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Maruzen M870

by Arnie

 

 

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Maruzen
M870 Review
by
Neil (aka AirsoftScotland) images/edited by Arnie

Stock
Specifications
Model Remington
m870 ABS stock
FPS
430fps
HFC22 / 1BB
Length: 925mm
Weight: 2,200g

Ammo
capacity:

4 + 1 shells

3-10 bb’s
per shell


Part
1: Ordering from abroad

Part2:
Maruzen M870 grip version.

(A shotgun enthusiast’s
musings on ordering from abroad and the shotgun itself)

Ordering
from abroad

The countdown After viewing the new release
section on Den Trinity I saw to my amazement the new version of the M870.
Having always been interested in the full stock version of this replica, though
never realistically opting to add it to my personal armoury due to its size.
I was virtually over the moon when they told me that it would cost around
the same as your average GBB pistol ($179 plus shipping) With that in mind,
I set about the ordering process.


The chase Having heard on good authority
(take note Arnie, as this is you) that Iescrow was the best course
of action for ordering from abroad, I went ahead and got my quote. At a little
over $330 (Just over £200) including postage and Iescrow’s fee I decided
to trust my fate with the people in Hong Kong. With funds and charges agreed
it was down to credit card details. Now for some strange reason, Iescrow don’t
believe in secure servers, instead they would rather have you fax them a copy
of the statement on their page.

Now for someone
without a fax machine, this was rather infuriating to say the least, but never
the less I went about securing myself some fax software with relevant licence
agreements, which was cheaper than buying a fax machine by at least £50.
With this in hand, I printed off my documents, signed them, scanned them in
and faxed them off. To my dismay I received an email saying that my fax document
was too dark and a request for me to send again. 3 attempts later and several
filters via PhotoShop I had my statement verified, only to have a request
for a credit card statement with billing stub attached.

Not being
one to keep all my paperwork, I thought this to be somewhat of an inconvenience.
Though low and behold I find a statement with stub attached, I must have somehow
managed to curb my spending that month. With my statement scanned and faxed
off, I sat and waited patiently for my package.

Final
wait
With everything that I needed to do, done, I waited and
waited some more for my package, eagerly checking with TNT online tracking
for my package. A day later my consignment had been delivered to Edinburgh
Airport, “result” I thought to myself. Not so…

The package
cleared the next day and was passed onto the Aberdeen depot. A day later I
was rather concerned that in one day the package had flown from one side of
the planet to the other, and in another day a couple of hours up the road.
Though this day it hadn’t managed to travel a measly 18 miles to my house.
Checking up again with TNT it had been re-shipped to Edinburgh for customs
to have a good shifty at. Accompanying that great news, an email arrived with
a gloomy statement from customs and excise. At this point I was a little worried
to say the least.

Thinking
that some ham-fisted goon from customs would have a good rummage around inside
my replica and then dismantle it into as many pieces as he possibly could.
A simple phone call later and all possible doubts in my head were removed.
It had already been inspected and was on its way back up to me.

“Great”
I thought. I should have it tomorrow by the latest then. Again, not so. It
was only on Tuesday, 4 days later, that I actually received my package, an
entire 8 days after it was shipped from Hong Kong and around 20 days from
my initial inquiry.

In
Summary
Well, with my shotgun in my gun case and my pocket
being slightly lighter. I say that ordering from abroad is a worthy way to
purchase your Airsoft products. With most overseas having a money back guarantee
on the products being seized by customs and Iescrow holding your money until
you actually get your product and are completely happy with it, there is no
real way of getting screwed over. The savings you make buying from abroad
are well worth the little extra trouble thrown in with setting up the purchase.
But from now on, all future purchases by myself will be a lot faster, with
my account already set up with Iescrow.


M870
review

Gunning down on realism In my time as an
airsofter, little has impressed me more than the general realism of the replicas
used by the participants. In my opinion the most realistic replicas are the
Maruzen range of shotguns. For example, each shot fired uses a whole shell and
either ejects it automatically (M1100, though not the M1100 combat shorty) or
expels the used cartridge after it has been cycled through the use of the pump
action (all M870 models). This differs from Marui’s range, which I find frankly
disappointing in the stakes of realism. This may not bode well with all airsofters
that are there to fill the surrounding area with as much plastic as they can,
but for the enthusiast this is just perfect…

Appearance
“Yowzer” was my first thought after I peeled back the rather lack
lustre green cardboard box from the m870. On first appearances I thought that
the majority of the m870 was constructed from metal parts, due to it’s weight.

Though this isn’t true.
The metal parts made up most of the moving parts, but not everything. The
pump fore grip and the pistol grip itself are made from a marble effect ABS
plastic, which frankly looks stunning. The body of the shotgun is made from
a matte effect ABS plastic which is a very convincing shade of black, much
better than Marui’s efforts in the metal receiver stakes.

My only concern
with the appearance of the shotgun was the rather strange arrangement
of holes above the pistol grip. After looking through the manual these
are for the addition of a folding stock very similar to the SPAS folding
stock. Staring down the barrel of the shotgun, you are met with several
inches of darkness ending up with the end of the inner barrel hidden
away in the background. A very nice touch, which adds to the overall
realism of the piece.

