MK23 SOCOM - ArniesAirsoft

Author

shotgun_ned

Registered: July 2005
Location: Warwickshire UK
Posts: 7

Review Date: 30/8/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �105.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Power/accuracy. Silent with suppressor. Comes with carry case, LAM and suppressor.
Cons:	Plasticy feel. The LAM is useless. Nasty TM trademarks.

Tokyo Marui mk23 SOCOM Non Blowback

Some Real Steel History

This handgun was developed under request from US SOCOM (Special Operations Command) and entered the competition with Colt for OHWS - Offensive Handgun Weapon System - first offensive handgun for US Military since the adoption of the Colt M1911 Govt. The request was issued in mid-1991, and the only other major competitor to H&K was the Colt company with its SOCOM pistol. By the 1993 H&K delivered first prototypes of its contestant, and eventually HK SOCOM pistol became the Mk.23 model 0 pistol, issued by US Special Operations command to its operators. The Mk.23 mod.0 is chambered for venerable .45ACP cartridge, which provides greater stopping power than a NATO-standard 9mm Luger cartridges. Mk.23 mod.0 is designed to safely and reliable fire most powerful .45ACP +P ammunition, either with ball (FMJ) or expansive (JHP) bullets. Mk.23 mod.0 is usually issued with quick-detachable silencers, made in USA by Knight's Armaments Co, and with laser pointing module, which installs on the underbarrel rails. First production Mk.23 model 0 pistols were delivered to users in 1996.

In general, the Mk.23 mod.0 is an extremely reliable and quite powerful combat pistol, the only drawback being a somewhat excessive size and weight, so, in some cases, operators prefer to carry smaller and lighter HK USP Tactical pistols, which share most features of Mk.23 mod.0.

Heckler-Koch also produced a civilian version of the Mk.23 mod.0 pistol, designated as Mark 23, which is sold with 10-rounds magazines, to comply with US laws.

The Mk.23 mod.0 is a short recoil operated, locked breech semiautomatic pistol. The barrel locks to the slide using one single lug, which fits to the ejection port in the slide. The patented dual recoil springs arrangement allows for decreased felt recoil and increased service life of pistol. Frame of the gun is made from high-strength polymer. The double action trigger system features a separate decocker lever, an ambidextrous safety, which allows for "cocked and locked" carry, and a slide stop. Enlarged triggerguard allows for comfortable shooting when wearing gloves. Ambidextrous magazine release lever is located in the base of the triggerguard, and should be depressed down to release magazine. Both front and rear sights are equipped with luminous dots, and mounted in dovetail grooves.

(Copied/stolen from world.guns.ru)

Some more in depth history can be found here.

First Impressions

I'd had my eye on one of these for a while as I wanted a weapon which was quiet and accurate, so I decided to pick one up from Airsoft Armoury when I went to get my M4 upgraded.

Whats in the box? Or in this case hard carry case, which a nice touch as I don't think I could get this in my rifle bag with everything else. Anyway, inside there is the pistol, replica LAM unit, a SOCOM silencer, the magazine and then the usual TM junk.

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/box.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/box1.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/box2.jpg

Extra spare mag shown there, the gun only comes with the one.

So I pulled out the gun to see what it felt like. I'll be honest here and say it does feel a bit plasticy. It doesn't feel anywhere near as bad as a springer, but it doesn't feel as solid as the P226 or Glocks either. Its also worth bearing in mind that its huge. Especially with the silencer on.

The trademarks are engraved nice and deeply which always looks nice, though the ugly TM trade marks strike again unfortunatly.

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/markings5.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/markings2.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/markings4.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/markings3.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/markings1.jpg

Features

This gun, as has been said, comes with a replica LAM (Light Amplification Module), silencer all packaged in a hard carrycase. I'll start with the LAM.

