P226 FMV - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

spuddeh

Who gave this twat a gun?

Registered: December 2004
Location: England, Norfolk
Posts: 719

Review Date: 3/8/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �100.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Full metal, working decocker, very heavy
Cons:	magazine occainsonly leaks, very heavy (might be a con for some people)

Well i ordered my P226 from zeroone airsoft, and recieved it two days later! Smile

so far so good.
i open the box and lift the gun out of its bubble-wrapped prision, only to discover how heavy it is! i currently own a KWA glock 17, and its like a packet of crisps compared to the P226.

but unfotunately i didnt have any gas to test it out with! 2 days later i pop down to hoopers to buy some american eagle gas, get home, fill mag with bbs, gas it up, pop mag in gun, rack the slide and BANG.
whoa! this gun is very loud, which comes down to the metal slide. the whole gun except the grip, is metal. My one has the full trademarks " Sig Sauer P226 Stainless" engraved into the slide, and below that "sigarms inc exeter-NH-USA.

i havent skirmished it yet so i dont know the fps, but im going to a game this sunday so i will update when i can Smile

one problem, however, with my sig, is thatever since about two days ago, it has simply stopped firing properly, by which i mean its not chambering the pellets, ergo, no shooting Sad

im going to ask about this on the forums.

overall, a very good gun and i think it was worth the �100, so grab one today!

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I like metulz \m/
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renegadecow

is brony

Registered: August 2006
Posts: 3,984

Review Date: 30/10/06

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	cheap price for not all too cheap quality
Cons:	needs some pre-working on before shoots perfectly

Introduction:
I�ve recently been scouting for a new primary pistol to replace my old (but not beaten) KJ P14. The highest candidate in my list was the KSC USP .45 simply due to its unique good looks and good reviews from foreign boards. But I wasn�t all too prepared to shell out the considerably large amount of cash for the USP especially since it was in my full intention to upgrade almost immediately to a metal slide and barrel kit. Still reluctant on the buy (I was actually preparing my money already) I came upon a deal for a GBB that I just couldn�t pass on. Up for grabs was the KJW P226, a direct copy of Tokyo Maruis own P226 except in a full metal format, that and it carried a price tag of but a third of the Japanese made gun. I was skeptical at first remembering the proverbial �you get what you pay for�, but since I�m not really paying for much, lemon or no I must get this gun. Now, on to the review:

Can you say Metal?

I will forego going through the replicas history in real steel as you can easily do the same using google. The item was delivered to my doorstep thanks to sir Patw1ck and even came with free bbs. When he had handed me the plastic bag containing the gun and ammo, I instinctively thought that he had placed steel bbs in my bag by mistake. A quick look in the bag and all I found were white .20g ammo. All the heft I was feeling belonged to the gun. Opening the box and holding the gun in hand, the pistol feels as if though it were made of lead. None of the other KJW all metal guns weighed as much as this one. I put the slide and frame under close scrutiny only to find that it is indeed made of an aluminum alloy and not �pot metal�. I also observed that the surface of the gun was very clean of pocks and marks commonly found on KJW full metal guns due to their crude casting methods. Although the version I had purchased was one without trades, the absolutely immaculate surface of the weapon left me at awe. I came across a rumor in foreign threads saying that part of KJs upgrade in quality was to have G&G manufacture their metal slides and frames. Although I cannot confirm this rumor, The G&G website actually has the KJW P226 in their shopping list which should be indicative in some way of supporting the rumor.

Audio

But the quality of the gun does not only hold around its surface. I prepared the gun for battery using green gas (the gun should not be used with gasses with greater pressure than green gas lest it malfunctions) and .20g ammo. The first few shots continued to ring in my ear even after firing. The gun is indeed loud, but most characteristic of its sound is a very high pitched metallic clink. My old P14 delivered something like your regular .45 going �pom-pom� whilst this 9mm cracked with a loud �pak�. Not a loud �prak� as with the M9, but a single, solid �PAK�. The sound would be much more appreciated by seasoned pistoleros. The recoil was strong with moderate muzzle flip, but not as strong as a WA .45 would using green gas, but, none the less, strong enough to impress.

