KWA KZ75 GBB Pistol review by Booligan
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Table of Contents:
Introduction
Ordering
First impressions/Packaging
Included
Gun Specifications
Externals
Trademarks
Magazines
Performance
Internals
Modifications
Pros/Cons
Overall
Introduction
KWA is regarded as one of the finest manufacturers of GBB pistols today, and they continue to produce new and unique models using their NS2 operating system. The KZ75 is one of these new models, featuring full metal externals with a few exceptions, and a powerful, yet very efficient gas system. I will discuss all of the various aspects of this pistol in this review!
Ordering:
I obtained this pistol from Airsoft GI for the purpose of writing this review. It is currently available HERE, priced at $165, with additional magazines located HERE, priced at $40. This price is on par with KWA's latest offerings using the NS2 system. I received the pistol a few days after it was ordered, using Airsoft GI's UPS ground shipping. It survived shipping just fine, they even included an ASGI t-shirt in the package!
First impressions/Packaging:
The KZ75 comes packaged in a black KWA box, with a sticker on the side indicating the model held within. The box has a styrofoam liner, which doesn't look like it was specifically molded to fit the KZ, however, it holds it securely enough, and it got to me without any damage. My first impressions upon looking at the pistol was that KWA outdid themselves on this one, and that this unique gun was certainly a pleasant change of pace from the sea of Glocks and 1911s out there.
From here on, click all pictures to enlarge
KWA box
Sticker on the side
Included:
KWA put together a nice little package with this gun, including one magazine, a small bottle of silicone lubricant, some BBs, a hop-up adjustment tool, and a manual. Since I ordered this from ASGI, it included a paper from them showing that it had been test fired, as well as indicating the tested FPS. I always appreciate retailers testing guns out before they leave the store, to help avoid getting a DOA gun.
Everything included
Gun Specifications:
Weight: 2 lbs
Length: 8.5"
Width: 1.26"
Height: 5.5"
Sight Radius: 6.25"
Externals:
In keeping with KWA's normal practice, this gun is full metal, with the exception of the outer barrel and grips. KWA's reasoning on including a polymer outer barrel is due to the more powerful NS2 system. With metal barrels, they were reporting parts failures in a relatively short amount of shots, so they switched over to polymer barrels to solve this. Other than that, everything that should be metal is made out of metal, for a solid, realistically weighted replica that feels great in your hands.
External overview
Right side
The grips of this gun are made out of a flat black polymer, with grooves and texturing to help you keep a solid grip when firing. The front and backstraps are totally smooth, with no texturing whatsoever. The base of the magazine extends about 4mm onto the bottom of the grip, which helps prevent excess muzzle rise when firing. The grip is extremely comfortable, both slender, yet almost perfectly contoured to fit your hand, with a fairly vertical grip angle.
Grip
Grip thickness
The controls are located on the left side of the frame, and are very basic. You have a chromed trigger, slide release, safety lever, and magazine release, all of which are designed for right handed operation. The gun does have an exposed hammer, however, it can fire in double action mode with no issues. When you rack the slide to chamber a BB, the hammer will be pulled back, and the trigger will pull back, giving you a crisp, lightweight .25" trigger pull.
Trigger
Controls
Hammer
Hammer pulled back
Trigger with hammer cocked back
The CZ design is unique in that the slide rides inside the frame, as opposed to riding on the outside. This makes for a narrow pistol, with a relatively streamlined design. The frame on this gun is basically one piece, with the controls and grips attached to it, without being too integrated into the gun. It's simple, and not in a bad way. The gun is made to be very user friendly, and with a minimal learning curve. There are no rails, and the trigger guard is a basic rounded design.
The slide, as mentioned before, rides inside the frame, giving it a short, thin profile. There are aggressive cocking serrations located at the rear, above the safety lever. The chamber opening is located at the top-right, if you are looking at the gun from the rear, and features a mock extractor located on the right side. The small serrated area for cocking the gun makes chambering the first round a little bit tricky, as you have a limited area in where to grasp the slide, however, with practice, it becomes very intuitive to do.
Slide
Right side
Slide locked back
The outer barrel is made of polymer, for reasons explained earlier, however, it's not really noticeable. At no point have I really looked at the gun and thought "man, I wish this had a metal barrel". The muzzle is extended about .4" from the front of the slide, which doesn't match the profile of the real gun, however, it is necessary for the federally required orange tip. KWA uses a two stage painting process in the application of their orange tips, which makes it particularly hard to remove.
