S&W M500 - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

Prometheus

Registered: January 2005
Location: Alabama, USA
Posts: 1,970

Review Date: 9/9/05

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Accurate, Heavy, Gas efficient, realistic, and fun to shoot
Cons:	Mostely ABS Plastic

I recently recieve the Tanaka M500 revolver in the mail from my good friend Guges_mk3.

This is a GREAT gun for its price. I would say this is a very skirmishable weapon. With a barrel length of 8 3/8", it is deadly accurate up to approx. 130 feet. Most AEGs are only accurate upto 100-110 feet stock.

This gun is really great because it has the refined PEGASUS system from Tanaka. This system is so effective that I can get upto 45 shots off without having to reload the GAS. Tanaka has very much refined the system from eariler models such as the M629 and M29. Eariler guns with the PEGASUS system were leaky and unreliable, but the refined system in the M500 is wonderful. There are no leaks and I find the reliability of gas useage at around 95-98%. Every tenth shot or so you get a round that may only go 90-100 feet instead of the standard 120-130 feet.

The M500 feels great in your hand versus some other guns such as the glock and 1911 series. You may be thinking that this gun is so big that it would be unwieldy, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This gun falls comfortably in you hand and is very stable when firing.

This gun is a revolver, and thus a NBB (Non blow back). This simply means that there is no recoil from the gun when you fire. Most gas guns are GBB (Gas Blow Back) and use much of their gas to pushing the slide back when you shoot. Since the revolver doesn't have a slide, it can push more gas behind the BBs.

My testings:

FPS:
HFC134a = ~375-385 FPS
Green Gas = ~430-450 FPS

It should be noted that if you live in countries such as Britain this gun is above the limit set by law.

Spread:

~ 3 inches at 50ft.

This means that you can hit a man sized target at over 100 feet. All the way up to 130 if you are good.

Hope this helps you decide to get this great gun. My only qualms with this weapon is its price, set at ~$169, and the body is made of ABS plastic. High impact, but I think Metal is always better.

Great gun for the money!

~Prometheus

Ghost_Rider

Reaper Man

Registered: February 2005
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 5,248

Review Date: 27/11/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Incredilby accurate, long range, intimidating
Cons:	Front site has a tendancy to become dislodged, low ammo capacity

To fill in a little background, I have been buying up a bunch of guns recently - forsaking other forms of entertainment in order to purchase all the guns I want before the VCR death knell sounds.
Having got a stock SMG, an upgraded 'sniper' rifle, an assault rifle, a grenade launcher, and a whole ton of pistols (including a mac 11) I pretty much had everything I wanted. Barring winning the lottery and getting the 3P minigun, my collection was complete.

Except for a skirmishable revolver.

Having sought the advice of a few revolver owning friends, the advice was always the same - Get a Tanaka.

I started looking through WGC, and I was tempted by several pistols, but the one that caught my eye was the S&W 500. After fondling one of these hand cannons at airsoft scotland a month or so back, I remembered thinking just how grinworthy it was.

One quick trip to GunsAndGuys and a flurry of e-mails later, and the revolver is winging its way to me.
(Side note here:- Peter Chan at gunsandguys was incredibly helpful, honest, and generally on the ball thoughout the sale. Two thumbs up for customer service. Plus I don't know many other HK retailers that can have a gun ON YOUR DOORSTEP within two working days of ordering it.)

OK, So I feverishly unwrap the box. Christ, I'd forgotten just how big this gun actually is. 8 inches of barrell and a large cast frame make this a true cannon of a revolver. Hardcore actually giggled when she saw it - it WILL lead to smutty comments about wether the owner is compensating for anything. Fortunately I'm comfortable enough in that department to not be concerned with such matters. wink.gif

Gas it, load it, fire it. Hmm. The range seems awfully short. OH NOES! To the manual. Figure out how to adjust hop up. This makes all the difference - I've never seen bb's increase in range like this before, but tuning the hop on the 500 almost triples the range of the pistol. I know it outranges my m4, so even without a chrono I have no reason to doubt claims that the pistol outputs 400FPS on green.

Upon using it for play, it becomes immeditaley apparent there is another use to the pistol aside from intimidation - it's a NAIL DRIVER. If you need to make an aimed and accurate shot - say at the head of some kid hiding behind two barrels that ducks back before you can acquire target with a rifle - this is the gun to go for. It's incredibly accurate at both short and long range.