Problems:

The first problem I encountered was when I fired the last round of the magazine. Sure the slide was held in the open position as expected but what was unexpected was that the piston itself was also stuck in the expanded position. I had to push the piston back forcefully and thought that my troubles were only due to breaking-in the gun. I was wrong. The same thing happened again and again and even sometimes, putting the entire gun at a halt, preventing the gun to cycle again due to the stuck piston. I opened the gun up and found that some scratch marks had developed on top of the piston, part#12. Checking the metal chamber it sat in I found the edges of part#3 to be very sharp and jagged so much so that they scratched up the piston. I remedied this by simply smoothening out the said area using sandpaper of different grits and then finally applying liberal amounts of ceramic grease. You can use silicon grease too, it�s just that I like this particular lubricant. Reassembling the gun and checking again for rough spots, I went and lubricated the hammer to sear engagement as it was a little gritty. The lube removed all traces of grit. True enough, filling her up with green and test firing proved that I had solved the problem on my gun. Another problem that I found was that one of the plastic grip panels was warped by about 1mm. Using a lighter to correct this warp proved to be efficient enough.

Moving on to the performance:

All problems fixed, the gun holds a maximum capacity of 24+1 rounds. You can actually fill 25 rounds directly into the magazine, but as the lips are made of plastic, I wouldn�t stress them using a full load. Double action trigger pull is very long and stiff owing to the fact that this weapon does not have any external safety. Engaging single action mode gives a very light trigger pull, around 5lbs, but with a creep of about 1cm. This large movement of the trigger before firing was a disappointment to me, but all it takes is some getting used to. At best, double taps can still be achieved. The de-cocker works like a charm. Stores on the net give a warning that gas may discharge when using the de-cock function, but to my experience, none have happened as such. The grips are very slim and will fit into pretty much any size of hand. The grip tang is also well curved so that the full surface of the thumb web will carry most of the weight and recoil. However, the gun rides a little too high for my taste, similar to how the USP and Mk23 have much higher situated barrels than more common pistols. The gun comes with fixed three-dot sights so whatever error your gun might have can only be compensated by the shooter. My gun, however, shoots straight with velocities between 320-340fps on the soda can test (sometimes punctures both sides of can). I can hit a consistent torso-sized target about 20m away. You can also use heavier ammunition too as the hop-up is of a variable type, requiring that the slide be removed in order to be adjusted. The gun will shoot about 2 magazines before it runs out of gas. Do take note that this is not because the gun is a gas hog, it�s just that KJ does not replicate the mechanism installed by TM to ensure proper gas filling every time. That being said, the KJ magazines hold less gas than those of TM. Also, as a side note, TM magazines will not fit inside a KJ P226 as the mag-well of the Taiwanese gun is slimmer. However, you can use KJ magazines on your TM P226.

Conclusion:

I can give the gun top marks due to its performance and ease of purchase, but the fact remains that the gun, if left in its un-modified condition would have soon self destructed. The P226 is a great improvement in the KJ lineup but the internals do still need some work in order to work without fear of breakage. I would recommend this gun to newbies too if not for the need to have some experience with minor gun repair to begin with. If you have absolutely no faith in your own skills in �pre-repairing� a GBB, I highly suggest getting the TM P226 instead as it performs flawlessly out of the box. To all interested in purchasing this pistol, you will not be disappointed given that you work out the problems of the gun first.

