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NEW!
The SG1 has been upgraded
So why
the SG1? When
I started airsoft I borrowed a friends (upgraded) AK47, and became instantly
addicted to the game. I decided there and then, that when I had the money I’d
get myself a rifle and a good pistol. I was looking for a decent rifle that
could double as a sniper rifle. I’ve trained as a marksman (I feel most at home
with a Parker-Hale 7.62 Swing action match rifle), so the ability to snipe was
important to me. The possibility of laying down suppressing fire was also something
I was looking for. As I couldn’t afford to get an automatic weapon, and a sniper
rifle at the same time, I had to choose a single all round rifle.
The sensible
choices I came up with, were either the G3SG1, the M16A2, or the AK47. It was
important to me to have something different, and the M16 seemed to be very common,
a good friend already had the AK, so I plumped for the Tokyo Marui SG1.
The decision
was made to buy the SG1 from WolfArmouries.
The basis for the purchasing decision was that although Wolf Armouries may not
be the cheapest suppliers out there, they are well founded and provide good
after-sales support. As my first airsoft purchase, I wanted the best support
I could get.
So what’s
it like ? The
rifle doesn’t have the futuristic looks of the FAMAS or the Steyr, it’s a tidy
practical rifle, and that’s what I was after. It’s very comfortable to hold,
and the rifle comes with a bipod fitted as standard. (As I’ve said) With a background
in marksmanship, from my point of view, bipods are only for keeping the
rifle out of the mud if you have to put it down. It’s just a personal opinion,
but the bipod makes the rifle rather unstable and unbalanced when it’s extended,
as when you swing the legs down, it shifts their weight forward. That said,
it adds a distinctive look to the rifle when folded up or down.
( I pulled
these images from my VHS copy of Heat, here Val Kilmer lays down support fire
from about 100 yards, hence no scope is needed or used)
As for realism
and looks, the outer barrel past the foresight is made of solid metal, as are
the foresight, backsight, bipod and the stock fitting. The rest of the rifle
is made from a tough matt ABS plastic. The rifle is built very solidly, there’s
just a few things to watch for, (some bits gradually come loose) but I’ll list
those issues further into the review.
Upgrade The power You can |
I have been told that the
TN inner barrels can cause feed jams (as they are slightly tighter than the
stock barrels). There seems to be two resounding solutions to this – REMOVE
the staples from your ammo bags religiously (don’t let them fall into your
magazine or ammo bag); and
do not under any circumstances use either cheap (read inferior) ammo,
or ‘recycled’ ammo (stuff that’s been fired once before).
There is also a high speed
FTK from Systema available. – Personally I wouldn’t recommend fitting these
unless you know what you are doing. A collegue of mine has been through 2 sets
of gears after various problems caused them to strip teeth off themselves.
As you can
see though, I’m not crazy about putting any more upgrades in until the power
drops lower, as I don’t want to break the 1Joule (328fps) limit.
Accessories!
– Just when you thought you’d emptied your wallet… This
rifle needs several things to make it complete. From personal experience, I’d
recommend picking up the following bit and pieces:
A scope, preferably
a 1″ 4×40 (4 times zoom, with a 40mm front lens). I have a rather nice
Illuminated cross-hair scope, that I’ve grown rather fond of. Now here’s the
minor problem, in order to fit the scope you’ll need 2 things.
The first is the Marui
Claw mount which is what you attach to the rifle to provide a scope base.
The second thing is a pair of Weaver scope rings (or a good copy of them).
The Weaver mounts are very expensive for what they are, and come in at about
£35
The claw mount is about
£35 from most UK shops. I picked my Weaver Mounts from a rather nice gun-shop
in Portsmouth, near the Navy base (which we turned the car round in when we
got lost – they don’t make it easy to leave Portsmouth!).
You’ll also
need at least 3 hi-cap magazines (trust me) . The standard mags, are
effectively useless (70 rounds get’s emptied in a few seconds), unless you like
the advantage of not having to wind them, or you want the realism of restricted
ammunition. Each Hi-Cap costs around £25 in this country.
Another essential
is a decent carry bag. I’ve got a long rifle bagmaster bag (It came with
mine when I bought it), it’s big enough to hold the rifle, scope and a few magazines.
You really should get one to protect the rifle when it’s not being used. I have
seen the damage first hand that can happen to a rifle it it gets left lying
around out of a bag.
Another accessory
that’s nice to have is a 3 point sling. You can use a simple SA80 sling (you
can get them from most decent army surplus stores for about £8). I built
mine from an old sports bag carry-handle I got from a friend. There is a current
theory that using a sling can be damaging to your rifle, as it has a habit of
putting a strain on the rifle and breaking it in half. I’ve never seen this
happen (yet..).
The most important Personally I’d recommend Here you can see the |
.
Performance
in the field Well
what can I say ? – After you see people walking along merrily at a skirmish
thinking they are out of range of AEG’s… Until you fire – then they run like
startled chickens. As a stock issue weapon (not upgraded) it’s still a beauty
to fire, the range isn’t great as it comes, and until you upgrade the rifle,
there’s little point in buying a scope, unless you want the good looks that
is. It’s also worth remembering that a scope is of little use in dim or poorly
lit conditions.
As the weapon
comes out of the box, it’s great for CQB, admittedly it’s a little large, but
I’m used to it now, and it’ll normally outgun an MP5 variant (if only for the
fact that you can fit a bigger battery to the SG1). Oh.. not forgetting that
the SG1 Hi-Cap carries 500 rounds.
Small
issues to be aware of Most
of these issues are common to most Tokyo Marui AEG’s in some form or other,
so as such they are not drawbacks to this rifle. However I thought that people
really should know which bits of the rifle to keep an eye on.
Screws –
there are several screws to watch, which need regular tightening. The outer
barrel grub-screws, need regular tightening, as does the screw that holds the
flashhider on. The bipod also needs tightening, not really to stop it falling
off, rather to keep it from rattling around too much.
Fire-Selector
– The fire selector
switch is unfortunately the weakest part of the design, and quite possibly the
most annoying part of the rifle I have discovered. It really doesn’t feel up
to the job. Compared to the fire selector of such weapons as the MP5, it really
isn’t built well enough. Now that’s to say it’s something I dislike, it’s not
a great issue, but it’s one I hope to fix shortly, with a metal replacement
from an MP5. It’s also worth pointing out that I am unaware of anyone breaking
the fire-selector, so maybe my worries could be completely unfounded.
Foregrip
‘Creak’ – The foregrip creaks a little when gripped tightly. Not a great
issue, but I fixed it by removing the grip and ‘wadding’ it (packing between
the barrel and the grip) with some black material cut from an old T-Shirt.
Site
Links:
The
SG1 has been upgraded –
read how to do this yourself
The G3SG1 Image page
G3SG1 Review 2 – by Andrew
Wagstaff (akaThe General)
External
Links:
MovieWeb
page for ‘Heat’ – contains casting info, some nice images and the theatrical
trailer
HEAT
fan site – contains links, sound files, interviews
and more…
SecurityArms.com
– the big daddy of firearm image archives, here you can find an image
for the real-steel weapon from HK
NEW!
Classic Army G3 “Metal-Body” – a fitting review over at
Airsoft Players
Comment
about this review in the forums
All images
that have been photographed, edited, and produced by myself are copyright 2001
ArniesAirsoft.
All images
from ‘Heat’ are copyright 2001 WarnerBrothers
arnie@arniesairsoft.co.uk