Barrel
Slide pulled back, exposing the barrel
Aiming the pistol is accomplished using the tall, non-adjustable blade and groove style iron sights. It is very simple, like the rest of the gun, but very effective.
Rear sight
Front sight
Overall, the externals of the KZ75 are really top notch. When shaking the gun, there is absolutely zero rattle, and everything operates quite smoothly, especially after giving everything a quick lube job. The outer barrel has zero movement inside the slide, and the magazine locks in very securely, with only 1-2mm of back and forth freeplay. Overall, this gun is damn solid, and if properly maintained, will stay that way.
Trademarks:
The KZ75 has no "real steel" trademarks, instead featuring KWA markings for legal reasons. The gun has an individual serial number located at the front-right of the frame. All of the trades appear to be painted on, except for the serial, which looks to be laser engraved.
Trades
Serial number
Magazines:
The KZ75 uses a proprietary magazine, which holds 23 rounds, plus one in the chamber. The new gas system is very efficient, and delivers 30-35 shots per gas fill. The BBs are held in a double stack layout, optimizing the magazine capacity. The fill valve is located at the bottom of the magazine, and is accessible without removing the bumper from the bottom.
Magazine
Fill valve
Feeding bits
Performance:
Baseline performance at about 85 degrees, using TSD .20g BBs, powered by propane after a 300 round break in period is as follows:
Slow Fire - One shot every 20 seconds until empty
High FPS: 365.8 FPS
Low FPS: 344.2 FPS
Average FPS: 351.1 FPS
Rapid Fire - One shot every half second until empty
High FPS: 370.5 FPS
Low FPS: 301.1 FPS (last shot, still had enough gas for 6 more shots)
Average: 344.4 FPS
It is a gas gun, so obviously it does have some cool down during rapid fire testing, however, in normal shooting, it's not something that is going to cause you a lot of problems. Accuracy and range were pretty standard for a pistol of this size, giving me 100' torso kills with 90% consistency, using .25g BBs. This gun does favor mid-weight ammo, and the hop-up is readily adjustable, and can put plenty of spin on most standard BB weights.
Internals:
The gun can be field stripped without any tools, using a very simple set of steps. First, you must remove the magazine by pushing the release button on the left side of the frame. You then pull the slide back about 6mm, lining up the notches in the frame and slide. At that point, you can push out the slide release lever from the right side of the frame, removing it entirely. You can then pull the slide all the way forward, removing it from the frame.
Pull back the slide to line up the notches
Push out the slide lever
Everything taken apart
The slide houses he blowback assembly, as well as the barrel/hop-up unit. The hop-up is adjusted using the included tool. Rotating it counterclockwise increases hop, and clockwise reduces it. The inner barrel is about 5" long, and appears to have a decent bore. The recoil spring is an interesting design, as it is flat, and not the normal coiled wire layout. This allows it to get quite flat when compressed, compared to a normal spring.
Slide
Blowback unit
Inner piston
Loading nozzle
Outer barrel
Inner barrel locking lugs, just like the real gun
Hop-up adjuster
Recoil spring
The frame is pretty simple, housing the trigger unit and hammer assembly. Everything fits quite well inside, with no noticeable loose parts to cause you grief.
Frame, magazine inserted
Modifications:
You are fairly limited in what you can get off the shelf for this pistol, as it is a relatively new design in airsoft, and frankly, it's not a gun that's meant to be messed with. One of the gun's high points is its simplicity, and throwing a bunch of lights, lasers, or other nonsense on there is just kind of sacrilegious. It has great performance as is, however, if you want to eek out a few more FPS, or get a bit more range, you should be able to find upgraded valves, hammer springs, and tightbore barrels in the not-too-distant future.
Pros:
Full metal construction
Great performance
Impressive gas economy
Simple, timeless design
Light, smooth trigger pull
Easy disassembly
Cons:
Fixed sights
Polymer outer barrel
Needed a bit of lube to smooth out initial slide movement
Slightly rough paint finish at the front of the slide
Overall:
I've had experience with KWA's older offerings, but I hadn't yet had a chance to try out one of their new, NS2 era guns. I'm very happy that I was able to get my hands on the KZ75, and sample KWA's latest wares, especially since it's such a great pistol. It is really hard to find fault with this gun, provided you like the classic CZ design. If you don't like the CZ design, well, there's just no helping you. All in all, this is a fantastic pistol, and if you're looking to add a little Czech  love to your armory, this is a fantastic place to look!
Many thanks again to
and of course, Airsoft Retreat!