A COP’s Story The Compact Off-Duty Police, or COP, was a small, 4-barreled, double action only, derringer-style pistol. Made of stainless steel, the pistol chambered the .357 Magnum and .38 Special rounds and fired from four different barrels. Compact enough to fit in a leg holster, it was designed as a back-up weapon for police officers. Like a double action revolver, there was no need for an external manual safety as the trigger pull was long and hard. The COP certainly wasn’t designed for accuracy, as you would imagine. With four barrels the gun was used as a last-ditch, close-range defense weapon.
To load the COP, the shooter retracts the barrel latch and then tilts the barrels upwards, revealing the quadruple chambers. The shooter loads four rounds of .357 or .38 and snaps the barrels close. The gun is now ready to fire. The gun fires one round at a time with each pull of the trigger by means of four firing pins and a rotating ratchet. When the trigger is pulled the ratchet positions itself on one of the firing pins; then when the hammer strikes the ratchet it pushes against the pin and discharges a round. If the trigger is pulled again the ratchet rotates onto the next firing pin.
The COP pistol was short lived because it never found popularity with the police and civilian markets. It couldn’t compete with snub-nosed revolvers and compact semi-autos. Production of the COP soon seized and COP, Inc., the manufacturer of the pistol, went under.
Impersonating a COP Marushin, the maker of non-blowback and 8mm revolvers and pistols, has come out with a decent replica of the COP pistol with a relatively low price. They produced two models: one silver and the other black (though I’ve never seen a real COP with blued finish). The gun, if you don’t already know, fires 8mm BBs. It’s packaged in a colorfully designed box, making it look almost toy-like. It comes with a 4-page manual with a target and small bag of 8mm 0.34g BBs.
At first glance the COP looks like a cheap $1.98 toy gun. And cheap it was; I bought the silver model from Redwolf for $69.50 USD. But upon closer inspection the plastic is of good quality and dare I say it’s better than some of the higher-priced GBB pistols that I own! Most of the gun is of semi-gloss silver ABS, which is slightly different from the genuine COP’s semi-matte stainless. Parts such as the trigger, latch/rear sight, back strap and some internals are made of metal. Tipping the scale at a mere 400g, the airsoft model is only half the weight of the real COP.
The grip is rather short, and anyone with large hands probably will not find a secure grasp. Hell, anyone with medium hands will find their pinky finger dangling with no place to rest. One question that keeps popping into my head is, “How can anyone fire the powerful .357 Magnum with such a small grip and short barrel?” But with the airsoft model that isn’t an issue. The grip panels are made of black ABS plastic, in contrast to the real COP’s brown wood.
The front sight is of a simple “half-coin” post and the barrel release latch also serves as the rear sight. The gas injection valve is at the bottom of the grip. On the right side of the frame, just to the rear of the trigger is a safety switch -- a feature that’s missing on the real COP. Pushing it down renders the trigger immovable. The trademarks are all there, copied to near perfection. Loading it is similar to loading the real COP. Simply pull the barrel latch to the rear and tilt the barrels upwards. Pop in four BBs into the chambers and snap it back close. The hop-up is fixed and in keeping true to the original, the gun fires one shot at a time. The gun fires by means of a rotating gas router. The exit valve turns anticlockwise and positions itself onto one of the chambers with each pull of the trigger.
Performance (or lack thereof) I used HFC134a gas and 8mm 0.34g BBs. I fired the gun indoors at 70º F and I also let the gas tank warm to room temperature. Remember I used heavier 8mm BBs, so the velocity diminished quite a bit. So how’s the velocity on this thing? I ran it through my chronograph and calculated an average of 184 FPS, with a high of 211. No, the chrono isn’t broken; those numbers are correct! I had previously owned one of Marushin’s 8mm revolvers and the velocity was disappointing, so I didn’t have any good performance expectations when I decided to buy the COP. Still, having a gas gun with a muzzle energy of 0.53 joule isn’t so bad. It’s equivalent to a 0.2g BB at 240 FPS. Energy wise it competes with some of the small GBB pistols that I have. The COP was able to fire 47 shots before the gas depleted. Of course using top gas will increase the velocity. But since the price is cheap, I don’t know how durable the ABS is. I doubt it will last long before it shatters to pieces. Then again, if it does, the price won’t keep me from buying a new one. The thing I don’t like about some of Marushin’s 8mm pistols is that they didn’t improve the gas system and compensate for the heavier 0.34g BB. I wouldn’t mind getting half the gas efficiency if it meant boosting the velocity to an adequate level. The accuracy is just as disappointing as the power, but this is understandable due to the 4-barrel deviation. On four successive shots the tightest group I could get was 2.25 inches at 16 feet. Average groupings were around four inches. Good accuracy simply cannot be obtained when a gun has four barrels that are slightly off center!
External links: Links to external sites of interest.
Written by Redhawk Last modified: Wednesday, November 3, 2004 5:59 AM Copyright ArniesAirsoft |
