Colt 1911-A1 Military Full Metal

• Modeled After: Colt M1911A1
• Hop-Up: Fixed .12/.2g BBs
• Lowest Advertised: 200 FPS / 100 ft
• Purchased from ShortyUSA for $30 + 9 Shipped

Full Metal
Mid-Cap Magazine*…
FPS
Looks almost used n’ gritty. Straight up Platoon status.
Printed Trademarks
…*made of plastic. That’s weak sauce.
Range
Loose Safety

Being a fan of the 1911, I sprung at the chance to pick up a full metal military replica that wouldn’t cost me 4 years of daily Taco Bell. It’s hard to avoid Cybergun products if you buy a gun with trademarks, and this one makes no exception. Although the trademarks are correct and fully licensed, they are only printed on with white paint, as opposed to engraved. This detracts from the authentic aesthetic almost as much as having the trademarks would add in the first place. Still, they’re legit. The gun, as stated, is full metal. It has good balance and heft and feels pretty solid. It has a very rough sort of finish too it, and some great looking faux-wood hand grips. A prominent seam-line runs down the top and bottom of the body however. Overall, it mimics a used military sidearm well. It feels more Vietnam than most. This gun should age well, like a fine wine. Except probably not.

The trigger and hammer are metal and have some nice inertia going with them. The action is surprisingly smooth and it sounds good and solid to fire. The safety leaves some to be desired. It functions, and locks the trigger and slide, but is loose and the slide becomes locked inadvertently. For shooting, this is annoying, and for a skirmish, this is deadly. Not that people usually die during airsoft, but you know.

The clip, on the other hand, is a downer. It’s very noticeably plastic when holding a full metal gun. Not necessarily high quality plastic either. It also has very little weight, due to an internal BB well. The actual clip holds around 12 rounds, which must be re-loaded from the 50 round reservoir. Sort of like a wind up magazine without the wind up. It’s a clever idea, but in reality it takes longer than just using a speed loader, makes the magazine too lightweight, and rattles.

The performance of this gun is on par with a $20 pistol, or at least one with some unimpressive hop-up. Although both the FPS and power are both noticeably impressive, the hop-up only works decently after you warm it up. Most shots with .12g and .2 have only mediocre range.

You pay $20 for performance and like $15 for the full-metal aspect. At this price range, it’s a really cool collector’s item – not a remarkable sidearm.

KWC/Cybergun Smith & Wesson SW1911 Ultra Grade

• Modeled After: Smith & Wesson SW1911
• Hop-Up: Fixed .20g / Up to .25g
• Lowest Advertised: 250 / 220 FPS, 80 ft Range
• Purchased from ShortyUSA for $63 + $9 Shipped

Shooting Performance
Look, feel, action
Weight & Balance
Magazine Issues
Trademarks and Printed Text

Okay, so paying $70 for a spring pistol doesn’t exactly fit the “econo” airsofting viewpoint, but I couldn’t resist. The best spring pistol money can buy? I don’t know, but it’s got to be pretty damn close. Save for a few gripes, the SW1911 Ultra Grade is an example of completely unnecessary overage of springer performance and beautifulness. If it wasn’t so fun to shoot, I’d frame it on my wall.

This 1911 is heavyweight, and very nicely balanced. You get very good inertial feelings when picking this thing up. Haha, get it? The build quality is also outstanding, I can’t find a seem line anywhere… The model isn’t full metal, but it contains metal in the important spots. The plastic is also high-quality and feels good. The gun is solid, no wobblies save for the magazine, which sits a tiny bit loose.

The SW1911 is a wicked looking real steel gun. Although this is pretty much a replica of the stock version, the stock version looks custom made. A slick finish, “beaver-tail” grip safety, nice grips, vented trigger and hammer, elevation-adjustable combat sites, and forward-slide grip give this gun a mean look. The ejection port stays closed, but the metal “barrel” insert looks good and is engraved with “45 AUTO”. It also includes engraved sequential serial numbers, and (since this is a Cybergun product) it’s actually legally licensed to bear S&W’s trademarks in the US. This particular version has the S&W logo and “SW1911″ only printed on the slide in white, it looked like some other versions of the gun had this engraved, and IMO that would look better. On the ejection side of the slide you also get a nice big warning block of text printed in the same white font. Meh.

The thumb safety and grip safety both work nicely, as does the working slide-lock, which will let you know if you’re cocking with the magazine empty. Here’s when we get to a few noticeable problems. For one, after inserting a new magazine you’ll have to pull-back on the locked slide to chamber the first round – you can’t just release the slide-lock, and that’s a big part of the fun…

Secondly, the magazine is the classic speed loading design. It fills up nice and fast, but only holds 12 rounds, drops a few BBs if ejected early, and doesn’t auto-release the spring when inserting into the well. It’s very nicely constructed, and full metal, but doesn’t cut it from a high-quality airsoft standpoint. There are probably compatible alternatives out there.

Pre-shooting aside, the performance of this gun is epic. The slide action is super smooth, trigger pull isn’t super great but that’s not a big deal. Using .2g BBs, performance is superb for a pistol. The SW1911 has comparable range compared to the M14 “Sniper Rifle”, which is a low-level but full size spring rifle, although the pistol is notably less accurate and less consistent, at least with .2g BBs. Still, srlsy. It’s got a lot of power as well, rivaling the punch of the powerful Model 17.

The existence of a spring airsoft pistol at this price range is reaching impracticality. If seeking competition, you should move on to gas guns, while those looking for performance should just be buying pellet guns. Then again, there are those of us who just want to have one of the best spring pistols available. Springers are simple and it appears that this one will last, even with a good amount of abuse. Unnecessary? Yes. But completely awesome? Also yes.