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

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/renegadecow/saasbh.jpg

Corkbulb

Registered: April 2007
Location: Long Island, New York
Posts: 298

Review Date: 10/4/07

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: �54.26 | Rating: 6

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Full metal, heavy weight, powerful, accurate, loud, gas efficient
Cons:	Mags get cold real quick, hop-up problems, somewhat poorly assembled, bad design - mine broke

Hello to all airsofters. I am writing this review on the Kuan Ju Works P226 full metal. I write reviews for two reasons, to warn people about bad, defective, poor designed, poor performing, unreliable and simply no good airsoft products. The second reason is to inform people about good, well built, accurate, durable and reliable products that I would recommend. I will write my reviews as a story from the day I got the gun, and will not base my review on any others. I hope somebody is searching for reviews on Google or Yahoo about the Kuan Ju P226 and finds this. I hope that this reveiw answers all their questions about this gun and sets their mind on weather or not they want to buy it. This gun I DO NOT recommend for a few reasons. I did not have this gun long enough to give a long term review. I shall start my review:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

I ordered my KJ P226 from www.pyramydair.com (which are great folks, their stuff is very cheap and they offer free FedEx ground shipping on ALL orders over $150! They are in Ohio, so if you are in the USA, order your next airsoft gun and acessories from them! Great service too!) I ordered it with a spare magazine along with a KJW M9 and a mag for that too (actually, my dad bought the M9 and mag) Anyway, I put the order in on March 20, 2007 and it came 3 days later on March 23! So, I picked up the brown box from Pyarmyd Air and said, "wow, this is HEAVY!" I opened it and took out a plain white box, which is actually the KJ P226 series box turned inside-out (I guess for shipping purposes? Guns on boxes at FedEx can't be good) It was my KJ P226. (and yes, the KJW M9 was there, in an inside-out box too, but I'll discuss that gun in another review) The gun is VERY heavy, but not as heavy as some other reviews I have read seem to say. It weighs close to 3 pounds with the mag. The gun is indeed full metal. The slide, frame, hammer, trigger, barrel, magazine and all funtion levers are metal. Inside the box was a pack of BBs (didn't count, think it was 200) and the manual, and the gun with the mag inserted, that was it, no loader.

FUNCTION

I took the gun and racked the slide, the hammer locked back and the trigger retracted. The P226 has a very heavy, uneven trigger pull, even retracted. When fired, SMACK! The hammer hits hard on the firing pin. The decocker is a bit loose, located in front of the handle behind the trigger guard. When pulled all the way down, KA CLINKA is the sound made when the hammer decocks and trigger resets to forward. The P226 has no normal safety, but pushing in the disassembly lever on the right side will lock the trigger. The decocker works as a safety because it takes a full triger pull to fire. The mag catch is a button and is located where it should be, behind the bottom of the trigger guard on the handle, just like any other pistol. The fuctional slide lock is a bit akward to use because of its shape and location directly above the center of the handle, but I got used to it. The slide locks back with a solid CLINK each time and a high pitched CHICK is the sound made when the slide is released. Cool sounds for a cool looking pistol! The sights are similar to a Glock, white dots on the front and rear sights make easy target alignment. The gun is very comfortable to hold and aim with one or two hands. The only thing that "I" don't like about it is the hard, uneven trigger pull and the lack of a real safety.

TEAR DOWN

To field strip the pistol, first, take out the mag, then rack the slide and then rotate the latch above the trigger on the left side of the frame down 90 degrees and pull the slide off the gun. ALL of the internals are metal, except for the piston, which is usually plastic on most GBBs anyway. The hop-up dial is located on the bottom of the chamber on the barrel. The hop-up has some serious flaws, read PROBLEMS below. To take out the barrel and recoil guide, just push in and pull out the spring rod and do the same to the barrel.

