Bell MEU(SOC)

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Bell M-45 MEUSOC Review (with mini review of STAR grips)

(EG728 in Bell nomenclature)

China cheapsoft galore! This is another example of GBB coming out of China recently. Worth it or trash? Note that I already replaced the grips for this review. The stock ones are TRASH. Like I said for my last Chinese made gun (AGM M4A1, first run), keep in mind the unbeatable price! The ARMY version is $10 more so this is the most affordable of all the MEUs on the market today.

Real Steel History

The MEU(SOC) is a M1911A1 type pistol issued to certain members of Marine Expeditionary Units. Early examples were USGI M1911A1s manufactured after 1945, with new safeties, triggers, and grips fitted to a deburred frame. Then Kimber Interim Close Quarters Battle (ICQB) Pistols were purchased and fitted with Pachmayr Grips . In 2005, the USMC announced their intention to buy Springfield Armory Professional Model pistols as the base of an all new MEU handgun. This is the pistol that Bell intended to recreate.

Buying a MEU

Being a clone of the Marui MEU, this is considerably cheaper. Ehobby Asia sells them for $59.99 apiece and shipping, though pricey, is extremely fast. (2-3 days) If you don’t like ordering from overseas, I believe Airsplat on the West Coast stocks them for around a hundred dollars.

The STAR tan grips sell for $10 for 2 sets. I like them, you may not.

Initial Impressions

My cardboard box arrived with the ###### beat out of it. Luckily, this was inside (along with M4 parts and the grips) The pistol came in a black, padded case.

Looked like this, just with black imitation Pachmayr grips. (Toss these out ASAP- they’re hard plastic, made in three pieces)

The little baggy contained a nice spare parts kit, which was a thoughtful touch by Bell and makes this deal even better. Inside were a barrel bushing tool, plastic loading nozzle, a metal loading nozzle (WOW), and nozzle internals.

Picking the pistol up, it is heavy for an airsoft gun. It weighs a lot more than my Marui M1911A1 (for obvious reasons) and feels EXACTLY like the Kimber Classic I shot last weekend. How interesting…

Score: 9/10 (because of the grips, but the gun’s only $60!)

Externals

The finish is a nice dull black. The actual coating on the slide is actually very, very nice for a $60 pistol. Almost better than some custom $385 MEU’s I’ve handled. The engravings could be deeper but whatever, you’re not going to see them while shooting at someone. The trigger is a three hole silver one, the extended beavertail safety is there, as is the ambi safety. Good work Bell, everything is there! The Slide has the front and rear cocking serrations, and the sights are NOVAK imitations, without the white dots.

Again, Bell was rather thoughtful here. At my local CQB venue, every single hi-capa has its front sight missing. Not going to happen with this handgun as a small screw holds the front sight in place. As usual, the rear sight is held in place by the blowback unit.

Sight picture, please forgive the image quality

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The magazine is the brushed silver type with the mag bumper, which in real life provides room for an eighth round, resulting in a 8+1 capacity. Bell copied Marui’s design and thankfully the fill valve doesn’t need an extension to be reached. It holds the advertised 27 rounds I think, but I prefer around 22 to leave enough gas for a solid slide lock.

The STAR grips are simply tan plastic and do the job well. They won’t ever slip in your hands.

Score: 8.5/10- needs better sights and engravings, but what the hell

 

Internals

So this answers the question of whether or not this handgun is worth it. The internals seemed promising from the start as there was actually very little grease on the inside, making it as clean as a higher end pistol right out of the box. To access the internals, first remove the mag, pull the slide back to the smaller slide notch and punch out the takedown pin from the other side. Push the slide forward and voila. Then remove the barrel bushing, recoil plug, guide rod and spring, and finally the inner/outer barrel assembly. The nozzle is typical plastic and seems durable enough. The outer barrel is a nicely finished metal piece.

Pistol field-stripped

Slide- note how clean it is

Lower- again note how little grease there is

Field-stripped slide- Oh my god, the inside is clean!

Frontal view- there’s no shavings or ###### in there…nice

Score: 10/10, and I mean it

Function and Performance

Same old GBB procedure. Load the magazine with gas and BBs (this magazine does hold green gas beautifully!), insert magazine, rack slide, disengage safety, pull the trigger. Very straightforward.

