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Tanaka S&W M66 4" gas revolver


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Ooookay... I promised I wouldn´t harass you anymore with my lousy pictures, but here´s one more:

 

post-715-1116957437_thumb.jpg

 

In this image you can see the Tanaka M66 grip frame without grip panels. The real grip frame butt is not going to get any more square than this, altough it´s interesting that the whole gripframe looks like it´s been assembled on top of a round butt grip frame. The round butt grip inside is a separate part and has little to do with actual framework. I you wan´t to convert M66 4" into round butt, you´ll need complete new frame.

 

Tanaka manual refers only to the 2½ inch barreled version, which has round butt. So their explosive diagram only has info for the snub-nosed model, with corresponding grip frame.

 

Also, I´m looking at my Hogue Monogrip package, I have spotted three separate stickers attached, all clearly stating that this grip fits S&W K and L frame square butts. One sticker even lists all compatible models, including M66. And a manual with stamp:"Packaged with Pride By Dave W" on.

 

I tried to fit the grip even without the stirrup (clip piece at the bottom), but still the fit wasn´t near perfect.

 

Something I have missed here?

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Doesn't look like you've missed anything, but that STILL looks like a round butt grip on a square butt frame to me :(

 

Maybe they just put the wrong grip in the wrong packet? They couldn't be CONVERSION grips could they?

 

I have to admit, though, I've never fitted non-original Hogues to a Tanaka (anyone know for sure if the ones Tanaka ship with ARE real?), but I've put 3 different wood grips on various 29s and they all fit fine.

 

Also, Seth has posted photos of his X-Framed 500 (basically a round butt K/L frame grip) with S&W K/L frame grips and they look fine...

 

Cheers.

Edited by snowman
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Ooookay, once again a painful remainder of how important it is to look before write... ;)

 

A quick visit at the Hogue website made me wonder the bottom grip screw. In my Tanaka the screw was left clearly visible, outside the rubber grip. In the website, however, the screw was all inside grip bottom. So, after only a brief study (and some knifing: carving some rubber off the screw hole) I discovered that there was a small metal spacer on top the threading, which apparently prevented the grip to fully contact the stirrup. So I removed the spacer and tried again, voilá! Perfect 100% snug fit, just like it should be. No gaps, no shifting.

 

Sorry guys, my bad! At least now I can sleep my night in peace... ;)

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Vektor, congrats on the revolver fix, please put them pics up. Now finally I can sleep at night as well :)

 

In any case, I think Tanaka's frame dimensions and designs are flawless to the real steel. Too bad their grips could use some work ;-) The Hogue "Sorbathane" recoil absorbing grips that came with the Tanaka M500 were a tight fit, but creaked and flexed when picking up the gun.

 

As Snowman mentioned, the K-frame Rosewood grips I installed on the 500 were an even BETTER fit than the stock Hogues- they fit very tight, with no gaps, creaks, or squeaking. They don't look as "tactical" as the Hogues, but they look and feel better.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry, no updates on this topic for some time. I´ve been just too busy to concentrate on this and frankly I´ve been rather sick and tired with more than one airsoft "downside" lately (for example, this will be the last season I actually do skirmishing).

 

But my summer vacation takes off in mid-July, so hopefully I´ll have more time to finish this review up by then! Maybe shoot few (better quality) pics and provide some chrono data as well. In case you haven´t noticed, Tanaka revolver expert Cerebus has also been active lately: http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/inde...t=0#entry234790

Few helpful pointers for attempted accuracy improvements.

 

But, I´ll get back on this at some point!

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  • 9 months later...

Sorry, I practically forgot this matter completely. I´ve been a bit distracted for past months (since July ´05, to be precise) and lost interest in many things. In Tanaka revolvers, for instance...

 

But, if it´s any help here´s few observations I´ve made during these "months of absence":

 

In my original review I claimed that the M66 shot pretty much on par with Marui SOCOM NBB. This, of course, was later on tested not true. When I did my first shootings with both guns, it was quite cold here (as it is now too). I had filled up my Tanaka revolver´s gas tank indoors and let it sit still for couple of minutes before shooting, while with my SOCOM I practically filled up the gas and started shootign. So, SOCOM suffered a dramatic cooldown during that test session, M66 not.

 

When weather got warmer later on last Spring, I got to test my M66 in warmer weather and the thruth came out. With HFC134a gas M66 delivers really pathetic power. I have to write that of the guns I´ve owned, only Marui M19 4" Combat Magnum has performed worse than this Tanaka M66. I still don´t have a chrono, but by rough estimate M66 shot below 200FPS with HFC134a. Green Gas, then again, provided a very welcome addition to power, raising the FPS in somewhere of 240-250 neighbourhood (remember, I have no chrono, so this is just an estimate). A poor performance for Green Gas, yes, but at least it does increase the power into mid-range level. With one charge of HFC134a I managed to shoot easily over 100 shots, while Green Gas propelled rough 60 shots. Weather at that test day was about +20C and I used 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3g BBs.

 

Oh, I almost forgot: Green Gas also improved gun´s sound quite nicely! Altough, without blowback clanck or any kind of recoil, we still can´t describe it "whopping" shooting impression...

 

Accuracy, as stated also in this thread, is awful. Adjusting the hopup has little effect on accuracy, as does heavier BBs. Like Cerebus has written earlier, some Tanaka revolvers suffer from poor cylinder timing, and I suspect this is the case with this gun as well. I haven´t looked into it, like I wrote above I´ve been rather disappointed with Tanaka revolvers in general, so I´m having hard time motivating myself into more detailed inspection.

 

Sledge: Unless you have mostly springer pistols, I´m afraid the Tanaka M66 4" will disappoint you in terms of performance. Still, I find it very nice showpiece, albeit a little lightweight to hold. For skirmishing maybe one of Tanaka´s older S&W N-frames with fixed hopup could do better. Or maybe the Tanaka´s forecoming new M629 4"?

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