SIGArms GSR Limited Edition - ArniesAirsoft

Author

FlyHawaii

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 4

Review Date: 9/9/06

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: �190.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Good Ergonomic Build, High quality finish and trademarks, Accurate and Hard-hitting.
Cons:	Near Impossible gas filling, bad gas economy.

Firstly, I have not recommended this gun for the obvious reasons that Western Arms are generally harder to maintain than other guns, and do have a tendancy to be tempremental.

Onto the review. I'll have to applaud on behalf of Airsoft Scotland for getting this to me by Saturday, when i ordered it on a Friday Night. Insane.

Immediate impressions of the gun we're mainly on the finish. I'd heard of the GSR/LE's slide material being very close to metal, and it really is. Somehow Western Arms managed to get plastic cold to the touch. The overall finish of the pistol is incredibly high, with your usual deep cut trademarks and absolute absense of mould lines that comes with the Western Arms price tag.

Unlike the Infinities, the frame is not metal. Personally i don't find this a massive deal, as the pistol is still a good weight without it. Western Arms themselves quote the weight as 790g. Which is a nice weight, though noticably lighter than my Mk23.

The gun is, as with all 1911's, pleasingly slender. The GSR tends to reek "target pistol" from it. Marked Novak style sights, Real Steel Heretts Grips and a Match-esque style trigger make the gun very nice to hold. The presence of metal parts up front help balance the pistol out, and as a result, it is very easy to manipulate. Typically, the slide release is a bit too far forward, but turning the gun to the left in the hand will make it easily accessable.

Now, before i bought the GSR, i did a little market research. There is another review on here of the standard GSR being of poor quality in the fit department. I'm not entirely sure if the standard version isn't made with as much love as the Limited Edition, but My GSRs fit and finish was highly acceptable.

One point mentioned was the slide. The slide barely moves on its rails. Probably way less than 0.2mm. Its really on there. Im surprised it cycles. The slide racking action is life-affirmingly smooth, with plenty of ejector clicks and the such on the way. It has a very solid feel with good return.

The magazines DO rattle a small amount i will admit. But this is easily solved. On every gas blowback ive had (apart from my USP Compact) the magazines have never fitted snugly.

On my Mk23, i have used a strip of 10x0.5mm sticky backed neoprene foam to pad out the magazine. Smooth, non rattly changes ever since. I tried to apply the same solution to the GSR, but there wasnt enough slack to allow the foam to fit. So it was back to the old school. A reel of Staples Crystal-Clear tape provided a good material for sticking inside the magwell. I cut a good long strip of the tape inhalf, and into Inchhalf long strips. I basically "padded out" the inside of the magwell with the tape, and now the mags seem welded to the inside of the gun. Mag changes are still swift with no sticking or need to pull them out, so i don't think i could mark down the GSR on such an easily solved rattle.

All the actions on this gun are straight forward and well pronounced. The hammer is hard hitting without any "hammer bounce", safetys are tight and are definately either on or off.

The gun field strips in the average 1911 way, so i won't go into that.

The GSR features said "granite series rail". However, the "granite" part does not have anything to do with the 20mm rail's material. Its merely based on where the gun was designed (or something like that).

Unfortunately, the rail is indeed ABS. Tight fitting 20mm accessories using metal mounts will mark the rail. I tried my King Arms laser on it, and it left a little mark on the insides of the rail. I didnt think it was really worth putting the laser on there anyway, as it didnt really fit.

An M3 illuminator with its plastic mount will be much more GSR-Friendly, and reading up on the real steel info, the GSR was only really intended to take tactical illuminators anyway. Some of the smaller glock style lasers will probably fit though.

As for the Herretts Grips, they are quite outstanding. Pretty damn vivid in colour, and held on by silver allen bolts on each side. They look the part, and contrast well with the guns two-tone stylings. Another plus is they are, so i'm told, Genuine wood.

Now comes the fun.

Western Arms might be able to design a gun very well. But as for magazines, they appear to fall flat on their ass. (The Magna valves are a nice feature though)

I'm not entirely sure if in Japan, filling nozzles are a good inch and a half long, because thats what you'll need to fill these 1911 magazines. The plastic seat of the magazine is, as always.. way too thick to allow a normal gas nozzle to even touch the gas filler valve. This is a bit of a major problem. There are adaptors that will lengthen the filler nozzle on most cans, but getting one is a mission.

I attempted to fashion a filler nozzle extension out of another nozzle from an empty gas can. Safe to say, it didnt really work. Well it kind of does.. but its just awkward. Airsoft Scotland sell the nozzle extensions, but typically..they're sold out. Its possible I could spend a half hour on the instrument lathe to turn one out of a small piece of bronze rod.

Not every end-user has an instrument lathe though. It would have been nice to see an extension in the box.

Alas, My only option to test the gun was to remove the baseplate. which is always a bad idea of Western Arms magazines. Unlike, for example, a USP compact magazine, Western Arms always use the baseplate to hold the entire spring and follower.

