Review: KWA M1911 DS PTP

[e-luder]

I meant to post this a very long time ago...
Was one of my first pistols. Saw it on a Canadian site recently so i guess this is for anyone who is considering buying this sidearm.

KWA 1911 DS PTP

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Introduction:

KWA USA is one of the more venerable airsoft creators in the West. Based out of California, they have garnered a reputation as one of the more reliable airsoft manufacturers to date. Their Professional Training Weapons (designated ‘PTP’) has been used in law enforcement training academies all over North America and gathering a band of loyal customers in both civilian and private sectors

With that said, I came in expecting the best performance from their PTP line. Their version of the famed 1911 is no exception. Designated ‘M1911 DS PTP’, it is a high-powered, 1 to 1 weight ratio with strong kick and good accuracy. But the lack of upgrade parts or replacement parts mar it from bringing out it’s full potential.

Technical Specifications:

• Slide Material = Metal Alloy
• Frame Material = Metal Alloy & High Impact Polymer
• Outer Barrel = High Impact Polymer
• Hop-Up = Adjustable
• Magazine Capacity = 27 rounds
• Caliber = 6mm BBs
• Gas System = New Structure (NS2)
• Velocity = 325+ fps with 0.20 gram BB's
• Propellant = Green Gas ONLY
• Dimensions = 8" X 5.7"
• Weight = 2.3 lbs.

Special Features:
• Functional beavertail grip safety
• MIL-SPEC-1913 (Pictanny) rails
• Front / Rear slide serrations
• Ambidextrous thumb safety
• Skeletonized hammer and trigger
• Combat sights
• Realistic construction and field stripping

First Glance:

The gun came in black box. No hype here—just an ordinary pistol box with ‘1911 DS’ on the cover.

Inside, the gun came with a bottle of silicone oil, a hop-up adjustment tool, a sight adjustment Allen key, a small pack of sample BB’s and all the usual paperwork from KWA USA.

Upon carrying the gun, the weight is what automatically grabbed my attention. This thing carries some good heft with a hot magazine. The gun is full metal with a few parts made of polymer.

Now, my gun did come with the tip of the slide painted orange— not the barrel. I wasn’t thrilled but thankfully there are a myriad of quick fixes that remedy this situation. Search ASC for these fixes.

The gun is sleek in its all black, trade-less frame and slide. For some trades are important and for some trademarks aren’t. For me, I tend to be on the side of option 1 as my guns like to hang on halls and stuff. But seeing as this gun was designed to be used as a training weapon or in the field, I understood why trademarks were omitted and were not at all relevant. But still…

Details and Fabrication:

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As I mentioned before, the gun is a full metal gun with a few polymer parts. The slide, chassis and almost all internal organs are metal while the grips, outer barrel and trigger are polymer.

In essence, this gun is modeled after 2011s, STI 2011s I think. Its barrel is shorter than most 1911A1’s, closer in fact to a Hi-capa 4.3’s barrel length.

The slide is full metal in design. The slide sports forward cocking serrations on both ends making it easier for you to rack the slide. This slide is amazingly built with internal components cooperating smoothly when lubed properly. It’s also much more rounder along the top corners much like the STI slides.

The hop-up adjust is located inside the breech and is a rotating dial that can be tuned using the provided tool (or fingernails for those of you who tends to tune in-game).

The sights on the gun are metal combat sights and are fully adjustable. They aren’t dotted which is something that I hate seeing on my pistols. I likem’ with clear markings. These sights are problematic as they come loose very easily. The rear sight tends to unscrew itself from the internal screw and the rear sights come loose just by simply holstering.

The chassis is made of metal as well. As such, the gun provides a solid feel. The metal is strong and firm. There is little wiggling within the internal components of the gun.

The hand controls on the gun are made of metal. This includes the slide catch, the magazine catch, grip safety, the thumb safety and the skeletonized hammer. All work well and sit very tightly in their allotted space.

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The polymer components of the gun include the trigger, the trigger guard, grips and outer barrel.

These parts are reinforced polymer so to avoid a quick breakdown of the gun. As far as I know, there was speculation that the decision to use a polymer outer barrel comes out of the fact that KWA was having problems using a metal outer barrel on the NS2 system. Again it was just speculation so don’t quote me on that.

The trigger is skeletonized as well. This is where I foresee the potential breakage occurring. To me, even though the trigger is reinforced, the trigger felt very flimsy and “light”. It looks cool though.

The trigger guard isn’t serrated as most pistols are and is made of polymer. The trigger hole is quite small so for someone who uses bulky gloves might have trouble getting their finger for a quick pull.

The grips are checkered for added grip maintenance. These are the same grips you would find on most STI’s on the market with the diamond etches and all for décor.

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Features:

There’s not much to mention in the way of features that distinguish this sidearm from the other 1911s currently available on the market. But I’ll mention them here anyways.

Being a 1911, KWA USA’s M1911DS PTP has grip safety. It must be pressed for the trigger mechanism to engage the hammer.

The second safety feature on the gun is the ambidextrous safety. Flip it up and the trigger is locked yadi yadi yada.

The magazine is a stagger/double stack magazine so it can hold a bit more than you’re average 1911A1s (hence the ‘DS’ in the designation.)

The chassis also sports a standard rail assembly for weapon lights and lasers for a tacticool look.

Ergonomics:

Being a stagger stack, the M1911DS is a bit thicker on the grips than its 1911A1 counterparts. For those of you are used to the slim profile of traditional single stacks might need a moment to readjust your feel for this gun.

The hand controls are very well place on the gun, as you would expect from all 1911 models. They are built for easy access.

It is worth noting though that the magazine catch and slide catch sit a bit prouder than most 1911s and hi-capas. The magazine release, in particular, has a much higher raise and can easily cause accidental magazine drops while you’re running around with your super-rigged out M4 hunting down green fools around yonder.

