With the popularity of Tokyo Marui's Hi-Capa pistol line, KJW has released their own double stack 1911. The KP05 Hi-Capa is advertised as CO2 ready out of the box. Let's see how well KJW's gas blowback pistol measures up!
The KJW Full Metal Custom 1911 Tactical Hi-Capa GBB Pistol can be purchased here.
The gun arrived in a foam box with a cardboard top. The layout is exactly as pictured except that the gun was also in a plastic bag. It came with a small box of BBs (left side of box), presumably .20 grams. The magazine was already inserted into the gun, so there was nothing in the space for it. There also seems to be space for a cleaning rod, but I did not revieve one. I am not sure if this was a mistake or on purpose. The manuel it comes with is very basic, covering loading, firing, and slide removal for hop up adjustment. If you order the CO2 magazine with the gun, it comes in a seperate cardboard box.
The Pistol:
The pistol has a very solid feel and is well balanced when loaded. It can easily be fired by one hand, left or right. All of the green parts, however, are made of plastic. The side panel grips are not removable like the 1911 government models, they are molded into the rest of the grip. This is a little disappointing, but the plastic does seem very tough and feels quite comfortable. The trigger pull is smooth and just the right length in my opinion. It's no hair trigger, but it is not long enough to pull you off target. The thumb safety may need to be warn in a bit, but otherwise functions fine. The hammer is also 2 staged, so it can be dropped into the half cocked position as an additional safety.
Otherwise, all of the metal parts advertised are true. There are some plastic internal parts, but I believe this is usual. The slide operation is very smooth. The metal barrel does have a painted extended orange tip. The inner barel does not go the ful length, however, so I plan to just mill off the orange part so it is normal the length.
The hop up is underneath the barrel inside the slide. Accessing it is very simple, as the take down is the same as the real steel.
Magazines:
The green gas and CO2 magazines are the same as far as the BB well goes. I would not load either past 25 rounds or so, as the guide and spring seem to come close to popping off their track (this may be okay, its just my opinion). The green gas magazine can only fire about 20 to 24 rounds with one fill of gas, however. The CO2 mag will fire well over 1 full magazine. Neither leak from what I can see. The gun will also take other brand Hi-Cappa magazines, though they may need to be pulled from the mag well instead of dropping free.
Muzzel Velocity:
I used soda cans for this test, so I am not sure how reliable the results are. Both green gas and CO2 sent a .20 gram BB straight though both sides of a can. The CO2 was also able to punch a hole in the bottom of a can, but the BB did not enter, it bounced back. According to the online tables, this would put the green gas velocity at 310+ FPS and the CO2 at nearly 340 FPS.
Accuracy/Range:
I was only able to shoot the gun at about 15-20 yards of range, so these results are largely estimated. I can say that the tragectory of the .20 gram rounds was extremely flat all the way to the target and the deviation was not more than 3 inches (fired with 2 hands). I'm sure the could reach out to 50 yards and probably beyond with good accuracy, but that is yet to be tested.
One Problem:
So far, I have only experienced one problem with the gun, albiet it is potentially very serious. I accidentally dry fired a shot with the CO2 magazine after my testing and now the slide will not return forward all the way. The the take down notch on the reciever comes over the slide release, the slide sounds like it hits a metal obstruction and stops. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me fix this problem. Otherwise, do you think Evike would repair it under warranty?
Final Tally:
Until the one problem with the gun, I found it to be very nice. It shoots great with a little kick and decent rate of fire. It even seems like it would even make a decent primary weapon for medium range combat. I love this gun and highly recommend it as a very powerful sidearm, CQB weapon, etc.
UPDATE:
After much closer inspection of the pistol, I found that the hammer was catching on a metal piece inside the slide, preventing it from moving forward. Simply had to press the hammer down a bit more and its fixed. Not sure how that happened considering it goes through the same action in normal operation without catching, but at least now I know it is nothing serious.
If anyone has questions about it, I'd be more than happy to answer to the best of my ability. Otherwise I will add to this review once the gun is fixed and I get to take it to a few games.