It really is little more than a toy. Its made of pretty poor plastic and has a single LED for the torch and a little red diode to represent the laser. However, it does complete the look and it is also possible to wedge a proper torch and laser in there, which I may attempt at some point. The led torch isn't entirely useless though as it does provide some degree of lighting, just nowhere near the amount provided by my tac light.

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/lam1.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/lam2.jpg

(Slightly brighter than it actually is, due to me setting the shutter speed too low)

Next up is the silencer. Unlike the LAM, this actually does what its supposed to. With the silencer off, the gun report is a fairly loud, sharp crack. With it on, its a much quieter "thwump" (best I can describe it). The only downside is it almost doubles the length of the gun. One thing to note as well, the threaded outer barrel is metal. As far as I'm aware, the threaded outer barrel on the KSC version is plastic, thus making it a lot easier to cross thread the silencer. Theres not really much I can say about the carry case...

The hopup is of similer design to the one found on the P226. Its pretty good, but a pain to get to :P.

Performance

This gun performs brilliantly.

The accuracy is pretty amazing. This is helped by the decent hop unit and the fact that its a non blowback, so theres no recoil to affect your aim. It doesn't quite have the same range as the P226, but its not far off.

I didn't have it chrono'd properly when I was the skirmish last Saturday, but it must be 280+ in normal conditions. I think it'll be pushing 330 on a warm day on ultra gas.

Conclusions

I like this gun, not much more I can say. I bought another thigh holster so I can carry it as well as the P226, and it came in useful last weekend. I killed 3 people with it within 10 secs Wink

. Anyway...

Pros

- Powerful
- Accurate
- Silent with the suppressor on
- Comes with the handy case and LAM
- Its a hand cannon

Cons

- TM trade marks (again)
- Plasticy feel
- Said LAM is pretty useless
- Its a hand cannon

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/socom.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/socom1.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/socom2.jpg

http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/socom/comparison.jpg

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http://www.shotgun-ned.34sp.com/glocksig.jpg

Ghost_Rider

Reaper Man

Registered: February 2005
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 5,248

Review Date: 30/8/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �105.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Silent, accurate, deadly
Cons:	Holsters hard to come by

Yes, it's your movie related gun nut again!

Blame 'Tears of the Sun' on this one. I was going through a non bearded phase and had the bright idea of doing a 'Bruce Willis' loadout. Get myself some US Woodland, a SOCOM and a tricked out M4 and I'm set.

The loadout never got completed, but I still have my SOCOM. It usually lives on my right thigh, below the glock on my hip.

Bear in mind that the SOCOM is not the best choice for a primary sidearm. My Mk23 is nicknamed the 'Sniping Pistol Of Doom' for a reason. The sheer size of the Mk23 and the need to screw on the silencer for best effect mean it's a premeditated draw for silent shots in a covert environment. For 'oh *beep*, no more ammo' moments, I carry a pair of glocks.

Having played with the P99 (the other major 'silent NBB on the market) and the SOCOM mk23, I would wholeheartedly reccomend the Socom. The P99, whilst smaller and easier to handle, is in my experience prone to jamming. My Mk23 on the other hand, has never failed me in a crisis.

Plus, you can hammer cock the Mk23 making the trigger pull much shorter, great for sniping. You can't do this on the P99.

The p99 also is much harder to strip, and the slide cannot be racked to chamber a round.

All in all, the Mk23 stomps the P99. Smile

I would agree with the above points about the LAM being useless, but with a bit of time and effort the lamp can be upgraded to a surefire. It's something I keep meaning to do, but the only time I've ever needed a taclight has been sneaking round in the dark showerblock at LFU, at which point the dimness of the stock light has actually been an advantage, meaning I can see where I am without giving away my position.

It's a big pistol, so if you have small hands you may have issues with it. It's quite heavy, but most of the weight is in the magazine.

Some people have spoken about a 'release valve' in the mag that prevents higher pressure gasses being used, but I've run mine on green for the majority of its service life without a hitch.

