Looks: Well first off, if you have heard anything about the KSC MK23, you have heard it is an OK gun, great if you upgrade it. I got it with this intention in mind, but this is all written with it in stock form. This is a very large pistol for big hands and has a lot of heft to it, and a very large mag. The frame is a blackish gray color and wonderfully heavy with all actuating knobs made from metal, including the trigger, slide release, decocker, safety, and hammer. Unlike most gas guns today, the socom has lots of weight even when the magazine is removed from it. The slide is a slightly lighter color and not quite as matte, but very convincing. The trademarks are modeled after the Phase III socom. It is clearly stamped “HK MK23 USSOCOM Cal. 45” with official trademarks all over the gun. KSC thought they were very tricky and placed a very small and almost “unnoticeable” mark under the decocker that can only be seen if it is depressed reading “KSC Corporation.” I was happy to see it there as opposed to the other side of the slide though.
Unfortunately the barrel is made out of plastic and with usage of the socom silencer will strip itself. The only advice I can give is be very careful with this part as the threads are not strong. It has on it a green O-ring to mimic the one on the real steel as well. Both sites are adjustable and have plastic light green dots in them. The magazine is a full sized double stack and holds 28 rounds. It has markings on the rear for “3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 12” bullets.
Time to rack back the slide. The slide catch works and holds the slide back and shows the internal nozzle and top of the magazine. On to the release…… enter the biggest problem with the gun. It has the weakest return spring of all the gas guns I have owned. The slide returns very disappointingly slowly and barely makes a little click when it gets there. After deciding to get back to that in a bit, I move on to the decocker. The decocker works very well and is easily accessible for a right handed shooter. The safety can only be engaged with the hammer back, and clicks into place. It has a white and red dot to denote safe and fire respectively and can be accessed on either side. One note worht mentioning - the decocker can not be used if the safety is engaged. The trigger pull is very light, but not quite as smooth as my TM M9, and like everything else on this gun is quite sizable and has ribbing to help give friction. The mag release is ambidextrous and I find very refreshing, no more mags being pushed out by tight holsters or by bumping the mag release like on other guns. When depressed the mag slides right out due to its heft, so be careful. The mag fills like all other gas guns so I won’t go into the details of it. Disassembly: The KSC MK23 dissembles like its real steel counter part, release the mag, pull back the slide, and align the pin, pop it out and slide the slide forward and off. This is where we come back to the return spring. Upon inspecting it, I find that there are two springs on the guide rod, but the outer one is the sluggish problem. The larger return spring is very flimsy and doesn’t stand a chance of moving the giant slide back at any decent rate. Keep in mind this may just be a problem with the heavy weight version though. The effects are multiplied when using the KSC SOCOM Silencer on the gun. Screwing on this accessory doubles the length it and also makes it more front heavy, though not unwieldy. Back to the return spring, when releasing the slide it is so sluggish you’d be lucky if it made it all the way back. Side note: the KSC socom silencer has a small barrel extension that if mated correctly will increase accuracy of the gun.
Fill the magazine is very easy to do by hand and can be done on the field if you have spare bb’s around. But it is no a pour in design, rather they went for a more realistic double stack where there is no slit in the middle to see the bb’s. This has its pluses and minuses. First it doesn’t let you see how much ammo you have left, but the good sides are that it looks more realistic, and it also makes it much less likely for dirt and other such to get in the magazine, and scratch up the ammo. When this is done, cock it and let it rip.
Target 1 shows the results of shooting at 15 feet using the NRA kneeing position, taking a 2 second pause between shots. This proved to give great results and I was satisfied at how it shot considering the size of the target. Target 2 shows the results of shooting at 15 feet standing, pausing between shots about ½ to 1 second. I was very impressed by these targets. Although if you have to shot in rapid succession it could prove inaccurate due to a large heavy slide that throws off you aim after every shot, much more then most gas guns with the exception of all metal guns. I don’t have a chronometer, so I could not do accurate tests. I can say that in the can test it performed about on par with a tm m9. Although it was slightly weaker, it was much more accurate then my m9. I believe this to be caused by a much longer inner barrel. Trouble spots: Having had this replica for all of two days, I can see two areas that have the potential for problems. The fist being the same as on the western arms hicap series, the top portion of the ejection port has already started showing wear. The second is the threads spoken of earlier. I have heard many rumors about Part Number 66 breaking, but only time will tell on that one.
Well that’s my story and I’m stinking to it, by
Thomas J. Vallely IV (TJ)
External Links: TBA Site links: TBA Comment on this review in the forums Last modified: Saturday, August 16, 2003 6:17 PM Copyright 2003 ArniesAirsoft
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