Airsoft Action - January 2021

armoury
UMAREX KWA HECKLER & KOCH HK45
first case, to the point where it isn’t pushing the BBs
out of the magazine early enough to get them in front
of the gas nozzle by the time it reaches its resting/
closed position. Most… Vexing…! It annoyed me
most because, at the time, the HK45 was my first and
only airsoft gun so it meant I couldn’t use my own
equipment and had to bother my teammates, who
very kindly lent me their spare guns for games whilst I
resolved the issue and built my collection up.
Essentially, this is the most expensive gun I have
bought in Taiwan and turned out to be the most
annoying and unreliable to begin with despite that.
I was very impressed with its performance at first
and, admittedly, being my only gun for the first
three or four months of intensive gameplay using
four magazines and only having the pistol for all my
games, did mean it likely took a lot of punishment
early on - but even since having it fixed twice it has
continued to cause me a lot of issues.
Another issue I have noticed over the longer-term,
is that the magazines seem to wear through valves
quite quickly. In the early months I had two of them
serviced and then the other two started to exhibit
leaking issues, or a general failure to hold gas long
enough during a game day to feed and fire all rounds
in each magazine. This may have become more
pronounced as I began to use it more as a sidearm,
or last resort, when using my MP7 or G36C GBBRs
as primary guns, meaning that the HK45 and its
magazines were holstered and sat dormant for a lot
of the time. Then, when I finally did want to use it,
the gas supply tended to be unreliable and highly
frustrating!
As a result of all these woes, it has basically been
relegated to a last resort for me, as I cannot depend
on it to function properly enough to be a primary
gun, or even a loan gun to newbie friends who
won’t know how to resolve malfunctions as easily
as my experience allows me to. It is aesthetically and
functionally an awesome and enjoyable pistol to use
but, at the same time, it’s become an absolute pain
in the rear for maintenance and reliability - a very
stark contrast to Handsome Dave’s experience of his
working flawlessly with 5 magazines over many years
…hence my pondering as to whether there is a quality
or supply stream variation between KWA/KSC units.
The only other issue I have had personally, besides
the reliability and maintenance, is that I was dropping
magazines inexplicably in firefights for a while. I even
started “cupping” the bottom of the magazine with
my supporting hand to prevent it dropping to the
floor. Most of mine have dents in the bottom corners
now and I’ve had to replace a couple of the bumpers
as a result - again, no doubt worsening the gas
retention and reservoir integrity issues.
At first I imagined this was due to a weak magazine
release spring allowing the recoil impulse to actuate
the release during firing. This may have been some
cause of the issue but after the second servicing
it came back with a fresh release spring installed.
However, in the end I managed to work out that the
problem is largely anthropometric; my fingers are so
long that when I pulled the trigger completely my
trigger finger actuated the opposite side magazine
release because the lever itself has a larger contoured
operating surface compared to the other H&K guns
using a similar release style! So now I have to ensure
my supporting hand thumb gets in the way of my
firing hand’s trigger finger-tip to prevent this or adjust
my trigger press to mitigate.
Despite this, the “magazine dropping issue” seems
to persist and, at present, I am still awaiting a fresh
release paddle to replace the clearly worn previous
one. The magazine faces themselves seem to wear
down as well, which likely contributes to their looser
fit and ease of dislodging of the retaining forks of the
paddle from under the protrusions on the fronts of
the magazines themselves.
ENOUGH NEGATIVITY…
With all of that negativity out of the way, I do have to
say that the Umarex KWA HK45 is an excellent GBB
pistol, despite the issues I have had with mine. Do
bear in mind the sheer abuse most of my equipment
undergoes due to the frequency with which I play and
the local environment and related heat pushing up the
pressures it experiences.
The HK45 is, nonetheless, a very enjoyable gun to
use when it functions optimally and once I managed
to source a machined sight mount and affix a Docter
22
JANUARY 2021