8 out of 10. To get it higher, I would want to put a metal slide on it and a decent LAM unit. Overall, I would reccomend the SOCOM to anyone, but not as their primary or first pistol.

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Templar

Registered: August 2006
Location: CT USA
Posts: 9

Review Date: 24/9/06

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Accuracy, accesories, and range
Cons:	Size for some, plasticy, NBB

The Tokyo Marui Mk23 was the first gas pistol I purchased. I had used friends' gas guns, and have been impressed with their reliabilty and power. When this gun arrived from trinityairsoft to my door, I eagerly ripped through the UPS box to see what was inside. First off, the accessories you get, in general, are very nice. The silencer(I believe) is a thin metal tube with foam inserts, and cuts the noise in half when you fire the gun. The case, as well, is high quality. The color is a matte black that adds to the "covert ops" feel of the kit. The LAM, as stated, is more for looks than for function. In short ranges, it can be slightly effective, but I doubt anyone would find it truly valuable in a skirmish. The trademarks are deep and very presentable, with HK US GOVT .45 on the left side of the slide and various other markings on the grip base and magazine. Tokyo Marui's own marks are on the right side right above the grip, which I find to be very comfortable to hold. The "spikes" on the front and back make holding it very easy and the molding on the sides is very nice as well.
Performance wise, this gun lives up to its reputation. With the hop up adjusted well for .20bbs and 134a, I can reach hits at 130-140 feet, which is quite impressive. I have yet to use Green gas but I think you can add 30-40 fps and 10-15 feet to the range. I have no chrono, so I can only agree with what I have heard which is around 290 fps with 134a gas.
Overall, I highly recommend this gun to anyone who needs a reliable, accurate sidearm or a quality primary pistol, as the double stack magazine holds a decent 28 bbs.

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donthedragon

Registered: September 2006
Location: the point of no return
Posts: 457

Review Date: 15/11/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �90.00 | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	more or less silent, decent weight, economic with gas
Cons:	too large with silencer, feels plasticy, hops quite hard to get to

After having seen reviews for this pistol on a number of reputable websites, I decided to invest in one which i found for �90 on the arniesairsoft classified section.

Overall impressions were good. It was impeccably presented (as with all maruis), the box felt heavy and on opening I was greeted to a whole host of goodies.The lam unit was already attached to the pistol, so I unplugged the little red plug in the barrel and attached the silencer. As is said above, the lam unit at stock is pretty much for cosmetic use, but as you wont be able to fit it into your holster there really isnt much point.

I have to admit that the gun felt almost as light as a springer without the accessories and mag, but this didnt deter me as I loaded up the mag with 134a gas. You can rack the slide back to load a shot in, ao having done this I fired the first shot.

The performance is good, and noise with the silencer is kept to a mimimum. Having a desert eagle, a biohazard M9 and the KSC auto 9 this gun had a lot to live up to, and sadly fell short in a few areas.

The power was good, but my desert eagle has chrono'd higher, and the construction and overall feel of the gun didnt really add up to much when compared with my others. It is slightly smaller than the desert eagle, but for me doesnt have the same prescence or fear factor that the eagle does (whipping the eagle out in CQ really does raise peoples' eyebrows!)

So, it boils down to one question: would I recommend it or not?, and sadly the answer is no. The gun just doesnt feel like its worth �120; you should invest in something with a little more pazas, like the deagle or the tacmaster.

over and out....ant

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Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

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Silence you idiot. Guns are awesome

Quote:

ant.on says: What bothers me though dan....
ant.on says: Is that you had probe in brackets....
ant.on says: That signifies that you use the word probe quite commonly.
ant.on says: Which worries me
dj says: you so don't wanna know
ant.on says: I really, really don't.

ryguy0492

Registered: December 2006
Posts: 266

Review Date: 2/1/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �140.00 | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	^^
Cons:	^^

Whats more to say?

