M190 - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

R22Master

Dionysus

Registered: September 2004
Location: Static in the UK, but wishing I was motorbiking around the world - UK > Europe > Russia > Alaska > USA > UK.
Posts: 3,372

Review Date: 15/8/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �60.00 | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Full Metal, integrated RIS rail, low price, reliable mechanism.
Cons:	Little recoil, fixed HOP-UP

Well, first up I have to say that I am not a Beretta fan. Too many people have them, they have a bulky grip, and the safety catch is just in the wrong place.

However, with all the guns in my collection I realised that I really should own at least one of these guns - just for the sake of it. So in a recent order to WGC, I added an HFC M190 Beretta style pistol as it was only $110 and was a full metal GBB pistol.

First Impressions

This was the first pistol I fetched out of the box when my order came through (I had ordered a few different guns and a load of parts). It came in a nice hard plastic pistol-case and the manual is neatly tucked away behind the upper layer of foam.

The gun has an excellent weight to it and the finish is very nice. The finish looks titanium in colour and has a very metaly look and feel to it. The grips are black plastic, but the plastic is quite rubbery to the touch which makes the gun comfortable and easy to hold.

The sights appear to be part of the slide and immovable. The safety lever is suitable both for left and right handed use and does not de-cock the gun (a bonus in my opinion).

Pulling the hammer back makes a really nice clackety noise as the various pins and levers fall in to place, and the trigger automatically moves back in to single-action mode as the hammer reaches its rear-most position.

Overall, you can tell this is a fairly cheap pistol, but it's still good. Maybe not a gun for the most ardent collector who wants a convincing gun to mount on the wall, but for plinking and skirmishing it is just fine.

Firing the Pistol

This gun takes Green Gas with no problems at all. The magazine has a silent filling valve which means there are no fumes spilling out as you top it up with gas, and BBs can easily be loaded in to the magazine with the Marui BB Loading Device.

After slapping the mag in to the base of the gun, I racked the slide and gave it a few shots.

I immediately noticed that the recoil (kick) is very weak on this gun. Maybe it's because I have been spoiled by the great kick on the TM Hi-Capa, but this gun was definitely lacking in the recoil department. However, this suits some people nicely and can help increase accuracy when rapid firing.

The BBs are projected at good speeds. I fired off an entire magazine slowly through the chronograph and all readings were between 315fps and 325fps with 0.20g BBs and Green Gas at room temperature. Very impressive and ideal for skirmishing.

The gun is actually pretty accurate too. This surprised me after seeing the fixed sights and HOP-UP, but the BBs go where you want them to go and make this perfectly good for skirmishing.

The gun fires reliably. I have put more than 500 shots through mine to date and have not had one single jam or misfire.

A complete fill of Green Gas to the magazine will last approximately 2 full magazines worth of BBs before it runs out, so there is no worry about the gas not lasting long enough for all the BBs.

Conclusions

Well, I didn't really want one of these, I love guns with big recoil which this one doesn't have, and none of my holsters fit this pistol.

Anyone would think I am going to slate it, but I'm not.

I actually quite like this gun. It is a perfect example of an ideal skirmish gun. It is robust, reliable, fairly accurate, low recoil, full metal, has an integrated rail and it's cheap. It's never going to be my favorite, but then my favorite cost me twice as much, so I can't really complain.

I wouldn't recommend this gun to people who want absolute perfection and are willing to pay, but it does make an excellent gun for Airsoft skirmishers.

I give it a 7 out of 10.

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cazboab

The Arbiter of Conversation

Registered: September 2004
Location: Linwood
Posts: 4,038

Review Date: 16/9/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �89.99 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	inexpenside, can use TM parts
Cons:	grey. not a propper m9

Background/waffle:
HFC, if you didnt know, are one of several companys who due to the vaguerys of taiwanese law, are able to unashamedly rip off Marui Designs.

The question is, is cloneing the TM m9 in metal a bad thing?

First impressions:
APC driver has departed,(no really thats the name of the courior service Airsoft Armoury chose to send my order with)I rip into the plastic wrapers. The first thing I notice is how heavy the M190 box is compared to the larger Marui Socom box that was also in the order. The second thing I realise is how cheezy describeing this a the review will be.
Well after the Pang of guilt at cheese to come, I pop open the box, wich its self is a rather simple looking Plastic case, nothing like the one the Socom is in, but then it was a bit cheaper, and its better than a Cardboard box. Removeing the pistol from the case, I notice it has a "parkerised"(grey) finish, and the "grip me to cock the gun" ribs at the front and back of the slide, both of wich I'm not a huge fan of, but Im willing to put up with them for now. The trademarks are a bit give with one hand take with the other, on the one hand, theres a nice little spiders web on the grips, on the other the slide proclaims "AIR MODEL FIREARMS, READ INSTRUCTION BEFORE USE" and "M190 Spesial Force, Cal.6mm 2003" Well I want to shoot people with it not show them the trademarks so no real issues there. the closest thing to an HFC marking is a rather cheeky (R) on the trigger gaurd.

