This is my first airsoft purchase, so its taken me the better part of four months to decide upon what I wanted. I settled on a KJW model because overall their reviews are strongly in their favor, an overall high amount of cross compatibility between makes was also more clear with them.
Thus far Ive had it for two days so this is more of an initial review, but a long term review is in the making.
Thus far, I have fired around 14 magazines through it off of propane, the pistol came well lubed and while I did take a look around it, it was plenty lubed for testing. Its stock mag nor the WE magazine purchased with it through the Holy Cow magazine special are running perfectly out of the box, no leaks and other than the WE mag not locking open for the first few magazines no ill issues have been seen from either sense.
The pistol is metal where one would expect it to be, as a real steel shooter, I was somewhat disturbed by the light weight of the pistol, but after looking it over its well enough designed to be light and well made. The slide and sights appear to be metal, the outer barrel, hop chamber, guide rod and recoil plunger are all metal, same goes for the trigger and hammer, the transfer bar is also metal but I believe the grip safety is some form of polymer much like the frame itself. Speaking of which the frame is quite nice, the texturing is good and gives it a positive grip, but isnt overbearing or too extreme like some grip designs can be. I noticed a little outward bowing from the back strap and hammer spring tube just below the safety but its not a deal breaker.
The slide to frame fit is pretty sloppy, but Ive chalked that up to being normal for airsoft to ensure the gas can properly cycle the pistol. Its quite the rattly little thing. Speaking of fit, lets talk about its counterpart finish.
The finish is pretty lacking really, Im not sure what kind of paint was used on it but after shooting it, not dropping or mishandling it, Ive already begun to notice some pretty serious wear on the finish, its gone in some areas and I can see along the front of the slide along the recoil housing where the finish is beginning to rub off from simple contact with the plastic frame. This is a kicker because the satin/matte black is really quite nice.
The pistol is decent on gas too, not great but overall not bad. A 7 second fill from propane got a consistent mag and a half to three quarters off each fill at around 85 degrees F with pretty heavy humidity. If I babied it and paced the shots it would have got a lot further. Overall it was very consistent, I dont know the FPS as I dont own a chrono but I didnt experience any high or low shots that I can say for certain werent caused by the BB's(Matrix.23's.) themselves.
So lets have a break down for ease of skimming now.
Fit and finish 3/5- The paint is pretty bad, chipping and rubbing off after about 14 magazines worth of plinking. Also, and this might be only mine or a design quirk, but the slide lock does not release unless manually dropped, racking the slide does not release.
Gas efficiency 3.5/5- Its not great, but its not horrible either and given the metal slide its going to consume a little more gas. It could be made better with some tuning which I plan to do but its more than enough for out of the box play.
Handling 4/5- The trigger is shockingly good, quite short and with very little over travel, though it might be a tad squishy, nothing a little filing work work help greatly. It feels good in the hand, and feels about as big as a typical real steel fat stack 1911 frame, so it might be a tad big for people with smaller hands, I have a little issue hitting the mag release without twisting the gun a bit. The three dots are clear and well defined, they wouldnt look bad on real steel even.
