Strayer Voigt Infinity Ltd 5" - Western Arms

I'd always stayed away from Western Arms products.
First up, they were too darned expensive. Secondly, they only made Berettas (and I was quite happy with KSC's offerings at a much lower price) and Colt '45 derivatives (which left me a bit cold), but a thread on one of the forums (where someone basically trashed every other gun - highly inaccurately) left me thinking that I should experience WA for myself. I also, about the same time, stumbled across the Strayer Voigt website and thought they looked rather nice guns, so I decided I'd like a WA SV Infinity - Most specifically a 6" Limited.

In the Box

My Infinity was not new, so the contents weren't complete. What I know was missing were the manual, the two spare triggers (different shapes),the loading tool plunger rod cap and the tools for adjusting the Hop-Up.

What was in the plain tan box was a loading tool (basically a tube, a plunger and a hopper to fit over the magazine, very like the KSC one) and a Strayer Voigt Infinity Ltd 5" (I'd been sold it as a 6", but more on that...).

First Impressions

The gun clearly wasn't new, with a few wear marks on some of the metal parts and a deepish scratch on the grip (which the seller had pointed out). None of these was particularly bad though and the overall appearance of the gun was very good, with lots of metal parts and a nice close fit between all the parts.

External metal parts include front dust cover, sights, hammer, grip safety, mag release, slide lock, ambidextrous safety, outer barrel, recoil guide and the 30 round, silver, magazine.

The gun is pretty heavy (over a kilogram), but fits nicely in the hand and the balance is very good, meaning it doesn't feel heavy, just solid, in the hand. I'm left handed and it posed no special problems for me.

The heavyweight slide material doesn't look like metal, but it does look remarkably blemish free and seems resistant to normal wear and tear.

Trying to gas up the magazine proved a problem at first, as any gas I put in came straight out of the top of the magazine (as fast as it went in!). Those who don't know (like me!), might like to be aware that there's a sliding catch on the release valve, which must be in the DOWN position for filling. This catch and the release valve were sticking, but a liberal dose of Silicon Oil sorted that out and once gassed, the gun provided and impressive 'kick', due, no doubt, to the heavyweight slide (Interestingly, most metal slides for this gun are a fraction LIGHTER than the standard, plastic one...)

Closer Look

The Infinity is based upon the trusty Colt 1911, but much has been changed.

The grip is widened to accommodate a 'double stack' of rounds (giving a massive 30 round capacity in 6mm BB form) and the bushing which normally holds the barrel in, is replaced by a mechanism much closer to a Browning Hi-Power (although the Infinity has a recoil guide rod, like a Beretta).

Shooting Impressions

Having got the gun into a state where it could fire, it was time to assess whether Western Arms guns are all show and no performance (sort of like a 1.3 litre Ferrari...).

I loaded up around 15 rounds in the magazine (one at a time, which is very fiddly, the loading tool really is a better approach...) and set up my simple net target about 5m away.

Taking aim at the centre of the target, I fired off all 15 rounds in rapid succession. The recoil was notable and I really didn't expect a particularly good result from my first attempt with this gun (I'd had trouble adapting, I'd felt, to the grip safety on the KWC 1911 Springer).

However, on examining the target, I find all the rounds were in a 3" (7cm) diameter and the furthest was a mere 2" (5 cm) from the centre of the target. The Majority of the hits were, however, to the left of the bullseye. I repeated the exercise and got very similar results.

I then look carefully at the gun again, and noticed that the foresight was misaligned and I carefully pushed it back to the centre of the slide and carried out my standard 6 round accuracy test with impressive results.

Click on image for bigger version in separate window.

Using .25g BBs and 134a Gas at around 62 degrees F, I put all 6 rounds (those marked with a circle) inside the centre area, firing as fast as I could (there was no deliberate aiming between shots, which should have improved matters). All the rounds were within a 2.5" (6 cm) diameter.

I was frankly amazed, so fired off the remaining 11 rounds (marked with squares). The diameter only increased to 2.75" (7 cm) and yes, there are 11 rounds there, some went through holes made by earlier shots...

By any standards, this is remarkable accuracy for a stock airsoft pistol.

Conclusions

I have to admit that I'd been half hoping the WA wouldn't live up to its reputation, but it does, and then some.

Finish is a little better than anything I've seen from KSC (the best I'd seen before on an automatic) and accuracy is especially impressive. The overall impression is of a gun engineered with a bit more precision than the majority of airsoft guns.

Needless to say, despite wanting a 6", I'm more than happy with the performance of the 5" and will be keeping this gun some time, I think.

Whether you'd want to pay WA money for a skirmish sidearm (when a KSC Beretta will probably do just as well for $100) is hard to say, but for a target GBB, it's hard to quibble with the Infinity and as a collector, it's hard NOT to justify the cost of having, at least, one WA pistol.

It seems there's a lot of truth in the "WA - Ferrari of the Airsoft world" cliche.

Weight : 1030g

Realism : *****
Quality : ****
Power : ****
Accuracy : *****

Real Steel link at World Guns
Strayer Voigt's website