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KSC
Steyr Tactical Pistol (TMP) Review
by
JamesWilson (aka Jimmy) images/edited
by Arnie
KSC Steyr Tactical Machine Pistol (TMP) Hmm…where to start? Well the TMP is widely renowned as one of the best GBBs in existence, by anyone who knows anything, and so naturally I had to buy one sooner or later, if just to see what all the fuss was about. I, of course, opted for the “full set”, I couldn’t resist the look of that huge suppressor and scope mount.
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Looks Well as you can see from the pictures the TMP follows the Steyr tradition of odd looking weapons, in this case I think it looks far better than the AUG, which was a tad skinny looking for my liking. Unlike the huge majority of airsoft guns this is one which would be worse if it looked as if it was made of metal, seeing as the real steel is made of polymer for the most part. The receiver of the airsoft version is very nicely finished, with a nice texture on it and ribbed parts on the pistol grip, the foregrip and the front of the receiver. |
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The Steyr logo is present on the rear left hand side of the upper receiver, along with the words “Steyr Mannlicher” and “Made in Austria” on the opposite side. The ejector port cover, which is a nice chunky block of metal, has TMP 9x19 molded onto it as well as a serial number and some of those odd little pictures of eagles and other letters which surely only an armourer would understand. All the parts which are metal on the real thing are also metal on this one too, apart from the cocking handle, which I presume isn’t plastic on the real one. |
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The suppressor is also lovely piece of work, and weighs a fair bit as well. It has a blued steel finish with Steyr Mannlicher 9mm para in white lettering at the end, and it screws very firmly onto the barrel once you have unscrewed the standard metal flash-hider. Inside the suppressor you’ll find that a brass inner barrel extension which goes about halfway along it and a set of baffles very much like those you would find on a real one in the last half.
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How it feels The TMP is surprisingly comfortable to hold, especially compared to other weapons of its type such as the Uzi series and Mac11, whose vertical pistol grips I find very un-ergonomic. However, the pistol grip on this gun is shaped at the front as well as the back, unlike the others, making it far better suited to the average persons hands. The foregrip is also very comfortable, being a cross of the Beretta 93rs foregrip and that of the MP5k. |
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There are a few slight niggles I have about the way this gun feels. The first and most serious is the cocking handle, which is both very wobbly and very plasticcy. It also seems to stick rather a lot, which isn’t terribly handy if you’ve just got the TMP out to shoot someone with in the middle of a game. The second of the little “faults” is the bolt release catch. It may be exactly the same as the one on the real steel, I don’t know, but it just doesn’t look or feel right in my opinion. |
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The magazines the TMP hold about 41 BBs and is close enough to the size of an MP5 magazine that it will fit in the same pouches, which is a bonus. Smaller magazines which don’t stick out the bottom of the gun, designed for the SPP, are also available, just in case you need to make the gun as small as possible for the purposes of being a sneaky beggar. One problem the TMP has, simply due to its shape and the fact that its just in between a pistol and an SMG, sizewise, is that its awkward to carry, if it’s not being used as a primary weapon. |
Performance The look and feel of the TMP are very good, but performance is where this piece comes into its own. From 10 metres I was easily able to put 10 shots on semi-auto within an inch grouping. With the selector on fully automatic mode the 10 shot group widened to 3.5 inches. The suppressor did seem to have an affect on the accuracy, some shots would be exactly on target and others seem to fly off in random directions. This is presumably due to the transition of the BB from the inner barrel of the TMP to the inner barrel of the silencer. Either the BB travels through fine, and so the shot is more accurate due to the doubled barrel length, or the BB is deflected as it hits the side of the second barrel, and so it leaves the barrel at an odd angle.
Without having a proper chronometer I can’t accurately measure the power of the TMP, but I do believe, from shooting various cans and boxes and comparing the results to guns which I do know the FPS of, that with Green Gas it shoots at between 310-330 fps, which is not at all bad for a stock gun.
