The first time I encountered
a sun project M203 it was strapped onto an M16a1, and it was my first ever
skirmish. It was the full grenadier version, with the Square hand grip,
that replaced the triangular standard one on the M16, that had lots of
cool looking Speed holes in it, as well as a natty (if useless....back
then) ladder sight for judging the trajectory of your grenades. Of course,
back then the only grenades available were the Sun Project Foam grenades,
that turned your mean looking M203 into something that was less effective
then a NERF gun. The extortionate cost of these grenades also meant that
here in the UK, I only ever saw 1, and that was being laughed at. Most
people simply accepted the M203 as a really rather nice cosmetic accessory,
or as a really good place to put a huge battery to keep your AEG buzzin'
away all day long. SP even came out with a "Grenade Battery" which mimicked
a 40mm grenade, except that it was a high capacity 9.6v battery.
Of course, its the year 2002 now.
And we now have silly things like the ANGS grenade that kicked off by firing
18 BB's at a time from a 40mm grenade launcher. This was swiftly followed
by the HOP-UP version, and then the 24 BB version from FIRST factory. Then
Carrot Apple Works decided to get in on the act and produced the 165BB
MOSCART Shower Grenade. That's an indecent amount of firepower by anyone's
standard!
BOOOOOM!!!
Conclusion? Its a great time to get
yourself an 40mm Airsoft Grenade launcher! The main contenders are of course
the Sun Project M203 and the Mosquito Moulds/CAW mini launcher, which comes
bundled with the 165BB Moscart.
Although the Multi-Launcher is a lovely
piece of kit, it does suffer from a few faults, its small, and heavy and
frankly stubby, with all the ergonomics of a London Red brick (with Picatinny
rails of course) It looks great on pistols, and perhaps MP5's but thats
about it, Virtually anything you place it on has its natural balance totally
destroyed.
The Sun Project M203 on the other
hand is very ergonomically pleasing, Sure, it doesn't have 3 Picatinny
rails, but it IS based on a real M203, as opposed to the Mini Launcher
which is about as realistic as Ross Kemp in an S10, once its attached to
an M16 it maintains an aura of balance, and as its a wee bit longer then
the mini launcher it adds to the overall ambience of the rifle.
Of course, up until now, the M203
has been a strictly ArmaLite affair, If you wanted to attach it to anything
else, it required a Dremel, plenty of blu-tak, a lot of super glue and
plenty of sandpaper! Most of these conversions would look pretty darn good
(see arnies airsoft : Project Jericho). However, it wasn't exactly an off
the shelf solution. Attaching the M203 to an M16 wasn't exactly easy either,
requiring the purchase of a "mounting kit" and the partial disassemble
of the front end of an M16.
American Gun Kids, the nutters in
Japan, that built "The Secret" Fast take down M16 that swapped between
being a SMG, a Rifle and a Long range Rifle through the use of a CNC'd
screw link, had a go at solving this problem by taking a SP M203, hacking
it to bits and attaching scope mounts to it, so that it would fit onto
a 20mm M1913 Picatinny rail, They added a stupidly high price tag to it,
and promptly sold out of their stock in less then 3 months.
As the public clamoured for more and
the MOSCART propaganda machine swung into full steam, Sun Project decided
it was time to act and released the M203 RS
The RS of course stands for "Rail
System" and refers to the fact that it can fit onto any 20mm rail. Compared
to the AGK system, which used 2 separate mounts, one at the front of the
M203, one at the back, the SP uses a Double screw mount about 6cm long
towards the rear of the M203, which seems to give better grip and is more
secure. The AGK one seemed to be more suitable for longer M16's, while
the SP is suited for all M16's, but mainly the M4a1, However, the Single
mount will also make it more easy to fit to non M16's, like Marushin Colt
Anacondas or Tanaka Fixed Slide Glock 17's....
The M203 comes in a unpretentious
brown cardboard box, with "M203 RS" printed in black on the top lid, no-nonsense
and no mistake, opening the lid, you are met with what looks like a roll
of Bubble wrap! Where's my M203?? It soon transpires that SP have wrapped
the launcher in over a metre of wrap, safeguarding it from the rigours
of international delivery with aplomb.
After you've discarded the detritus
you are met with a sleek bit of kit, Unlike the normal M203 that was designed
for M4a1s, that has what's best described as a "spoiler" at the back, that
helps attach it to specific rifle it was designed for, the RS has
a nice simple flat top design. Nice! The only thing that you notice is
the nicely machined mount on the dorsal side of the Launcher.
