Western Arms Beretta M84FS Spy Pack Deluxe Edition

Intro
(Die Another Day!!)
I’ve always been a big fan of gas blowback guns manufactured
by Western Arms. I currently have eight GBB pistols that are
produced by WA, five of which are Beretta replicas. So when
I first saw the Spy Pack editions with the attached suppressors
I knew this would be a new addition to my WA Beretta collection.
On Redwolf’s website they described the Spy Pack model as a
replica of the gun used by Jinx (Halle Berry) in the James Bond
flick “Die Another Day.” This certainly intrigued me a lot.
So I browsed over to Western Arms’ website (Japanese version)
and used Arnie’s helpful Babel Fish translation to find out
more. The translation wasn’t the best. Reading it was like listening
to a drunken Yoda speak broken English, but I was able to make
out what was written. Somewhere within the page were the words
“woman spy” and “action movie”. However, they
never made direct reference to Die Another Day or even James
Bond for that matter.

Now
in the world of airsoft, tidbits of trivia like this can sometimes
go unconfirmed. They can be either rumors, hearsay or speculation.
So I wasn’t quite satisfied with Redwolf’s claim. I watched
the film when it was released in theaters and wasn’t impressed
by it, so I wasn’t about to rent the DVD just for the sake of
a review. I do remember Jinx brandishing a chrome-plated little
pistol with a slender suppressor attached. So I did the best
thing that could help me confirm this matter: I emailed Western
Arms. I asked them if the Spy Pack models were inspired by the
James Bond film Die Another Day. Firstly, let me just say that
I received a response from them in less than six hours. These
people are truly professionals, and it shows in their products
and customer relations. Oh, and the answer? YES! You better
believe it! So there you have it, straight from the horse’s
mouth.

The
Spy Pack There are two models, one black, which is the Standard
Edition, and the other is silver, which is the Deluxe Edition
that’s being reviewed here. The Standard has black plastic grips,
while the Deluxe has wooden grips. The gun is packaged in a
plain black cardboard box with the Beretta trademark and logo.
Wow, what a stretch from the plain brown cardboard box ?

Opening
up the box reveals a lovely “stainless” Beretta M84FS and a
matching long and slender sound suppressor attached to the muzzle.
It comes with a couple of hex wrenches, small bag of BBs and
a manual (for the old regular M84FS.) Weighing at 542g, the
gun is rather light even with the suppressor screwed on.

The
suppressor is made of metal and has a matte brushed surface.
Inside is foam filled for sound reduction, and I’ll discuss
how much sound it actually reduces a little later. The suppressor
feels rock solid when securely screwed on and there is no “wiggling”
motion.

It’s
as if the suppressor has become one with the gun. And here’s
why. In most airsoft guns when a suppressor is attached to the
gun the thread is outside the gun’s outer barrel. (Or in the
case of the Maruzen Walther P99 with Silencer the thread is
inside the outer barrel.) But in the case of the Spy Pack the
thread is on the gun’s inner barrel. So when the suppressor
is screwed on, it is actually attached to an internal part of
the gun. This makes it more stable and prevents wobbling of
the outer barrel. Also, the suppressor doesn’t “weigh down”
the outer barrel, which can cause the blowback action to cycle
a tad slower. With the suppressor unscrewed, the gun looks like
it has a standard barrel.

The
slide and frame are made of ABS with a silver coating. It has
smooth lines and curves and in traditional WA quality there
are no molding seams. It’s a carbon copy of the real M84FS and
it has been put together nicely. There’re markings all over
the gun, from Beretta’s true trademarks to WA’s own inscriptions.
The markings range from light etchings to deep engravings on
the surface. The finish is more polished than previous silver-plated
guns produced by WA. When compared to my WA Beretta M92FS PV
Inox, the M84FS is more polished and a little brighter. This
actually makes it look more metallic. Metal parts are: hammer,
trigger, disassembly lever, slide release, safety, rear sight,
magazine release and some internal parts. The 20-round magazine
is in a mis-matched black color and uses the Magna Blowback
System.

