Introduction

In order to reduce international shipping costs, as well as to convey the impression that he didn’t wish to have all the fun himself, John assigned me to shoot and to evaluate some of the many airsoft pistols he has assembled for reviews. Because it is larger and heavier than most of the other pistols received for review, one of those I was delegated to “play” with was the Western Arms SV Infinity or, as we nicknamed it, “the race gun.” And “race gun” seems a very appropriate nickname for this pistol. It appears ready to take on IPSC and IDPA competition out of the box. This pistol came from Airsoft Extreme, and is reported to be one of their top-selling models.

Description

The pistol arrived packed in standard Western Arms packaging, a charcoal grey cardboard box enclosing a molded white Styrofoam tray divided into a chamber for the pistol itself and an adjacent recess for accessories. This box, however, is larger than any of the other Western Arms boxes we received.



In the case of this pistol, accessories included a small bag of 6mm plastic pellets (not identified as to weight, but white in colour); a pair of small hex (Allen head) wrenches (about which more to follow); one small (very) sample target (unfired – not a test target); a card written in Japanese which appears to be a mail-in card to activate a warranty; a yellow paper (also in Japanese and with cartoons) that appears to be a warning sheet cautioning users not to shoot people or dogs, not to do stupid things, and not to attempt to modify the pistol in your home workshop; and an instruction book, also written in Japanese but nicely illustrated with a mix of drawings and photographs that generally convey the important points even without western (English) text.



Lastly, this pistol has a customizable trigger, with interchangeable front faces. The pistol arrived with one face installed, and three more in the box. To be honest, I didn’t care for the trigger face that came installed, but it appeared that the trigger needs to be removed from the frame to change the faces and, because this gun was on loan and would be returned to Airsoft Extreme, I didn’t wish to risk breaking anything by detail stripping a “loaner” pistol.



When I first opened the box my immediate reaction was that Airsoft Extreme had made a mistake and sent us a Desert Eagle by mistake. However, on closer inspection I saw that the barrel is marked “INFINITI .45 ACP.”



The frame is a double stack frame with a full-length dust cover that incorporates a light rail, not unlike the original Springfield Armory “Operator” rail.



The trigger guard is squared off at the front rather than rounded as are most 1911s. Overall, it appears that the pistol is styled after an STI double stack pistol. Despite its apparent size, it is a standard 5” barrel length.

Surprisingly, because I didn’t think it was legal, this pistol did not arrive with any identifying red on the tip of the barrel and/or slide. Perhaps this is because the folks at Airsoft Extreme assumed that the pistol would find its way to Greece (*), since it is illegal (at least in my state) to give, sell, or even offer for sale a “facsimile” firearm that is not identified as not being a real gun. The state law does not specify how this is to be identified, but the bright red “snout” is the universally accepted identifier. I believe that most states, and possibly the Federal government, have similar laws in place.

This pistol uses a full-length guide rod and a heavy bull barrel mated directly to the slide, with no barrel bushing.



However, when in battery there is perceptible lateral and vertical play between the muzzle and the slide. I am certain that this did not enhance accuracy.



Detailing on this pistol is superb. This pistol is one of Airsoft Extreme's “enhanced” models, with a metal slide.



Everything works like a real 1911, too. It is correct even down to details such as the thumb safety cannot be engaged unless the action is cocked. Racking the slide to cock the action, of course, requires considerably less effort than a real 1911, but the movement is the same.



Bells and whistles include a dovetailed front sight, magazine well, dropped magazine base pad, memory pad beavertail grip safety, and an extended ambidextrous thumb safety. The rear sight is adjustable for elevation with a set screw (nicely detented so that it moves in firm click stops), but windage is adjustable only by loosening the sight and drifting it in the dovetail. The sights are 3-dot style. Unfortunately, the front sight was too loose for the dovetail and fell off the pistol when we removed it from the box. Testing was delayed for a couple of days while I applied a drop of purple LocTite and reset the sight, then left it to set up.

Another minor anomaly was that the ambidextrous thumb safety functioned perfectly when operated with the thumb on the left side of the frame, but when using the right side paddle the safety would engage fine, but was then very difficult to disengage. I found that I could duplicate the difficulty using the left side paddle if I actually pushed the safety forward against the plunger while disengaging it, but under normal conditions the problem occurred only when using the right side paddle.



The pistol also features a light rail, where you can attach all kind of accessories.

I weighed it on a postage scale and the weight (with magazine) is 35 ounces (985 grams) with empty magazine installed. This makes it the heaviest of all the pistols we received for review, even heavier than the double stack Para P14 I reviewed previously (32 ounces / 900 grams).

This pistol is also equipped with an adjustable “hop up” feature. “Hop up” is a device (a “thingie,” to use highly technical terminology for something I am not about the destroy trying to see) inside the barrel that imparts a slight drag to the top of the pellet as it exits the chamber. This causes a reverse top-spin, which results in either a flatter trajectory for a longer distance, or even an upward trajectory for a moderate distance. One of the aforementioned two hex wrenches is for changing the trigger face. The other fits an adjustment screw located at the front of the trigger guard, that adjusts the amount of hop up action. Thus, for vertical zeroing there are two adjustments available on this pistol: the adjustable rear sight, and the hop up adjustment. The hop up adjustment can also be used to adjust the pellet trajectory when changing from one weight of pellet to another.

As with most of the other airsoft pistols reviewed, to load the pistol the magazine is removed just as on a real 1911: depress the magazine release button, and the magazine drops out into your hand. The magazine is shaped and contoured exactly like a real double-stack magazine. Naturally, the details are different. The nose has a small orifice for 6mm BBs, and a hole in the baseplate provides a nozzle for filling the gas chamber. This pistol uses green gas (**), which isn’t included in the box with the pistol. Airsoft Extreme had provided a couple of canisters of green gas, which proved to be more than sufficient for our testing. It wasn’t possible to ship gas canisters to Greece, so John had to procure his own gas and I was able to use the supplied canisters for the pistols tested here.

The loading procedure is to first charge the magazine with gas, then load the BBs. Charging is simple. Retract the slider on the back of the magazine to allow the gas valve to pop out. Insert the tip of the gas canister nozzle into the valve on the magazine base plate (being careful to align the nozzle perpendicular to the valve), and press the nozzle against the valve to release the flow of gas. Hold until you no longer hear the hissing of gas transfer. As with the other pistols I tested, I didn’t bother to use the Marui pellet loader, that Airsoft Extreme has send us. I found it easy enough to drop a handful of BBs into the palm of one hand, depress the magazine follower, and simply pour the BBs into the loading orifice. Using the magazine loader would probably be beneficial for someone who is shooting a lot, however.

In the next page, you can read how to disassemble the pistol and our shooting tests results.