On a recent trip to the excellent A.A. shop in Reading
I had the good sense to aquire a Maruzen Micro-Uzi gbb (as they were offering
20% discount at the time it would have been rude not to)
What can I say about the looks of this little pistol(?)
. Most people who know a little about firearms in general (or who pay attention
in action films) would be familiar with the uzi line up of sub machine
guns. The basic shape and internal design being the same, IMI(real steel
gunmakers) produce three sizes of this popular gun. They are all in my
opinion equaly ugly , "a short boxy affair with an extended mag protruding
out of the pistol-grip ready to catch or snag on any available object"
could well describe any of the three sizes . To determine which type of
uzi you may be holding you have to see which of these catorgeries it falls
into
1. small
2. very small
3. f*k me ! THAT'S a machine gun ?!?!
If you've selected option 3 you're probably holding
a micro or pistol uzi. These babies really are tiny but don't let that
fool ya , what it lacks in size and looks it makes up for with sheer rof
and power.
As it comes in the box the gun looks ok , the fake
'metal' finish works very successfully on the solid abs(?) plastic the
gun is made from. When handling the gun for the first time I was a little
disspointed with the appearent lack of weight as the gun only (without
mag) is a shade over 500g. However things do change when you put that all
metal mag (20 rounder supplied) in place and the weight jumps to 690g.
Even better is the optional (read 'absolutely neccessery') 40 round mag
, this takes the weight upto a very respectable 800g, the 40 rnd mag sticks
out about 6cm from the grip. The gun seems very solidly built with little
or no rattle when shaken and generally waved around in a dangerous fashion
(joking ppl) . I've read from other sources on the net that the internals
are as reliable as any other given the proper maintainance that all guns
require.
very solid and satisfyingly 'clunky'.
This is a gas blowback gun , so , accordingly when
you work the action something visible opens. In this case as you pull the
bolt, the breech comes back and the ejection port opens. Obviously as this
is an airsoft there is nothing to eject (ok ok there are a few exceptions
to this) but the chamber open is a quick way to check if there are any
rounds left in the micro-uzi (real or airsoft) as it only takes a glance
(this trick is not to replace proper range safety but rather for use in
the 'field'). Again all the obvious moving parts are plastic (except trigger
and safety) but very solid and satisfyingly 'clunky'. There is a safety/fire
selecter in just the right position for my thumb (I shoot righthanded).
The safety is a simple on/off affair. This gun is either 'safe' or 'fully
auto'. This safety is of the type that is easier to 'make ready' than to
'make safe', Just the way I like them hehe! The mag is released via a a
thumb operated catch (thumb of left hand) as the mag is changed . ie left
hand comes up to meet right , grasps mag , depresses catch, pulls mag out,
puts new mag in. etc . you know the drill !!
Whilst reading the intsructions I noticed some care
had been taken to inform people to cock the action(open the ejection port)
before putting a full mag in. I guess when the mag is full there is no
extra compression space in the bb feed and some internals of the gun will
be damaged upon inserting it. Beware! , not knowing about this could cost
ya.
Ok ok enough of the boring shite how does it shoot?
In a word "quickly" .
With a full mag of 20 bb's it will fire them out
at around 300 fps in about 1.5 secs. Now that is pretty damn fast both
in terms of RoF and velocity. Best of all, whilst all this plastic is screaming
downrange the ejection port is opening and closing with every shot . It
looks great and gives a nice 'recoil' impression. 2 round bursts are an
option, with some practice (3 round bursts if you're crap) and give reasonable
accuracy out to about 25 yrds. Full auto at this range is certanly accurate
enough for game purposes
formidable side-arm
Also you could 'make em keep their bloody " 'eads
down" out to about 30 yrds but remember this is not the gun for suppressive
fire missions . Due to it's size it has neither the ammo nor the long range
accuracy of a 'main' or 'first' gun. With 1 (maybe 2) 40 rounders to back
up the 20 rounder in it, it would seem to make a very formidable side-arm.
With the 20 rnd mag in for carry it has better balence than say a 93r with
its butt heavy mags. Finding a holster for it could prove costly/time consuming
though so either make one or carry it another way.
After owning this gun for a week now and putting
over 1,000 new bb's through it and about 200 carefully selected used bb's
it has only stumbled 4 times !! and they were all with re-used ammo so
I won't be doin that again(all 4 malfunctions were failure to blowback
the action - so working the action once manually fixed it each time) The
can of toy-jack green gas that I bought with the gun still has plenty in
it so it seems efficiant enough for use and abuse. As a back-up in all
games or a main gun in CQB games this would be a good choice (with as many
spare 40 rnd mags as you can afford) . It has the velocity and reach of
an mp5 style aeg (only without the sustainable firepower and ammo) and
is a lot cheaper and somewhat more realistic . The price for the gun alone
(with 20rnd mag) is about 2/3 the price of a gbb MK23 pistol or half a
steyr tmp or any aeg/batt combo. You decide.
conclusions:
| appearance |
4/5 |
| build quality |
4/5 |
| performance |
5/5 |
| value for money |
5/5 |
| game potential |
5/5 |
I can't wait to waste some f*kwit in a game with it
hehe.
Pedro - 1998
Review of "Type U" revised
model, released in 2002 also available here...
Airsoft DolphiNs Southampton.