Introduction

For this round of testing we have something a bit different. The airsoft pistol (“handgun,” really, because there are airsoft revolvers, as well as pistols) market can be roughly broken down into three levels, based on a combination of cost, realism, and operating system. The low end is defined by spring action pistols, and we will cover a pair of those in another review. It’s an arbitrary break point, but based on prices we have seen let’s call the low end of the market those airsoft guns (pistols and revolvers) costing under $50. The mid-range of the airsoft market is occupied by pistols and revolvers selling for $50 to $149. and the high end of the market is occupied by pistols and revolvers costing $150 and up.



The pistol that is the subject of this review occupies the lower segment of the mid-range. It was supplied by forum sponsor Airsplat. It is difficult to define this range by price alone, because some of the spring action pistols approach the lower end of the mid-range gas pistols in price. This pistol is listed on the Airsplat web site as selling for $59.95.



An opening surprise with this pistol is that it arrived in a hard, molded plastic pistol case with “eggcrate” foam liner. This is the only pistol we have seen throughout these airsoft tests to arrive in a hard case. Even the Western Arms Infinity “race gun” arrived in the standard cardboard box with Styrofoam tray. The pistol case in which this pistol arrived is good enough that I would not be ashamed to carry a real pistol to the range in it. It utilizes two sliding catches, and the meeting rails are drilled to accept a small padlock to prevent the case from being opened. It’s a nice touch.



The pistol itself is visibly not equal in quality to the Western Arms pistols tested previously. Nor should we expect it to be. The WA pistols are high-end airsoft pistols that sell for over $200. The list price for this pistol on the Airsplat web site is $59.95. There’s clearly a difference, so what do you get for $60 … and what do you miss out on?



This pistol is plastic. The frame and the slide are plastic. The description on the web site says that internal parts are metal, but I did not attempt to detail strip the pistol to verify this. The weight of the pistol with empty magazine is 29 ounces (815 grams). This is only a couple of ounces less than most of the WA pistols, so the KWC doesn’t give up much there.



Visually, detailing appears good. The slide is a matte grey, mated to a satin silver frame that is completed with rubber wrap-around grips that appear very similar to Pachmayr signature grips. The magazine has an extended slam pad on the base. Even though I don’t particularly care for two-tone pistols, it is an attractive package.




The rear sight is a flat target style sight, but close examination revealed that although it is adjustable for elevation by a standard screw set in the top surface, there is no windage adjustment screw. The sight is set in a dovetail and held in place by a small Phillips-head retaining screw, so windage adjustment will require removing the elevation screw, flipping up the moveable section of the sight, and loosening the retaining screw to drift the sight in the dovetail. Obviously, this process will result in losing the elevation adjustment. This was disappointing but, fortuitously, the lateral zero on the test pistol was vary close to perfect and didn’t require my tender ministrations.



This pistol came with an extended, ambidextrous thumb safety. The trigger is a long trigger with a curved, serrated face. Thankfully, there is no phony overtravel screw to make the trigger appear to be something it is not. An interesting touch is that the outside vertical surface of the front of the trigger guard is neatly checkered. My two-handed grip would not take advantage of that, but anyone whose support hand wraps around the trigger guard might find this useful.



There were no instructions packed with the test pistol. Although the pistol appeared to be in perfect condition, the paint on the magazine showed enough wear that I suspect this pistol was a showroom demo model and that the instructions may have become separated from the pistol before it was sent to us for evaluation.



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