The fun ive had when i've dropped an Infinity double-stack magazine and the entire BB follower and spring has shot out, never to be seen again. Thankfully the 1911 magazine baseplates are held on by two screws. Rather than clipping on. I wouldn't suggest dropping them though. Not at �35 a piece.

Taking it off is a very careful inside-a-bag procedure, as western arms have added all sorts of little tiny springs and levers to the BB follower. (In this case, its the slide-lock trip lever that has a tendancy to fly out and be lost forever)

With the baseplate removed, i had decent access to the gas valve. I've chosen to use Abbey Ultra gas in the GSR, Which is probably a bit risky. But im sure it can take it. Its a bit colder outside now after all.

The magazines fill disturbingly quickly from an average can of Abbey Ultra, which leads me to the next point.

The GSR, using Ultra..can't empty a mag.

For some reason, you'll fill it to the typical "Holy cow, its pissing liquid gas on me. Its full" standard, and it won't have enough gas to get rid of all 23 shots. It will manage around 15 - 17 before running out. Almost forcing you to use the pistol with its real steel capacity. Wether this is because of using Ultra, i don't know. I'll try again with a can of standard 134a later. I'm not really bothered about this, as realism is always good. Its just a bit of a bother just incase i wanted to use the magazines to full capacity.

As a side note, the GSR does not come with a load tool like the Infinity series does. However, the infinity loader will work on the 1911 magazines, convenient if you own one.

I was relucatant on buying another Western Arms. I've had an Infinity 6" before this gun, and it has NEVER worked properly. The hop up just refuses to operate. Thankfully, the GSR no longer has the stupid little grub screw device that the Infinity 6" has.

Instead.. it has.. nothing.

The GSR utilises an apparent fixed hopup. It works very well with decent rounds. However, 0.20g shots will happily fly into the earths outer orbit, and 0.36s will fly dead straight, but lack range.

I'm thinking Western Arms set the Hopup for the 0.22 - 0.30g range of bb's. Being a non standard choice of rounds, i suppose shooting the GSR could rapidly become expensive (especially if using Tokyo Marui Superior Grade, 500 rounds for �10)

The gun is not without its flaws. However, I ignored this for the simple fact that its a Western Arms gun, and they never just work. They always tend to have one drawback.

Awkwardly gassed and loaded with expensive Straight 0.36g sniper rounds, I filled a redbull can with water and set off to my "range". (a mere 10 meters or so.)

On ultra, the GSR (as with most Western Arms guns) kicks like a horse. It makes a substantial difference to target shooting, as aim compensation is often needed.

Needless to say, the 0.36g round flew towards its target with determined prowess.

The redbull can (filled with 250ml of water i might add) was blown clear of its post. It sustained a clean bullet hole in the mid area of the can. I was mainly JUST aiming for the can, the fact i hit it was good enough for me. The GSR is fitted with a 6.03mm tight bore barrel, so it should be substantially accurate. The fact the GSR blew a heavy waterfilled can a fair way from its standing point was a good sign that this gun had substantial power for a gas blowback.

Using the poor mans chrono, the GSR will happily decimate both sides of an Empty Red Bull Can. It comes to almost reaching a break-through on the bottom of the can. I'll estimate that its shooting around 300fps. Ish.

Accurate and generally powerful. A good mixture. As for its terminal range, I am unsure. It accurately shoots the 10 meters my pitiful range provides me, and taking into account its tight bore barrel, it should shoot double that with the correct rounds.

The GSR Limited Edition isn't an average gas blowback. Well, in truth. Western Arms aren't your average gas blowbacks.

It will probably perform superbly in the field, but actually taking it into the field will be a choice the owner would have to make.

Its good accuracy and apparent buckets of power allows it to easily hold its own as a sidearm, but its requirement of fairly heavy rounds coupled with its bitch of a magazine means that it really is a gun you'd not want to be loading in-game.

If its daft magazine problems didnt exist (filling and gas economy), it would probably be quite almost flawless. However, as i've said, in my experience Western Arms have always tended to have annoying little problems about them. Wether its a completely NON-user friendly hop-up system like the Infinity's, or just the flawed magazine design.

I cannot shun Western Arms though. The price might be high, but as with most things, you get what you pay for. The lack of metal frame on the GSR may put some people off. However, my opinion is that over time.. metal frames just look worse and worse as the finish degrades. Its a case of "each to their own" i think.

On terms of 1-10, 1 being the lowest etc etc:

Build Quality, Fit and Finish - 8
(Looks outstanding, Minimal rattles)

Handling, Balance and Ergonomics - 9
(Just feels right, A testament to the 1911 design)

Operation and Action - 8
(All clean and positive, Firing is just great)

Ease Of Use - 4
(You just CAN'T fill those mags without an adaptor or removing the baseplate.)

Value for Money - 6
(Merely opinion i'd say. It is Limited Edition after all.)