KWA ATP –Advanced Training Pistol (generic Glock) review

KWA ATP –Advanced Training Pistol (generic Glock) review

My friend and I shoot real steel and we wanted to have a little more realistic practice than shooting paper targets at an indoor range. We live in city limits and cannot fire real pistols at our homes. The realistic form of the Airsoft Gas Blow Back (GBB) pistols makes them suitable for drills and we can still use our real steel holsters and practice reloading etc. Not to mention that we can shoot while moving, and at one another while under fire from an opponent.

We took a trip to Atlanta Airsoft during the lead up to Christmas and the week after Christmas ,during my third visit I purchased my first Airsoft Pistol. The store was packed, but once we got the attention of the salespeople, they were very helpful and knowledgeable as far as a noob would know. My sales guys seemed to have experience with many of the pieces I was interested in and gave me insight into each pistol I was considering.

Having read up on the various models and brands while trying to sell off all the paintball gear that was sitting in the basement for 15 years I decided between a few guns: the KWA ATP, KWA USP Compact and the KJW Sig Sauer P229 compact. The P229 fit my hand the best but the sales guy had one and he needed it to be fixed after a year of use, and the “internets” are not as hot on the KJW brand as they are on the KWA brand, especially the KWA’s with the new NS2 gas system. The KWA UPS Compact was nice but out of stock. I could get it on-line, but I am old and old fashioned when it comes to buying something on-line that I went to a brick and morter store to handle, try on and decide on I won’t.

So I decided on the ATP and to buy it at the store where I was given service. Besides my internet research showed that it would cost $129 at most discount places and I already knew that the prices at Atlanta Airsoft were in line with all the big online presence dealers.

I like the ATP because it is similar to my real steel Springfield Armory XD9 subcompact in operation and fits the holster for my Ruger P90 DC. Also if one studies the aftermarket parts available for airsoft pistols you will notice most of the aftermarket upgrades and replacement parts the vast majority are for 1911’s and KWA Glocks, and most of the KWA glock parts fit the ATP. Another reason to get this piece over the USP or P229. And my nephew who is an MP in the Army and uses a Beretta service pistol does Army airsoft drills with a government issue KWA glock 19. Nuf Said!

Initial Impressions ---------The salesman brought out the new ATP from the back I noticed it was not exactly like the one I inspected from the display case. The one in the case does not have the Glock like trigger safety, which is included on the new-in-the-box ATP. Upon shooting it later that day, I tested the trigger safety and it appears 100% functional, which is nice since there is no other safety on this piece.

Good thing I opened the box and tried the first one he gave me, because that one did not work out of the box. The slide was jammed, which the air smith in the back confirmed. The second new one worked like a charm. Had I bought the first one online, it would be a week to return it and get another one, but since I was buying at the brick and morter store, my salesperson just got me another one from stock and this one worked fine as far as one could tell from inspection without shooting it.

Later on while browsing the Airsoft Atlanta website I found a KWA service video dealing with this very problem ATP Slide Stuckon YOUTUBE the recoil buffer [#36] is installed backward on some guns causing the slide to jam. It seems easy to fix but for the money I expect what I paid for to work out of the box. I am glad I was able to exchange mine over the counter before I even paid for it.

The ATP comes with the federally required orange tip. Mine is not threaded. After a few thousand shots I noticed it was easy to turn. Lo and behold, the orange tip is just pushed into the outer barrel and it slides right off. It could easily be lost. I like the looks without it so I put the orange tip into the box so I can find it, if I need it, sometime in the future.

Magazine I purchased a second magazine along with the ATP. The new ATP design has a rubber butt plate extension on the bottom of the clip to keep it from breaking if dropped. I noticed that Airsoft Atlanta sells and extra magazine without the extension too. I traded the first one for one with the butt plate. The rubber butt plate has a hole in it that looks like it would give one access to the fill valve. The gas cans I have can not reach that far in so the butt plate must be removed or slid to the side to get the gas can nozzle onto the fill valve. It takes a nail breaking catch release to get it off, although it does loosen up some after a little silicone oil is applied and the clip is reloaded 10 times.