One niggle for me would be due to the way the front site is removed it's easy to catch it on the bottom of my holster on the way out and have it 'ping' off somewhere. Fortunately this first happened in the safe zone, and I have secured it with a thin strip of electrical tape. A bit of superglue would fix this issue permanently, and I may still do that.

The *major* fault I would find with it is the small ammo capacity - 11 rounds. This makes for a specialised skirmish piece, in my mind - it's not something to go for as a first pistol, or only sidearm. The is the gun you pull out just before a last stand, or to storm a room with pyro and agression - it's a scary thing to have pointed at you.

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clmwrx

Vrrrrmmmmmm pssshhh

Registered: April 2005
Posts: 2,837

Review Date: 5/1/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �199.99 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	accuracy,feel,power, and size
Cons:	RELOADING,reloading, and size

I recieved this gun as a christmas present from my father. Upon arrivial I had no gas at all.... So I was still amazed by the feel of the houge grip and astounded by the enourmous size. Also the metal on the gun is amazing! The silver finish on the barrel is amazing! It feels like the metal on the receiver and cylinder.

So even before shooting it I was mighty happy with my choice.

A few days later I got some green gas. I loaded the cylinder which seemed to take quite a while!. Which over all is a great thing as the gas lasted for over 100 shots!.

I will rate this gun on a number system of 1 to 5.

Feel: 5/5 ( it is so comfortable)
Power:5/5 ( it is amazing for a stock gun on greengas!
effeciency: 5/5 ( cmon over a 100 shots on one fill!)
Size: 3/5( it is as much of a pro as a con.)
range/accuracy: 4.5/5 (the hop up isnt the easiest to set.)

over all I think it deserves a 4/5

Sorry for a not so good review but this is my first review, and I am just adding to the aforementioned statements.

renegadecow

is brony

Registered: August 2006
Posts: 3,985

Review Date: 20/12/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �160.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	It's humongous!
Cons:	Too big, but only if you don't like 'em that way.

I'll skip the intro and get right to facts. The only reason why I gave the gun an 8 is because I was a bit iffy on a few things as they came out of the box. But primarily, its because I got the no-frills black, 8" version as I wanted to actually use the revolver in skirmishes. Had I gotten the stainless or the midnight blue version, I'd likely give it a 9 but only because these versions are more susceptible to scratching.

The first thing I noticed after the dream state of opening the box had ended was that there was some body flex on the revolver. Specifically, the frame panel was a bit loose so if held sideways, the barrel and cylinder would sag by about 0.5mm. This was remedied by simply tightening the screws on the panel (theres also one under the Sorbothane stock). I was stupid enough though to try and tighten the upper most screw, nearest the hammer and only winded up scratching it a bit. After consulting with the manual, this screw does not come off and is molded with the plate so take heed.

I sometimes get light strikes as I use green gas on it. It only happens when I leave the gun alone for awhile, but to solve this problem completely, you can just tighten the hammer leaf spring a bit. You can also loosen it to lower its fps. To adjust tension (not stated in manual), you first have to remove the rubber stock. This reveals the grip frame and on it is a screw that adjusts the leaf spring under tension.

The manual also says to load 11 rounds, but to my experience, the reserve can hold an extra 2 bbs, making the max capacity 13. But I usually load 10 rounds anyway so as to count the rounds easier. A single gas fill of green gas lasts for a little over 50 rounds: highly efficient.

Out of the box, SA trigger pull was roughly 5lbs and DA at 13lbs. I also noticed some grittiness so I decided to open it up and lube it with ceramic grease. The lubricant used on the trigger assembly as from the factory was only light silicon oil; can easily dry up when in storage so use something heavier. All grit disappeared and both SA and DA actions were lightened by roughly 1.5lbs.

On paper, my best grouping is 2.0" at 10m. At 30m away, I can hit a 12" circle 100% of the time. The adjustable hop-up is a little tricky in making it work properly so a bit of patience is required. But once you've got it right, effective range goes well beyond 50m.

I'd hardly recommend this piece to a newbie for the follwing reasons:
Too big. Too powerful. Most newbies I encounter can't even use a secondary weapon let alone use a revolver as primary.

But if you're a seasoned player who can do more than count the number of shots close to the number of kills, you'd easily find this piece an unfair advantage. As of late, the Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum is my best friend.

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You wanna die with a man's gun. Not a little sissy gun like that.

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