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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By Meatball
Published: June 14, 2009
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TSD/HFC Tactical M166 Metal Full-Auto Pistol
FPS: 280-300 w/ 0.20g
Slide & Barrel: Metal
Frame: ABS
Rate of Fire: 350 RPM
Action: Blowback, Semi/Full-auto
Hop-up: Adjustable
Slide Finish: Silver
Replacement Parts: Available
TSD 30-day Warranty
Introduction
This is another TSD review, so I have reviewed quite a bit of their products now and have gotten idea an of what to expect from them. The products I have received from them have always been of a high quality, and are usually a little better than their price tag leads on when compared to other Airsoft manufacturers. It was no exception with this gun. The M166 turned out to be very impressive; especially considering it can be acquired for somewhere around the century mark in US dollars. This gun produced by TSD and HFC (I believe HFC manufactured the product while TSD distributed it), and seems to modeled off of the USP. The two features which should stick out to any airsofter out there are the full metal body, and the Full-Auto capabilities. Both of which are appealing, and important to many looking for a sidearm out there.
First Impressions
The gun comes in a nice plastic carrying case. It is a sturdy case, and it would take quite a force to do damage to it. With the thick foam protection inside it would be almost impossible for the contents of the case to be damaged while in the case. This is under normal conditions of course. If you run it over with your car or drop it out a window, then I would not be so optimistic. Normal everyday drops, and drops that could happen in a skirmish type environment do not worry me, and this is definitely a case you want to keep around. It has a locking mechanism at the top where two plastic pieces are slid over a plastic piece from each side of the case in order to hold the case securely closed. Pulling these pieces in opposite directions allows you to open the case, and it "pops" open as the thick foam and gun inside the case cause an outward pressure. The pictures do not show any sort of manual in the case, and that is simply because it is below the foam. There is a piece of paper which sticks out of the foam, and pulling that up reveals the manual and paper work. The paper work consists of a manual, registration/warranty, and safety instructions. The manual is definitely worth hanging onto, it has a good trouble shooter, as well as maintenance instructions. Another key here is that if you are not familiar with pistol disassembly the directions will help you here as well, and this is key to use the adjustable hop-up feature since you must take off the slide to access the hop-up.
When first looking at the gun I was quite impressed with its sharp looks. I personally go with single tone side arms for the most part, and this is my first dual tone. I really like the look a lot, it is a sharp gun, and to me personally it is a nice mix up from the other side arms I have had and currently have. Obviously my next instinct was to pick up the gun which had a good weight to it. I would not say it feels heavy, but it feels like the weight it should weigh. What you would expect the real steel version of this gun to weigh. So I was definitely satisfied there. I then did a quick inspection of some of the functions such as the magazine release, how to load it, aiming mechanism, disassembly, and found that it is all intuitive, easy to use, with no surprises.
Looks & Feel
This was summarized in the first impression section, but I will elaborate a little more on these here. If you have heard enough about this feel free to move on. First I will discuss the full metal design. This essentially means that the top receiver of the pistol is completely while the bottom receiver and grip are a durable plastic, much like real steel pistols are put together. So if you do not have experience with a “full metal” gun, keep in mind that it’s usually only metal where it would be on the real gun, which is what airsofters really want anyway. The metal receiver on this gun seems to be of good quality. There are no doubts that it is a metal to the touch, and I would argue to the naked eye as well though some Airsoft guns are good at making plastic look like metal. The metal gives the gun a very satisfying feel, and also gives it reward sound when the slide is locked back and released. It will not disappoint in the “coolness” category here.
There are several other metal parts than just the slide. The dust cover, sights, barrel and assembly, slide catch, trigger, selector switch, hammer, and of course the magazine itself (except for the bottom cap) are all additional metal parts. Most of these go unnoticed with the magazine being the lone exception of course since it does add a fair amount of weight to the gun. Despite the guns realistic looks, it does not have any trademarks on it whatsoever. This is not something that has ever really bothered me, but if trademarks are important to you, keep in mind this gun has none. I searched on the magazine, and all across the exterior of the gun and came up with nothing. I personally think your better off having no trademarks at all if the alternative is basically silly, fake trademarks which kind of put a damper on the realistic feel. So no complaints about no trademarks from me. The only writing on the gun at all are three letter representing the three modes on the selector switch. S, F, and FA, which are Safe, Semi-Automatic, and Full-Auto respectively.
The plastic parts on the gun are the lower receiver, trigger guard, magazine release and pistol grip. All of these are very sturdy, and also feel solid as they are surrounded and reinforced by the metal parts. The grip has a pyramid pattern grip on the front and back with a more random design on the sides of the grip. Both are good at their purpose of generating friction to make the gun easier to hold onto when it is in your hand. The gun is fairly small and easy to handle anyways, definitely an ideal size for a sidearm. I once used an HFC 6" Revolver, and it was just too big in my opinion when it came to pulling it out quickly. I also have a couple M9’s which are a good size to me, but this one is even a bit smaller than them.