The spring that keeps the butt plate latch engaged is the same spring that keeps the BB's firmly pushing at the top of the magazine . When the clip is empty, it is much easier to operate the butt plate release than when the clip is full of BBs. The magazine functions just as well without the butt plate. If it is really cold you may want to put that magazine in your pocket for a few minutes to warm it up before you use it. It will be more powerful and consistent and you will be able to load it full of BBs more times before refilling the gas.

After about 1200 rounds, in the middle of a clip all the gas escaped. Wow! I put the other clip in and same thing. Oh no the gun is broken!!! Not to panic. If you want to avoid this problem put a tiny half drop of oil into both the magazine charging valve (#16) and magazine release valves (#17) to lube the O rings. Also add a drop of the supplied oil down into magazine nozzle seal(#12). Do this with the magazine empty and push #16 in and out to work the oil into the O-ring

I asked the salesman about the clips breaking when they are ejected onto concrete. He said the plastic piece on the top will break after it drops many times. It is nice to know that this plastic piece is sold separately so I can fix broken magazines if I drop them one to many times. Not a bad thing to know since magazines are $29 each, unless you splurge for [url= http://www.airsoftatlanta.com/KWA_FPG_48_Round_Gas_Magazine_G18c_GEN_2_Airsoft_p/00579.htm?CartID=6]Magpul 48 round FPG Magazine[/url], which works fine with my ATP



The ATP comes with a little BB loading aid. It is pretty useless If one were to use it to scoop BB’s into the clip one would find the BBs do not lie perfectly and would not load to the 23 BB capacity, however the ATP will shoot all of the BB's no matter how many are in the clip or how neatly they are stacked. Putting BB’s into these clips is more easily handled by hand or with a legit speed loader IMHO.

I think that loading the airsoft clips is more of a pain than loading real steel clips, it takes more time to load the airsoft clips, but less overall strength than pushing bullets into real steel clips.

BB’s-- the box says “designed for 0.25 gram or heavier BB’s. My buddy bought a bag of the .25’s so I got a bag of the 0.20’s to compare to his. I am not sure what weight the 100 BB’s that come with it are. The ATP does not seem to prefer one weight over the other, both shoot great.

Chrono
Day one 320-330 FPS with 0.20g BB and 295-300 FPS with .25 BB. temp ~40degrees F
Day two 345-360FPS with 0.20g BB and 300-310 FPS with .25 BB. temp ~60degrees F

Sometimes the first shot after a gas refill seems hot, every few magazines it seems one in the middle of a nice volley are low FPS. The low ones could be from the way I am pulling the trigger. The hot ones shoot more wildly.

GAS: I am using the $10 8oz bottle of Kings Arms Green Gas for now, although the tech at Airsoft Atlanta says it will run from propane with the fill adaptor if you put silicone oil in the adaptor. Before I lubed the magazine valves I found I had to top off the magazine with gas with each reload. After lubricating the magazine O rings and shooting 1200 rounds I am getting 69 plus shots out of each refill.

Hop Up ----After shooting a few hundred BB’s from 21’ I gave the hop up a quarter turn in. It is dead on height wise now. Don’t get oil on your hop up bushing.

Accuracy Using the sight I can get 2” groups at 21’ indoor standing position. Following the BB trail I can get 4” groups with rapid fire. After a few magazines I somehow started shooting to the left. I discovered the front and rear sights are only held in place with friction. Not bad, easily adjusted to my own faulty aim. Now I moved the front and rear sights to compensate for me to-far- the- left aim and now I am dead on. Some Blue Locktite will keep the sights from migrating and if you use blue Locktite the sights will still be workable enough after a few days \ to readjust them if needed.

I hung a 1" diameter foot long wind chime in front of my target back trap. It swings in two axis when you hit it with a BB. I can hit it every other or three shots even with it moving from 21 feet. It is easy for me to hit an 11x8 paper target popping out left and right from cover as well as moving left to right from 21’and following the BB trail. I wish I could see the bullets coming from my real steel, it would be a lot more fun to shoot that way. I can’t wait to get it outside and see how it does at 50' and 100'.

