JT-3 & JT-3A shotguns (Benelli M3 clones) - ArniesAirsoft

Author

rhino

FRAN-TICK-TICK-TOCK!!!

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 306,966

Review Date: 26/1/08

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �15.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Cheap, powerful can also take G&P CA870 shorty mags
Cons:	only 1 BB per shot, comes with box magazine as standard, build quality not brilliant

Back in August of 2007 i decided again that i wanted another airsoft shotgun that was cheap but more to the point skirmishable and durable. I picked both of these up for �15 from Blackpool on one of my regular outings there. So here at last is the review of the chinese made Benelli M3 shotgun clones designated JT-3 and JT-3A shotguns.

SO....WHADDYA GET?

Come with basic instruction sheet (in Japlish), barrel unclogger (cleaning rod), small bag of ammo (got thrown straight away), a speedloader tube and a small pair of protective glasses (got about 100 of these now... might come in handy if i want to start a science group i suppose Wink

)

LET' S SEE WHAT WE CAN SEE...

First off these are like the Maruzen & G&P CA870 shotguns (box magazine fed and fire one BB instead of three like the Marui and Marushin shotties) which some people like and some don't. I fall into the category of "If it works and does what i want it to do, then Meh!".

There are 2 models at present available to buy in this range. There's the JT-3A which comes with a full pistolgrip/stock and the JT-3 "Shorty" which comes with the standard pistolgrip only. Length is as follows;

JT-3A - 35" approx (90cm)
JT-3 "Shorty" - 25" (64cm)

Weight is roughly a kilo and half and the build is standard plastic with weights to make it heavier. On the right-side of the receiver is "Made in China" and on the left-side is "JT-3 CAL 6mm BB" (also of note that the "JT-3A" lettering is stamped on the butt of the fullsized stock.

WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO?....

Onto the operation. The box mag is detatched by pressing the release studs on either side of the magazine and pulling down. The mag can be loaded with around 25-30 BBs. The magazine can then be slotted back into the magwell and you're ready to go. Rack the pump to chamber a round and pull the trigger to fire one BB at your target. FPS has been chronoed at approx 275 give or take. Range is good out to about 50 feet and i've engaged targets at that range with no problems.

The safety is located just behind the triggerguard and is push-button. Pushing it to the left places the weapon on safety and pushing it to the right releases it. Sling mounts are quite durable (well, the guns aren't that heavy to cause any stress to the mount rings) The pistolgrip has the sling mounting on the left side of the grip while the full size stock version has the mounting on both sides of the stock.

BUILD...

Alright, it's not made from brilliant plastic (not to Marui standard anyway...) but what do you expect for something this cheap? It can hold it's own in CQB mind...(although, if it had triple shot that would have made me award it a 10/10.) The pistol grip and full stocks are interchangable between the models and are easily removed and attached and are quite comfortable. The shell ejection port though is just a horrible piece of shiny silver plastic and is the only real thing that lets the appearance down in my opinion (but can be remedied by either spraying or rubbing it with emery cloth to actually take the silver paint off) The sights are standard fixed rifle type sights and are reasonably accurate (an easy modification to do is to simply take a small bit of white enamel paint and paint the sights. This makes a helluva difference in low light surroundings)

(NOTE: The Heatshield seen on the full sized version doesn't actually come with the gun - it's actually been added on by myself for looks only)

Another thing that some people have asked is can the JT-3 shotguns be "slam-fired" (while holding the trigger down and pumping to fire shots quicker)
The answer is no.

One thing i can confirm is that the G&P CA870 shorty magazines are compatible with a slight modification (check on the forums for my Technical "How To" on how to do the mods) and make the shotgun look more "shotgunny"

FINAL WORD...

All in all, if you're looking to buy a budget shotgun but aren't too concerned on it's appearance (i.e it doesn't look exactly like it's real steel counterpart) and can overlook the fact that it only fires 1 BB per shot, then what you have is a half decent Shotgun that is cheap, robust and skirmishable and (the most important thing) fun!

Ian "Rhino" Leonard

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Quote:

Darklite: Actually, I was using my AK - the shottie I had lent to Tink at that point.

*suitcase*, I best go and check it still works.

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