G34 - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

Smith5

Registered: April 2006
Location: Not from Camelot; it is a silly place.
Posts: 349

Review Date: 30/9/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �115.00 | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Nice finish to gun, metal slide feels better than plastic equivalent
Cons:	Read on...

Having decided to buy my next GBB pistol, I decided on getting a Glock. I had a vague idea of what I wanted (a G17 of G32) but after a bit of research and looking I came across the G34. Initially I thought it was pretty ugly, and it�s nowhere near as nice looking as a G17, but its looks grew on me. I went down to Airsoft Armoury and after a hold of the G17 and G34 and some fantastic customer service (as always) later, I walked out with a KSC G34.

Appearance

Compared to other GBB�s i've owned, the gun comes in a rather basic, toy looking box so if you base your views on a gun from its box, you will be disappointed. I do not however and I�m not buying cardboard boxes at the end of the day. On opening the box you get the G34 with mag inserted, a bag of bb�s, a loading tool, the hop adjustment tool and the instruction book. The instruction book is actually a G17 book, but the G34 is essentially just a longer barrelled G17. The polystyrene is sealed with a plastic wrapper so even if the lid of the packaging is removed, nothing can get into the actual gun and parts.

On picking up the gun it initially seems that all the lube went onto the outside of this gun as it has a very greasy feel to it. After a good wipe down of the guns exterior with a clean cloth the gun looks much nicer and feels nicer to hold. The finish on the ABS part of the gun is glossy whilst the metal slide is a very nicely uniform black finish. This glossy finish may not be to every ones liking, but I prefer my handguns to have a slight gloss to them, as I prefer the brand new look to the used and battered look.

The slide is finished nicely with no scratches or imperfections that I can see, and there is only a slight mould line around the ABS part of the gun, nothing that you will see unless looking very closely.

This gun has Glock trades on the left (as you hold the gun) side of the slide followed by 34 AUSTRIA 9X19. On the right of the slide is a smaller Glock logo as well as some serial numbering. On the grip are some patent numbers and made in Austria. On the underside of the front of the gun is a metal plate with another serial number that matches those on the slide. There are no Glock trades on the grip or the base of the magazine, but there is a Glock logo on the back of the mag, as well as fake round indicators. Also, I cannot find any KSC or other associated markings anywhere on the guns exterior. This pistol may be lacking in 100% of the real steel markings, but at least it doesn�t have the writing on it that betrays it true identity as a toy.

Holding the gun

The G17 I held had a plastic slide and this G34 has a metal slide and outer barrel, and you can tell the difference. The metal slided G34 feels so much nicer and more realistic to hold than the plastic gun, and somehow I feel that my other plastic slided guns just won�t feel as good to handle any more. Without the mag inserted, the gun is top and front heavy, and relies on the magazine being present to help balance it out. Even so you can still feel the weight of the slide making the gun top heavy and ever so slightly front heavy.

The G34 feels similar to hold as an M1911A1 and is of comparable size too. If this Glock performs as well as my TM 1911 I will be very impressed with it. The sights consist of a white dot at the front and a white U at the rear. Initially I didn�t like them but after a bit of use you get used to them. Due to the G34 being a �tactical practical� pistol, the rear sight is adjustable via 2 small screws on the left of the rear sight.

On the outside of the gun, the only controls present are the mag release, slide locking catch and the slide release levers. There is no external hammer present and overall the Glock (all Glocks, not just this one really) have a very simple clean appearance to them.

To remove the slide, simply remove the mag, pull down the release catches and slide the slide back to cock the gun then straight off the front of the gun!(yes this simple action baffled me, I swear that�s not how the graphics in the book show it) Reverse operation to re-attach slide. I found that inside the gun was very dry so I put a quick quirt of silicone spray along the slide runs and moving parts just to make sure it�s nice and lubed up.

I must say that looking at what�s inside this pistol; it is very basic compared to the other GBBs I own. I can only assume this is good, less parts, less things to break! Fantastic considering how I basically tried to rip the slide off!

Shooting

This magazine has to be one of the best designed I have seen. On the base of the magazine is a plate that must be slid forward to gas the mag. This simply slides forward and is designed to stop dirt and other nastiness getting into the valve. It took me about 6 seconds to fill the mag with 134a gas firstly.

Filling the mag is also very easy. You pull the follower down and it locks down, leaving you to very easily pour bb�s into the top of the mag. A tool is provided to help you do this, it looks like a small scoop attached to a pistol mag adaptor that you place on top of the mag and just pour the bb�s down it. I put 23 bb�s into the mag, as putting 24 stops the follower fully re-entering the slide in the mag and I ended up dry firing 5 or 6 shots before I realised the BB�s weren�t coming out. 23 bb�s it is from now on.

