ArmouryKitBag WE Tactical Training International WE Makarov
Test & Review - Reviewed by Rhino
The Makarov is one of the latest pistols to come out of WE that I have been asked to test and review. WE have really upped the ante over the last couple of years with manufacture and quality control of their pistols, rifles and ancillaries. As most of their pistols are compatible with Tokyo Marui they have inevitably been benchmarked against the TM products which is never easy. Anyway on to my test results and review.
On opening the box you get the usual egg box type packaging which keeps everything in place and protected. In the box there is the pistol itself, magazine, manual and a barrel extension and silencer ( more on these items later). On close inspection of the pistol the finish is very neat and tidy with a matt black paint job and some basic trades and a couple of serial numbers. It’s not until you hold it you realise what a neat little unit this is. People with larger hands may struggle with this as the pistol grip is very short. The magazine is again very neat and tidy and possibly the smallest pistol mag I’ve ever seen.
Now stripping this pistol is quite different to the usual Glock or 1911 strip down and it’s a little bit tricky. Pull down the trigger guard then click the hammer back and push the slide right to the back and lift off taking care you don’t snag the slide on the fire nozzle. This then gives you access to a very basic set up with the barrel and hop unit still attached the lower. The hop adjustment is again totally different to any I’ve seen on a WE pistol. No wheel, just a little slider at the back of the hop unit which is very easy to adjust. Reassembly was just as tricky as the strip down so be careful.
So I filled the magazine with WE green gas and filled the magazine with the 16 bbs it takes, the bbs were the Nuprol ones. On firing the first thing I noticed was how snappy and crisp the blow back was as the slide had a very short stroke, it was also quiet. On the chrono test I got the usual 270-280fps with the mag at room temperature which is what we come to expect from WE pistols. Now this is where things got really interesting. As I mentioned earlier this Makarov comes with a barrel extension and silencer which both just screw onto the inner and outer barrels so no need to strip the unit. So I refilled the mag with gas and bbs and put it through the chrono, the results were astonishing. The fps had increased to 365-380 and I checked this at least three times and it was whisper quiet. So if you’re planning to skirmish this pistol I recommend using a low power gas like 144a. I got two bb reloads to one gas fill as the mags are very small in keeping with the design of the pistol.
This little pistol really puts a smile on your face when you fire it as it is very snappy and sounds great. It also looks very good especially with the suppressor fitted and the compact size makes it ideal for concealing at MILSIM events etc. The only down sides to this pistol that I can see are it’s compact size will put off people with larger hands and the strip down is a little tricky. But it’s certainly on my shopping list, Enjoy!
The test pistol was kindly supplied by Milspec Solutions and is available now on their website.
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