Performance
This of course is always the best part of any review, as it answers the most important question of "How does it shoot?" After many tests on this gun I would have to say it shoots pretty good. It performs as advertised shooting close to 300 FPS, and has decent accuracy for a pistol, when being used on semi-automatic. If you have ever handled a GBB (assuming it was a decent brand) then you would have a pretty good idea of to expect from this gun on semi-automatic, like I said before it performs as advertised. The only issue which I found on the whole gun however, occurs when the gun is being used on semi. When I first started using it, the slide would occasionally not return all the way forward, preventing you from firing again unless you bump the slide back into the proper place. I believe this would happen when firing rapidly. It also appears to have gone away after some use; maybe it just needed to be broken in a little bit. Some sort of lubricant would probably eliminate this issue as well if it does happen to persist, but so far it’s been pretty good.
Something else I realized quickly after using an M9 for so long was that this gun does not have a double action feature. The slide must be pulled back in order for the gun to be fired. With the M9 you could pull the trigger at anytime and the hammer would go back and release. On this USP it goes back only from you pulling the slide back to load the first shot, or from the blow back after each shot. This makes for a lighter trigger pull however, and also is probably somewhat safer at times.
Now let’s move on to the features that really separate this gun. The most important one being of course, it’s full-auto capabilities. This gun is advertised to fire full auto at about 350 RPMs, and I have no reason to dispute the specs. It actually feels a lot faster when every shot gives you a little jolt from the blowback feature. Shooting this gun full auto is a lot of fun, and is enough to put concern in the mind of any reasonable enemy. This alone may be enough to prevent an enemy from rushing you if they suspect your reloading. It is always nice to have a sidearm that will empty 18 rounds with one trigger pull in about 3 seconds. It is a convenient option to have. If you plan to use this gun on full auto often you must consider that it’s accuracy definitely suffers in this firing mode by a noticeable amount, and also you will need multiple magazines, because full auto blows through 18 BBs very quickly. Even when I know it is going to be quick, I still find myself thinking, “It’s already out?” So keep this in mind as well. You luckily have the option of semi-auto at all times to both conserve ammo, but also to use the gun as a more traditional sidearm. Options always add value to any buy.
The other feature which can not be expected on a sidearm is an adjustable hop-up, which this gun has and boasts right on the front of the case. This hop-up however is not meant to be adjusted in a skirmish. The hop-up unit is a wheel located under the barrel, so the slide and barrel must be taken off in order to access it. Once you get the hang of it this process is not too bad, but it would be a pain to have to constantly adjust it. Luckily mine came shooting pretty much dead on, so it was not much of an issue. It would be kind of silly to complain about the hop-up unit anyway, since so many side arms do not offer this feature. In addition to that the location of the hop-up does not ruin the integrity of the gun’s realism, which is always a plus.
Who should get this gun?
Since this gun can be both a normal sidearm (on semi) as well as more of a niche sidearm (full auto) I must say that deciding on this gun will have a lot to do with budgetary issues as well as looks. Anyone looking for a sidearm would probably be happy with this gun if it fits their budget. It really does not cut you short anywhere since you get the full-metal body, the option for full-auto if you ever want it, and the adjustable hop-up. If you like the look of the USP then this should be a gun you consider. This gun comes in both dual tone as pictured here, or all black which is pictured on the case and many pictures can be found online. If you are looking for a gas pistol as a primary weapon for Airsoft then you may want a sidearm with more capacity than the 18 BBs which this pistol can hold. Your other option is to get a couple back up magazines, which you probably should do with any gas pistol, as nearly all of them do not hold enough to be effective primaries. This of course depends on your competition. If you are going up against springers or something like that, you may be okay.
Conclusion
Considering most guns can be bought for a fair bit below the MSRP, this gun falls on the cheaper end for what you get. What you get is a sharp looking USP GBB, which is full metal, has full-auto capabilities, as well as a completely adjustable hop-up unit. It shoots with a decent pop to it, shooting in the 280-300 FPS range, which is typically plenty for any sort of sidearm. The gun has a couple shortfalls, one being how the slide didn’t come all the way back into place when I first started using it. More use seemed to “break it in” to an extent and solve this problem. Oiling the gun would help this too I am pretty confident and the manual tells you the proper way of doing this. The other potential problem is the small magazine considering it has full auto-capabilities. But any pistol that fires full auto will empty the magazine faster than you want it to. So there are the perks and some cons for this gun, now you just need to decide if it is right for you. I personally like it a lot. I think it is a lot of fun to use on full auto, it really is quite satisfying. It has nearly all the options you could want in a sidearm, and comes with a reasonable price tag. So for that I recommend this gun.
- Meatball
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