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Western Arms FBI Trial Review

 

FBI4.jpg

 

To begin

 

I’ve always loved Wilson 1911’s and believe that they are amongst the best looking of all the many 1911 derivatives and this one is no exception.

 

The box / packaging will be familiar to anyone who owns one of the current SCW guns, being the black cardboard sporting the large SCW logo.

 

The gun fits snugly inside the polystyrene interior and is supplied with the usual bushing tool, a couple of hex keys and a small bag of bb’s.

 

FBI1.jpg

 

Initial impressions

 

Upon unpacking the gun, the first thing that strikes you is the weight. It’s very heavy, coming in at around 1017g. Both the slide and frame are made from heavyweight material, being a mixture of abs resin and I believe Zinc. This also gives a nice cold to the touch feeling.

 

The second, is the finish. The gun is stated as having a fluorocarbon resin coating, which is Teflon / PTFE based - not unlike the coating you will find on non stick cookware. This finish is simply superb, absolutely flawless satin black with the most wonderful feel.

 

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Moving on

 

All of the controls are pure 1911, so will be instantly familiar to anyone who has owned one. The working grip safety is very smooth in operation, leading up to the beautifully curved beavertail.

 

Markings are sparse on this model, I believe replicating the real item. The right of the slide has no markings at all and the left has just “ 1996 A2 .45 AUTO “. The chamber is simply marked “ Wilson .45 ACP “.

 

The grips are in fact metal on this model, obviously to add to the weight. The simulated wood finish has been executed perfectly and looks very attractive indeed.

 

Sights are the Novak type with inlaid white dots.

 

Takedown is standard 1911, so I won’t elaborate further on this.

 

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Trigger

 

This is the familiar three hole unit finished in silver. The adjustable trigger stop seemed to be perfectly adjusted from the factory, travelling just a further 0.5mm after the hammer is released. I would say that the pull weight was medium.

 

 

 

Magazine

 

This is the new “ R “ type with a 24 round capacity and featuring replaceable feed jaws. WA’s are often used in practical pistol, where some stages require a rapid magazine change where the initial magazine is simply dropped from the pistol. Sometimes the magazine could land badly and break off the feed jaws, rendering the magazine useless. I believe this is the reason behind the introduction of the replaceable jaws. WA magazines rarely ( in my experience ) leak and this was no exception.

 

This model has a large plastic bumper, which I think suit’s the gun nicely. One drawback is that most gas cans do not have a nozzle long enough to reach the filling valve and requires a nozzle extension. I strongly feel that these models should be supplied with the extension from WA in the box.

 

Hop Up

 

This is now easily adjustable through the ejection port using a hex screw just forward of the feed ramp. ( A vast improvement over the older models which required slide removal ).

 

In use

 

Using 134a @ 21c, this gun gave a very crisp and satisfying blow back, cycling very quickly. This is also helped by the superb trigger. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but this gun has quite a distinctive sound and feel when fired and is very addictive.

 

Accuracy at 6m was very impressive, placing the 10 rounds inside a 2” circle with no “ flyers “. This was partly expected, as this model is fitted with the 6.03mm accuracy barrel.

 

I don’t have a chronograph to enable fps readings, but the gun certainly “ felt “ powerful.

 

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In conclusion

 

With the exception that the magazine requires an extension to enable filling, I am finding it difficult to fault this gun.

 

At around £180 it’s doubtful anyone would want to skirmish this, but it’s so addictive to shoot, it won’t sit around as a display piece either.

 

The build quality, fit and finish is simply superb. This gun oozes quality and realism more than any other gbb I’ve ever used and I cannot help but to highly recommend it.

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Thanks for the quickie perspective. I would have bought one myself if I didn't already have a Wilson CQB. As for the velocity, I have a few of the SCW 1911 single column pistols and they chrono approximately 250 FPS (134/0.2g).

 

No problem. Thanks for the velocity info.

 

I normally use .25's on the SCW's - they seem a bit more accurate.

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