“After buying this gun I am now a Colt fan…”

Sometime in 2005

I had been looking for a nice gas gun for quite some time now, I wanted big, I wanted heavy, and I wanted it to have at least some metal content on it. I also didn’t want to spend to much money. Then the company WE (Wei-Etech) came out and produced many variants of a 1911 style guns in a very short period of time, and then rolled out the line of baby hi-capas. These interested me, as they were full metal, able to take Tokyo Marui hicapa parts, and had different power options, I then proceeded to read heavily on these as I like the look of 1911 guns and didn’t want to be sucked into buying a Glock like so many other people have. My first gas gun I ever owned was a UHC USP NBB, which died… But after much research of the WE Hicapa and debating, I finally decided….to buy one….

Present Day

The date is February 17, 2006, and I had just clicked the OK button to confirm my order. I ordered from Airsplat.com with my fingers crossed that my order would get here in one piece. I had heard many bad things about Airsplat.com but this was my second time and with no prior complaints about them from me I went for it. I ordered the gun late that Friday night so it didn’t ship till Monday, the extra magazine I ordered was on backorder, Airsplat’s website is so good at telling you if something in stock or not. Anyway, after waiting thinking something had gone wrong, the lady in the brown truck rolled up my street and dropped off a brown box.

What lies within…?

The date is now February 24, 2006, I am standing in my room, over my bed, with a knife in my left hand. On my bed lays a brown box which I intend to tear to shreds. Now, before I go on, ill tell you how the box looked. The box had been set on my porch, and the side of the box bulged open a bit thanks to Airsplat’s top notch taping job. But as it turns out, everything inside was ok and nothing came broken. I cut though the tape and reveled what was inside, a Black gun case, “hmm I thought, different that the box I saw on that one review” turns out this is actually a WE gun put out by AE, hence the slide and hand guard markings, more on this later. Inside the gun case ay the gun on foam, with a manual and a package of AE black bbs.

My first thought when I picked up the gun was, “wow, this gun really IS heavy.” Well that was short, now on to inspecting the gun.

Well first off ill say that the gun is pretty much full metal, the only plastic parts are the trigger guard and hand guard, and a few internal parts. The trigger feels like its plastic, but a quick scratch with a knife reveled shiny metal underneath. I chose this variant of the gun because I like the 5 ports in the front of the slide, revealing the outer barrel.

On the lower frame is the markings AEK00293 which signifies that this gun was redistributed by AE, as well as their logo on the hand guard. The slide rattles a bit, but I don’t mid it that much as it’s firmly connect to the lower frame. Racking back the slide lock it back and the barrel moves around a bit, this is one of the gripes some people have, but in my tests it hasn’t effected the accuracy of the gun, more on this later.

The textured grip feels nice to the touch and it won’t slip, I also like the textured magazine release button. The grip can be taken off and replaced with other colored one from various websites, but why? Why have red or blue grips? I just think it looks ugly. The metal outer barrel looks so nice on this gun and the gun shows it off more with the ports in the slide, its pure stainless steel and is shiny. I don’t really like plain slides hence my decision for the ported version. The design on the back of the slide looks good, and the top of the slide has grooved lines going from the front sight to the back sight.

Well, as this gun isn’t a “real” gun it doesn’t have the marking that say a 1911 would have on it, on the WE version K, there’s is nothing on the slide, but as this gun was distributed by AE, everything’s the same except for their logo, and a serial number as said above, AEK00293. I would like to know if these vary per gun, or if there all the same. I saw on a forum another picture of the AE version, with the serial number, AEK00104, which leads me to believe, is the production number, if that’s so, then I have the 293 gun produced. I would also like to add that the serial number is engraved into the coating on the metal, so it won’t rub off like it would if it were painted.

The safety: or should I say, All 3?

That’s right this gun has 3 safeties. First there’s the grip safety, which won’t let you pull the trigger unless you are holding the gun properly. Second is the slide safety, and third the hammer.

Slide Safety (Thumb Safety)

The slide safety is a bit weird, it’s ambidextrous, but only locks the left part of the slide; it can barely be engaged when the hammer is not locked back all the way. But after you rack the gun when putting a new magazine in, it will work well, the right part of the slide safety moves around a bit with ought doing anything, but still works at engaging the slide. Because of the way it’s connected inside the gun, it will always move around. But engaging the thumb safety is very comfortable due to the fact that when holding the gun you thumb is pretty much right below it.

