KWA 1911 PTP Review

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

The buying:

Buying was nice and easy, I did have to go abroad with my online window shopping though, as nowhere is able to get these into the UK at the moment. Found mine on EHobby Asia for $180 with a spare magazine. I was charged another £35 for customs, and parcel force charge over here. In total it set me back about the same amount as buying it over here would have been, so I still call that success in my book! Package came nice and fairly quickly, good tracking was provided, and parcel force didnt cock it up in any way.

The gun:



Im not going to go on about the box it came in, its a box, youll take the gun out, and all the bits, and throw it away.
I took said beauty out of the box, and was greeted with a nice weight. THis thing weighs more than your standard TM plastic pistol. The Magazines also have a nice weight to them, although dont make a huge difference to the overall package weight.

The gun is made of mostly metal. The grips and barrel are plastic. Neither are of poor quality, or feel at all flimsy. I have no worries about dropping it on the floor, picking it up, and carrying on shooting. Slide, frame, magazine, controls are all metal, and well made. One thing I will say about the build quality, is if you plan to do a lot of stripping and cleaning like a good pistol owner should, then the first thing youll want to do is change the grip screws. 3 of mine were okay, but one didnt want to play ball, and ended up being rounded off inside. I eventually got it out and swapped it over with others, but the originals are made from very soft metal, and I dont trust them at all.

The magazines are very well made as well. The feed lips are metal, rather than brittle plastic. And the feed spring lock is a very very useful tool. Again, with this, I had an issue this morning where the mags kept catching on this part, and the feed spring would lock at the bottom. Purely because I was filling it to the top, and it only just moved up a tiny bit on the mag. So any rubbing in the gun engaged the lock. My recommendation is to fill the magazine until theres room for 1 more bb at the top. Thats full really.

The Shooting

After todays playing, I have to say I do like this gun. A lot. Potentially the best pistol I have ever owned. So in my view it ranks higher than a TM Glock 17, a TM Hi capa 5.1 and 4.3 (and the 4.3 had a tonne of upgrades done to it). Kick was nice, short and sweet, and the gun felt like it packed a punch. Cycling speed isnt as fast as a TM pistol, but thats asking a bit much. It does feel heavier, and more weighted though. Range was nice, but I dont use my pistol for 40-50m range shooting. You just dont do it. Hop effect was a bit off, at some points sending shots far left and far right, but as its new, and not bedded in yet, Im willing to let that slide. Everything functioned as it should, with no malfunctions at all.

The Cold Test

Me and a friend discussed the pros and cons of TM pistols vs KWA metal pistols. Until recently I had been an avid TM fanboy. Ill admit it, everything else was 'rubbish!' But, after going through 3 TM pistols in less than 2 years, all of which breaking due to useage, I thought that Id give something else a try.

TM pistols are favoured for working in all kinds of weather, because of the plastics. And metal will just fair. A KJWorks, or Non NS2/System 7 pistol would, but as Ive never had one of these before, thought Id see just how good the NS2 system is.

I put 3, fully gassed (with propane) magazines into the fridge, for half an hour. I took them out, they were all very cold. Each magazine was able to fire off around 25-30 shots, straight out of the fridge. Pretty good, thats a very very cold day in England. But somebody said to me, that we would see -20 degrees this year, so I thought I'd test a little further!

3 magazines, fully gassed, (again with propane) into the freezer. On the ice tray (a shelf speficially made to be super cold, and turn things very icy).

45 minutes later, I took all the magazines out, and this is what they looked like…



As you can see, 2 magazines, fairly well encased in frost. The other, on the very cold side as well. I had to wait a bit for some of the frost to thaw and come off before I could test those two, but tested the far left magazine straight away. I was able to get 1 shot off, before the magazine vented. So this sort of temperature is the failing point. I regassed the magazine, and left to stand for 3-5 minutes. Whacked it in, and was back to 25-30 shots. Once the other magazines were frost free, they too had the same 25-30 shots pumping out of them. Insane, considering they were still wet from the ice, and absolutely freezing.

Please note that since doing this, people remarked on how insane the test was, mostly due to the potential damage to the magazines. I seem to have been lucky and suffered no damage to these, but as I have already done the test, please dont feel the need to do it yourself!

Overall, extremely impressed, This thing looks nice, shoots nice, and is perhaps more reliable than a TM pistol, whilst also being cheaper, and feeling nicer. Definately recommend!

[dxnib1]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

I've been literally looking at this sidearm in the past few days. (same colour as well!) cheers for the review.

Since day one i've always used a KWA G17. and through thick and thin its never let me down. Ill admit hands down. I never cleaned or lubed that glock. but no matter what it never failed. A while ago for afew reasons i had to sell it off. But recently ive been looking at this exact pistol primarily because of the make, as ive had astounding performance with my KWA G17. Nice to see another solid review on it. i'm looking to order from the same place. i just wish they had it in tan.

anyway babbling aside, nice review. much appreciated!

