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Friday, April 30, 2010

G&P Glock 17 Metal Kit

Review: G&P Glock 17 Metal Kit
Author: RSP

Firearm Background:
The G&P metal kit is a replica of a factory Glock 17 upper assembly. Glock, an Austrian company, was founded in 1963 and produced such items as entrenching tools and dummy grenades for the Austrian military, however in 1980 Gaston Glock decided to enter the trials for a new Austrian service pistol. His design, the Glock 17, won the trials and entered Austrian service as the P80. It has since become widely known and is used around the world.


The general layout of the G&P parts:


Sold as one component, all of the parts in the kit come in one package, marked 'G&P Laser Product SP System'. The kit is available from many Hong Kong retailers, and is generally sold for about $38-40 before shipping. I bought mine from DEN Trinity Shop: they have kindly blacked out all mention of Glock on the packaging with black marker.






DEN Trinity also covered the Glock markings on the slide with generous dollops of putty:






Upon removing the parts from their wrapping and peeling off the putty, we are greeted with the slide, barrel, recoil spring and guide assembly, and two small springs as here:






The slide in detail:


I was unsure of what to expect from this kit - I knew that it would be die-cast aluminum rather than the CNC-milled Shooters Design parts I was accustomed to, but on the other hand I had seen good casting from G&P before. However, upon close examination of the slide, I was a little disappointed. Here's the overall view of the part:






Not bad, but let's have a look at the trademarks. One of the main reasons one would purchase this kit is for the authentic trademarks on the slide and barrel. However, looking at the main markings on the left side of the slide, it's apparent that the trades are shallow, somewhat roughly cast, and perhaps even out of line:







Notice the angle of the 'Austria' marking, and its incongruity with the slide:





The trademarks on the other side seem a bit deeper and more cleanly cast. I particularly like the little Glock logo by the ejection port, but the final '8' on the serial number is too shallow:






Unsurprisingly, the extractor is merely molded into the slide. Some high-end manufacturers of Glock slides make this a separate part for more realism, but that tends to be an annoyance:





Nice, deep cocking serrations are present - the stock slides on KSC and KWA guns tend to have shallow ones:





Imperfections like this one on top of the slide are visible to those who look closely enough:





Looking inside the slide, we can see that the part has been quickly spray-painted, rather than smoothly and completely finished, by a sleepy employee in a factory somewhere. Such is mass-production:






The outer barrel in detail:


Like the slide, the outer barrel is die-cast, painted aluminum:






On the right side of the chamber, where the barrel will be seen through the ejection port of the slide, is a serial number. It should be noted that neither this number nor the one on the slide is unique: every G&P kit that leaves the factory has the same replica serial number. The casting of the number is very disappointing and I'd go so far as to say that I'd prefer a plain outer barrel:






The top has a small '9x19' marking, and we are greeted with more casting imperfections:





Ironically, my favorite part of the chamber is the left side, which is completely covered by the slide when installed. The bottom portion of the chamber, where the hop-up unit and inner barrel slide in, is also nicely beveled:






The actual barrel portion is well-cast, though a little less smooth where it meets the chamber:






Note that after cycling the slide just a few times after assembly, the paint on the chamber top and outer barrel had already worn down slightly:







The recoil spring assembly in detail:


This small, innocent-looking part is rather bothersome. Not only is it ugly, it does not even fulfill its intended purpose. Here it is compared to the stock part; the G&P is on the bottom:





As you can see, the original part uses a plastic spring guide, with a rubber buffer at the end which fits the shape of the front end of the slide:





G&P chose to use a metal spring guide with a stronger recoil spring, and opted for a simple round end piece instead of the larger, shaped rubber one. G&P's design leads to cycling problems, since, with the rubber buffer piece gone, the slide can travel farther back in the frame and become stuck. Additionally, a close look at the metal guide rod reveals, horror of horrors, rust:






Putting it all together:


In this section, I'll detail the assembly and installation of the G&P metal kit onto my KWA Glock 17. This will cover any difficulties or nuances encountered during the process. First, the kit included two small springs, mentioned at the start but not covered in detail. These fit into the blowback unit, and are the springs for the loading nozzle. They're stronger than the stock ones, but I doubt it makes any kind of difference:






With that done, the blowback unit fits snugly into the the new slide:






A single screw holds the assembly in - but there's a problem! Despite my abuse of the screw, it won't go into the slide all the way. There's a tiny bit of extra room there, causing a small degree of play with the blowback assembly. However, this leads to neither cycling problems nor function problems, so it's not a big deal:





Next, the rear sight. The dovetail in the slide is a bit tight for the rear sight, which is good - the original slide was too loose for my liking. A bit of filing and careful tapping and it's in:






As for the front sight, it pops right in. KSC and KWA Glock front sights are notorious for flying out of their sockets during skirmishes, so a healthy dose of glue is recommended:





The inner barrel and hop-up assembly slides into the new outer barrel with no difficulty. It's worth pointing out that the o-ring at the end of the inner barrel, which held it into the original outer barrel by friction, seems to do nothing with the G&P barrel. That is, the entire inner barrel assembly will slide right out of the G&P outer barrel if inverted:






Put that into the slide, and slip the recoil spring assembly into position, and you're set:





Here's how it looks on my KWA:








A couple close-ups of the trademarks:






Conclusion - the verdict on the G&P Glock 17 metal kit:


For a mere $38, a fraction of the cost of CNC-milled kits, the G&P product is a steal. However, the recoil spring assembly is useless, hampering rather than helping operation of the gun, and is poorly finished to boot. The outer barrel is easily worn, and, since the slide is painted the same way, I would expect it to be no more resilient in finish. I can see the slide noticeably scratched by a knock against a tree in woodland skirmishes, or a door frame in CQB. Installation is simple, but the screw to hold the blowback unit in place cannot go all the way into the slide, leaving a tiny degree of play in the assembly.


Thus, I'd have to rate the G&P kit alongside other low-cost metal slides as a budget option. It fulfills its purpose, but for the pride of owning a special, precision metal slide and barrel assembly one should look to more costly brands. My personal ratings of the kit are as follows:


Finish: 3/10 - Plain black spray paint. Not at the top of my list for a quality metal finish.


Fit: 4/10 - The issues with the blowback unit and recoil spring are annoying but unimportant, assuming you still have the original recoil spring assembly.


Basic Construction: 6/10 - Decent casting all around. You can find defects, but only on detailed inspection. Still, casting is casting.


Replication: 7/10 - Looks like the Glock firearm slide and barrel, but points taken off for the shallow and sometimes imprecise trademarks.


Cost: 10/10 - It's cheap, no doubt about it. But looking at the other ratings shows that in some areas you get what you pay for. This is typical of kits in the $40-$65 price range.


Thank you for reading this review. It's my intention that it demonstrates some of the negatives of inexpensive kits, while also noting that they still look good when not seen too closely.

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