Hammer

After you rack the gun, you can hold down the trigger and put the hammer into the halfway position, making the gun unable to fire, unless you pull it back all the way. At this point, the slide safety will not work. I find the halfway hammer feature nice as you can pull the trigger all you want but it still won’t fire.

The Rail

Yup this thing as most people have said is pretty much for looks, it does look nice, but I’ve tried putting a laser on the front with no luck, it’s a bit to wide to except most accessories I’ve tried, and if anyone has something that works, tell me. Although, I think the look if fine as it is, 1911 style guns aren’t meant to be messed with. The only thing I got to fit on it that has some purpose would be a CA vertical grip, it only goes on halfway and is held on with friction, I guess I could use it at a CQB field, but it really makes the gun look bad

Slide Stop

The slide stop on this gun is the only thing that bothers me a bit, people with bigger hands will have no trouble, but compared to other guns, like the M9, or a USP, the slide stop is set a bit further up and down the gun, making it so I can barely release the slide with my thumb, when changing mags, I usually just do it with the other hand instead. Not a huge deal but I can live with it. It’s my fault for liking big guns like the 1911.

Sights

The sight is one of my favorite on gas guns, modeled after the Bomar sight it’s very well set in the gun and doesn’t stick up much; it really blends into the look of the gun. The Bomar sight is adjustable with the help of a flathead screwdriver. You can adjust it up and down and left and right, that’s pretty much all about that.

Power Options

As this gun has a very heavy slide, nothing below green gas will work well, this does mean however that you don’t need to be afraid of putting to powerful gas within the magazine. There’s and optional C02 magazine available for purchase tat takes those C02 capsules you can find at your local sporting goods store. You can also buy a propane adapter and use those small tanks of propane to fill up you magazine, which in the long run, can save you a good sum of money. I bought 2 cans of green gas with my purchase and when filling the magazine they fill a lot nicer than some magazines I’ve handled before. Some magazines spray gas out when you filling or when its full, but with the WE magazines, you just insert the canister tube into the magazine and you can hear when the gas chamber is filled up, and nothing spills, I usually do about 3-5 second fills on my mag and that’s enough to get one mag fill (30bbs)

Magazine

The magazine is nice lets me get that out front. It is all metal except for the part that sticks out of the gun, and a few parts up top. It’s got a nice weight to it and makes the overall weight of the gun very nice. Its hold 30 bbs and the easiest way to load them would be using a speed loader with the little magazine loader attachment that comes with it. The little rod that opens the gas flow is on the back of the magazine, it is housed inside a hole in the magazine so there is no way you would accidentally expel the gas if your extra magazines were in a magazine pouch.

Firing

Using green gas and KSC .2 gram bbs I headed out to my range, gun in one hand, loaded magazine in the other. I set up a line of 10 cans in a row, and proceeded to take my shots. Standing from 50 feet away, I knocked 4 of them off, and the other 6 shots came within an inch of the target. The cool down effect is noticeable in the cold, I was firing in about 55 degree weather, and sometimes in the cold, the slide won’t lock back on the last shot, this could also be because of not putting enough gas in. the blowback is pretty strong on this gun thanks to the very heave slide. It messes up your shots so firing fast will not be very effective, you need to take time to line up your shots before firing after every shot, because your hand will move with the recoil. Standing from about 80-100 feet away I was able to hit a man sized target very consistently, a few shots were off, but that was due to some wind that started kicking up, with . 2 gram bbs you will get the best range, but switching to .25 gram bbs will make it more accurate if you playing where there is some wind.

Hop-Up

This gun does feature adjustable hop-up; you have to take the slide off to adjust it though, there’s a little dial that you turn left or right depending on what weight off bbs your using, upon first use, I found that the hop-up was almost right on using .2 bbs.

Well, I can see myself as using this gun as a secondary for both my G3 SAS, as well as my G-Spec once its upgraded, this gun is loud, and so people will know where you are. Ill probably end up using this gun as my primary for a few games just for fun, and testing my skills.

Ratings:
(10 point Scale)

Build – 9, well it is full metal.

Metal content – 9, a few other things would be better metal.

Durability – 9, Again, full metal = very strong

Looks – 10, I love 1911 style guns

If you want a good gas gun that is heavy, solid, accurate, and fairly cheap, then this gun is the way to go, there are many variants of this gun including the baby series which is slightly smaller, they all perform good, but using these guns in the winter might prove to be troublesome. I plan on purchasing another one of these guns in the future and possibly going dual for a while.

David
Aka GWAG (Guy_with_a_gun)