G17 - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

Shao14

Misopethamenos

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 306,044

Review Date: 14/10/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �83.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Simple, reliable, powerful, accurate, inexpensive
Cons:	front sight is poorly designed

Introduction:

By now, everybody who is remotely interested in handguns knows the name "Glock". Despite the skepticism about the Glock family when it was first introduced, the Glocks has fast becoming the favorite among law enforcement agents worldwide for its reliability and practicality, and it was even called by some the greatest handgun made in the last century. It all started with the 17.

This review is for the KSC G17, which holds up an analogous reputation in the airsoft community as the real steel does in the real steel community. This was also the first GBB I ever invested in, and got me instantly hooked on GBBs, and I have since spent more than a thousand bucks on other GBBs and accessories, but most of them fell short compare to the KSC G17.

A simple attempt at a clarification between KWA and KSC:

A lot of people are confused by relationship between KWA and KSC. As far as I know from various sources, KWA guns and KSC guns are both manufactured in the same factory somewhere in Taiwan, but after manufacturing, KSC guns are wrapped in a different box and shipped back to Japan for sale. Some of the KSC guns gets exported from Japan, after all the taxes and middleman, they usually cost more than KWA guns. There are also some KSC guns that never actually go to Japan in spite of the being in a KSC box, and they are about the same price as a KWA gun, and sometimes, retailers will call those "Taiwan Version KSC" guns.

Because of Japanese laws, KSC stock guns are never metal, but KWA guns are often sold with metal upgrades, with or without trademark depending on the export country's regulations, for instance, the KWA guns exported to the US do not have trademarks, but the ones exported to the UK do. KSC guns, on the other hand, always has authentic trademarks when copyright laws allow.

External:

Right, let's get back to the review of the KSC G17. I bought mine from an ebay company called Ehobby Asian (not to be confused with Hobby Asia which is a un-related company) more than a year ago, and metal slide and metal recoil spring guide were pre-installed. I do not know if they upgrade the recoil spring or the mag valves, but since they didn't specify those, I assume they didn't.

The frame is made of plastic resembling the polymer composite used in real Glocks. The finish on the frame is gloss black, and looks quite nice to me. I have never held a real Glock, but I don't think it can look better than this. Trademarks on the frame are all faithfully replicated (rumor has that KSC can no longer produce their Glocks with any trademarks, which is a shame). On the left of the grip, there's the nice Glock logo, and on the right, it says "MADE IN AUSTRIA GLOCK, INC., SMYRNA, GA." and "US. Pat. 4.539.889 4.825.744 4.893.546". I did not bother to verify the patent numbers.
<img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/g17left.jpg" alt="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/g17left.jpg" class="bb-image" />
<img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/g17right.jpg" alt="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao14/g17right.jpg" class="bb-image" />

The grip angle on the Glock in general is different from that of other handguns, and there's not much scientific evidence of which is "better". It just needs a bit getting used to if one switch from a Glock to say a 1911, or vice versa.

The metal slide came with the gun looks all right. It has a nice black finish, but the trademarks, though correct, were very thin (in some of the pictures, I carved the Glock logo on the slide a bit deeper with a pocket knife). On top of the slide, the sights are plastic but nicely painted with white dot on the front, and a "U" shaped mark on the rear. The front sight is slightly crooked and a bit low. The low profile makes it a bit hard to line up the sights.

The trigger guard is not too small like the 1911's, or too large like the Mk23's. The front of the trigger guard is curved outward as off-hand index figure rest when no tac light is mounted. Behind the trigger guard on both sides of the frame, there is an small dent for thumb rest. In front of the trigger guard under the barrel, there's standard 20mm rail that readily accepts an M3 tac light. Inside the trigger guard, there's the trigger of course, and the signature trigger safety assembly. More on the trigger safety below.

The magazine is metal with a plastic cover at the base. I think this is one of the best ideas KSC came up. The base cover keeps the inlet gas valve covered normally, and keeps it out of dirt. On the back of the magazine, there's fake round indicator and a Glock logo. Unfortunately, there's no Glock logo on the base plate (I was told by the retailer that earlier productions did).

More closely:

The Glocks, 17 especially, were designed as a practical combat handgun, and it faithfully followed the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. There are only the mag release button and the slide release lever on the frame, and no other safety/decocking levers, nor is there an external hammer. The real Glock has a firing pin safety in addition of the trigger safety, but the airsoft version has only the trigger safety, which prevents the trigger being pulled back if one does not place the trigger finger properly on the trigger and accidentally discharge. When one holds the gun properly and place the trigger finger on the trigger, the trigger safety is moved out of the way un-noticeably, and do not interfere with shooting.

I like the Glock grips, and I find I can grip the G17 more securely than other handguns, but since GBB doesn't have the recoil of real steels, this is not too important.

Another neat thing about KSC Glocks' magazine is that the BB follower can be locked down at the button to allow BBs be poured in from the top. This makes the BB feeding easier. The follower lock down and the base plate should really be implemented in every GBB, but sadly, they are not. The BBs are held in double staggered formation, and the normal mag holds 23 BBs.

Performance:

Ok, the real Glock was designed as a performer, not a display piece after all. I loaded and gased the G17 mag with green gas. To gas the mag, I need to slide off the base plate first, and then turn the mag upside down to gas it. It took about 4 seconds before gas start hissing out from the side of the valve, and I know the mag is full of gas.

The KSC G17 has adjustable hop up, and can be accessed with a dial tool from the ejection port when the slide is locked back, no dissembling is needed. I turned the hop up roughly half way, and chambered a round. Lined up with a target I set up 15 feet away, and squeezed off the first round. I was impressed. Even though it was my first GBB experience, I hadn't expected too much, but the blowback action was quick and relatively strong. The BB went straight on target. I shot off the whole mag in double and single taps, the slide locked back after the last round left barrel, and a grin lasted on my face for more than a day.

The gas efficiency for the mag is also above average, at a pace speed, I can shoot 3 mags of BBs with just one charge on green gas. With 134a gas, it lasts more, but the heavy slide becomes sluggish with the lower pressure gas, and half of time, it has trouble locking back on the last round. I didn't get the metal slide to shoot 134a gas, so I didn't care.

The power was also excellent. On green gas at room temperature, the .2g BB clears both sides of a normal US coke can at close range everytime.

Outdoors, with hop up set properly, the range and accuracy are both very good. In doors, a grouping of about 3 inches can be easily achieved at 30 feet.

Disassembly:

The take down of the G17 can't be any easier. Take out the mag, and pull down the little take down lever on top of the trigger guard, and the slide slides right off. From there, taking out the barrel, recoil spring guide are a breeze. With a screwdriver, the blowback chamber can be taken off easily too. Front sight can be pushed off from under the slide, and the rear sight can be slide out from the side.

What do you do after you take off all the above from the slide? You polish the slide to be like Will Smith of course. <img src="http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/reviewpost/images/tounge_smile.gif" alt="Nah!" /> Took me a couple days and a couple sheets of sandpaper, I've got the gun you see in most of the pictures here.

Conclusion:

The KSC G17 is a very good beginner's GBB. It's simple, reliable, powerful, and accurate. The sights could be better, but there's really no other faults I can find for it. In over a year of play, I have had no misfeed or jam, or any other problems with it. It has become the benchmark I measure any other GBBs with.

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