[Big Dave76]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

nice review mate, mine too shot left an right on first couple of mags, but now shoots pretty good. i feel that it needs a bedding in time, this sunday gone i played pistol only all day and got a fair few good kills against guys using aegs

[sparrowhawk]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

nice review...its good to see that you developed an open mind in regards to trying something other than TM, as i gave up with the idea of preaching about KWA to the TM faithful

[Jackypoos]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

A friend of mine converted the household to the Awesome power of KWA pistols! They really are fantastic in every way.

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

So an update.

Have used this for 3 weekends now, and will now go through the good and bad.

Things to take care with...
One safety arm has come off. I did notice this before one time, but put it back in and left it. Im not sure how it wiggles its way out, especially as it should be held in by the grip. I need to find out if a TM 1911 safety arm will work with this, but it is something to watch out for. The main safety arm is still on good and proper, and doesnt seem to be at all loose.

There has been some scratching of the slide, under the barrel. Its a nice silver scratch or two, and not sure if its from my holster, or rubbing parts on the frame of the pistol. Im going to bet its my serpa, as its got a lot rougher in there with plenty of scratch marks on the inside of the holster.

The front sight has worked itself a little loose. Take it off, theres a groove running down the middle, run a tiny bit of super glue along that groove, then put the sight back on, permanently fixed, will stop it coming off in a fight.

The realistic firing pin. Didnt notice this before, but the hammer actually strikes a little pressable pin. It serves no function from what I can tell, but its a nice touch. There is a realistic firing pin in the bottom of the slide assembly. Inserting a mag, and pulling the hammer back, will NOT make it active. You have to pull the slide back, for the real firing pin to be engaged. Love it.

The weights dont seem to be removable from the grips. I have been using the standard grips whilst I tried to sell my VZ Tactical Operator grips, but decided to keep them. They are lighter than the standard grips, but as they are TM compatible, they should accept TM grip weights, so going to get a pair of them, I like this thing to be heavy! For that matter, any TM compatible grips, or real steel grips will fit these. I was going to get a set of 10-8 performance grips (as recommended by the magpul king himself) but unfortunately they arent available for export.

Adjustable trigger. Have seen a few mentions of this before, on retailers and in reviews, but nothing about it other than a mere mention. Theres no word of it in the manual, and the parts diagram shows no adjustment mech, so its safe to assume these do not have adjustable triggers. Its not need, the trigger pull is light, and the action instant, with minimal drag.

Powersliding. Out of the box, you cannot powerslide the pistol. There is a buffer on the recoil rod, that dampens the recoil, speeds up the cycling, and reduces wear on the parts. Youll need to remove the recoil rod, and take off the damper. Put it all back together, and the slide can travel further back, allowing you to power slide the gun.

Slide safety. Another thing to note, you can engage the slide safety, when the gun is totally unready. flick it up from any position, even uncocked, with no mag in, and it will lock the slide in place. A nice touch for transporting it or just making sure people dont break it. Remember its on yourself, before you try and rip the slide off though! You also cant engage the hammer and make it ready whilst doing this. So no accidentally leaving it cocked.

Thats all for now. Feel free to ask any more questions

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

A correction for the above:

TM Grip weights are not compatible with this gun. The slots in the frame do not match up to the shape of the TM grip weights. Im trying to get my hands on the proper grips from a MKii so I can have different grips but keep the weight in the grip.

TM Grip weights will also not fit inside VZ Tactical operator grips.

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

One more thing to add now. The slide release broke unfortunately. Not the end of the world, and I tend to sit and insert a mag, drop it, insert, rack, release, endlessly when watching TV or something mind numbing. A replacement from KWA is available, but you will need to speak to their customer service team in order to give them a list of what you need, and then pay manually, rather than using their online system.

I did offer to become an independent UK distributor for KWA parts for them (Mostly to get these parts for myself easier!) but they assure me they are expanding operations back to the UK soon.

[gezer]

One question
Bbs stacked single or double ?
(In the mag)

[gezer]

Video would be nice
Would like to compare the kick to my tm 1911
As I'm thinking of swapping / selling my gun for this ptp

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

Re: KWA 1911 PTP Review

Mags are single stacked at around 14 rounds per mag.

If its a bog standard TM 1911, this would be an upgrade. If youve done a tonne of upgrades to yours, then this is probably not quite as good. Its all in the hands of the beholder really. I only have this pistol now, so dont have a TM to compare with video wise, but if youd like ill try and do some video some time

[gezer]

Ye as i can compare it to my tm that I did a video on (for sound comparing)

[gezer]

Bog std and recoil is weak (weak spring)

Know of any compatibilities/upgrades available

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

Sound isn't really anything I judge the two on. It really would be a test of holding one in each hand.

There seem I be very few upgrades available for these. And as they come in at 300+ fps, a tightbore might not be the best thing to out in either

[gezer]

Anyone know exactly what fps these guns are around?