Metal slide/barrel Desert Eagle - ArniesAirsoft

Author

Gene

Registered: November 2004
Posts: 1,956

Review Date: 27/9/06

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Hard shooting, metal slide and barrel
Cons:	Rattle, plastic lower

www.airsplat.com

(What it says on the box)
Length: 270mm
Weight: 7080g (The weight is actually around 1-1.5kg)
Magazine capacity: 26

Brief Background

The real steel Desert Eagle is designed by Magnum Research, and made by Israel Military Industries. Aside from the Eagle�s frequent roles in films, something that makes it unique is the gas operated, rotating bolt system, which is very similar to that of a real steel M16. This gives the Desert Eagle the ability to fire very large calibres such as .44 Magnum, .357 Magnum, and the infamous .50 Action Express, calibers previously reserved for heavy-framed revolvers only. As such, the calibres used are fairly impractical for military purposes, so the Desert Eagle is generally marketed towards hunters, and private owners.

The Extras

The KWC box is nice and glossy, as expected it has the gun on the front with a few stats for it (whether they are correct is an issue of contention, more on that in a bit). Open the box and you�ll find a nice black and white English manual for the gun on top, and then the gun, 100x .2g bb�s and a speed loader. The speed loader is a basic tube-and-plunger design, the bb�s are good quality white bb�s, pretty generic really. The manual, I was very impressed with. It�s has full English and graphic instructions which are very easy to follow. I had never disassembled a Desert Eagle before, but using the instructions, it was perfectly simple. There is also a small trouble shooting section, maintenance section and safety guidelines for the gun.

Construction

The gun itself appears to be of solid construction. (One should note there are three main components to the Desert Eagle: the barrel, the slide and the frame.) Whether this is a mistranslation, or a foreshadowing of things to come, I don�t know, but the box actually says �Metal Slide and Frame�. Presumably it�s a mistranslation, because only the barrel and slide are metal (as well as other small parts). According to the manual, the barrel and slide are in fact aluminium, which is quite impressive in comparison to other metal GBB�s. The metal is obviously cast aluminium, apparent by the texture of the slide and barrel, but there are no cast lines, which is good. There are visible cast lines on the lower frame, but only a little worse than on my Tokyo Marui P226 (in stock form).
When I shake the gun itself, there is audible rattle, which come from the side-to-side movement of the slide, a small front-to-back movement of the barrel, and the magazine. The magazine is just like any other, with pretty much full metal construction.
In my hand the gun feels �ok� at best. I�m used to the curved grip of the P226, so I certainly wouldn�t use the word �ergonomic� to describe the DE�s feel in my hand. The majority of the weight comes from the top side of the gun, as opposed to coming from the magazine, like many GBB�s. Maybe I�m being a little too picky, or sensitive but the weight of the gun strikes me more of a �push� down instead of the �pull� if the weight were in the magazine. This leaves me feeling like the gun is perhaps, top heavy. A bit of food for thought.

Shooting

Before I began testing the gun properly, I put 7 magazines through it just to get used to how it operates and �feels�. The first three magazines I shot normally, with small pauses between shots to accommodate the �cool down effect�. Needless to say the gun shot flawlessly all three magazine�s worth. I was surprised by the recoil I felt from the gun. While it certainly doesn�t compare to anything real steel, it did almost make me jump a bit when I first shot it. Fortunately, I�m impervious to surprise.
The next three magazines I tested using a rapid-fire method of firing. On one fill of gas I got roughly 1 � magazines worth of shots from. Apart from the small puff of gas I saw just about every other shot, the gun functioned flawlessly.
About an hour after firing, it occurred to me there was two settings on the safety selector other than the safety itself. I checked the manual and box to find out the gun is supposed to fire fully automatic as well. Whether it was this individual gun, or the model itself, I don�t know, but the only difference I could discern between the settings was that the supposed �semi-automatic� had a bit of a harder trigger pull. Alas, for me, there was no full auto.

The next time I fired the gun was to test the FPS, so the nice folks at CrossTown Sports in Orlando let me use their chronograph free of charge. This table (http://republika.pl/niedzwiedz_zone/fps_spreadsheet.xls) shows the complete results of every shot fired, but these are the averages:
-Out of 26 shots fired, the average FPS in a 30� Centigrade environment was 327.07 FPS. The highest FPS measured was 342 FPS and the lowest was 310 FPS.
-I also measured the shots fired with the left-over gas. From the twelve shots, the highest speed measured was 318 FPS and the lowest 251, being the last shot.
I did a rapid fire test where I fired 10 shots in quick succession, and then measured the last. I did this four times and the measurements are as follows:
-299, 272, 288, 285. The average being 288.6 FPS.

Since then I have fired another 13 magazines through the gun in close succession. The gun continued to fire perfectly, with no faults whatsoever.

Inside

The internals seem fairly standard. I�ve never seen another DE in person, but from pictures, I am quite sure the KWC DE is very different at least to the TM. From pictures, it would seem that the KWC nozzle is longer. Also, it�s interesting that the springs and guides don�t catch on the slide *and* barrel like on the Marui, but the slide and the lower frame. I don�t know if this is particularly good or bad, but it at least shows to us that the KWC DE is an entirely original design.
The components seem to be normal quality. There�s no casting dots or lines that get in the way, and obviously the gun functions well so they�re not immediately at fault. From the several magazines I have put through it, there�s a bit of wear, but really it�s just the paint getting scratched. Areas where wear is visible is at the 8 o�clock, 6 o�clock and 4 o�clock positions on the barrel (where the slide has rubbed) and the �chasis� as it�s known (basically the trigger assembly block, where the springs and spring guides have rubbed).

Overall

Before receiving the KWC Desert Eagle, I had never really considered getting one. I had always been the loadout-driven type of air softer, so it never really came into my mind. But now I have it, I rather like the DE. It shoots hard, has a good construction, and it really seems perfect for those pistol-only games.

Here�s the ratings I�d give the DE:
-Aesthetics: 7/10. A metal lower frame would make it a 10.
-Construction: 8/10. The rattle from the slide and barrel is a little more than I like.
-Shooting: 9/10. There�s always room for improvement, but the DE is quite a good shoot.
-Value for money: 8/10. Airsplat tell me they will be retailing this for $119.95, which is a pretty good deal. It�s not a ten, because I think guns like the KWA G19, which have been proven over and over again and are the same price, might be a safer bet, in the long run t least.
-Overall: 8/10. There is space for improvement, but the KWC Desert Eagle really is a load of fun.

Thanks to Kent from Airsplat for providing the product, and the user Mike_West for allowing me to borrow his webspace.

To purchase the KWC Desert Eagle, go to www.airsplat.com

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*spoiler warning*

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