TM SIG P226 REVIEW

[partyboy]

My first attempt at writing a review, be gentle and if the photo hosting goes tits up im sorry

 

Tokyo Marui – SIG SAUER P226R review

 

Foreword

I have been waiting for the release of this gun since it was anounced nearly two and a half years ago, its been a very long wait, but well worth it. I bought mine from Firesupport for £100 which seems to be pretty much the cheapest place you can get it, I was lucky enough to be one of the first to pre-order it and as a sweetener it came fitted with tritium inserts fitted to the sights free of charge. I believe Firesupport can fit these to most handguns and they are a very cool addition.

 

Whats in the box?

Its usual marui stuff here, the box has a nice pic of the gun on it, inside you get the gun, magazine, 200 bbs, catalogue, manual, targets and a plastic cleaning and unjaming rod. Not much more to say than that.

 

Initial Thoughts

When you pick the gun out of the box you instantly feel a nice solid weight to the gun and this only improves when you stick the mag in. Give it a shake and there are no rattles at all. The mag is a nice snug fit but is easy to insert and eject. Pictures don’t do the grips justice, this is the most comfy handgun ive ever held. This all helps with very rapid target acquisition, and it feels like an extension of your hand. The actual finish of the gun is generally very good and the plastics used are certainly the best of any marui pistol ive seen to date. The plastic has a nice dull matt finish, unfortunately it doesn’t have the cool touch, metallic feel that KSC pistols have had recently but all in all it looks very nice. There are however a couple of visible seam lines on the underside of the gun, but they are very faint and they don’t really bother me as this is a skirmish pistol for me so its soon gonna get scratched up anyway. One issue I have is that the plastic used on the ejection port/outer barrel is very cheap looking plastic and not upto the standard of the rest of the gun (I am planning on getting a metal slide/outer barrel as soon as poss though, so again im not too bothered)

The trademarks on the gun also seem very nicely done, they are nice and deep and very finely engraved, all very good.

 

Build and Features

The first thing I did after I had shot a few bb’s through it was to start taking it apart, im a sod for doing this I just like to know how things work. It is very easy to strip this gun down and it is simply a case of locking the slide back and rotating the slide release. The slide release also incorporates a hidden safety catch which is because Marui make guns to ASGK standards which means they have to have a manual safety on the gun. The real Sig does not have an active safety though so marui hid it in the slide release. Again top marks to marui’s design blokes, its would have been a shame to see some silly safety feature similar to what KSC did on their Sig Pro replicas.

I am a left hander and after I had removed the grips it soon looked to me as if the magazine release might be reversable for left handed shooters as it is on the real steel version. Ten minutes and a bit of playing around later and I had the mag release swapped to my favoured side, top marks to marui for incorporating this feature and staying true to the real gun. The decocker is fully operational and drops the hammer to a half cock, safer position so it can still be fired single action if needed.

The hop unit is a fantastic design and is very similar to that found on the TM Hicapa 5.1, it uses a tiny little wheel to adjust the hopup and there is plenty of friction there to stop it unwinding or being inconsistent. Another thing that surprised me about the internals is the size of the piston and cylinder, its tiny!

 

Performance

Right, now this is the important bit to me, accuracy is everything, and if it doesn’t hit what you point it at whats the point in carrying it? Well accuracy is quite simply the best I have ever witnessed from a standard GBB pistol. This doesn’t tell the whole story though, the range again is just fantastic, the bb’s stay flat and level for ages. Marui have made what I believe to be the best GBB hop unit ever, its just so easy to use, no fiddly tweaking with allen keys like western arms, no silly little hop key to lose like ksc, and it just out performs anything I have ever seen, brilliant.

Next up is the recoil, I can best compare it to the ksc usp compact, its is so quick and snappy, not heavy weight like a WA SV, but so, so fast. This combined with a very crisp trigger make rapid firing and double taps so easy to do, all the more amazing when you bear in mind that tiny cylinder.

Wolf Armoury have quoted that they cronoed one at 280-300fps on what I assume is 134A, I cronoed mine at 331fps on propane and after the mag had rested in my house which was at a temperature of about 15c. I also noticed absolutely no sign of any cool down effect at all. Gas economy seems very good too, I got 3 magfuls (75 bb’s) before it need topping up (maybe something to do with that small cylinder). It will be interesting to see how reliable it is after its seen some use, but I expect it will live upto Marui’s usual high standards.

 

 

Pros/Cons

 

Pros

Its a real performer, cant be faulted.

 

Its got some lovely design features, very thoughful and well packaged.

 

It’s a Sig P226, the coolest hand gun in the world, the SAS use it, what more can you say?

 

Cons

Those seam marks if im being picky.

 

Plastics used on outer barrel not upto scratch.

