Beretta M92F Military - Unbranded
I decided I really needed to try an EBB.
Everyone said they were rubbish, with pitiful power and range, but as the AEG developed into a dominant force in the Airsoft rifle/SMG field, I feel sure that these first generation electric guns will lead onto better things.
On the other hand, I wasn't going to wave goodbye to £50 for the privilege of finding out about EBBs, so I ordered a cheapy version off of eBay and it came within a week.
In the Box
In the, rather smart and suspiciously TM looking, box was the gun, a few terribly cheap BBs, a single sheet of instructions (some in English) and a plastic rod, for clearing jammed BBs from the barrel.
First Impressions
The gun felt like a very cheap springer, but the overall shape was OK - It looks pretty much like an M9.
Markings are few and far between and only the grip ones make any attempt to look vaguely Beretta like.
The lanyard ring pushes back to reveal the battery compartment, where one has to insert the 4 AAA batteries, which takes up about 2/3rds of the space in what would be a removable magazine on a gas or springer M9.
The magazine itself is like one of the early NBBs or a early TM springer, being curved in shape and very spindly. It manages, however, to hold a fairly decent 15 rounds.
Closer Look
As well as the normal M9 features, the gun (like all EBBs to date) has a small trigger like button on the front of the grip, below the trigger guard. This switches the motor on and so, effectively, works like a grip safety on the 1911 automatic. Fortunately for left handers, it's more sensibly placed than the similar switch on minis and does fall quite naturally to hand.
The batteries (the box lid suggests you CAN use a 9V, but there is nowhere to attach it) take up most of the grip and the full size magazine is just moulded, with just a very spindly and, in the case of this cheap EBB, very poorly made (I'm sure TM's are much better) banana magazine, into which 15 rounds can be squeezed.
At first, I found it very easy to accidently release all the BBs as I put the magazine in, but with practice it became easy to avoid this.
The slide, obviously as this is a Blow Back, moves, but (although the manual doesn't actually advise against it) it doesn't feel as though one should rack it as you would on a springer or GBB as you can feel the resistance to the mechanism as you push it back.
The slide moves about 2/3rds of the distance you would expect of the real thing or a GBB, but being so light and slow, there's no sensation of kick.
Shooting Impressions
The whole purpose of buying this gun was to see where EBB technology is today (October 2003), so I dropped a few BBs in the gun, depressed the switch on the front of the grip and pulled the trigger.
Whirrrrrrrr - Ker - Plick... Whirrrrrrrr - Ker - Plick. Two rounds.
The experience is most odd. You can hear the motor winding back the very weak spring and then it catches and is released, propelling the BB at a sedate pace. Everything happens in slow motion with around 2 seconds required between each shot (although this time increases as the batteries begin to die).
With such low power, my standard 5m/6 round, off hand test was clearly way beyond the capabilities of this gun, as the BBs weren't going to reach the target with any force, so I loaded up 10 semi-decent .12g BBs and set up my net target at 3m.
Unfortunately, although I was able to hit the target, power was so minimal, that none of the BBs pierced the paper! So, no results. Strictly for indoor plinking...
Effective (in the sense that the BBs will end up at roughly the same height as you fire them) range is, I estimate, about 5-7 yards, before the BBs start to fall, with maybe another 3, if you can compensate for the falling trajectory, although fresh batteries undoubtedly help.
Conclusions
Overall, the EBB is, at this point in time, nothing more than a toy.
Even though this is a low quality example, I believe (from all the reports I have read elsewhere) that it's fairly representative of the current technology level of EBBs and the cycle speed, power and accuracy are abysmal, compared with a gas gun or (with the exception of cycle time) a decent springer.
For plinking indoors (at very close range) it's actually quite good (no chance of smashed ornaments!), but as a target or skirmish gun, it's hopeless.
However, Tokyo Marui has just announced a Glock 18 EBB, with both semi and full auto and it wouldn't be wise to bet against that being a considerable step forward. In five years time, the GBB pistol might be as rare as the GBB rifle is today.
Weight : 280g (with batteries).
Realism : **
Quality : *
Power : *
Accuracy : *
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