After loading the magazine into the gun, pull the slide back and you�re ready to go. Racking a metal slide just feels better than a plastic one. I set up a target about 20 feet away (this seems to be the distance most people base their accuracy rating on), lined up the sights and fired the first shot.

I put a mag that I warmed in my hand for a bit first (cold night out) through the gun just using 134a gas an 0.2g bb just to check everything was as it should be, not going for accuracy or anything like that. The gun works fine. Many people describe the way a metal slide feels as �clanky�. I never understood this, but now I do. It really is different firing a metal slided gun to a plastic slided one. It really does sound different to a plastic slide, in a good way. I like the way it goes �clank� when you release the slide from the locked back position.

The trigger pull is very light, and this is how I like it. My personal opinion is that a heavy trigger pull is not necessary on bb firing guns but that has nothing to do with the review� Initially with the 134a gas, the blowback was sluggish, but I was expecting this. However that was not my main concern, during firing even on a cool evening using 134a, the front sight had managed to fall off due to the recoil. Luckily I found it at my feet and, with a bit of filling using resin based putty and some superglue later I had reattached the sight. It appears to me that the sight had been glued on using weak glue straight onto the paint of the slide, not the metal of the slide, thus preventing a strong bond between the two forming. Its now on there rock solid but a bit wonky now, but not enough to affect aiming.

This gun so far has just been a different experience to what i'm used to and I could not work out if it was good or not. But after it literally shook itself to bits, it really is going to have to perform outstandingly when I fire it using ultra gas and be ultra accurate, or its going right back to the shop. So far I�m not happy with this gun.

Day two, second time lucky. After finishing off emptying the mag with 134a and 0.2g bb�s, I filled the mag with ultra gas this time and 0.36g bb�s and went about setting the hop up and zeroing the adjustable rear sight. The hop is adjusted by turning a dial at the rear of the barrel using a tool provided. I personally find it very fiddly and hard to adjust accurately quickly.

This time I used a target approximately 20 feet away. Initially the first few shots were left and down of the aim point, but after adjusting the rear sight it helped put the shots where I was aiming (more or less). I was firing in 5 round groupings in single shots taken quite slowly. My two best groupings were from about 25 feet away. In both groupings I managed: 3 shots within 1 inch, 4 within 1.5 inches and one shot fell wide for some reason to give a final grouping of 3.5 inches if you include all 5 shots.

Using ultra gas really made a difference. You could tell the FPS had increased and the blowback was much crisper and harder. Again, the metal slide just makes firing this GBB a different experience, I still can�t decide if that�s in a good way or not though.

Gas economy is good and if you are firing slowly I managed almost 5 full mags out of one fill, with only the last 2 or 3 shots showing any noticeable drop in power. The best I have seen so far. Also, after some handling, the oily glossy sheen has been removed from almost all areas of the guns exterior and im now left with a very nice new and clean looking G34, much better!

I did have one problem that happened about 50% of the time. I was filling the mag with 5 bb�s at a time, for 5 shot groupings, and half the time the slide would lock back with still one bb left in the mag. It did this for about half of the times I came to a last shot, and I cannot work out why this intermittent problem was occurring.

Summary

This Glock will go perfectly with my Aug, in the fact that there�s something I love about them, but I don�t know what it is. Its plain clean lines are unique in my pistol collection and its metal slide makes it a unique firing experience for me. But the little things like the front sight falling off and the gap between slide and body I think will be a constant niggly point for me with this gun. I�m sure with time ill come to fully love this gun, but for now it hasn�t impressed me enough to be able to recommend it to anyone else to buy. I don�t know what KSC were doing when they made this pistol, but it is not up to the standard that I expect from them.

I hope it manages to bring me round to the idea of liking it practically by performing well in game, because even though it met my expectations for accuracy, which is why I wanted it, it fails on looks (gap between slide an body), reliability (not firing last shot in mag) and build quality (front sight fell off) and for now I feel I have wasted my money.

APRES SKIRMISH REVIEW

I got to use this a lot at the last game and it performed well. It was as accurate as my 1911 but lacked the 1911s range. It was comfortable to be holding for a long time (used it as my primary for a bit) and was very easy to clean all the dirt off at the end of the day. I found it lived up to my expectations that I had set for it after a dissapointing performance in my garden.

Therefor I think its worth 7/10, but the ratly slide (which id like to put down to the fact that its a metal slide on a plastic body causing it, but it really does feel looser than any other so yes it does bug me), stiff lock for the mag base plate and that fact that I kept checking to see if the front sight was still attached every 5 mintes, means 7 is the best this gun wull ever get. And unless you really want this particular gun, it is not the best pistol out there or that I own and Im sure that a plastic G17 with metal slide and barrel aftermarket parts would be a better option (all be it maybe more expensive)