The Controls and furniture remain
the same as ever compared to the other SP M203's, the Hand guard is still
nicely ruffled, if a bit plastic and slippy, the main body is still no
nonsense battle ship grey metal, aping the TM propriety "M16 grey" nicely,
the "COLT'S INC, HARTFORD, CONN, USA" markings as well as the military
style "LAUNCHER, GRENADE 40MM: M203, S/N 101389 U.S.A>" are as crisp and
well moulded as ever, and the tube on the end is still tough black plastic.
(oddly for this review, two M203 RS's were tested, each had a slightly
different pattern on the tube, one made it look like it was machined metal,
while the other made it look like extruded metal tube! Overall this didn't
detract from the whole model, but if you get to pick in a shop, you might
prefer one to the other) The Whole thing is about 38.5cm long, the Grenade
barrel poking about 9cm out in front of the frame.
The frame, trigger guard, Trigger,
hammer, firing pin, grenade collar are all made from metal,
Using the M203 is pretty easy, The
RS version can even be used as a standalone device with a few small additions
to make into something similar to the TM "Tactical Launcher" First of all
the safety must be set. The M203 uses a curious safety that lives in front
of the trigger blade. In face it is a wide blade itself. It has three positions,
Fully forward, (FIRE) half forward (Safe) and fully back (Safe). This works
by letting you have your finger on the trigger until the moment you wish
to fire, jamming your finger forward racks the safety into the fire position
and then simply pulling back, will fire the grenade. There is enough space
when the safety is on to keep your finger in contact with the trigger,
while the middle position seems to act as an extra "break" giving you an
extra safety to "push" through, much in the same way as a New York style
Glock trigger, e.g. You need to REALLY want to fire the grenade, before
you can fire it. Probably a good thing when you consider that you can have
up to 165 BB's loaded at one time!
Any way, once you have pulled the
safety back to "SAFE" you can load up. Grenades must be loaded into the
launcher singularly, This is accomplished by holding down the release catch.
This releases the hand grip from battery and now it can be slid forward.
Make sure you let go of the release catch at this point otherwise you will
slide the entire barrel off the frame! The Grip and barrel will slide forward
12.5 cm before coming to a stop. Facing the barrel downrange, a Grenade
can now be thumbed into the barrel. Note that there are a pair of toggles
that grip the grenade firmly in place, These ensure that the grenade doesn't
fall out, but do have the problem of getting stuck half way down
grenades' at the edge where the Top half meets the base. Judicious poking
will seat the grenade all the way down, but note that these toggles also
have the unusual and unsightly effect of marking the sides of the polished
metal of the grenade. Not nice. Once the grenade is in, the grip and barrel
can be racked back into battery. The Launcher is now ready to fire.
The M203 when first taken out of the
box is a bit of a pain, The toggle release sticks, the trigger is stiff,
and worst of all when the barrel and hand guard are pushed forward or back,
they are prone to sticking! This of course is due to the fact that SP do
not lubricate any of the working parts at all before shipping. After liberal
application of Silicone goo and Silicone spray our M203's were completely
changed and worked without a hitch, However to the newbie this might be
a cause for concern. The main places that need lubrication are the Rails
that the handgrip/barrel are mounted on and into the release catch,
Firing the M203.
165 BB MOSCART to test the M203 with,
but this was enough to give us a very good idea as to what could be accomplished
with this piece of kit, Simply put, you aim at the target, push the safety
off and pull the trigger, and BOOM! It disappears in a hail of BB's.
The grenade can now be released by
holding down the release toggle and popping the handgrip and barrel forward.
The Grenade collar will catch on the extractor catch and the Grenade will
tumble free. Hopefully into your waiting hand, or onto the floor if you
are unlucky!
Attaching the M203 to strange objects.
Due to the 20mm rail grabber on top
of the '203, it can be attached onto virtually anything with a rail. Of
course, it's primarily meant for use with an M4a1 with a Rail system, allowing
you to convert between a Grenadier configuration and back to a carbine
in double quick time, However, This is not the end of the story, after
all 20mm Picatinny rails are popping up on all sorts of things now.
Conclusion
The M203 RS is the best version of
the M203 available and is subjectively better then the mini-launcher as
it is more realistic and has better poise and balance. The ability to attach
to virtually any device that has a 20mm Rail is a great boon and allows
you to choose whether or not you want a Grenade launcher that day, Or even
that game.
Airsoft DolphiNs Southampton.