Hi-capa pistols are ubiquitous. They occupy a place in any prominent GBB manufacturer’s line-up with two notable exceptions. KWA tried to make a Hi-Capa back in the day, and it flopped like a fish trying to escape the deck of a boat on a hot Texas summer day. G&G is the other notable exception, without a mainline hi-capa in their line up.
A New Type of Hi-Capa
G&G has finally thrown their hat into the Hi-Capa arena with the GPM1911 CP. We were lucky enough to get a few days with a sample from our friends at Airsoft GI before this gun heads over to our good buddy Scott at USAirsoft (Shameless friend shout out!) and see what we think about it! This was the same model reviewed by Cisco earlier this month, so as someone who definitely likes Hi-Capas less than the Mayo King himself, I’m curious to see what I think about it versus his opinion.
The Externals
The G&G GPM1911 CP feels like every other Hi-Capa. It’s the same size, and comparable weight to most We-Techs on the market.. Most of this weight is in the magazine, since the slide on the gun is Polymer. This bugged me at first, but like Cisco pointed out in his review for Airsoft GI, G&G does make some pretty spectacular polymer parts.
The plastics don’t flex much, but have just the right amount of give to make me believe they’ll hold up for a long life time of use. Time will be the ultimate test, as we’ll only have this for a few days and can’t do any long term durability testing.
The slide is a 5.1 length, which is pretty standard. I hope this does well enough for G&G that they expand into other variants and sizes, as I’ve always found the 5.1 to be a bit long. I also tend to favor shorter handguns, leaning to a Glock 19, or the Sig M18 over their larger variants. I’m a big dude, and even small micro-adjustments to the overall length of what I’m shooting is huge for me in tight situations where I’d normally use a pistol.
The rest of the pistol is honestly pretty forgettable. The grip looks textured, but feels as smooth as glass in your hands. The sights are not my favorite Hi-Capa irons I’ve ever gotten behind. I’d second the statements made elsewhere that fibers would have been the play, or to modernize the pistol a bit with a capability for an optic. It has the controls you expect, including a frame safety and a beaver tail. It’s really nothing to write home about visually.
Bust First, a Soap Box Rant
Let’s get the big Green (gas) Elephant out of the way. This Hi-capa isn’t TM compatible.
Before you click off this preview in pure disgust (like felt when I found out) let’s try to see some positives here. After ruminating on the concept of a more proprietary Hi-Capa for a few days after my initial time with the gun, I think this may actually be a good thing.
Companies can’t innovate if we as consumers keep demanding TM compatibility. This means we’ll never see the next great iteration of airsoft if we keep living in Marui’s shadow. So long as a company making proprietary guns keeps a steady stream of upgrade or replacement parts available, we shouldn’t be scared by this. G&G makes quality guns, and the aftermarket is already addressing some of the proprietary parts in their AEGs like their ETU, so maybe this pistol will get some love too!
The Internals
The two main components that make this pistol as proprietary as it is are the whirling valve and the hop up adjustment. Both of these components are not new to the GPM1911 CP, as they appear in every other GBB pistol that G&G currently produces, but I’m happy to see them here on this gun.
Inside the box, you’ll find a fake bullet keychain. This little keychain is actually the key for your hop up system. Simply insert into the front of the barrel and twist. This made tuning the gun for .28g BB’s a snap when we went to shoot it.
The whirl valve was a nice touch too. The gas efficiency on this gun is insane. When talking to Cisco, he mentioned they got around 90 shots on one fill, which I honestly didn’t believe. I am pleased to confirm that you can get around 90 on average, though we did get a high streak at 102, during the peak of the afternoon heat.
Overall, this gun is exactly what I expected to see internally from G&G, I’ve played around with the GTP9 quite a bit and this feels exactly like the GTP, just in a real firearm format, and not some bizarre space gun from the future.
How Does It Shoot?
I’d like to get a gripe out of the way. Loading this pistol sucked. It’s such a minor change, but G&G did not flare the track out for the magazine, so you are forced to load from the feed lips. Anyone who has ever cracked a feed lip before knows this feeling is scary, G&G’s included loader works just fine, but it would’ve been an easy fix to not even have this issue at all.
That’s my only gripe with shooting this gun however. The rest of the shooting experience was positively sublime. I haven’t felt a hi-capa that was this nice to shoot since the Baba Yaga graced the AirsoftRifle HQ. The trigger is crispy, with a nice definitive click, without being absurdly heavy (I’m looking at you USWA1). Recoil was very snappy, and you definitely feel the effects of the heavier recoil spring in your arm and wrist as you shoot. We still haven’t reached “muzzle flips to the moon” but it is still a substantial sensation that made me want to keep shooting this pistol until the neighbors complained from the noise.
This pistols is also tremendously loud. The noise from my test firing usually doesn’t irk the neighbors. AirsoftRifle HQ is intentionally located in the middle of nowhere Texas. However, test firing this in the mid-afternoon meant my neighbor who was conveniently mowing their lawn had to stop and ask me why I was lighting off fireworks in the middle of the day. My neighbor is an avid gun aficionado themselves, though not with the replica airsoft guns, and I let them have a turn with it after a period of intense questioning, and even my neighbor was impressed with the feel and snap of the shooting experience.
Range testing proved a bit difficult, as we didn’t get the time to really try this puppy out at our usual testing location, D14 Airsoft, but the HQ’s back yard is about 60 feet in length on its longest side, so we put the GPM1911 CP through it’s paces at that distance. I was able to clock solid A-zone hits with no issue. If you watch the airsoft GI review, you know that Cisco had issues due to the front sight’s lack of existence, but since they reattached it very securely for me, I didn’t run into the same problems. Grouping size wasn’t demonstrably better than any other pistol we’ve shot, but it certainly met the requirements of being able to hit targets well past the distance you typically need a sidearm.
Should You Buy This?
We can’t say yet. The pistol is on pre-order as of publication at $155, but the gun isn't in the wild, and we don't know the real truths of the final production models that will end up in the hands of players who don't run half-decent review blogs.
I am curious to see where this lands in the opinions of the airsoft community. It breaks a lot of rules, but for the most part, I think it succeeds at being a cut above most other airsoft pistols around today, especially in the areas where it defies convention.
I’m keeping my eye on this one, and it may yet end up in my own collection just to plink at the house, because it’s so much fun to shoot!