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Umarex HK45 and HK3P G17


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HK45G17.jpg

 

Review: Umarex HK45 & HK3P G17

 

Externals, Umarex HK45:

 

HK45_left.jpg

 

HK45_right.jpg

 

The quality of the frame looks and feels very good. The grip looks a bit silly, but it is extremely ergonomic. The stippled panels offer good grip, but could have been even rougher if you ask me. It also makes you wish the entire frame had that stippled texture, but hey, that can easily be done if you feel like vandalizing your shiny new gun.

 

The metal slide is rather more lacklustre. While it fits very well on the frame with very little play, the finish is just your ol' shiny black paint. The laser etched markings just add insult to injury. The metal also seems extremely soft, as the slide lock notch on mine was worn down right out of the box, preventing slide from locking back on an empty mag during shooting.

 

A bit of a fiddle with a small file...

 

HK45_slidelock.jpg

 

Sorted. But after shooting a few more magazines, the slide lock notch shows visible signs of wear again. Cheese-alloy?

 

The outer barrel is, as per usual KSC/KWA MO, plastic. So is the front sight, which is adjustable... by hand, which is a little worrying. Gotta tighten it up before it goes MIA. Rear sight is metal.

 

Trigger, hammer, and safety/decocker are steel. Thanks for that!

 

 

Externals, HK3P G17:

 

G17_left.jpg

 

G17_right.jpg

 

For a sub-$100 GBB, this looks and feels fantastic. The slide looks very cleanly cast and has a not-quite-black, kind of rough, anodized-ish finish. The markings are nice and deep. Same goes for the outer barrel. Sights are, of course, plastic.

 

Frame is fine, matte black finish with all the right Glock markings all over. Feels good to the touch.

 

There is some play between slide, outer barrel and frame. About the same as you'll find on, say, a stock Marui Hi-Capa 4.3, so not a lot, but it's there.

 

All in all, pretty stunningly good externals considering the price.

 

 

Internals, Umarex HK45:

 

HK45_takedown.jpg

 

Takedown is of course straight-forward, but the slide seems to stick quite a lot when trying to push forward past the normal battery position, after taking out the slide lock. The slide will come off, but takes some nerve-wracking effort. I'm not sure exactly what parts are causing the binding.

 

More steel parts are to be found in there, including bits and pieces of the hammer mechanism.

 

Recoil spring is nice and strong, no need to replace it.

 

As for the new hop-up system, visually it looks promising, it sits completely straight and all.

 

 

Internals, HK3P G17:

 

G17_takedown.jpg

 

Looks fine. Steel parts include slide lock, trigger bar, and the roller on the hammer.

 

Like the HK45, the recoil spring here is also nice and strong.

 

The inner barrel seems to be of rather good quality all things considered, nicely crowned and all. The hop adjuster arm was a bit crooked, so I bent it a bit and that seemed to straighten things up. Hop bucking is very soft, which may be a good thing. We'll see.

 

 

Performance:

First some velocity readings, 10 shots using Extreme Precision .20g BBs and Ultrair power gas (90% propane, 10% butane) @ ~22ºC. Chrono is an Xcortech X3200.

 

Umarex HK45 (fps):

348

352

343

346

343

342

343

336

337

336

(max: 352, min: 336, avg: 342.6)

 

HK3P G17 (fps):

290

296

292

290

295

289

293

290

288

288

(max: 296, min: 288, avg: 291.1)

 

So the Umarex HK45 averages about 50 fps higher than the HK3P G17, but the G17 has considerably better consistency.

 

 

Now for some accuracy testing. Both guns were shot from a Weaver stance, so no bench rest or anything. Targets were printed out on A4 sheets.

For both guns, hop-up was set to minimum for the 5m tests, and then turned up some at 10m.