Performance:
The first time I gas up the mag Im quite worried by the lack of any hissing or spurting, dispite haveing read about this on the forums just days before, theres just a "squit" noise when the can, nozzle goes in and a "sqiush" noise when it comes out. After loading up the BBs, I lock the slide back and put my saftey specs on and slide the mag in, ease the slide forward, throw a cardboard box at the wall, and pepper my coregated foe with white plastic death. The kick is nice and meaty(on mine at least), the slide whacks forward makeing a "ching" sound like only a large lump of metal can, and at the 10 foot distance provided by my room, the grouping is an inch wide splodge, fireing Rapidly makes the magazine very unpleasent to handle, however, dispite aparently massive cool-down the slide locks back on sending the 26th round into Senior DeBoxo, really one load off bbs per gasing will do me for this, but for completness, I put more bbs in the mag and send the at DeBoxo. again the slide locks on the last round.

Upgrade potential:
well, the Marui beretta will exchange almost every part with this, and in future, perhaps I may try to put the adjustable hop unit in, and/or a tightbore barrel. The Marui Magazines will, I'm told operate flawlessly in the M190, however, the gas fill valve on the HFC would seem to wast less gas in operation. For Lamps, Lasers and Moscarts, theres the 20mm rail, not dissimilar from the ubiquitous Glock rail.
Polish the slide? well a small tester, in at the underside of the slide looks silver, and not that far under the finish, so if bling is your thing then your in business.

Whats Stopping a 10?: the grey and the ridges at the front are slightly off-putting, everything else is either spot on or unimportant to me.

Summery: this ones a keeper and will get some silvering on the slide, possibly with its name (Deus) in the space above the rail and a suppressor adaptor and an M16a2 flash hider, and then (assuming the Violent Crime Reduction bill doesent throw a massive spanner in the works)Im going buy either a twin or a full auto counterpart for the other hand(Diablo).

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newbowner

Registered: November 2005
Location: Norwich,Norfolk
Posts: 103

Review Date: 4/1/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �95.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Full metal, full/semi auto fire, nice ingraving on left of slide.
Cons:	Bad ingravings on right of slide, plastic grip(not too bad)

I bought this gun from airsoftmart and delivery was very quick i ordered it on monday night got it wednesday morning.

The semi auto fire is great it makes a cool ka-chink noise during blow-back and cocking. Slide locks back nicely and the slide can be taken off in about 5 seconds. Mag holds aprox 25-27 bbs easily. Some people say kick is weak but its strong enough, i reakon that the stronger the kick the more damage to the gun is done during blow-back(i may be wrong).

Mag needs to be loaded somewhere just under the middle of the mag not at the top. This is fine but the spring can not be locked down so you must hold it with one hand.

Comes in an ok box but the box feels a little flimsy but it is fine and holds the gun well. Should be enough room for the gun and about 3-4 mags in it.

Very powerful and of ok accuracy with a tight grouping. I would guess a distance of 2-3 inches at about 10metres(i am rubbish at guessing distances)

All in all a very nice solid gun and is probably a good skirmish pistol.

SuperObi

Registered: January 2007
Location: SJM
Posts: 3

Review Date: 19/1/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Full Metal,Very Durable, Heavy, Cheap, Good Performance
Cons:	Fake Markings,Fixed Hop-Up/Sights(Not that bad because the sights are very well alligned and the gun has an good acc.)

Not much to add to the above reviews just want to say that this gun its an Great Gun for the Price(and it comes with an transport box)its also ideal for skirmishes due to his good perfomance and robust construction, great for beginners too and the only con for collectors its because the gun has fake markings(Still the gun looks good). By the way the mag is a lot better(Not Just a clone its actually more functional) than the Marui m9 mag.

Here is a Pic:

Mike_West

辣手神探

Registered: May 2006
Location: Middle Eastern Europe
Posts: 2,473

Review Date: 10/5/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	heavy, accurate, reliable
Cons:	dodgy trademarks, fixed hop-up

Well, what can I say? I swapped my not-so-reliable HFC Ingram for a decent sidearm and then was forced to give it an eight-hour skirmish run.
Results? Outstanding. The gun did not vent once, even while doing stunts straight from John Woo (read - M190 in one hand, borrowed KJ Beretta in the other, 40 BBs blown away at a cardboard box ten feet away). Jams? Two, on some real bad quality BBs that got stuck between slide and outer barrel (sorry, blew/gave away all of them, can't replicate it now). Fixed hop-up? I'll start complaining when I switch from .20g BBs. Dodgy trademarks? Not an issue for me, although I'd prefer blank slide.
So, if you're looking for a workhorse of a handgun, get this thing. Inexpensive, reliable and pleasantly heavy.

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Fluorecent_Angel

Registered: June 2006
Location: V�ster�s
Posts: 1

Review Date: 5/7/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Metall, included gun case, problem free (reliable), cheap.
Cons:	Markings, grips, no white paint on sights.

My tips for fixing some of the listed weakpoints:

Grips: RS grips aren't all that expensive and I am sure can be made to fit ( Ex: Hogue Wraparound Rubber Grips with Finger Grooves Beretta 92FS ca 22�)

Sights: The metall is quite easy to engrave yourself using anything sharp and sturdy.
Then simply fill with white paint (visit my gallery for pictures of my self-engraved low-light sights).