THE MAGAZINE

The mag is slightly longer than a M9 mag and the same width. The mag is full metal, except for the mag lip that holds in the BBs. It has a rubber gasket on the fill valve to prevent spills. The lip is plastic and the spring is VERY strong, a bit too strong and is another serious flaw. I would not recommend pulling the spring down and letting go, for the mag lip would most likely break. A normal AEG BB loader with the pistol mag adapter fills the double stack mags wonderfully, so there is no need to pull the spring down to load. The BB pusher on the spring as badly designed and the BBs are jammed quite tight in the mag, this causes the spring to jam. See PROBLEMS below for more on this. The mags charge for about 5 seconds. I've heard rumors that KJ mags leak, this did not happen to me, but I didn't have the gun long enough to confirm. I can see why ANY mag would leak over time. See GUN CARE below. The gun does indeed hold 24 rounds, you can cram 25, but I load 23. If you place a BB in the chamber and then insert a 25 round mag, the spring is at full compression and cannot push down anymore. If the gun is fired in this state, the piston cannot push down the mag spring and the piston will jam the slide partially open, which is REALLY BAD for the piston, so only load with 25 and then CYCLE the first round in the chamber, or just load up with 23 rounds, like me

GUN CARE

Airsoft guns are toys, but just like real guns, in order to work properly, they need to be maintained. Tear down your airsoft guns and spray silicone oil, which can be purchased at any hardware store, on the slide rails, outer barrel, trigger assembly, hammer assembly, recoil guide and on and inside the piston. It will not hurt the rubber and plastic parts. WD-40 is nasty stuff and melts rubber and plastic within hours, so DO NOT use it. I would recommend only silicone based lubricants and I'm too afraid to try anything else. The mags need to be maintained too. NEVER press the gas release valve on the mags to discharge the gas. If done, the gas will discharge all at once, releasing all of its energy at once, get VERY cold and could freeze the O-rings and they could crack. Its OK to do it once or twice, but never do it on purpose. Just shoot the gun until it's out of gas. The mags must be lubed too. If not, the rubber O-rings will dry out from exposure to the air, silicone will protect from that. Empty the mag and spray some silicone on the fill valve and let it seep in. Press the gas release valve in and spray some silicone in the top where the gas comes out and let it seep in. I would recommend that the spring chamber on the mag is lubed too, to prevent BB jams. Also, before storing the mag, leave a little gas in the mag, just a tap, not even enough for one cycle. This keeps pressure on the O-rings to keep them sealed and in place. DO NOT leave more than enough gas for more than 2 cycles, otherwise the O-rings will be squished and could deform from the constant heavy pressure. Just a little pressure is good, not alot. Most people say that a dry barrel is most accurate, but with me, silicone down the barrel gives me noticably better accuracy and slightly more power, so - your choice to lube the inner barrel or not. To lube the barrel, just soak a couple of BBs in silicone and fire them, it lubes the hop-up unit to. The barrel must also be cleaned periodicly. Take a small piece of cotton and soak it in silicone, then with a rod (I use a wooden skewer, try not to use anything metal or it may scratch the barrel) tightly jam it down the barrel but stop before it gets pushed into the hop-up rubber. Then push it out the other way. Repeat this with a dry piece of cotton and your done. If the cotton is coated in black gook, then thats good because that gook is on the cotton and no longer in your barrel! If there is a cloud of silicone surrounding your gun and blasting out your barrel when you fire, then your good! It will only last for about 15 shots, so don't worry. The silicone will even out. You will need to re-lube your guns every 200-300 shots, sometimes more often. The mags should be lubed every time they are filled and discharged about 3 times. And try not to drop you guns or mags! One drop may do your guns or mags in, so carry them with care.

