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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By iceman718
Published: June 13, 2005
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Company picture
Just a little info on the real steel:
The S.P.A.S. (special purpose automatic shotgun) 12 is made in Italy by a company called Franchi. It is a selective pump action or gas operated semi automatic 12 gauge shotgun that holds 8 +1 shells and comes in either a pistol grip or folding stock configuration. It is used by several police/law enforcement and military agencies around the world.
Left side of the gun
Ordering and all that:
It all started after my first backyard airsoft war. I used a p.o.s. CYMA (or like quality) S.P.A.S. 12 (which later I found was not actual size) from one of the other kids. I didn’t have a gun since my springer M9 was broken and I was too nice to use my highly upgraded (~400 fps) MAC-11 on the smaller kids we were playing with. I was also trading off with a Sig 552 springer. In the quick engagements, I soon realized the virtue of a pump action gun, the rate of fire. Reaching over to the other side of the gun to cock a bolt just didn’t cut it. After that, I was set on getting a shotgun. I really like the look of the S.P.A.S. 12, and was hoping to get one, rather than the silly looking Hardballer II which is so popular. After doing lots of research and posting on forums to find the best spring shotgun in my price range, I was set on the Dongsan S.P.A.S. 12. Found it on ModelMarts for $44.99, but of course, they were out. Emailed them, and they didn’t know when it would be back, but said the full stock version would be in soon. The stockless version is so much more versatile, so I wasn’t going to settle for anything less (or a different brand). After lots of searching, I found the gun on some UK site for nearly $100, plus overseas shipping. That wasn’t going to work. Finally found it on a small privately run site for $79.99. Not much better, but shipping was only 8 bucks, so it would have been almost that much ordering overseas from ModelMarts. The owner of the site didn’t have the original box, and accidentally had 2 prices posted on his site, so he gave me 1000 .12 bbs and a Dongsan Colt .25 with a silencer for free. Good guy. Well I ordered it, and luckily it was coming from New Braunfels, Texas, (just a few hours from Dallas) so I knew shipping would be fast. It finally came on a Tuesday. My mom sent me a text message while I was at school, to tell me it was here. So finally school was out, and I was home. It all came in a large brown shipping box. I immediately grabbed it, ran into my room, got out my pocket knife and cut it open. The box was filled with plastic bags used for shipping protection. I yanked them all out and there was my Dongsan S.P.A.S. 12.
Big, beefy pump and heat shield
First Impressions:
It was a nice shade of black, that kind of non-reflective plastic. I had already seen several pictures of it, and knew what it was going to look like, but finally seeing it for myself was great. It was bigger than I expected and was big and beefy looking. I picked it up, and it wasn’t all that heavy, but it was not toy-like. There is more weight towards the front of the gun around the pump. (I may try to add a bit of weight inside the pistol grip, but it feels pretty nice and doesn’t bother me). All the metal on the gun (besides the black screws) is a nice, shiny silver color, and there is a decent amount of it too. Metal parts include the barrel tip, front sight, trigger, safety, bolt/ejection port, shell door, shell door catch, both sling swivels, all the screws, and almost all of the internals. Plastic parts include the pump, main body, magazine, outer barrel, a few internal parts, and pistol grip. Also, this gun came with no ugly orange tip, so it looked great right out of the box. After a close inspection, I cocked the gun. I had heard that it sounded great, and I that is absolutely true. Compared to any other springer I had ever fired, this gun sounded the best by far, and felt very good to cock too. Nothing close to the plastic grinding on plastic of the CYMA one I had used. As far as trademarks go, on the right of the body it says S.P.A.S. 12 FRANCHI S.P.A.-BRESCIA MADE IN KOREA, and on the right side of the outer barrel it says S.P.A.S. 12. The left side of the outer barrel says DONG SAN MODEL. The safety is a switch on the left side of the trigger guard which is easily moved into place (and kept there) by a lever. Forward is fire, back is safe. The only thing wrong with the appearance of the gun is that there are some visible seam/mold lines.
Right side of the gun
Full magazine
The Magazine:
The magazine is a long stick type that goes in where you would load shells on the real steel. You pull the spring down and it locks in place at the bottom. Press the button at the top and pour in up to 60 rounds in a double stacked formation. Put the magazine into the gun and press the spring release button. It then loads 9 rounds into the body of the gun. Be careful with this, since when the magazine is empty, there will still be 9 bbs in the gun. To get them out, cock the gun while holding it vertical or upside down. That will load the last few shots, and then the gun will be completely empty. You can insert the loaded mag, then take it out to replace the 9 rounds already in the gun, so technically, it can hold 69 bbs. That’s enough for 69 shots, or 18-23 on burst, which is great, since you can shoot very fast with this gun because it is a pump action and is very easy to cock.