True to the 1911’s style though, the gun is very ergonomically sound. The weight of the gun is very well distributed despite having polymer components. You can control the gun much more easily, acquiring and requiring targets in and out at will.

Functionality and Performance: In-Game

For the most part, M1911DS functions very well. The NS2 Gas system is by far one of the best output systems on the market. It consumes gas efficiently while delivering adequate power to propel the BB in a straight line.

That said, I have tested this gun in-game. While the basic functions of the gun (cycling, accuracy, power) are well above my expectations, a myriad of external forces marred it from becoming a great experience.

The biggest concern for me, and anyone who owns this gun, is the holsters. This gun is based off of the 2011 STI frame, meaning that the frame is wider than that of 1911’s. This gun WILL NOT FIT PROPERLY for those who have a holster designed to carry the original 1911 Colt frame. SERPAs, for example, will need slight modifications to cater to the contours of this gun. This gun NEEDS a proper holster to avoid any of the following problems I am about to specify. Yes, I found out the hard way.

As I mentioned before, the magazine catch has a high raise. This raise was problematic, as the gun tends to eject the magazine while holstered. I did lose one magazine while I was hunting fools ‘round yonder. I was very sad. So sad…

As well, the front sights on the gun tend to dislodge when you holster the sidearm. ie, it just wiggles from its ‘zeroed’ state. I actually had the front sight come off because it was getting caught on the holster too often.

Another issue on the field that you might run into is the fact that gun has a tendency to automatically flip the ambi safeties up. Now, this is probably just my gun in particular but I found that the ambi safety ‘engaged itself’ in the middle of unloading a magazine. Don’t know what’s up with that but it was just annoying.

Otherwise, the gun works very well…

Functionality and Performance: Controlled Tests

As I mentioned before, The M1911DS functions well within the constraints of power and accuracy. But to further stress the point, here are some results of a controlled test.

For the purposes of continuity and to minimize any discrepancies during the tests, I was using .20g BB’s with green gas at room temperature of 22 degrees indoors.

On Power:
On the chronograph, I took ten shots. The results were as followed:

Shot 1: 345 FPS
Shot 2: 320 FPS
Shot 3: 340 FPS
Shot 4: 335 FPS
Shot 5: 345 FPS
Shot 6: 329 FPS
Shot 7: 328 FPS
Shot 8: 311 FPS
Shot 9: 323 FPS
Shot 10: 325 FPS

As you can see, the gun is hot yielding a power output within the 310-345 FPS. Though it is worth noting that the feet per second output tends to fluctuate. I would have liked to see this pistol have a tighter group of readings being a Professional Training Weapon and all. But whatever…

On Accuracy:

Here are the results of the accuracy test from 50 feet away:

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As you can see, double tapped, the groupings are fairly close to one another. Keep in mind though that I was using lighter BB’s so I suspect that the gun will be a lot more accurate with .25g BBs.

The NS2 Gas Delivery System:

As I mentioned before, KWA’s NS2 gas delivery system is quite superb. I was able to run a full hi-capa magazine that carries 26 rounds and still had enough gas left over for half a magazine. That’s about 40 shots on a single gas fill.

To top it all off, the magazine had a very long coolddown time which made my rapid double tapping much more efficient in terms of consistent power and accuracy output. Great stuff there.

Other Stuff:

The trigger pull on the M1911DS is quite light. Having a hair trigger, the pull is easily comparable to that of the venerable Glock variants. It is light but it’s still heavy enough to prevent the gun from accidental discharge.

The kick on the gun is superb. It cycles great and feels very crisp. It kicks hard. The weight of the slide is almost rendered non-existent making you think that you have a plastic slide instead of a metal one.

The hammer is a two-stage hammer. It can half cock or full cock. Though I find this function a bit on the useless side since the gun needs to rack in order to fire.

Also on performance, this requires constant relubing. The powerful gas expansions pretty much blows all the lube out of the gun so constant re-lubing is a must for maximum performance.

Potential Upgrades:

I can’t see how you are able to upgrade this thing.

Most of the parts are proprietary to KWA. So if you want to change something, you’ll need to contact them directly. As far as my knowledge goes, there aren’t even any upgrade parts available for this 1911. The gun is tuned to handle green gas so I doubt you’ll need to make any modifications or upgrades anyways.

One thing that I do recommend is already mentioned above. If you plan on gaming this thing or if you plan on buying a holster, make sure that holster can fit a 2011 style frame. You might need to spend a few sheckles on an expensive Safariland. Or if you want, modify some Kydex or some other brand to fit the gun.

Also note that magazines for this thing are starting to go by the wayside. This pistol is a couple of years old and if I remember correctly, KWA has stopped producing these mags. But don’t quote me on that.

Final Summation:

Pros:

-Great power
-Great gas consumption/efficiency
-Decent accuracy
-Solid 1:1 weight ratio and great weight distribution
-Has hi-cap magazine
-Little to no cooldown

Cons:

-Not holster friendly
-finicky sights
-Problems with ambi safety (though it might just be my gun alone)
-High raise might be a potential problem (this can also be a pro in someone’s eyes)

Conclusion:

KWA’s M1911DS PTP is a robust pistol. It offers power, accuracy and range. But there are some minor things that annoyed me, mainly the sights and holstering, that prevented this sidearm from becoming one of my favorites.

Would I recommend it? Yes and No. If you can get past all the things I specified here, then by all means go for it. It’s a good buy at a revolutionary price.

But if you can’t, buy something that is much easier to maintain or handle on/off the field.

Overall, BOOYAH!

[ceazer]

good review...

[jordan7831]

Someone has been buying lots of guns lately Thanks for the review!

[e-luder]

And there's more coming.....