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Thread: Glock 23F by KWA

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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Glock 23F by KWA

    Introduction

    What is the Glock 23F? It is a Glock 19 (or 23, if you prefer the .40 S&W caliber) or to be more precise it is an immitation of the Glock 19C or 23C (where C stands for Compensated), with the added functionality of full-auto fire thrown in as a bonus. In other words, a shorter Glock 18.

    As far as I know, there is no real-steel Glock 23F pistol, so this is probably the result of some aggressive marketing on behalf of the Airsoft companies. Maybe Glock should follow their lead and offer such a pistol?

    The G23F was a kind contribution of our sponsor, Airsplat, who send it to me as an early Christmas gift. The Glock 23F was my first fully automatic airsoft pistol, so I was a little anxious to try it out. A big "Thank you" to Airsplat for their gift, is in order.


    Description

    The KWA Glock 23F arrived in a box, similar to the one the Glock 19 had come to me.



    As you see, the box even says "Glock 19", the only difference being the sticker which clarifies that this is not the simple pistol, but the Model 23F, full- and semi-auto.

    Upon opening the box, I found the usuals: the pistol and its magazine, some BBs, a couple of alen keys, the traditional documentation etc.



    I picked up the gun, which featured the same stealth look, as the previously tested Glock 19 (absolutely no inscriptions, names or anything), but which had a very ugly orange tip at the muzzle end of the slide.



    Upon closer examination, it looked as if this orange tip was going to be a much bigger problem, than the one I faced with the G19 and other pistols.



    Where other pistols had some orange water-based paint applied, which was easily removable with some alcohol, this one had a solid, very hard and well applied paint, which refused to be removed with any solvent I tried on it. Well, there was no way I was going to keep the pistol like that, so I started thinking how to remove the orange paint.



    While I was thinking the best approach to remove the orange tip, I was also examining the pistol that Airsplat send me. The 23F came with the same problem as the Glock 19. Due to some pattents issue, all KWA and KSC Glock replicas are imported in US, without the trigger safety found in the real Glock. The ones imported in European countries have the normal triggers with the trigger safety. Having installed a "European" trigger in my Glock 19, I asked Airsplat, if they could find me a trigger. Kent Wu, at Aisplat was kind enough to oblige, so the trigger was send to me (more on that later).

    Moving closer, what sets the Glock 23F and the Glock 19 apart are two big differences.



    The first one, is of course the selector lever at the left, rear end of the slide, which allows you to select either semi-auto firing (selector at the upper position), or fully-automatic firing (selector at the lower position). These two positions are marked with a single dot for semi and two dots for full-auto. What is interesting, is that the selector lever can be set at another position, horizontally in the middle, in which the pistol is rendered safe, in other words the pistol does not fire. I am not very familiar with the real Glocks, so I do not know if the Glock 18 has such a feature or not, but I found it useful, on this replica.



    The second feature that differentiates the 23F from the Glock 19, is the ported barrel. The barrel of the 23F has four holes drilled on a ridge, which mattes with a cut-out in the slide. On the real Glock C models, this compensator is used to reduce the guns recoil. Of course, they serve no real purpose on an airsoft gun. On the picture above, you also see the marks from my first attempt to remove the orange paint.



    The front sight is dovetailed on the ridge of the barrel, as you can see on the picture above.



    Here you can see the two cousins, together. The Glock 23F frame is less black than the one of the Glock 19. It has a strange, greyish color.



    Since these two are made by the same company, I would expect the frames to be identical, but no, they are a little different, at least as far as color is concerned.



    Before proceeding any further, I dediced to use some emery clothes, to remove the orange tip. After spending a lot of elbow grease, the orange paint was removed, but so was the black paint below it.



    The aluminum of the slide was exposed, and I started cursing whoever had the idea to install such a stubborn orange tip on this gun. It was evident, that whatever I do, there was no way I could avoid refinishing the slide.



    Then I got an idea. What if I completely remove the paint and polish the slide? Actually, this wasn't my idea, I've seen it done on a Glock 19 in another site, so I started working on it. First I had to remove everything from the slide, and then bring out my collection of Wet&Dry papers. Soon, I had a bright "stainless-like" slide. I am sure Airsplat would be surprised to see this pistol now!



    Last summer, I found a shop in Athens, which do powder-coatings on car wheels, maybe I'll visit them one day and have them coat my slide black again.



    With the slide in an acceptable condition, I focus again on the pistol's features. This Glock has a different rear sight than the G19. Its sight looks more like a very low profile Novak, than anything else, which is something I like. It has a pair of white dots , which match with the single white dot, on the front sight. However, the front sight's dot is not very visible. Maybe I'll add a drop of Bright Eyes to improve the visibility of the front sight.



    The magazine that came with the pistol is the standard G17 magazine, with a special collar around its bottom, which completely matches the lower part of the frame. It takes 23 BBs.



    Of course, any Glock 17 or 19 magazines you may have, can be used on this pistol without a problem, as well as longer (50 round) magazines. Actually, for the rate of fire this gun is capable of, the capacity of the standard G17 magazine (23 rounds) is quite small, so I think I should order a 50 rounder, together with that trigger. Airsplat do you hear me? I need one of those!

    With the G19 in my left hand and the G23F in my right, and vice versa, the two pistols felt exactly the same, so I guess I should say, what I mentioned in the G19 review. That this pistol made me change my opinion about the Glocks. They feel very nice in my hands and the short models (like these two) balance very well for me. Now, after you have read that, erase it from your memory!!!! My reputation is in danger!!!