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trading a gen 4 ipod with dead battery ( new batterys are 10-15 dollars) for a cyma g18c or decent clone aeg

The Bushman

6mm HUNTER

Registered: June 2005
Location: in your shadow
Posts: 2,209

Review Date: 6/2/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �80.00 | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	accuracy, performance, range, NBB, silent with the included silencer
Cons:	sights

10 out of 10 from me...

Why?

Well looks mean nothing to me; all that counts is performance and being as small and light as possible. Lastly a gun needs to be a quiet as possible.

The MK23 achieves these needs.

I don't like GBB as it is higher wearing, involves recoil and uses up gas. The NBB MK23 is great as if it gets some dust on it, it doesn't really matter. The slide doesn't rack when firing so no problems with the dirt getting inside.

Very economical on gas and holds enough for 2 mags. They hold 28 pellets (which is damned nice) but are slow to load. The mags lack a lock back for the spring slide IMO.

You can cycle the hammer to half cock the trigger but the trigger pull is still not definite compared to many guns. But hey that is a tiny niggle.

With Green Gas I have so far had no problems and the gun achieves silly range with 0.28g G+P ammo. Over 50m easily!!!!

All I can say is if MARUI made this system into a rifle, they would be minted.

OK the desert eagle may have higher FPS. But this gun uses the same HOP as the G-SPEC and is more accurate.

It is big, but I don't use it as a backup. I use a G18C AEP as a backup. The MK23 is a primary.

The only other poor point is the sights which are non adjustable (like the G18C) but far worse as not painted in and are very chunky.

Just a shame FIRST FACTORY's scope rail is a ridiculous price or i would scope it up.

I see this as the best "SNIPER" pistol out there. In fact it could be used as a SNIPER RIFLE IMO.

Buy one.... it may not look or feel amazing... but you will when it consistantly hits opponents in games at range.

Top Buy.

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terrorist killer

Registered: April 2007
Posts: 820

Review Date: 15/5/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �55.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	cheap if you get the version without torch,silent,one of the best nbb's
Cons:	NBB,a bit plasticy

Well I had a choice of this and get a new can of gas totalling �65,or a chrome kwc revolver for �60.
I asked if I could test them out at the next walk on for accuracy,range and chrono test

mk23 with an average of about 300fps with ultra,and the revolver the same with 134,because if I used ultra It would break the seals so I went for range,Mk23 is the winner,to accuracy the mk23 again

so with a good,price good range and good accuracy this is a good NBB for that price

If you can find a holster which is big enough for it with a silencer it would be a great sidearm

Stats based on how good it is as an NBB

Accuracy:9/10

Range:7/10

power:8.5/10

overall:9.5/10

The only better gun is a metal fully automatic gas pistol for �95,cos is accurate and fully automatic but the mag size isn't great

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if you think src are bad, you're living in Q1 2007

Mystweaver

Registered: August 2006
Location: Croydon
Posts: 189

Review Date: 8/10/10

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �150.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Quiet, Cost Effective, Lightweight, easy to upgrade inner barrel & hop up.
Cons:	Large, all plastic (except barrel of course), heavy trigger pull. Stock Hop-up adjuster loose.

Dispite the cons I've written, I love this pistol. Its so quiet a with a little bit of adjusting very powerful.

Personally I have dremelled the valves to make them "high flow" and used an old VSR-10 G-Spec inner barrel (303mm) which fits with no problem at all (other than having to also dremel the outer barrel to get it through). The extention means that it comes about 1 inch from the end of the silencer but even that is enough to take the <Crack> sound out of the shot.

If you are going to get spare mags, I advise going for non TM as they appear to be of a better quality. Again though, you will have to get your dremel (or hand file) and widen the gap where you insert the bb's on the TM version as it is not quite big enough on the non-TM mags. Once thats done (with high-flow conversion if you like), you will have a reliable mag and will have saved your self about �5 per mag...

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