Glock pistols in Airsoft form

Gentle reader,

Firstly, a word on "Airsoft". There are three types of replica guns that shoot plastic balls. These balls measure 6mm. There are three types of propulsion that "fire" these 6mm plastic balls: "Spring" powered, which requires the operator to "Cock" the gun, be it a pistol or a rifle EVERY time before the can shoot. The second type is "Gas" and "Gas blow-back". These use a mixture of flammable propane gas and a small bit of gun oil. The magazine that holds the 6mm plastic balls also has a chamber that holds the gas mixture under pressure. Unlike spring models, these are semi-automatic. In other words, cock the gun first and it will fire one 6mm plastic ball everyt ime the trigger is pulled. Just like real semi-automatic pistols and rifles. These are often confused in the media. They, especially some less-than-learned politicians, will refer to these guns as "automatics" or "assault rifles" which in the Military, at least in the rifles case can be fired fully automatically. In other words, cock the rifle the first time, select full-auto, pull the trigger and the rifle will keep firing until it runs out of bullets. Lastly (back to Airsoft) is "Automatic Electric gun". These, mostly rifles, use magazines that hold many 6mm plastic balls and use batteries to power an electric motor with a gear box that can fire the 6mm balls singly or fully automatic. To learn more about this subject go to: Airsoft gun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Now, if you have ever played "soft ball" you know those balls are NOT soft. Neither are these 6mm plastic balls. There are guns that propel them at many hundreds of feet per second. Multiply that "feet per second" by 60 and by 60 again and you get miles per hour. There are major league pitchers that can throw close to 100 miles an hour. Many Airsoft balls go twice that fast. You get hit by one of these and they hurt! So although "Airsoft" sounds harmless, they are not.

I have written about Airsoft guns that I have had in the past. I am 59 years old and played "Army" as a kid with my brother and friends. We would never have dreamed about all the types of toy guns available today. We used Daisy air rifles that fired nothing and looked like cowboy rifles. Swing the handle down and back up to cock it and it went "poof" and if it wasn't worn out, it also had a kick to it. We also had what was called a "trainer rifle" which sort of resembled a 1903 Springfield Rifle. Some even had a wooden "bullet" inside painted gold. They only clicked when you pulled the trigger. But like all kids, we used our imagination.

Back to the subject at hand. I, thanks to being married to a wife in law enforcement, and also a gun nut, eventually I got into real guns for a while. That enthusiasm has waned of late. But I did write about them here: The Robb Collections: 22 caliber guns and: The Robb Collections: ISSC MK22 rifle fully "tacticool" 

The articles I wrote about the airsoft pistols I bought before getting real guns can be seen here:

The Robb Collections: Airsoft M1911 pistols: 2 varieties  and here: The Robb Collections: More on the Airsoft pistols 

So, now that you are up to date on the history or Airsoft and of ones that I have had (none of them do I have anymore) take a look at what were never supposed to be made, at least that was Glock's hope. Glock in fact had made it very clear that they did not want any Airsoft replicas made of their pistols and for the most, the Airsoft industry complied. For a while, at least.

I don't remember where I got my first "Glock" Airsoft pistol, ebay, maybe. It is made by WE Tactical in Taiwan. It closely replicates the Glock 17, by as you will see, they left the "lock"  off of the pistol's slide. It is the one in the middle in the two photos below.

The "G 17" is a gas blow-back pistol and the magazine holds a number of 6mm rounds. It is "charged" with "green gas" or "red gas" or plain propane, if you have the right adapter through a fitting at the bottom of the magazine. Cock the slide after inserting the magazine and it will fire one round for every trigger pull, just like the real one. My wife and I compared it to her real Glock 17 and it is very hard to tell the difference. The structures are the same and they come apart the same way as the real one. Polymer body, metal components inside and a steel slide. That's the squareish part at the top, that one cocks by sliding it towards the rear of the gun. The gun fires and the slide slams back the forth, just like the real one. Nice kick to it as well.

Next one I found was the smallest one above. It was made, apparently in 2000, by HFC, also in Taiwan. I have not been able to find any information on this one. Glock may have sued them. It is modeled after the Glock 33. It is a "spring" model, one cock, one shot. This cocks the same, is quite heavy (metal weights secreted inside the gun and the magazine, I suspect. It cannot be taken apart without tools.

Lastly is my latest purchase, it has all the correct Glock markings and is a "17L", or long model.

It was made by Tokyo  Marui in Tokyo, Japan and I bought it from an Airsoft dealer in Hong Kong, China. To send it to me, they covered all the "Glock 17L" markings on the box, gun and even the instructions sheets. Plus, they glued the required orange tip to the end of the barrel as required by US law. It too is a spring model, one cock, one shot. It is mostly plastic with a metal barrel and other mechanical components. The slide is plastic. It is much lighter than the HFC model 33. It too cannot be taken apart without tools. It requires quite an effort to cock the slide, but I suspect it may get easier with use.

Now a series of photos showing details and differences in the three guns and also how much each weighs with a magazine installed.

Above and below is the 17L from the left side and details on the slide.

Above slide details of the G 17 and below the HFC 33. Clever how the made those letters inside of a pseudo-G.

Above is all three guns from the right side, with their various markings that are more representative of what they are, than what they portray.

HFC 33 above and below.

And below, their curious: "COMPLETED 2000" markings.

Above and below is the WE G17 from the right side and details below. Not easily seen on the left-side views is "Gen4" on the handle indicating it is the 4th generation Glock 17 they replicated.

Like the real pistol, it came with different "back straps" that allow one to customize the grip to fit different hand sizes.

The hole in the magazine reveals the filler hole for the gas. By the way, one loads the propane as a liquid, bottle pointing down, this allows for far more shots than loading it as a gas.

Above and below is the 17L model with details from the right side.

Above are the three magazine. The "33" on the left, "17L" in the middle and "17" on the right. The smaller ones are all plastic save the spring and weight inside. WE even copied the Glock's signature holes and numbers that let you see how many rounds are in the real magazines. I have six and unlike the smaller "spring" models, there is no plastic in these magazines.

The 17 weighs in at one pound, eleven ounces with no rounds in it.

The 17 L is less than a pound at thirteen point six ounces.

The 33 weighs one pounds three point four ounces.

I missed the Berettas that I used to have and bought this gas blow-back, all metal model a while back. It weighs one pound, fifteen ounces.

As a comparison for this article, I weighed the two M4 airsoft rifles I have. The all-plastic one weighs only one pound three point eight ounces. The very realistic, fully automatic all metal (and plastic) M4 weighs a hefty seven pounds four point four ounces. Part of that weigtht is the 4X scope I have on it.

This concludes the post about my latest Airsoft guns. Oh, I haven't shot any of them in ages, either. 

Thanks for looking!

Scott