The trigger action is as smooth as whip cream, both in single and double action. The safety is ambidextrous and mounted on the frame and also serves as a decocker. When the hammer is cocked, pushing the lever upwards drops the hammer to a half-cocked position and also places the gun in SAFE. The trigger can still be pulled freely, but nothing happens. The trigger guard is squared-off with serration and allows a solid support by the index finger of the weak hand. The grip is very comfortable to hold and fits nicely in just about any size hands. The grips are made of wood with very fine grains and checkering. Western Arms describes them as genuine wood grips from Beretta. On the left panel is a small bronzed-colored medallion with the letters “PB.” The right panel has the Beretta “tri-arrow” logo.

The
rear sight is of black metal with a red half-circle; the front
sight is silver and has a matching red dot. Aligning the sights
isn’t as easy as, say, lining up sights with the three-dot system.
This may be due to the front sight being silver. In order to
see the sights clearly, the rear and front sights should be
the same color, such as black, and have contrasting white dots.
The red dot on silver doesn’t really stand out and also black
and silver contrast each other.

There
are some differences in the Spy Pack models and previous older
models of M84FS. First of course are the outer and inner barrels.
As mentioned the inner barrel is threaded to accept the suppressor.
The outer barrel is also a tad wider in diameter to accommodate
the threaded inner barrel. Also the inner walls of the outer
barrel doesn’t have the imitation rifling grooves that are commonly
seen in airsoft guns. In the regular M84FS, the right side of
the slide says, “MADE IN JAPAN BY WESTERN ARMS, ASGK. But on
the Spy Pack, that has been replaced with “BERETTA USA CORP.
ACKK MD.”

Performance
For the chronograph test I used HFC134a gas and 0.2g BBs. I
fired the gun in normal room temperature and I also warmed up
the magazine before I started and after every reload. Accuracy
test was done using a standard 6-inch bulls eye target at 16
feet away.

Gassing
up the magazine is as simple as any GBB pistol, but there’s
always one thing to remember when filling up a Western Arms
mag. There is a tab that depresses the gas release button and
it must be pulled downward (under spring pressure) in order
for the button to pop up. When the tab is up, it pushes the
button in and releases any gas in the mag. So the tab must be
pulled down before filling, otherwise all the gas will go in
one end and out the other. The magazine takes 20 rounds and
uses the simple “pull down the follower and drop in the BB”
system. This means no loading tools are needed. The BBs are
stacked in stagger formation.

I
fired 10 rounds into the target and got some pretty nice groupings
(see target photo). The gun was surprisingly accurate for such
a small package with a short barrel. The blowback was nice and
quick, not too much of a kick, but very fast. The silencing
effect from the suppressor was minimal. To begin with the sound
of this gun firing without the suppressor isn’t as loud as your
average full-sized GBB pistol. With the suppressor attached,
the sound is reduced only by a tad. You would have to listen
to the gun firing with and without the suppressor back-to-back
in order to notice the difference. The slide locked back solidly
every time the last round has been fired.

I
removed the suppressor and fired another 10 rounds and got pretty
much the same result. The suppressor did not hinder nor did
it improve the accuracy and velocity. The inner barrel is so
perfectly lined up that the BB didn’t at all touch the inner
walls of the suppressor.

I
then chronographed the velocity and got an average of 228 FPS.
Not too bad, this is to be expected from a small package like
the M84FS. Without the suppressor it yielded 231, so there is
virtually no difference. This little “hush puppy” managed to
spit out 67 shots per charge.

Hop-Up
To access the hop-up the slide must be removed first. Press
in the small button located on the left side of the frame, just
above the trigger guard. Then on the right side swing down the
take-down lever and then move the slide forward and off the
frame. The hop-up is located at the inner barrel, so use the
hex wrench to turn the screw clockwise to increase the hop.
I only use the gun for indoor plinking, so I didn’t find a need
to adjust the hop.

Conclusion
Western Arms has made great quality GBB pistols over the years
and they certainly didn’t miss their mark with the Spy Pack
editions. The Deluxe Edition has a beautiful “chrome” finish,
a nice pair of wooden grips and looks fantastic with the suppressor
attached. The price is high, about $196 USD, but with WA you
get what you paid for. Price for the Standard Edition is around
$40 less.

Good
Points:
Superb appearance
Good accuracy
Makes a great collector’s piece

Bad
Points:
Not much, other than the high price

Reviewed
by Redhawk