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“Western Arms” of Revolvers… The
Tanaka revolvers work on the PEGASUS system (Progress, Effective Gas Universal
System). Basically, this is just a catchy acronym to explain the unique mechanism
Tanaka has created. Instead of storing gas inside the handle, gas is stored
in the cylinder. (A)
hammer hits a strike pin which will depress the valve (B)
releasing gas to fire a bb. Because the BB sits right in front of
the release, (and because it is a non-blowback) the Tanaka revolvers kick
out plenty of power. As a matter of fact, Tanaka revolvers will put out
more power than any GBB on the market with similar inner barrel length.
The
cylinder also holds 14 bb’s that are loaded from the front. Included is a “speed-loader” (more like a slow-loader) that I dont particularly find useful. Its You |
You Try However, I found the adaptor to be quite longer than really Instead, I chose to use my Digicon Target gas adaptor. Not |
Since
the gas is stored in the cylinder, the grip is empty. This means you can
swap the factory grips to real steel ones without having to do any
modifications. This is a really good thing because the original grips may
look OK, but they feel just like the ones found on a $5.00 cap gun revolver…
Ugh!
A fitted Hogue ‘Monogrip’ |
Performance So how
is the performance? Tanaka revolvers tend to be inconsistent in accuracy.
I believed at first this had something to do with the PEGASUS cylinder not
being stable and off center to the bb. Not at all true. As a matter of fact,
the cylinder will hardly move at all. The whole gun is rock solid, nothing
will rattle no matter how hard you shake the gun.
thought the problem had something to do with the hop-up notch being poorly
cut. Also not true. The hop-up notch is very thick, nicely trimmed and sits
very tightly in the barrel. So what is it?
the inner barrel, and how it is secured inside the outer barrel. The inner
barrel can twist, not very easily, but it can. What this means is if the
barrel twists to one side more than the other, so will the hop-up, hence,
“hooking” shots.
can remedy this in two ways:
you can stuff a cleaning rod with a little bit extra cloth to grab the inner
barrel tightly. When in place, twist carefully in the direction you want
the hop-up to align. You can somewhat eyeball the hop-up alignment simply
by looking into the barrel from the front when the cylinder is open.
If you prefer a more stable/permanent solution, simply remove the inner
barrel and either add a mild adhesive or wrap the inner barrel with a bit
of teflon tape.
doing this and a few guess and checks, my shot consisteny is dead on accurate.
No more hooking at all, the shots go right where I want them to. This simple
fix-it saved me from buying an aftermarket inner barrel that I probably
didnt need.
Miscellaneous
Compared to any revolver I have ever sampled, including
the real steel M29, the trigger and hammer movement is by far the smoothest
I have ever used. However, one problem I encounter with this revolver is
misfeeding if rapid fired. I havent found a remedy for this other than to
manually cock the hammer every time I shoot. This doesnt really bother me
at all because I actually prefer to do so since the function is so crisp.
Besides, I only have 14 shots so I might as well take my time…
Most
of the weight comes from the cylinder, which gives the gun a very nice center
balance. Aiming and shooting the .44 magnum is very comfortable, more so
since I put on a Houge mono-grip.
Being
a NBB, I prefer to use green gas & .30g bb’s. Anything lighter will
cause the shots to arc straight up into the sky. If you want to use .25g
bb’s, then I recommended to stick with 134a gas. 415 FPS with green gas
& .30g bb’s is no joke. I used both a laser and light chronometer
to get these results on may different occasions. Gas consumption is
aproximately 45-50 shots.
thought:
The
combination of high power, good consistency, excellent durability,
and comfort has quickly made this gun my personal favorite. As a matter
of fact, I even use it as my PRIMARY weapon from time to time. Since quite
a few players have no idea of this guns capability, it makes for a very
interesting game ^_^
Appearance |
3/5 |
Build |
5/5 |
Performance |
2.5/5 |
Value |
4/5 |
Overall |
5/5 |
After a bit of simple
work:
Appearance |
5/5 |
Build |
5/5 |
Performance |
5/5 |
Value |
5/5 |
Overall |
5/5 |
by Ken/888
External
Links:
http://www.smith-wesson.com/
http://www.impactguns.com/store/smith_m629.html
888’s
review page – full of Tanaka goodness, including fine
tuning and some useful power-up tweaks!
RedWolf’s
Magnum 44 8inch review – As ever it’s a wonderful review from
RedWolf, putting the true Dirty Harry spin on it!
Comment
on this review in the forums
Last modified:
Wednesday, May 9, 2001 9:37 AM copyright 2001 ArniesAirsoft