Magazine release (silver button) and spring release (small button)
Shell door open
Special Features:
This gun has some really cool special features. Besides the high mag capacity, the shell door where you would load a real shell opens, it has a pump lock so you don’t accidentally pump it more than once, it has a one or 3 shot burst firing system, and you can cock it with the pump or the bolt. The shell door has no real functionality, it just adds to the realism. Once you pump the gun and push the pump completely forward which you must do for it to fire, it engages a lock which prevents the pump from being moved until the gun it is fired. This is nice because it prevents you from chambering too many rounds. If you really wanted to, you could push the pump almost all the way forward, then back again and forward to chamber more rounds, but the more you put in the barrel, the slower/shorter it will shoot, so there’s really no point. The rear sight is used to select firing mode. Push it forward for 3 shot burst (which sometimes shoots more than 3) or push it to the back for single shots. A very clever and easy way to make this gun very versatile. The hop up rubber (which works better with .2g bbs) in the gun is also long enough so that if you have it set on 3 shot burst, bbs will not start rolling out of the barrel, unless it chambers more than 3. Of course you can cock the gun with the pump (pull back, push forward. Yes, you have to push it forward, as it has no return spring, just like a real shotgun. Most of you probably knew that, but I just thought I’d mention it since one of my friends had asked about it and the Hardball has a return spring), or, you can cock it with the bolt handle. When you pull it back it opens the ejection port (as it does with the pump too. The pump and bolt handle are connected so when one moves, the other does too) then push it forward again to chamber the bbs. You wouldn’t really use it that often since its much faster and easier to use the pump, but it just adds more to the realism. (Take that, Marui). With the stock spring, it is possible to cock the gun with one hand, but I wouldn’t do it too much as it puts quite a bit of stress on the gun. It’s not really possible with any spring upgrade.
Rear sight/fire selector – forward for 3 shots, back for single shot
Bolt in the rear position and shell door open
Performance:
After loading the mag with some of the .12’s that I got for free (and after loading up the little Colt .25 that I also got for free), I put it in and went outside in my backyard to try it out. Put in on single shot mode and racked the pump. Aimed at nothing in particular and pulled the trigger. The spring gave off kind of a loud twangy sound and out flew the bb. There was just a little wind, and it over hopped. I was very glad at this since I had heard that this is a Korean gun where they have very low FPS limits (which is true, this doesn’t shoot all that fast stock, but was better than I had expected). After trying the accuracy on single shot which was alright, but nothing special, I switched it to 3 shot and tried it out. Of course since the gun only has one barrel, putting more bbs in it will decrease the velocity quite a lot. But with the .12’s being so light it wasn’t too severe. But there is a very noticeable drop in range. It was only 25-30 feet, while on single shot it is more like 80-90. On 3 shot, sometimes the bbs flew close together and sometimes they flew very far apart. You would definitely use 3 shot only for CQB.
3 shot mode is a little strange. It’s supposed to shoot 3, but sometimes it shoots 4 or 5. All the selector switch does is move a small notch, which either allows multiple bbs to go in, or stop after 1. It’s ok though, because you would only use it for close distances when you want the maximum chance of hitting someone without really hurting them.
After firing off the rest of the .12’s, I went inside and loaded it up with .2’s. Went back outside, put it on single shot and fired. That’s much better. It flew nice and straight and wasn’t affected by wind or anything. Accuracy was much better too. The range stayed nearly the same on single shot but decreased a little more noticeably on 3 shot. However, the bbs stayed much closer together on 3 shot with .2’s which I think is better. We play with a 3 hit kill rule, so if I am right up on someone, I can switch it to 3 shot and take them out in one shot from 25 feet, instead of firing 3 and maybe have one hit them with the .12’s.
This gun is very skirmish worthy, and even though I never used it stock in a skirmish, I can say that it would have performed well. With .2’s, the max range is 80 at most, with effective range being around 60 feet. Not bad, not great. It is very versatile, having the 3 shot mode and single shot, no stock, and isn’t too heavy. If for some reason you wanted to, you could hold it in one hand and fire like a pistol, but its heavy enough so that you couldn’t do that for very long at all. You can run well with this gun and aim pretty easy. The sights are pretty basic, but not bad. There is a hole in the rear, and a post in the front. Pretty simple. Great ROF to get you out of those tough situations. Depending on your opponent’s gun, you will probably be able to get twice as many shots off as they do in the same amount of time, which is, of course a good thing. Just make sure you push the pump all the way forward or it won’t fire, but it’s not a problem, since it is very easy and natural to push it all the way forward.
Bolt locked forward and safety on
Other Stuff:
You can take this gun apart, but I wouldn’t call it field stripping, since it requires a screwdriver and a bit of time. At the advice of K40S from AS-R, I bought an ICS M120 spring to upgrade the stock one in the gun, which is pretty weak. After finally getting the gun apart (and of course all the little parts and springs had to start falling out, which is when the manual came in handy) I took a look around. Most of the internals are made from the same silver metal that the rest of the gun is made of. To make a long story short, I finally got the new spring in, with about an inch of the old spring too, and got it all back together. This is when the gun really shines.