 

 

Overall

 

I am more than pleased with this gun, it’s lived upto its promise in everyway, it’s a gun I’ll never sell. Its made all the more fun with those tritium inserts, which just set it off nicely. Thanks go out to Firesupport for the as ever fantastic service.

 

Stripped down, note the nice solid alloy block that the hammer spring rests in

Piccy of night sites, camera doesn’t do them justice though, they are much brighter in the flesh

Edited April 20, 2005 by partyboy

[WhiteFeather]

Very nic read, sounds and looks like Marui should just drop the AEG aspect and move into GBB primarily now if they cna keep it up.

[Crandall]

Thank you, I know what my next GBB will be! Again thanks.

[partyboy]

You are welcome chaps

[WhiteFeather]

We should get Enzo to sticky this in the Review section of the forums.

[Crandall]

yes we should

[HaVoC]

I'm sure they're not tritium inserts - they don't look bright enough.

 

Keep it in a dark room for a few hours and see what happens - if they are tritium, which I doubt, they'll still glow. If not, they only glow for a while after exposure to light. I doubt that Firesupport would give away tritium sights with a gun, considering they cost about £70 on their own. Still, I'd be interested to find out

 

Nice review, though. I'd like one of these, and you've swung me closer to it, but it's just bound to be so...so...common...

[partyboy]

I can assure you they are tritium, they are not the complete trijcon type sight but are simply the tritium inserts, John at Firesupport then drills 3 little 4mm holes in the sights and bonds them in place. As far as i know, he bought a bulk load from Canada. Im gonna get another set to put in my m3 super90. Like i said they are much brighter in the flesh, its just my *suitcasey* camera doesnt do to well in low light/dark conditions

[Marcus]

...but it's just bound to be so...so...common...

 

Just get a nice Sheriff slide (or Zeke slide+frame and make it full metal) and some sexy Nill grips:

 

 

...or why not Hogue rosewood flats:

 

 

And it won't be so common any longer If that's not enough, stick Novak sights on it and bob the hammer for the Ernst Langdon-look

 

Nice review, partyboy. Unfortunate forum nick

 

M.

Edited April 20, 2005 by Marcus

[partyboy]

Nice review, partyboy. Unfortunate forum nick 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Whats wrong with partyboy? have you not seen jackass, very funny

 

Dont like wood grips, my dream is a full metal p226, minus the rail and a nice set of hogue rubber grips

Edited April 20, 2005 by partyboy

[HaVoC]

I can assure you they are tritium, they are not the complete trijcon type sight but are simply the tritium inserts, John at Firesupport then drills 3 little 4mm holes in the sights and bonds them in place. As far as i know, he bought a bulk load from Canada. Im gonna get another set to put in my m3 super90. Like i said they are much brighter in the flesh, its just my *suitcasey* camera doesnt do to well in low light/dark conditions

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Wow, that's quite cool, although there goes another idea of making my guns unique (Trijicon sights)...

[enzo100]

We should get Enzo to sticky this in the Review section of the forums.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh sure make me do everything.... I will gladly have this put into "review" format. I am very glad to hear that you like the gun...I am now one bit more excited to recieve mine

[WhiteFeather]

Im gonna make you do everything that i havent seen you do for this forum. Next on my list is to have you make me a Mod

[COXY]

Great review partyboy, makes me want it even more, this is deffinately my next GBB

[enzo100]

Im gonna make you do everything that i havent seen you do for this forum.  Next on my list is to have you make me a Mod 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You wish budday Arn is gonna put that review up as soon as he gets a chance

[FireFox]

Great review you just made my choice of which GBB to get alot harder.

Edited April 20, 2005 by FireFox

[WhiteFeather]

Remind Arnie to post my M24 review, i sent him another email but its proly lost in the pile of other information he gets on a daily basis.

[andthestoryends]

Ive no doubt the sites are photoluminescent, but tritium sites would cost quite a bit. (I would know, as they sit atop my real steel sig .40)

[Shao14]

Well done! Got to sell my DE fast and use the money to buy this gun now.

[5thElement]

Great review, think i know what i'll be buying next now thanks for taking the time to review the gun, made a really interesting read

[sp00n]

Awesome, will have one as soon as someone releases a quality metal kit and spare magazines.

[BigAl]

Ive no doubt the sites are photoluminescent, but tritium sites would cost quite a bit. (I would know, as they sit atop my real steel sig .40)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Your right Tritium sites would cost alot, but if you read what the dude said in his second post he said they were the original TM sights drilled and tritium inserts added, by Firesupport.

 

If he bought a bulk load of the inserts they probably wouldn't be that expensive, its the machining of the actual sights that makes tritium night sight expensive, not the actual tritium.

[enzo100]

Just bid on a Streamlight M6 for my 226

[Corrust]

Very nice review. I like how you have experience with other gbb's to compare this one too. It really helps to show that you are indeed unbaised (for the most part ) towards the sig. Kudos!

[whiteair0nes]

Great review.