HK SOCOM Mk23 HGHU - ArniesAirsoft

Author

Shao14

Misopethamenos

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 306,044

Review Date: 23/5/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �25.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	nice finish with trademarks, solid, powerful for springer, accurate
Cons:	light, long and hard slide pull.

Introduction

The Heckler & Koch Mk23 was developed for the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) for an "offensive" handgun. It is arguably one of the most rigourously tested pistols, and is officially adopted by the US Navy SEALs. The SOCOM is further popularized by movies such as Tears of the Sun and video games such as Metal Gear Solid. This is a review of the Tokyo Marui's High Grade Hop Up version of the HK Mk23 springer. In the rest of this article, I shall use SOCOM or Mk23 to refer to the TM springer unless otherwise explicitly specified.

External

The SOCOM comes in the usual TM packaging for its HGHU springers. Note that TM makes several versions of the same gun, and HGHU is the highest quality one with fixed hop up calibrated for 0.25g BBs. I don't know if TM officially acknowledges this, but the SOCOM, along with the Colt 1911A1 and the S&W PC356, is widely accepted as the third generation of TM springers. These springers are characterized by top notch finish, field-strippable, longer and harder slide pull which results in higher muzzle energy and better accuracy.

The SOCOM has a very nice matte black finish though the plastic is slightly shiny. There is, however, no seams on top of the slide as opposed to some of the older TM springers. The sights are high and easy to line up. The trademarks are deeply engraved, but there's no colored paint for either the sights or the safety. There's a metal serial number plate on the under side of the gun. The Mk23 is one of the largest semi auto pistols out there, but the TM replica is very light, especially noticeable for its size. The gun does feel quite balanced and solid, and there's hardly any creaks anywhere.

The safety/decocker is fake and molded on. The slide catch/release lever can not lock back the slide, but serves as a safety lever when the gun is cocked (not true for the real steel). The slide catch is also the take down lever as in the real steel. The ejection port is open when the slide is pulled back, and make it easier to clear jams, not that the Mk23 jams at all unless one uses poor quality BBs.

The trigger has both SA and DA position, and cocking the hammer moves the trigger from SA to DA. Hammer can be cocked either by pulling the hammer itself, or by racking the slide. This is a springer, which means one has to rack the slide everytime he or she actually wants to shoot something out. After one racks the slide all the way, there's no way to decock the gun but to shoot it.

Performance

The full size magazine holds 25 BBs, and is loaded from the top by pushing the BBs in one by one either by hand or with a speed loader. The slide pull is long and hard, but anyone who's over 18 shouldn't have much trouble with it unless he/she is really out of shape, in which case, he/she probably isn't interested in any sport at all. The hard slide pull really shows in the performance. The SOCOM is one of the hardest shooting springers I have handled (and I have handled a lot of springers). I don't have a chronograph, but just by shooting cans and paper targets, the SOCOM is around 200 fps with .2g BBs, noticeably harder than UHC knock offs. It is also fairly accurate especially with .25g BBs.

Field stripping the SOCOM is pretty standard. Hold the slide back for about an inch, and push the take down lever (slide catch/release lever) out, and slide the barrel/slide assembly forward and out.

Conclusion

All in all, the TM HGHU SOCOM is a very nice piece. Excellent finish, powerful (for springers) and accurate. It'd be better if TM puts some weight into it. It requires a large hand to handle.

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shomclone

Registered: February 2005
Location: Britain
Posts: 200

Review Date: 20/7/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �15.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Weight, Power, Accuracy, looks (not to everyones taste but I like it)
Cons:	Does feel pretty plasticy but great for a springer

I bought my SOCOM off the forums from a guy called Yams (cheers dude, it rocks) and he was good enough to put some .25's in the box with it so I could get going styraight off, trust me, you need .25's as the hop up is fairly aggressive and over-cooks any other weight, .12's go vertical after about 10 metres.

Accuracy, Power etc.
Accuracy is excellent, one and a half inch groupings at about 8 metres are easily acheivable and at that range it'll punch a hole in corrugated card (thats about as close as I can get to giving a muzzle velocity, no chrono)

A quick word of warning, when field stripping it for the first time, don't pull on the slide with the barrel facing you, especialy whilst looking down the barrel... It's ok, I told everyone I'd been in a fight...