Performance with the M120 Spring:
The new spring pretty much improves everything. It gets rid of the nasty twangy sound of the old spring. It greatly increases range and power on both fire modes. It still doesn’t puncture a coke can, but makes a hefty dent, so I put it at about 270-280 fps with a .2g bb. For my range and power test, I stand at one end of my backyard (about 120 feet) hold the gun at a normal firing position, and shoot towards the fence on the opposite side and see how far it goes and how long it takes to get there. With the stock spring, it would make it to fence on the other side about 1/3 of the time, but usually it would drop to the ground before it got there. Now, it easily makes it to the fence and is still going fairly fast and accurate. 3 shot range increased to more like 50-55 feet. The gun is very accurate now. On the outside of my fence where the metal support poles for the fence are, I can stand about 30 feet back and hit each pole in succession nearly every time only aiming for about 1 second. I also made a custom sling for the S.P.A.S. 12 which is nice for skirmishes and backyard shooting and allows the use of my Colt .25 back up.
I finally got to have a skirmish with my upgraded gun. I had been waiting all spring break. But finally, the time had come. After finally finding enough people to play with (the little kids we usually play with weren’t home) we were ready to start. I was already impressing people just by the awesome look of this gun. I showed them a few shots to impress them some more. We set the rules (3 hit kill) and I explained to everyone that my gun could shoot 3 shot burst or single, so they could be killed in one shot. Then we started. The first war went quick. I took a bb to the mouth (actually swallowed the darn thing) and went inside to check that my teeth were ok. By the time I came back out, it was almost over. The only little kid we were playing with then had to leave. So it was just 5 of us. I had my S.P.A.S. 12 and my little Colt .25 as a back up, one guy had a KWC 1911, one guy had the CYMA SPAS that I spoke of earlier, one guy had an HFC P99, and one guy had a gas KWC desert eagle (only for long range) and a PPK. For the first 2 skirmishes, it was me and my friend with the deagle vs. everyone else. We started on the side of the house, and they started at the front of the house. We peeked around the corner and saw 2 of them. The guy with the 1911 was behind a thick tree for cover, taking a shot at us every once in a while. About 2 inches of his pants were hanging out to the side of the tree. I hit there twice from about 40 feet away. He was startled at being hit when he thought he was behind cover, and jumped out and shot at us me and my friend with the deagle both fired at him. Not sure which one or if both of us hit him, but he was out. Next was the guy with the cyma shottie. I shot him twice from the same range as the last guy. He took a couple steps back, tripped over his bike (genius) and fell to the ground. Everyone started laughing. I shot him again just for good measure. We walked out from our cover to look for the last guy. Went by the front porch of the house and there he was. I took one hit but quickly switched the gun to 3 shot and took him out. The whole thing lasted for no more than a minute. The next skirmish was with same teams. The guy with the 1911 had the great idea for his team to hide in his backyard (protected by nothing) and try to set up an ambush. After taking a few shots at them from over the fence, my teammate and I stormed the yard and hit the remaining people in as much or less time than the last skirmish. We had another skirmish or 2 and each time I was on the team with less people and we still won every time, thanks in no small part to my great gun. In one instance a guy was running from me as fast as he could about 30-40 feet in front and to my left. I fired 4 times in single shot, and hit him all 4 times. It was just great. This gun not only has great intimidation factor but backs it up in performance. There were several more instances of this gun performing brilliantly, hitting a guy hiding behind an air conditioner in the forehead from 35 feet, twice, and hitting a guy from over a fence across his backyard. I have since used it in several skirmishes, and every single time, my team has won. I have only been killed once in all the wars I've had with this gun so far, thanks to its superior rate of fire, accuracy, and range.
Further Upgrades:
So far all that I have upgraded is the spring. It may be possible to put an M130 or M140 in it, but it may put too much stress on the internals and wear it out faster. I might also put a tightbore barrel in it to increase velocity and accuracy a little more. It is also possible to mount a scope or red dot sight to the gun, with a little modification (there are no mounting rails on the gun). Since it’s relatively inexpensive, you can try a bunch of things to make it even better and more capable.
Overall:
For the price (under 50 bucks if you get it from the right place) this is the best shotgun on the market. It’s got decent weight and performance (much better with upgrades), looks awesome, is realistic, and is a blast to shoot.
Pros:
High Metal Content
Hop-up
Decent weight
Easy to upgrade
60 round magazine
Great sound when racking slide
Excellent ROF
Performs awesome with a simple spring upgrade
Looks great
Extremely versatile
Highly realistic
Single or 3 shot firing mode
Relatively low cost
Can use .2’s easily
Cons:
3-round burst sometimes shoots more than 3 (not that much of a problem)
Not real steel weight (you can add weight, but its really just fine)
Doesn’t use shells (detracts from realism, then again it doesn’t cost $200)
Hard to find (not a very common gun, so parts and stuff may be hard to come by)
Only 1 barrel so 3 shot decreases range/fps
Some visible seam lines
Overall it’s a great gun. If you want a good shotgun for around $50-60 get this. It’s easy to upgrade too, so it’s a great project gun. I give it an 8, subtracting only because of the mold lines, sort of low weight, and rather low stock power, most of which can be easily remedied.
-Iceman718 |
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