WA Colt Gov't Magna Tech

[Utty]

WA Colt Government MkIV Series '80 Magna Tech Review

 

Seems WA is up to no good (in da neighborhood), making a new line of cheapo guns for the masses. Low-bred nickel bag gangsta that I am, I snatched one up.

 

 

First impressions

 

The gun comes in a simple purple box with the Colt, WA and Magna Tech logos. On the side of the box: MADE IN TAIWAN. Interesting.

 

Inside the box, in grey styrofoam, sits the gun, barrel bushing wrench, complimentary baggy of cocaine (actually white 6mm BBs), and a manual.

 

Picking the gun up, it has a nice heft, but is actually a little light at 716g. It feels more substantial than the TM P226, in comparison.

 

Looking the gun over, it does look a little plasticcy, especially the golden Colt medallions in the grip panels (but the medallions are actually metal). In truth, the gun has a pretty nice finish, nowhere near as bad as some reports had led me to believe.

 

I can't find any WA or ASGK trades anywhere on the gun, only RS markings.

 

Racking the slide and playing with the hammer reveals how firm the springs are; they are nice and firm.

 

 

Performance (Gas: Propane. Ambient Temp: 27 degrees C.)

 

The thin magazine doesn't hold much gas, about 2 seconds is all it takes to fill the gas tank.

 

A pleasant surprise were the feed lips - they are much tighter than on any WA magazine I've tried (Cougar, Infinity Expert, M1934), the BBs require a little push to go through the feed lips. This is good. It promises less misfeeding while shooting.

 

Gas capacity: the whole magazine-load of BBs (22 shots) plus 4½ shots before the gas runs out. Ambient

 

FPS (.20g mystery BBs):

1: 300.4

2: 295.9

3: 295.8

4: 295.8

5: 295.9

6: 295.8

7: 295.5

8: 292.7

9: 292

10: 294.2

 

See that power consistency? Crazy stuff.

 

Accuracy and range: I find that at the current temperature, 27 degrees C and using green gas (propane), the Colt Magna Tech needs .30g BBs or higher.

See pics of targets below for accuracy test results. I used .30g carbon coated Straights.

At 5m range, point of aim was the bottom of the circle. 10 shots were fired.

At 10m range, point of aim was the bottom of the light grey ('4') area. 6 shots were fired.

I wasn't aiming that carefully, I'm sure the potential accuracy is even greater, given the fixed hop-up and the highly impressive power consistency.

 

 

Takedown:

 

At first, because I couldn't move the barrel bushing with my fingers, and because there's no visible seam or gap between the slide muzzle and the bushing, I thought it was molded on. Then I tried the wrench, and the barrel bushing twisted right off. Nice fit!

The gun comes apart in the usual 1911 fashion.

And as usual, the metal outer barrel eventually unscrews itself from the chamber cover when shooting, so you need to wrap the chamber cover thread in some teflon tape.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

So far, this gun is exactly what I hoped for. Excellent performance without any of the usual fancy WA nonsense. This is a WA for the skirmisher rather than the collector.

Time will tell how well it holds up to the frequent plinking with green gas that I'll put it through.

 

 

Pics:

Edited June 12, 2006 by Utty

[Utty]

-Update-

 

First of all, here're some 10 metre test results using BBs other than .30s:

 

 

Point of aim was the bottom line of the light grey '4' area.

As you can see, I had to go all the way up to .43g Straights to actually hit the point of aim.

 

 

Secondly, something annoying has started to happen: when shooting, the force of the very snappy recoil is causing the thumb safety to creep up a bit, half-engaging the safety mechanism, in effect making the trigger pull twice as hard and thereby hurting accuracy very badly.

 

I suppose this can be repaired in three ways:

 

1: somehow tighten the thumb safety so it won't creep;

 

2: fix the switch in place (which would suck);

 

3: disable the thumb safety internally, which would also suck.

 

 

Otherwise, the gun is holding up very well, the slide lock notch in particular: very little visible wear, as opposed to the WA Infinity Expert I had, which showed excessive wear on the slide lock notch after depressingly few shots.

 

So,

status: still grinnin!

[Utty]

-Update- (dab hand utty strikes back)

 

Fixed the thumb safety by removing material from the internal surface of the safety that interfaces with (blocks) the trigger sear (or whatever), so that the safety needs to be pushed fully up before it blocks the sear.

 

Simple, and it works great now.

Edited June 25, 2006 by Utty

[sturgis]

can you tell me if the rear sights are fixed or removable? like if you want to replace it with metal slide

[Utty]

Both front and rear sights are molded on the slide. Any replacement slide will have to come with spare sights - like THIS I guess. It's for SCW 3, so it should fit the Magna Tech, which is also SCW 3.

Edited June 26, 2006 by Utty

[davedawg123]

Good review.

 

How's the cooldown with such little gas capacity?

[Utty]

Thanks. Cooldown is not an issue at all, despite the low gas capacity - from my experience, including this gun, WA guns are gas hogs (at least on green gas), but the payoff is a very stable power output, and superb low-temp performance.

[snakedoctoror]

hi,

 

can someone explain where the hop is i have tried everywhere including the bit it tells you "open slide ,put alan key in and turn" mines doesnt seem to have any of that.

 

HELP!!!!!

[Utty]

On a magna tech? They have fixed hop, so you can't actually adjust it.