 

HK45, 5m range:

 

HK45_5m.jpg

 

and 10m range:

 

HK45_10m.jpg

 

As far's I can tell, the new hop-up system really works, and rather well at that. The HK45 has a rather long, mushy trigger pull... in single action. Definitely not the best.

 

 

Let's try the G17, first 5m range:

 

G17_5m.jpg

 

and 10m range:

 

G17_10m.jpg

 

Well that was also rather good. In fact, the two guns seem to offer almost identical accuracy at these ranges. The G17 is, unlike the real Glock, single action only, and trigger pull is also rather mushy. Just a different kind of mushy from the HK45.

 

 

For comparison, I also tested a stock Marui Detonics (with stock Marui MEU frame).

 

The gunzer:

 

Detonics_MEU_left.jpg

 

What happened:

 

Detonics_MEU.jpg

 

Compared to the other two, samey accuracy at 5 metres, not as good at 10. But what a trigger. Short travel and a light, completely clean break. Worlds better than the other two. But that just goes to show that a poor trigger pull doesn't necessarily mean poor accuracy, as demonstrated by the HK45 and G17. I didn't really expect them to perform that well right out of the box(es).

 

 

Conclusion so far:

So wot am bestest gun? Well they're both surprisingly good, and the HK3P G17 is just an obscene bang for your buck. Both guns seem to be recommendable, but the G17 is just a no-brainer.

 

 

Still to come: I will do some outdoors long-range testing when I get the chance, and also test gas efficiency/capacity. Especially how the HK45 holds up at longer ranges with heavy BBs.

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Update: accuracy @ 20m range:

 

 

Umarex HK45:

 

Notes: I turned the hop to max and had to fiddle around a bit with point of aim to get a nice grouping on the target. The results:

 

HK45_20m.jpg

 

That new hop-up design? Approved. I was worried it wouldn't be able to lift the relatively heavy BBs, nevermind yielding satisfactory accuracy. But damn, my worries are put to shame, this thing is a fantastic shooter at this range. From the high points of impact, it seems the hop-up could even be turned down a bit. But with the hop set to max, I could see the BBs going laser-straight to the target 20 metres away.

 

Again, trigger is very mushy. But soft mushy, so it's not really bad in use. It certainly didn't mess up the accuracy.

 

 

HK3P G17:

 

Notes: I had very high hopes for this one! Enough talk, let's see the results:

 

*imagine a pristine, untouched target here*

 

Awww. Yeah, the HK3P G17 was unable to reach the target at 20 metres, with hop-up set to max. I tried installing an A+ bucking, same story. The BB's hit the ground at about 17-18 metres. Sad.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

Colour me pleasantly surprised with the HK45's performance. The HK3P Glock was just a massive letdown, it seems it either needs further modifications to the hop adjuster arm, or just a new hop unit entirely. Sad face.

 

Still to come: further report on salvaging the Glock's hop unit, and skirmish report duuuuude!

 

 

braderunna: I'd be tempted to get an SD metalz upgrade too, as the stock slide and barrel seem pretty weak.

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A lot of people got their HK3P G17 to shoot well, and btw the REAPS bucking is ###### :P

 

Perhaps see if the metal plate that puts pressure on the nub is bent? You'll just need to rebend it back to shape. My stock HK3P G17 when I tested it was able to send the bbs upwards at 5-10 meters with the hop turned all the way up with 0.2g bbs. Also, did you clean the barrel and bucking? There might be so much factory oil sprayed into it that's making the barrel ineffective. Normally I'll never test stock accuracy without cleaning out the stock parts as the amount of oil or dirt in the barrel from the factory/transport to store/store itself will decrease the performance in the stock gun regardless of how well the stock parts are.

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Yes, I always clean the barrel out of the box. I did get the HK3P Glock to reach 20m, it was indeed a question of bending the adjuster arm down to provide more hop. I'll shoot some groupings and get them scanned when I get the chance (read: when I can be bothered) :P but it's about the same as the WE XDM, maybe a little less accurate.

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