    Please continue to Page 2 of this review.

    [BREAK]

    Disassembly

    The G23 strips into its major components just like another Airsoft Glock. Just make sure the selector switch is in the "Safe" position and pull back the slide to cock the hammer and then pull down the two locking lugs on the sides of the frame above the trigger. Presto, the slide can be moved of, from the front of the frame.

    Press the recoil spring guide rod forward and remove it together with the recoil spring and then press down on the hood of the barrel, inside the ejection port, and push the barrel forward. Lift it up and pull it back and it comes off the slide. There you are. The hop-up adjustment can be seen at the rear of the inner barrel.

    Reassemblying is exactly the reverse process.


    Shooting

    When Airsplat asked me if I wanted to try an automatic Glock, I was first skeptical. In the real-guns world, an automatic pistol is not very useful, according to my opinion. The recoil is such that it's impossible to fire these things with any decent accuracy, and most of their users end up with more shots on the air than on the target.

    But then I remembered that this is not the real-guns world, this is Airsoft, an other ball game, all together. So, I told Airsplat that yes, I was interested in trying it.

    As soon as the pistol arrived, and before anything else, I filled the magazine with BBs and gas it up. I went out on my rear balkony and aimed the pistol at an empty field, behind our property lot. Pressed the trigger and I was rewarded with a "bbrprprprprprprprprpr". The magazine was emptied in no-time. I am not sure what's the rate of fire of this gun, but it's very high. The Glock 23F gets a high degree in the fun factor, that's for sure. I have to thank Kent of Aisplat for giving me the opportunity to enjoy this pistol.

    On the accuracy department, the 23F was tried in two setups. First, firing semi-auto, at 10 m, just like I try all the airsoft pistols here.



    This is the best group I've managed with this pistol. The group measures 2" from center to center. As you can see there is a vertical stringing, quite evident in this group. Most of the groups fired, were like that, the reason being the way the barrel is fitted to the front of the slide. The cut for the compensator ridge, removes a lot of material, from the front of the slide, thus increasing the free play of the barrel there.

    Also, as the sights were adjusted when the pistol arrived, all groups were significantly moved to the left and slightly lower than the POA. I moved the rear sight, all the way to the right, in order to have centered groups, and had to compensate visually, for the elevation. Maybe, this is also a reason for the vertical stringing.

    Then, I moved on to the full-automatic firing. And it was then that I understood the reason, why the pistol was grouping to the left and slightly lower than the POA. See the target below:



    This target contains two groups of 5 BBs each, fired in full-auto mode. The first group was fired aiming at the lower edge of the outer- most circle (green group), while the second group was fired aiming dead center (red group). You can clearly see that the first round of each group is centered quite nicely where the pistol was aimed at the beginning of the burst, but the other four rounds are high and to the right of the POA.

    If you correct the sights (and your POA) to compensate for the differences presented in semi-auto firing, then your full-auto firing will be off center. So the rear sight was brought back again, to its dead-center position in its dovetail, and left there. If I want to fire semi-auto, I can use the Glock 19, or even the 23F compensating my hold a little bit, to accomodate for the difference. But since the purpose of this pistol is to be fired in full-auto mode, I left the sights adjusted for that.


    Poor Man's Chrono Test

    The Glock 23F punched the Coke can on the first side, bulged the other side, but didn't exit. I remind you that the G19 had clearly gone through both sides of the Coke can. The difference is due to the fact that the G19 magazine is equipped with a hi-performance valve, which is responsible for the increased speed, recorded with that pistol. Indeed, when the G19 magazine was used, the G23 punched clearly through both sides of the can, but failed to penetrate the bottom, just like the G19.


    Fun Factor Test

    Well, that is one area that the G23F is without a competitor, or at least it faces competition only from other models of the same family (Glocks) or from some Beretta 93 models. The full-auto capability makes this a very fun pistol to shoot.

    I placed several cardboard boxes in my yard, and went around firing at them, in full-auto mode. Fun! Very fun. Now, I want an AEG, just to enjoy more accurate automatic firing. The only one who is not happy is probably our gardner, who will have to clean the garden from the BBs!


    Overall

    Fun! This word describes the usage of the G23F. As I said in the G19 test, the Airsoft Glocks changed my opinion about the Tupperware guns. This size of the Glocks (mid-size), balances fine in my hand, and even though the grip angle is a little too steep for my taste, this is not something I can't get used to. If the real Glocks are like that at all, then they are nice fighting tools.

    The addition of the full-auto capability, makes this gun a real amusement tool as well, without this meaning that it is lucking anything performance-wise. It can serve as a nice skirmishing handgun, which can still deliver auto fire, even if your AEG is out. And of course, it can be used for in-door practicing, if you do not use the full-auto feature (if you do, make sure that your wife's china is nowhere near).

    Kent, I really want to thank you for this pistol, it has given me hours of fun. Even the twins laughed their hearts out, when they fired it, because of the strange noise it makes. Thank you Airsplat, a great addition to my collection!


    Rating

    Accuracy: 3
    Upgradeability: 3
    Training Capability: 5
    Realism: 5
    Quality: 5
    Power: 3

    Overall: 24

    Fun Factor: 100

    P.S. : And of course, the G23F fits fine in my Horseshoe Leather holster, which Andy send me for the G19.
    John Caradimas SV1CEC
    The M1911 Pistols Organization
    http://www.m1911.org
    Last edited by John; 13th September 2008 at 07:48.


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