Robo of the Death Dealers of Central Washington |
1428 Views -
View Comments (0)
|
|
|
|
|
Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.