By Foreigner
Published: August 7, 2005
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The 1911 was designed by a very ingenious inventor by the name of John Moses Browning. It was developed as an automatic reloading pistol, shooting a .38 caliber shot. When the army was getting pushed back in the Philippines it was because our .38 caliber pistols didn't have enough stopping power. When John Browning heard of the United States Military's interest in a .45 caliber pistol, he quickly came forth with a .45 caliber pistol.
In the running for pistols, there were the 2 favorites, the P.08 Luger and John Browning’s 1911. The 1911 was chosen for many reasons. One was, in the military when you run out of ammo you just drop your mags, you don't keep them. This created problems because the German Luger’s mags were very expensive. Also the Luger would fail horribly when subjected to water, and even the littlest cloud of dirt could render this gun useless. The 1911 however could be put under water and still fire, and it could be dropped in the mud and still fire. Also the 1911 was a bit more accurate then the innovative Luger. Thus the army adopted the 1911 as its official sidearm.
Now today, the 1911 is still being used and massed produced by many companies. Also in the military, modifications have been made to accommodate this gun in every branch of the military. As you can tell this pistol might well turn out to be the century pistol, with its innovative design, and rugged durability, this proves to be one of the mightiest pistols out there!
Now the order of my review will be as followed:
-Looks
-Performance
-Durability
-Skirmishability
-Upgrade
-Overall
Onto the looks factory. I ordered my 1911 from Shorty USA, with 2 magazines for 45 dollars shipping including. I had my dad nagging me saying a 20 dollar pistol will serve you justice, it will be **** etc. Well it arrived after 2 days to my surprise. I quickly grabbed the first sharp edge I could find to open up the box. I was greeted with the classic UHC box and 2 magazines. Then opening the UHC box this is the beautiful site I was gratefully greeted with:
The day it arrived
I looked at this gun in awe. I had never seen such a nicer gun. The gun looks plasticy, but what can you expect from plastic? Well anyways it has a satin black finish with checkered brown grips. It comes with a functional grip safety, which if you have never used might be a surprise for you (I'll explain later). It has a thumb safety, both lock the trigger but the thumb safety locks the slide. As for the grip safety, all I meant by a surprise was the fact that it begins to hurt your hand after using it a lot, which is expected considering its a new texture for your hand to adapt to.
A picture of both safety’s
Now onto performance. I took this gun out to shoot and I have to say I was disappointed. Now don't exit out of this review right now, I have some explaining to do. At the time it said it was a .12g bb gun. Well with .12g bb's the gun will over hop and its not just a gradual increase, I mean straight for 30 feet then up! So when I got the chance I ordered .2g bb's from evike.com which came in a day and a half. Great responses from the sites, either that or I'm incredibly lucky.
Now with these new .2g bb's I went out side and set up computer sized targets at 10, 15, and 20 yards. At 10 yards I hit the target 23/25 times, however they were scattered across the page. So I suppose the consistency isn't the best. Then at 15 yards I hit the target 10/25 times, and at 20 yards I hit it 4 out of 25 times. However at all these ranges you can hit a human sized target almost all the time. The inconsistency disappoints me though. It will be like sometimes, which is the majority of the time, the gun won't put enough hop-up onto the bb so it sinks. Other times it will be perfect so you do not have to aim higher to hit something lower. I recommend aiming higher since you will most likely hit it more often that way.
The FPS isn't something special either. I would say probably 260 FPS with a .12 g bb and 200 FPS with a .2g bb. Using my poor man's pop can chrono, the bb with a .12 would go through on the second shot, and the .2 would go through mostly on the second shot sometimes the third. For the trade off in power you definitely get a ton of accuracy. In fact with a .2g bb the bb's almost always fly straight, but they just sink a little. In fact my back yard is a hill that goes down 100 feet, I can hit a 200 feet tall tree, about 2 times out of 25 shots, from about 130 feet away, keep in mind its dropping 20 feet or so there.
Now onto durability. I have put this gun through a rigorous test, taking it apart multiple times, and firing over 5000 shots within 2 months of getting this gun. It has out performed my specifications and I could not be happier with it. This gun is a tank just like the original 1911, however this time you shouldn't put it under water or drop it in the mud.
The disassembly of this gun is quite easy. You take out the pin, and then slide the slide off the gun and everything you need is in that slide. It is very easy and I was happy that it was this easy. My m4505 took me 20 minutes of heart racing time to get it back together; I timed my self and put this one back together in about 2 minutes. It is very self explanatory to do.
Just some more eye candy
Onto skirmishability, if that is even a word. I took this gun out to a skirmish the day I got it. I rely on my stealth tactics, so a pistol with good range doesn't play a big role in my games. I could sneak up on opponents in the middle of the day and shoot them from 15 feet, guaranteeing my shot to hit them. This is so much better then my now dead M4505 which would maybe hit that person at 15 feet. This gun is also capable of head shots. Let me tell you though, my M4505 taught me conservation of ammo, and I bought 2 spares so now I am walking around with 75 shots, however I have everyone begging for reloads when I am popping in my second magazine. I came in with equal ammo, and came out with the most kills. This was very satisfying. Also to correct my self before I turn others astray from this gun, even though I take close range shots, this gun is fully capable of long range shots too, so don't think that it’s only good for close range.
Onto my favorite part of the 1911, Upgrades!!!!! There are a few upgrades you can do with this gun and I will list them and how to do them.
1) Last Shot Slide Lock:
Mild
What you do, is open up the magazine and find the bb pusher and cut the little knob off of it. Instructions:
Make sure you’re in an enclosed area, because the magazine can spring pieces out.
Take off the bb pusher, and sand down the little knob on it.
Put everything back together, and put the mag back together (difficult)
2) Slide Lock with Switch
Easy
All you have to do is cut a notch into the side of your slide and then the pin that is the disassembly pen, that can slide into that notch to make a slide lock.
3) Power increase
Easy
Find a Tm line spring like a 1911 or mk23 spring, those will work and power will increase a lot. Also you need to put a stronger recoil spring into the gun so that the springs won't push the barrel assembly out of the gun.
4) Hop Up
Hard
Locate the hop-up unit, and get to 2mm by 4mm pieces of electricians tape, and put it on either side of the hop up. This will form 3 different bumps in the hop-up making it more consistent.
Overall this is a great gun for the money and I recommend it to any beginner who is getting into airsoft.
<=>Foreigner<=>
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View Comments (1)
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To replace the slide return/recoil spring the spring from a standard pencil length pocket size tire pressure gauge is a perfect fit.
These springs won't work with the UHC M9 though, the diameter is a hair too small.
I replaced my mainspring with one from a el cheapo flea market springer. The spring being the only decent quality part to be found in that gun.
The UHC mainsping is made deliberately light to reduce chance of breakages suffered by early production TM 1911s which were the basis of the UHC design.
I believe that many if not all parts interchange between the TM and UHC 1911s. The magazines are said to be interchangable.
If you own or intend to buy a TM 1911 I'd suggest getting a UHC gun as a spare.
You could use the UHC for practice to save wear and tear on the TM and as a source of spare parts if the TM has a breakage.
My UHC has held up well to several thousands of rounds of .20 and .25 ammo and is very accurate out to at least 25 yards.
I figure its the best value for the money of any airsoft gun available today.
One thing to take note of. I found a slight build up of dustlike ABS powder inside after the first couple hundred rounds. After cleaning and lubing the gun has stayed clean.
Make use of the easy field stripping feature to keep your gun clean and lubed properly with Silicone spray.