Reliability. Shot about 1000 BB’s so far and never jammed, never double balled never cycled and did not shoot a ball, always locks the slide open when empty, except if I did not top off the gas when I refilled the BBs. After shooting about 100 magazines I occasionally noticed a BB roll out of the barrel when pointing the piece toward the ground. Perhaps that is more a factor of BB quality and inner barrel inside barrel diameter than anything else.

Then all of a sudden I got the venting and shooting a ball every other shot problem.

Checking the KWA ATP Manufacturer's Forum for this gun I discovered all sorts of videos on how to clean and ready the gun for service. Once I cleaned the barrel and the hop up bucking with a gun patch and oiled everything like the videos show the gun settled right down into the groove.

All of the problems with it missing BBs on some shots, not racking when empty and venting gas stopped when I began to follow the directions during filling the magazine ( hold the fill can on the mag for 15 seconds). Since it is January and in the twenties here in the ATL my basement where I am shooting is pretty cold. After I load the magazine I now put it into my pocket for ten minutes to warm it up. I am now getting three 23 BB fills with the slide racking open. On the fourth BB fill the clip sometimes empties, but there is not enough power in the last shot to cycle the slide and lock open on the last few. But that is almost 100 BBs with one gas fill. Incredible.

Warranty --- In store 5 day warranty. Yeah I wish it was longer but in 5 days if it is a piece of junk and gonna break I will break it by then. Otherwise KWA has a 45 day mail in warranty. This is more than any other airsoft brand as far as I know.

Beware, the manual says that you will void the warranty if you use propane in the piece. At least get the propane adaptor on another receipt in case you have to send the piece to KWA to get it fixed. Don't forget to put silicone in the adapter if you use BBQ propane. I wonder if the factory repair people can tell if you used BBQ propane from the residual smell?

Bottom line, I want to get a second ATP for my son. Both my daughter in law and I already shot him in the butt from 20 while he was changing the targets.

Wear goggles and be safe.

Peace

Having not played for 15 years I came to meet a friend and buy a speed loader and wound up in the ready area with my 2 week old ATP two 23 round mags and one 50 round mag. I was surrounded by 145 other players with all sorts of machine guns and secondary pistols. I saw projecting lasers, and claymores being used on SS Airsoft's indoor CQB arena in Sugar Hill GA.

Did I feel intimidated with my little pistol? Not really, because this little pistol works better than any paintball gun I owned.

I was using .2G golden ball and green gas. It works better with .25 golden ball but I did not want to waste my .25 bios indoor but any future purchases will be .25 gram.

The gun fired flawlessly. I used all the ammo (94 rounds) each game and topped off my mags on the field once or twice. The fact that each mag can fire a full load of BB's minimum of twice, usually three times and sometimes four times is a big advantage of the NS2 system; but none-the-less, I was wishing for more ammo once and a while. This pistol just begs to have it's trigger pulled as fast as you can pull it.

I really liked the mobility this gun allows me and it is so accurate I was able to hit little parts of people sticking out from cover time and time again. It was easy to put shots through stacks of pallets into the butts of tango's. Unlike a rifle I was able to take shots from behind cover on the left and hit what I was pointing at quickly.

Like I said this gun works better than any paintball gun I have owned and I had all of the best of them. More range, and better accuracy. No double feeds, no blank fires, just flawless performance. I had a little rough start with it but once I got it lubed up and fired a few thousand rounds in the basement learning how it likes to be treated, it served me well.

Pistol play in CQB is an advantage unless you are laying down cover, then maybe the full auto carbine has an advantage.

I would only want to replace the sights with real gun night sights, and get a couple more of the 50 round mags to feel more equal with the machine guns.

The mags on these KWA's need constant oil on the fill and firing valves otherwise you will get the venting and filling problems.

I love the simplicity of this gun. I helped a friend with the KWA MKIV 1911 and it is so hard to break down I wonder what the hell they were thinking, same with the KJW 1911 I broke down for another friend. The recoil spring and barrel just come out of the ATP and the inner barrel just come out. If I get another pistol it will be another ATP or maybe a used KWA glock that would use the NS2 mags I will be collecting.