KWA Cansoft M1911A1

[Thenooblord]

This is my first review, so rest assured it will be piss poor, but bear with me till the end, I'm also not a photographer, so yes my pictures suck! Now, onto the review.

The design seems to be similar to the WA 1911, sharing some design features, while the internals are similar in design it is not a direct copy. I have yet to experiment with mag compatibility, but they don't look WA or TM compatible at the moment, though I don't have any mags to compare it to, I'm just working from memory. The hammer can be slowly decocked by hand, unlike in the TM where it will get stuck half cocked if slowly released, this one can come to rest completely, which is a nice touch. also, the trigger cannot be pulled when half cocked.

I got a pair of them instead of one, for a few reasons, mainly to see how the consistency gun to gun was. The first thing I noticed was that there were some defects in the paint, nothing major, like there was dust or lint on the surface before it was painted. Slide and barrel fitment on both is very tight with almost no wobble, so no clackety clack when shaking it like you would have with a WE or some other low end clone. Random point here, the sight notch is much deeper in this gun than it is on the TM, making it much easier to see the sights.

The gun has alot of metal, but I was surprised by some of the parts that they decided to keep plastic, and its not a good surprise. The slide, internals, and controls are all metal, lower frame is a darkly tinted polymer, grips are a bland brown plastic, but as well, the outer barrel and spring plug are plastic, and quite thin plastic at that, so longevity is a big question mark.

The piston looks CNCd, not die cast, as do some of the other visible bits. A nice touch is a faux firing pin in the back of the BBU that is spring loaded and it moves, as opposed to TMs hex screw. The barrel has a true rocking system, where it is mounted on a lever at the back, not like the TM just sitting on a wedge, this keeps everything alot more stable. It uses the standard KSC hopup adjustment, with the dial around the back of the barrel, and it is a pain to adjust because the feeding ramp on the chamber interferes with the adjustment tools movement. On the down side, the hammer and recoil springs are very soft, so it doesn't have the kick it should. I broke the gun down, and the internals are top notch, the sear is machined, not cast, and the knocker lever and disconnect bar are cast, but it is a very high quality cast. I must say that compared to TM's internals, this is quite ingenious, instead of taking the parts out of the frame one by one, the whole inner working some out as one piece after the removal of one screw, the safety, and 2 small pins. The parts look like aluminum or steel, but I'm no metallurgist, so I'm notone to trust on that, definitely doesn't look like pot metal though.

Issues I've come across so far are that the mag can FIT 14 rounds, but when you have the slide cocked back, insert a full magazine, and release the slide, the BBs in the mag are pushed down by the nozzle while it loads the first BB, pushing them back past the lock and locking the follower at the bottom, meaning after the first shot, you have to remove the mag, release the follower, re-insert it and rack the slide again, so the true useful capacity of the mags is 13. Another thing is that you cannot tug on the slide to get the slide release to disengage, it will only move about halfway down and then stop, meaning that you have to manually push the catch down, adding a little extra wear and tear on the slide. Every once in a while, a BB will get jammed on the "ramp" on the hopup chamber leading to the barrel, requiring you to remove the mag and rack the slide to chamber the BB.

Accuracy and gas efficiency tests to come, and imageshack is fucking with me so no nice photo placement for now

video firing test at 0 degrees C
YouTube- KWA NS2 1911 test firing

[Skladfin]

one question

does it use TM compatible hop up rubbers?

[Thenooblord]

Originally Posted by Skladfin

one question

does it use TM compatible hop up rubbers?

no, its KSC hopup system, with the little dial around the barrel, I'll add it to the main post, thanks for reminding me

[Skladfin]

okay thanks for clearing that up.

[Thenooblord]

added additional info, any constructive criticism, feel free to share

[baker_Jeff]

Nice pistols . Who hooked you up with them? :P

[Thenooblord]

Originally Posted by baker_Jeff

Nice pistols . Who hooked you up with them? :P

Oh, I wonder

[Kokanee]

Try breaking your reviews up into sections for ease of readability. Ie;

Intro,Packaging,Externals/Build Material,Function and Reliability, Field performance,Conclusion etc

[theguy]

Originally Posted by Kokanee

Try breaking your reviews up into sections for ease of readability. Ie;

Intro,Packaging,Externals/Build Material,Function and Reliability, Field performance,Conclusion etc

Not to be creepy or anything, but I have this post bookmarked. Excellent advice.

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showpos...00&postcount=8

[hattrick]

I think this is a copy of the scw2 system....it seems to have the same firing pin mech.
As well as the "rocker" design you mentioned which are standard to all western arms pistols.

If this is true, beware of a soft leaf spring and hammer spring....

[Thenooblord]

Originally Posted by hattrick

I think this is a copy of the scw2 system....it seems to have the same firing pin mech.
As well as the "rocker" design you mentioned which are standard to all western arms pistols.

If this is true, beware of a soft leaf spring and hammer spring....

Like I said, it seems to be similar to WA, but the WA parts diagrams I've found have some distinct differences in the internals, maybe I'm just looking at a different version, but I've been leaning towards original design.

[cbcsteve]

It shouldn't be a copy of the SCW2 system

The KWA 1911 was said to be the new NS2 system which is just another name for the new System 7 pistols so essentially this is a "new" gun if anything should be a better revised edition of their previous KSC/KWA 1911

Just to note these KWA/KSC system 7 guns seem to handle our weather a little better than the previous models during winter.

[Thenooblord]

info added/edited

[MoreToasties]

Is the blowback as weak as it looks, or is it just because of your wonderfully strong arm muscles?

You need to ditch the camera lanyard, it screwed up the autofocus.

[GSK88]

Originally Posted by MoreToasties

Is the blowback as weak as it looks, or is it just because of your wonderfully strong arm muscles?

You need to ditch the camera lanyard, it screwed up the autofocus.

Most likely because it's posted as being tested at 0 degrees C.