PERFORMANCE

Your probably thinking "Oh finally!" Well here it is, my shooting experience with my KJ P226. I first filled the mags with HFC134 gas and TSD Sports .12g BBs, to break the gun in. I then lubed the gun and loaded up. As I said, the gun is comfortable to hold and aim. I used 6 inch targets with a BB catcher. I did not touch the hop-up dial, it was off from the factory anyway. I shoot my guns in my gutted living room (it won't be a target range forever) My living room is 24 feet across. I have the target in one corner ontop of a box which is ontop of a garbage can, about 4 feet off the ground. I stand in the opposite diagonal corner for maximum distance. From where I stand to the target is 22 feet. Pulling the trigger (with a cloud of silicone) POP was the sound made, and the BB hit down to the left. Continued fire was actually quite accurate with HFC134 gas and .12g BBs, I was impressed. What was even more impressing was that the slide locked back. I reloaded and fired some more. The shots were hitting center but about 2/3 inch to the left, but corrected itself as I fired more to be more center. I got 100 shots before my mag was out of HFC134 gas. With 134 gas and .12g BBs with no hop, I got 1 1/2 inch groupings at 22 feet! I then took my second mag and loaded it with HFC134 gas and SYSTEMA .2g BBs. Those BBs jammed my P226 with double feeds and plunked BBs. WARNING: Systema .2g BBs jam everything from my spring gun, to my 3 GBBs to my AEG, BUY SYSTEMA GEARBOXES, NOT SYSTEMA BBs!!! Anyway, I switched to KSC .2g BBs (which are wonderful) and the jamming stopped. With 134 gas, the KJW P226 does not have enough power to propel .2g BBs very far and it was firing quite low. While firing .2g BBs I encountered my first problem with the gun. The mags were starting to jam. The mag spring design is poor and the BBs are sloppily cramed in the mag, so the spring will jam. Just smack the gun and the jam will clear. I then noticed my next problem with the hop-up, which has serious flaws. See PROBLEMS below to read on the hop-up. I then loaded up some green gas (propane with silicone, also known as TOP gas or HFC22, just so there is no confusion) and some more KSC .2g BBs. When I was done with 134 gas, I fired about 200 shots. I loaded the gun with the new mag and prepared to fire. POCK! the gun had a VERY loud sound and blasted air in my face, a trait not found in any other GBB I have fired. Also, the gun kicked decently but not too hard, and the slide cycle was almost instant. The gun was shooting low-center of the target. After adjusting the hop-up and firing, I acheived 1 1/2 inch groupings at 22 feet. Not bad! About the same with 134 gas and .12g BBs. The BBs were evenly scattered throughout the black inner rings, not many hit the bullseye, several made contact with the 9 ring, and there was no clear consistent shot hole. after empting the mag, the slide locked back with a heavy CHLICK! I fired another mag and the shots were getting less accurate and a bit low. I then realized what the problem was. again, see PROBLEMS below. I fired several more mags and the gas efficientcy was about 60 shots per full charge of green gas. With properly tuned in hop-up, I was able to get a clear 1 inch hole at the center of the target at 22 feet, which I consider to be normal GBB accuracy. The gun is easy to rapid fire due to the fast cycle time and relatively low recoil. The mags get quite cold after about the 20th shot on slow semi-fire, and get cold even quicker if you rapid fire. The P226's power is greatly reduced when the mags are cold, and accuracy is lost. The slide will not lock back on a cold or low gas charge, you also lose alot of gas efficentcy when the mags are cold, but that is normal for ALL GBBs. With a cold mag, the gas efficency is cut in half, about 35 shots of rapid- fire cold mag. I had to stop to warm up the mags by huffing on them and rubbing them periodicly. They get cold quick and stay cold for awhile. I do not view cold mags a problem, but it does reduce the guns overall performance and rating. I don't have a chrono, but the gun shot consistently through both sides of a soda can at 1 foot. So I guess circa 310 FPS. All was good, I was getting 1 inch groupings with the hop on right at 22 feet. I tried some G&P .25g BBs, which were the most accurate, but I was losing alot of power and need ALOT more hop, almost full turned on. I kept my shooting up with more .2g BBs and green gas. about 2 hours later and 500 shots, my gun's life was over...

PROBLEMS

Your probably thinking "What are these problems he's been talking about throught this review?" Well here's a list:

1) The guns trigger and hammer assembly is poorly assembled. The trigger looks like it would break if pulled too hard, and the hammer feels like it is about to fall apart any shot. I would not want to drop this gun. It does not feel as solid as some of my other GBBs. This might not be a problem, as long as it lasts, but I cannot confirm just how durable the trigger-hammer assembly is because I didn't have this gun long enough.

