Tanaka silver Colt SAA Artillery

[Sledge]

Modern revolvers :

 

[seth]

I am pondering the Tanaka SAA Calvary 7.5 inch HW (I've owned the silver before, too light and I worry about the finish holding up in a firefight or harsh skirmish environment!).

 

Can anyone give some more accuracy figures? 888's review bespeaks of not-so-good accuracy until some hard-to-source parts are installed (no thanks, if I'm going to pay 200 shipped for an airsoft SAA I want it to shoot as straight as the next kid's KWA G19).

 

I didn't do any sort of accuracy tests on my old silver SAA, sadly. I do know that it's an older design than the Tanaka M500 and M10 (easily the most accurate Tanaka I've used so far), so I'm not expecting it to be a sniper pistol, but at least be able to hit a person at 120 feet?

Edited August 9, 2005 by seth

[codename 47]

hey guys don't be mean not all modern revolvers suck.

but then again...

 

 

 

...SAA for teh win!!!!!1111!!!SHIFT1!

[mike77]

Well I found the reason for my problem , but I dont know how to fix it:

 

 

The gas reservoir pops open when I put gas in it, this causes pressure on the bulletplate that on itself will press against the frame of the revolver.

 

How can I fix this, how can I make the gasreservoir not to pop and firm again?

 

 

 

hope someone could help.

[Prometheus]

Is it your valve or your O ring?

 

 

~P

[Shao14]

Well I found the reason for my problem , but  I dont know how to fix it:

The gas reservoir pops open when I put gas in it, this causes pressure on the bulletplate that on itself will press against the frame of the revolver.

 

How can I fix this, how can I make the gasreservoir not to pop and firm again?

hope someone could help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It shouldn't be easy to open. Usually, one really needs to pry it open like this

 

You can try to replace the big oring there, or just glue it on, or whatever people do to keep something closed.

[mike77]

WELL I got it fixed and it shoots like a ,But i used a lot off superglue .

 

But it worked.

[Shao14]

WELL I got it fixed and it shoots like a  ,But i used a lot off superglue .

 

But it worked.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Glad to hear that. As long as you didn't use $150 worth of superglue, it's all good.

[clmwrx]

Yes, ivory grips.   As soon as my budget allows, I'd get myself some.  Incidently, I think those ones sold at Jungletoy come with a wood grip and an ivory grip, maybe someone who bought one of those might source me one?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

If you want the ones that come with the saa I am going to get. I may send them to you. Wood is more of my style

[PV_Golf]

Well, I just read through this entire thread and have a few questions. I'm thinking about getting two for skirmishing and using one for a backup when the other one runs out as I think their too hard for reloading to skirmish with effectively. Anyways, do you think that they could be used effectively for skirmishing? I plan on using them to fire a shot and then to quickly retreat (May even get a light weighted ghillie suit to use.). Also, it seems like you guys are having some problems with yours as far as reliablility goes, how reliable do you think this will be in the long run?

 

Thanks.

[Sledge]

I don't think these are any more unreliable than most other gas guns. As for reloading, stuffing more rounds into the cylinders shouldn't take that long. Go for it.

 

[leemovie]

Tanaka Colt Single Action Army .45 Artillery Review

 

Airsoft revolvers are notorious for their bad or rather inconsistent

performance, but after playing with all kinds of GBBs, I must say it

got a bit boring.  An automatic just can't beat the style and

elegance of a revolver.  Being a City Hunter fan, my ideal revolver

would be a 4" Colt Python, but the Marui model is known to be

cheap-looking, and prone to problems especially with green gas, and

the Tanaka ones had inconsistent performance too, but more

importantly, the Tanaka ones were long out of production, and out of

stock everywhere I looked.  After looking around a bit more, and a

bit researching, I got my heart set one either the Tanaka M629 or

the Colt Single Action Army Civilian or Artillery model.  My

decision was made easy for me by the fact that the Tanaka M629's out

of stock everywhere I looked, and so I ordered an SAA.

 

Originally, I ordered the silver Civilian model (4.75" barrel) from

WGC, but after a week, they told me it was out of stock, so I told

them to change it to the siliver Artillery model (5.5" barrel), and

I'm pretty sure I bought the last one in their stock because later

on the same night I told them to change my order, their website was

updated and showed the Artillery model was also out of stock.  On

the side note, Tanaka made a dozen different models of the SAA,

ranging from black to silver, non-heavy weight to heavy weight, and

4.75" Civilian model to 7.5" Calvary model, and most of them are

already out of stock everywhere.

 

The real steel Colt Single Action Army was first introduced in 1873,

and is the oldest hand gun still in production today.  Several nick

names for the SAA are Colt Single Action, Peacemaker, and Frontier.

 

Ok, enough with the introduction, on with the real review.  I ripped

open my package, and inside the box, lie the shiny silver Colt

Single Action Army Artillery model with the gas adaptor, dissemble

tools and some BBs. This is my first airsoft revolver and my first

silver gun, and I've got to say it is the most beautiful thing I've

ever seen.

 

 

 

I was afraid silver finish on a plastic gun would look terrible, but

boy, am I glad I was wrong!  Never seen a silver real steel, but by

looking at this gun, I just can't believe it's made of plastic.

Picking up the gun does not help identifying the build material

either. WGC said it's built of ABS plastic, but I still don't

believe it.

 

Looking down the barrel (not recommended if the gun's loaded)

carefully, you can see a ring of mold line at the tip of the barrel,

two short mold lines above and below where the barrel joins the

frame, and a vague mold line inside the trigger guard.  That's it.

The finish everywhere else is just flawless.  The silver finish is

just beautiful.  Neither words nor pictures can do it justice.