As for performance, here’s the shocker. The hop-up isn’t a weak POS. It actually over hops .2g BBs (unlike the Tercel) and can handle .28g BBs. It probably shoots around 320 fps (to be verified this weekend) and has excellent accuracy. I can hit an 8 inch wide tree from around 65 feet consistently. (This being once the hop-up and barrel have been cleaned, but on factory hop-up setting)

The blowback is the great part. It has strong, crisp blowback with a loud, loud report. It will fire 22 rounds and then lock back with a decent amount of force. This is especially impressive given the weight of the pistol and the fact that it is a metal slide with a TM-style single stack magazine.

Score: 9/10, not joking here, this is excellent for a ACM pistol. Two thumbs up for Bell

Compatibility and Comparison to Others

The magazine is a beautiful piece. It doesn’t wiggle at all in the magwell and needs a little push to lock in, like a real M1911. (suck on that ARMY, this actually holds its gas too) I tested the magazine with my Tercel and Marui M1911A1s, and both work fine with the magazine.

The slide of course fits other TM cloned M1911s. I didn’t take a photo, but it works. The grips have weird weights in them so I swapped them out completely with my Tercel weights to allow the STAR grips to fit. So yes, it isn’t as good as the TM performance wise, but it trumps my Tercel M1911A1 and apparently the ARMY one.

Conclusion

Bell is now my favorite ACM handgun producer…for an unbeatable price I got a great MEU replica. Not bad for a company that used to be poorly regarded for their terrible G3 clones. Bell has certainly expanded their horizons and upped their standards. I’d say their future looks promising. The MEU is solid, fires well, and looks the part as well.

Overall: 9/10

[Phuncz]

I can concur, I bought the same one (Silver) 2 weeks ago and I had loads of fun with it. I also bought a TM mag to see the difference and because the Bell ones were out of stock. I'm getting different results as I have tested 3 types of gas and different types of filling them. I had a problematic fill valve on the Bell mag, after some tinkering it works quite good.

 

After lots of play, the thin spring in the blowback unit somehow got lodged between the slide and the blowback unit. It deformed and it would dislodge itself after a few shots again and again. I found a replacement spring and it did the same, I cut off the bent piece (it's 3-4mm shorter than the space it occupies) and now it hasn't let me down yet.

 

I'm considering getting another one as I love them, for the price it is amazing. I was thinking about a good TM but none of them have metal slides and I don't want to spend 300$ on a GBB just yet.

[Anachronism327]

sounds good, maybe I'll pick one up to complement my ARMY MEU.

 

How's the color on the grips? in the pics it looks really bright, but that maybe the camera?

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The grips are a light tan. They aren't that bright though, that's camera flash as it was cloudy outside when I took pictures.

 

If you're going to buy one, definitely get a new hammer spring. Its good in stock form, but it can be made a lot better on the cheap

[Phuncz]

Today I replaced the nozzle with the metal one that was supplied in the box and I also found metal magazine parts like the "BB head" and "BB guide". While replacing the Bell mag with those parts, the fill valve finally gave out and it is now broken. I transplanted the metal mag parts onto the TM mag I still had left. But it needed filing because I couldn't load BB's from the top. Also, the BB's are jammed pretty tightly in the "BB head" so sometimes the nozzle stops midway on the BB and I have to manually cock it again. I'm still carefully filing down that to get it to work just right.

 

Anyway, today I disassembled the upper completely, searching for the problematic accuracy I have. I couldn't really find a cause so I guess the barrel and hopup packing need a replacement.

 

All in all, this gun is insanely cheap for it's capabilities. I'm now pondering on getting a custom TM MEU with a Guarder Alu slide+frame or just upgrade this gun. It will end in about the same pricetag apparently...

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Surprisingly, with a new hammer spring and new recoil spring (a 150% cut down to 2/3 or so) its actually getting better gas efficiency, with around 30 full powered shots. This pistol just keeps on surprising me.

[koKaZz]

What is the best buy? Bell or Army?

[Foxhound_Tur]

Definately Bell, seems to be the best ACM pistol out there.