IMI UZI
Review by Crazy Steve
When my brother mentioned to me that the local painball store had gotten a spring UZI in, I was immediately interested. I wanted a larger gun for combat, and not having the money for an AEG, this gun sounded like a low-priced substitute that would still allow me to take control of our backyard skirmishes. I bought the gun minutes after I had first seen it, and don't regret my purchase.
APPEARANCE
I have mixed feelings about this guns appearance. On the box, there is a picture of an actual UZI. Having compared the gun I have to the real steel version, it has been recreated fairly accurately. All the screws are in the right places, and there are not any missing parts. There is orange paint at the end of the barrel, which I occasionally pick away at with my finger nail when waiting for a skirmish to start. Under the rear sight, "IMI" and "9MM" are engraved into the plastic, and the selector switch has "A", "R" and "S" positions. The "A" and the "R" positions do the same thing, select firing mode, while the "S" is the safety. There is a metal part (yup, just one)... but it's a nice metal part... sort of... the front shoulder strap ring is metal. The trigger, stock, clip, clip release, and everything else on the outside of the gun are plastic. It comes with a collapsible stock , which looks okay, but isn't strong enough to actually serve as a stock. From a distance, the gun looks real, but from close up, it looks like a plastic replica. I wasn't overly impressed with this guns appearance.
PERFORMANCE
The UZI shoots hard. My neighbor refuses to participate in any skirmishes that involve the UZI. This isn't saying much, because my neighbor can take as much pain as my little brother's rabbit before breaking down and crying (Note: The author has never shot the rabbit nor tested its pain threshold. It is much loved and very well treated.). It's range is around 40 ft., and from 20 ft. it is fairly accurate. Cocking the UZI is far from smooth. the slide on the top of the gun must be pulled back for every shot, and this can prove game-ending in combat. Also, the entire cocking mechanism on the top of the gun is loose, and I worry about breaking it off by trying to rack the slide too fast. The loading mechanism is strange. The bottom of the clip opens up to reveal a reservoir that holds arond 100 BBs. When the bottom cover is pulled out and the gun turned upside down, 25 BBs enter the loading mechanism. They are then spring fed into the chamber when the gun is cocked. to reload the 25 BBs, the gun is flipped over again, and the bottom cover is pulled up. This makes reloading unnecessary in a short skirmish.
NEGATIVE
the gun is just about all plastic. That's a pretty big negative. Also, the stock is too weak to have out in combat, but the locking mechanism that holds it when folded is weak, and often comes loose. The cocking mechanism on the top is loose, and the screws have to be tightened periodically to keep from falling off. The loading mechanism sometimes doesn't work, and only 3 to 4 BBs will load into the feeding mechanism. Also, the bottm cover of the clip is loose, and when running in combat, it can be pulled loose by a branch or even by your arm, and the BBs fall out. The trigger is plastic, and I worry about snapping it off by being rough with the gun. And my neighbor flips shit when I pull it out around him, and runs off, refusing to play. But once again, he has a deficiency in the balls department, so I can't blame him.
PRICE
I got my UZI for $65 from a local paintball store. I think it cna be purchased at Shorty USA for $59.99. It's a decent gun, with good power, and mediocre durability. For the unemployed high school student like myself, it's a good skirmish weapon, especially against my pansy-ass neighbor and the $#!+ Beretta I loan him. If you too are in my position of being dead broke with no job, I would suggest thinking up a better use of your $60 than a palstic gun, but if you really want an UZI and don't care about paying your utility bills, by all means, spend away.
This is an actual UZI, but it is basically what the airsoft looks like for a slight distance.