 

The gun has good weight, 745g according to WGC, even though it's the

none-heavy-weight model.  It felt balanced.  The first thing I tried

is to spin it like a cowboy, and I can't get enough of it.

 

The gun feels quite solid, and there is no rattle whatsoever.

 

The Colt trademarks are nicely replicated on the barrel, frame, and

the grip panels.

 

 

Ok, that's enough about the looks of the gun.  What I'm more

interested is its performance.  Never handled an airsoft revolver

before, and getting it to work can be a bit tricky.  Glance through

the pictorial manual with full of Japanese that's not one of my

languages, but I managed to make out the operation of the gun.

 

Unlike the modern revolvers, the SAA has a fixed cylinder that can

not be swung out.  The BBs are loaded into the cylinder by simply

pressing it in from the front one by one. You need to rotate the

cylinder as you go (more on how to get the cylinder to rotate in a

bit). Each BB will click into place easily, and will not fall out

once loaded in. The only way to get them out is to shoot them out.

 

 

After you load 6 rounds into the cylinder, you can load another 12

in the tube under the barrel.

 

 

To do this, use a BB to push the pin at the front end of the tube,

and the rod can then be pulled out.

 

 

Pour the BBs in the tube, and push the rod back in until the pin

clicks back in place.  The rod is spring loaded, so when the

cylinder rotates, BBs in the tube will be loaded into the cylinder.

Rather ingenious design, I must say, and this way, the gun has a

total capacity of 18.  Reloading the gun takes a bit longer than

just inserting another mag, but Ocelot told me it's exhilarating to

reload the SAA in the middle of a battle.

 

To gas the gun, you need to open a piece behind the cylinder.  This

is where a real steel SAA loads its bullets, but on the airsoft, you

see the ends of nice fake brass shells.  The shells are

non-removable.  On the back of each shell, you can see the text "W-W

45 Colt" except one shell on which it says "gas", and the primer of

the shell is a gas nozzle, and this is where you load the gas.

 

 

I quickly realized the tip of a standard airsoft gas can is not long

enough, but an adaptor (just an extension tube) is kindly provided

by Tanaka.  I loaded my SAA with some 134a gas.  And with BBs

already loaded, I'm good to go.

 

Being a single action gun, you need to manually cock the hammer for

each shot.  You can do it single handed with the shooting hand's

thumb, or you can do it double handed with the free hand to cock the

hammer while the shooting hand just pull the trigger, and I've seen

a video demonstration before where an expert can shoot two rounds

off an SAA so fast with the two hand shooting style that you just

hear one loud bang, but of course, I'm no expert, yet.

 

The hammer seems to have 4 positions though only 3 of them are

useful.  After each shot, the hammer returns to the rest position.

Pull the hammer back slowly until you hear the first click, this is

the second position, and only after the hammer is pulled from rest

position to the second position, the cylinder can be rotated

manually for loading or Russian Roulette purposes (the cylinder can

not spin freely though, it can only be rotate from one slot to the

next with a nice click each time). Pull the hammer a bit further,

you hear another click, and the cylinder is lock at this click. Pull

the hammer all the way back to the last position, and you are

finally lock and loaded.

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/shao...A/SAAhammer.jpg

 

To shoot, if you are going cowboy shooting from the hip, just pull

the trigger, but if you want to take an aimed shot, you've got to

look for the sights.  The front sight is nice an big, but the rear

sight is just a slot on top of the frame.  When the hammer is down,

the slot is blocked by the hammer, but you can't shoot when the

hammer is down anyways.  Line up the front sight and the slot

horizontally is easy, but vertically, if the top of the front sight

is level with the top of the frame, the shots will go too low.  If

the top of the front sight exceeds the frame a bit, the shots will

be just right.

 

 

In fact, there's a little cut on the back of the front sight.  I'm

not sure if it's a little scratch on the front sight, or is it for

aiming purposes.  Can't really see that little cut clearly from arm

length anyway, but that's where I need to line up with the top of

the frame.  I am not sure if there's a hop up.  There is no mention

of a hop up in the manual (or maybe there is, but I just couldn't

read it).

 

 

Before pulling the trigger, let me just point out that the trigger

is to the side of the frame.  I'm not sure what the theory behind

this design is, but being a single action pistol, the trigger pull

is very short and light.

 

 

After shooting around a bit, I found the accuracy of the gun is

actually acceptable, better than I had heard or expected.  The

grouping is occasionally spoiled by a couple of outliers, but

otherwise pretty tight, and I can hit my target trap at 15 feet

easily.

 

The power feels decent.  I don't have a chrono, so no figures can be

given, but from shooting at boxes, I'd say it's at least 250 fps

with .2g BBs, 134a gas at room temperature.

 

Gas efficiency is outstanding since the gas is used for pushing BBs

out only.  So far, I've shot more than 100 shots on one charge, and

it is still counting.

 

Final verdict?  I am more than happy with this newest addition to my

armory.  The lack of any blowback action is nicely compensated by

the moving cylinder action.  And with the hammer lowered, you can

safely spin the gun around your index finger.  The inconsistency in

performance doesn't seem to be much worst than a decent GBB.  I'm

going to get a holster next and start practice fast draw with it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does anyone know where I can find metal outer barrel for Tanaka SAA?

Thanks.

[Shao14]

Does anyone know where I can find metal outer barrel for Tanaka SAA?

Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Negative.

[Catchv22]

Did you have to quote the whole review?

 

If you want to fix the problem without buying a whole new revolver, you could buy a full metal kit. However, those are rare and extremely expensive from what I understand.

[Moriquende]

Hello fellow SAA lovers!

 

I'm having problems with my detachable cylinder model, the cylinder does not turn when I cock the gun

 

It's not the spring getting misaligned as sits firmly in place.

I do think, however, that it's the spring loosing it's tension.

 

Can anyone confirm my suspision?