2) The mags do suck, BBs jam quite often, about 1 jam per 2 mags of BBs, using high quality BBs seems to stop the jamming with the mags, but there are no real high quality .12g BBs. The spring is also WAY too tight, the mag spring contibuted to my gun breaking. The mags also get cold very quickly, but that is due to the guns high power and full metal construction. Cold mags greatly reduce the overall performance of the gun.

3) The BBs are held in by the hop-up bucking, there is no rubber chamber. If the hop-up is completely off, the BBs just roll out the barrel on each cycle which is REALLY annoying. So you need to have the hop on enough to hold in the BBs.

4) The hop-up resets. This is by far THE most annoying problem with ANY airsoft gun. You finely tune in the hop, it's PERFECT. Then you fire and a couple shots later, it's off again! The hop-up with .2g BBs need about 1/3 of a turn on the wheel to get accurate fire, 24 shots later and it's completely off. Then the BBs start to roll out the barrel. UHG!! I hate that! There are no screws to tighten and the hop-up is not broken. You can fix this quite easily by putting on some hop and then putting some modeling clay on the front of the wheel, this worked for me, it stopped the wheel from turning and the hop-up stayed in place for another 100 rounds until...

5) The gun died after 500 shots. I was shooting and the gun jammed on me with KSC .2g BBs and green gas. I racked the slide and it jammed when I let go of the slide. It jammed each time I racked the slide and cleared the BB. I couldn't figure out what was happening. The BBs were getting stuck on the loading ramp to the chamber and the slide would get stuck on them and stay open and would not fire. One BB at a time the gun would fire, but would not cycle and reload a BB. I field stripped the gun and a small, black piece of plasic fell out. I looked at it and knew immediately what it was. I stared at it in horror. The rod that is connected to the bottom of the piston that pushes the BBs in the chamber broke off. It is extremely thin and long. On my other GBBs, the rod is shorter and many times thicker. The mag spring is too tight and the little plastic rod has to fight the tough spring in order to get a BB out of the mag. It finally gave and my gun will not cycle. I called Pyramyd Air and they sent me a pre-paid FedEx shipping label and told me that all guns have a 30 day warrenty and gave me a full refund. I did not want another Kuan Ju P226 because of the bad design, fearing it would break again. If you MUST have this gun then I recommend filling the mags with 25 BBs and leaving them for several days to weaken the mag springs, and to use only high quality KSC or Tokyo Marui BBs. I no longer have this gun, and did not fire enough rounds to give a long term review, but I will use the refund to buy another gun and write another review!

CONCLUSION

I gave this gun an 6 out of 10 because of its nice feel, full metal design, heavy weight, power, accuracy, loudness and gas efficiency. It lost 4 points because its poor design: the sucky mags, which jam and get to cold too quickly, the hop-up problems and the poorly designed piston loading rod, which is much too thin and slender to last long. The reason I do not recommend this gun is because of the fact that mine broke, but it was no defect or something that I did, it was a bad design. The hop-up is poorly designed, it resets after several shots, not like after 1,000, another reason I don't recommend this gun. Otherwise, this gun is GREAT. If mine didn't break, I would have given it a 9, mainly because the other problems mentioned are fixable. I would have loved to have kept this gun, and I wish KJW designed the hop-up and piston better. Anyway, I suppose it was fun while it lasted, and besides, I got my money back, so I got a day to shoot a new GBB and gain more airsoft experience for free, but it is quite sad, I really wanted this gun, I like P226s and saved up to buy it for about a month. I placed it down on my desk and sat down, staring at it for an hour in sadness before contacting Pyramyd Air for a refund. If you are a collector of firearm replicas, this gun is perfect for you, but if you are a die-hard airsofter or backyard plinker, do not buy this gun, it is poorly designed and assembled with several flaws. This is my first review. I have spent 3 hours writing it. I will write many more on my other guns. I hope the information in this review is useful to someone shopping for thier next gas blowback airsoft gun!