A strange choice
of finishes on the ejector port covering leads me to wonder why Maruzen
didn’t choose a shiny piece of metal, like that on the loading bay hatch,
but it still looks good, if a little different. Overall, I can’t fault
the appearance of this simply stunning replica.

Lock
and load
First thing to do with the m870 is locate the
gas well. Which is nestled within the pistol grip. A nice touch here is
that it’s removable, meaning that spare gas wells can be carried in combat
instead of a rather conspicuous can of gas. With a rather large squirt
of green gas (I warn you now powerful gas may damage your weapon, but
who cares eh?) I was ready to fire the shotgun, well not quite. Spilling
open a couple of cartridge packs (I don’t care if you want to call them
shot shells, as I will simply ignore you) I then proceeded to fill each
with 3 0.2g BBs. All that was left to do was to put them into the shogun
and start having fun.

This is where my
first problem occurred. Placing the first shell in, but not quite far
enough for it to go past the catch that grips the brass on the rear
end of the cartridge, it was pushed back into the body of the m870 by
the spring from the shell tube. Not being able to cock the m870 in this
position, I had to remove the front end of the shell tube, take out
the spring and the spring guide to fish the shell out.

Basically you have
to ensure that each shell goes past the catch inside the shell tube,
done so by a thumb being pushed inside the loading bay after the shell.
With this minor problem solved, it was onto firing. At 5 metres, this
was very impressive. A good spread and very nice speed. At 10 metres
it was getting a little strained and past 20 was simply a case of hope
that you’ll scare the opponent with your flashy gas shotgun.

Another problem with the
m870 itself is the ejection of shells. If the pump action isn’t cycled all
the way back, the shell may not be ejected but another is fed from the shell
tube. Resulting in 2 shells stuck where only 1 is meant to be. Again removing
the front end and fishing about a bit solves this. Obviously, these points
go to show that the m870 isn’t the most practical replica out there, though
with at least 25 shots from one gas fill, you can’t complain at this for a
backup weapon or even a main in a CQB environment.

Bits and
bobs
The gun itself is supplied with 3 cartridges,
which is nowhere near enough for the hardened shooter out there. So
with my purchase, I ordered 3 more packs of 5, resulting with 18 shells
in total.

Another point with
the Maruzen shotguns is the ejection of used cartridges, so a simple
catcher is used to alleviate the problem of losing your valuable shells.

Not the most aerodynamic
of designs, the catcher itself is more practical than anything else,
and can hold around 15 ejected shells before they clog up the ejector
port.

With the shell catcher
came the shell carrier, which is designed to fit on the stock of the
m870/m1100, though with a little jiggery pokery I managed to fit it
onto the offside of the body with a rather pleasing result.

With no iron sights
provided on the shotgun itself, the application of some sort of aiming
device is quite a good idea, though nothing to accurate as a shotgun
isn’t exactly a precise tool.

By luck
more than anything else, it turned out that the pressure switch cable
on my beamshot laser was just the right length for it to be attached to
the pump grip and the laser itself to be underslung on the upper barrel.

This obviously allows
for quick targeting which is the prime requisite with shotgun shooting
in Airsoft for me. With all these pieces stuck onto the m870, it makes
a lovely gun look even better (well minus the shell catcher)

Conclusion
With
everything I’ve said in this review, the final opinion could go either
way. As this replica has both good points and some bad points to boot
it isn’t going to receive a startlingly high final score.

Appearance

5/5
Stunning from all angles, scary from
front on

Build
Quality

4/5
Quibbles about the slightly loose pump grip, nothing else though

Performance

3/5
Great use of gas, shame about the reliability

Value
for Money

4/5
Came cheap, though the same amount of
money could buy an AEG

Overall
Potential

4/5
Amazing to look at, great
to fire, annoying to fix

Comedy
photo to go here

External
Links:

Reviews
“Airsoft
Base”

:M870 review -the only English review I could find (Arnie)
Doraguner’s
M870 Riot version review
– a review in Japanese
“Airsoft
Guns in Russia”
M870 review – a review in Russian

Other Interesting
links:
Remington
M870 Manual
– The official manual for the real-steel Remington
Pump action
SureFire
Tac Mount
– A Page with details of kits to mount Surefire lights
and lasers onto the shotgun
Magazine
Extension Kit
@ ATI Gun Stocks – details of magasine extension
tubes for the M870/M1100
Operator’s
Manual
– the official US Government’s operators guide to the M870
Custom
Remington 870 laser mounting
– a custom method for
fitting a laser unit to the end of the 870, not a method I would recommend
though.
“The
Tactical Shotgun

– an article about shotguns and their use in a tactical environment. It’s
a VERY good read

The original website is from this page here: http://www.angelfire.com/tx/ShotGun/
“The MultiPurpose Shotgun”

Comment
on this review in the forums


Last modified:
Wednesday, May 9, 2001 9:37 AM copyright 2001 ArniesAirsoft




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