Colt .25 - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

ChrisNorthInGer

The screams, they sound like music.

Registered: October 2006
Location: The outskirts of Reality.
Posts: 2,017

Review Date: 10/6/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �10.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Small, cheap, powerful (for its size)
Cons:	Cheap looking, no hop up

A brief introduction:

I bought a Colt .25 springer a while before I ran into a place to buy the NBB, and I really liked the size and feel of it. I was about to place an order with PointAct, and since they had it for a reasonable price (~$20USD) I added one to my order.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture009.jpg

I've finally found some info on the Real Colt. It's not just a "Colt .25," it is in fact a "Colt M1908 Vest Pocket Hammerless." Check Wiki for a bit of info on the real 1908.

The only movie I've ever seen the Colt .25 in was Heist, where some pulls it out of a coffee thermos and holds up a guard. The guard replies "Who are you kidding with that little thing?"

The HFC Colt .25 is a "clone" of the Marushin Colt .25 NBB. Along with the Colt, Marushin made several other "Secret Agent" compact NBBs with suppressors, including a PPK and an HSC. I've seen HFC Mauser HSC NBBs, but I haven't tried them. Presumably they're Marushin copies too. For more on this check out this link.

What's included:

I have discarded the box a long while ago, and I'm not fully sure what's else what included with the gun, but the only thing worth noting is that it comes with a small plastic hollow suppressor (silencer). It is possible to convert it by pulling off the front end of it. Without doing so, it changes the sound of the gun firing from a "POP" to a hollow "THOP."

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture012-1.jpg

Look and feel:

The .25 is made mainly of plastic and is somewhat thin in places, although the gun is so small it feels pretty solid. The only exterior metal parts are the trigger and safety, which are made of a silver pot metal, some what similar to something you might find in one of those cheap dollar store kid's toys. The suppressor is made out of the same plastic as the gun.

The HFC Colt is really, really seamy. The gun is so small that I don't really think it makes it look cheap (although it sort of is), but the gun has mold marks in places that are so bad it makes the gun a bit uncomfortable to use at times. One of the most problematic spot is right under the trigger inside of the guard. The trigger is slightly elevated, so after I pull it and the trigger retracts, a bit of skin from my finger goes under the trigger, and is pinched between the rough plastic bump.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture006-1.jpg

The magazine is a stick type, holds seven rounds in a single stack formation, and feels like it would be quite easy to break given the chance. It spends almost all of it's time in the gun though, so I can't really see how that could happen. Due to the mag's design, it is near impossible to carry an extra. There is nothing preventing the bbs from falling out of the mag after it is removed from the gun. In order to load the mag, you pull down a follower that locks into place. When it is inserted into the gun, the lever that holds the follower down is pressed and the spring is released so that it can feed the bbs into the gun. The same lever actually holds the mag in place. It's quite clever actually, but it does pose one problem; the mag is held in mostly by that little bump and to remove it it only requires a bit of pulling. So if that were to snag on something (say a pocket) it would pull the mag out and shoot the bbs out of its top. It hasn't happened to me, but it is possible. I should also mention that the entire lever system is held in with a small pin, which is only held in with friction, and has fallen out once.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture015-1.jpg

Everything on the HFC Colt is moulded in, with the exception of the trigger, grips, and safety. This is not at all surprising, considering not only the price of the gun, but also being an NBB and being so small. The safety is a little loose, and flops around a bit when off. It doesn't flip from on to off however, and when in the safe position it doesn't move. The grips are a little ugly and toy-like with out any trades and HFC's signature spider on a web. If you manage to find grips for the real Colt, I don't know if they will fit, but I seriously doubt it. There's always the option to make your own out of wood if you want, however I think it would be extremely difficult trying to make something so small. You would have to make a space for the gas chamber which sticks out of the frame as well.
Update: It wasn't as hard as I had originally thought to make a pair of grips for the .25 after all:

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture039-1.jpg

The sights aren't really useful with a gun this small, and are also a little hard to line up on anything that isn't as bright as a piece of white printer paper. Basically what they are is a post that sits in a groove on top of the slide and a small area in the groove that is narrower than the rest. The reason for the sights to be inside of the groove is so that they can't snag on anything, but it also helps me to line the gun up straight with a target.

Performance:

Because I don't have a chronograph, I can't give an accurate muzzle velocity figure. The retailer I bought it from (PointAct) says it fires at 220 FPS with .20g bbs and green gas. Comparing it to a few other guns, it seems to fire around that, maybe a bit higher. I don't have any 134a at the moment, so I can't say anything on that. For such a small barrel size, I'm pretty impressed.

The HFC does not have hop up. However, bbs can still fly out fairly far. Using .20g bbs and propane, bbs stay pretty much level until about 45 feet, where they begin to drop and land at around 50-55 feet. Not that great, but not too awful bad either. I can't really give a decent accuracy figure, but at it's maximum range, the Colt has no problem hitting a 12 inch target. This, of course, doesn't really say much, but it's not horribly inaccurate at least. The barrel is about 2 inches long and made out of aluminum.

Gas efficiency is not bad at all, especially for the power this gun has. I'm able to fire 16 shots with a 3/4 second pause in between using propane, which means you should have no problem getting getting two mags per fill (even though you might as well top off the gas during a reload, anyway). Using HFC134a, you should be able to get more shots off, but again I don't have any 134a left at the moment.

Trigger pull on the HFC .25 is not bad at all, really. Being an NBB, the gun fires double action only. Because the Colt .25 is hammerless, you cant cock the gun prior to a shot like you might with some other NBBs. Trigger pull isn't awful heavy, but is not what I would call light. It begins fairly light, then get noticeably heavier right before the break. After a bit of practice, my aim isn't affected by trigger pull that much, if at all.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture017.jpg

Other:

The only trouble the HFC Colt .25 has given me is a leaky gas valve seal, which was easily remedied by soaking the seal in power steering fluid. The problem is, getting to that seal was no picnic. I discovered that the Colt may not be designed to be taken apart. I can get the back end apart easily, but it appears the the threaded tip is glued on. It could possibly be that because I'm int the US, an importer felt the need to glue the orange front end in. So as a result I can't give a detailed report on the internals.

Something interesting that I've discovered is that if you drop the Colt with the safety off and it lands on its rear end it will discharge. If it's loaded, it will shoot a bb! I'm not really sure why this happens, but I guess you could say it adds to the realism.

Update:
About 4 months into ownership, my HFC colt fired its last round. I'd estimate around 11,000 rounds were put through it (most of those were dry fires, to be honest) since I've had it. I was able to get the front end part, which was apparently glued in and all orange. The part that gave in was the gas release valve stem, which had snapped. This part may have just reached its limit, or may have snapped due to excessive dry-firing. It may have even been worn out prematurely from the use of propane. I still recommend the HFC .25, and I'm going to leave its original rating intact. I'm also, in fact, going to get another one.

Conclusion:

Overall, I think the HFC Colt .25 is a fun little gun that makes a good plinker. Skirmish wise, the gun has its own niche that is really not required in airsoft. I suppose you could use it a a "last ditch" gun, or instead of carrying a full sized pistol (although I don't think you'll get very far with it). For such a low price, it's not really inaccessible (although they are supposed to be rare in the UK) and really is worth it to buy even if it is just for fun.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/HFC%20Colt%2025/Picture001.jpg

Questions? Comments? Bored? PM my Arnies Airsoft user account and I'll take care of it.

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