About P90

P90 was introduced as a SMG in middle 90's, by FN company. First prototype was designed in 1986, and mass production started in 1991. Unfortunately, this gun has never gained big popularity. Today it is used mainly by special forces.

As an airsoft replica, for quite a time P90 was being produced only by Tokyo Marui, and as the real gun it was not common among airsoft players (maybe excluding Poznan in Poland). Anybody interested in this replica, probably was keen to any competitive offer to Tokyo Marui. As for now, P90 is made also by GFC, ACM and CA (Sport Line). Thanks to Danish company ActionSportGames A/S - I have the opportunity, to check it out and present here on Wmasg.

Even though the box is probably not the most important, let's have a closer look at it. Cardboard is esthetic, graphic design is well made and it is just nice to see before geting to the replica itself. All the standard information about the product, specification and that we have hop-up inside. Let's unwrap the candy.

In the box, ready to go set:

- battery 8.4V 1100mAh CA,

- charger

- ramrod

- goggles

- BBs

- manual

- hi-cap mag

- replica itself

Classic Army goggles which goes with the set, were pretty surprising. Unfortunately their optic quality is low - eyes would get tired quickly.

All the fillings in the box seems well considered, and should guarantee there would be no damage during transportation.

Let's connect the battery to the charger, and while charging, let's take a closer look at a hi-cap mag.

Magazine

First thing I did after lading it with BBs, I have connected it to competitive P90 by TM. It works.

CA mag can carry 300 BBs and it is loaded in a same way as the TM one. BBs winding device is an advantage of CA mag. Why? In new TM mags, it takes a while to wind BBs, and it requires to use a bit of a force, new CA works faster and smooth. Later during the test, it would feed BBs without any drops and what is important it has not jammed even once (ROF circa 29BB / s).

During the test, due to limited time I had no chance to state if they would be any typical P90 mag handicaps which happen to be a part of other producers P90 hi-caps. Even though P90 hi-caps are famous for feeding BBs without empty shots, and relatively long time between winding, and as well no rattle sound, they have one disadvantage. After long period usage, they could seriously jam and in the worst case, to unjam you have to dismantle whole mechanizm. It would come out after longer time usage, and airsoft maniacs would be the final testers at this part.

Mag seems to be well made, and reliable, though I have some worries about srping pushing the BBs towards racks. It is thinner than TM one, so it's life-span might be lower.

Replica

Here comes the main feature of this review:

At the first glance, body texture is more mat and rugged than TM one, though about the other details it is very alike as its main competitor. Outer and inner body is well made, there are no protruding piece of plastic, or any not finished pieces.

It has 14mm left-handed thread, RIS bar on the right and reflexing sight, which unfortunately has no way of adjustment. Anyway, with such a small screen, it is easy to accustom to aiming. I must admitt I had a big hope, that Classic Army would learn from competitors mistake, and would fix some protecting screen in the front of a colimator (i.e. some plexiglass). Still it is up to the players themselves. Taking hit in the sight is not that unprobable to happen, and it can ruin the sight. Buying sight dedicated to P90 is sort of expensive and it is generally not that available. No producer has came out with the idea to protect reflexing sight. Pity.

While battery was still charging, I have taken a closer look at inner barrel. I had no wishes to see anything outstanding, and so it was like that. Standard. This class of replica, inner barrel, HU rubber and distancer are usually first to be replaced - about which I would say something more below. P90 CA SL goes with typical SL blue barrel 6.12mm.

TESTING

Before I have dismantled the gearbox I connected the battery and took a few blank shots. Sound is really loud, as for me - a bit too loud, what is more, racks sound like their washers were not put correctly. Its out of the box functioning is far from being perfect. It is far behind Tokyo Marui competitor, but as well cheap P90 replicas. What was proven during tests SL weak points are piston head and cylinder.

Let's take a look at gearbox parts (please do remember though it is budget line of Classic Army - Sport Line):

- Spring slide made of plastic is not making durable impression. According to my experience, I could say, that using plastic spring slide with 100 or 110 spring series, along with 12V or LiPo batteries would result in its damage. As far as I am concerned: replace it with metal one;

- Spring used in this model looks like 100 series - stock BB muzzle velocity is 320 fps;

- Piston is almost fully made of plastic. Only the first notch is made of some metal, rest is just plastic. Piston itself seems OK.

- Plastic cylinder head and piston head are responsible for excessive noisy functioning. There is no piece of shock absorbtion material, neither on piston head, neither on cylinder head. Replacemend of either of those with a part having some shock absorbing material, would reduce noisy functioning.

- Racks - when I was comparing them to those taken out of P90 by TM, I really couldn't find any small difference in the quality. I could even say that they could would easily manage to work with 110 series of spring.

- Gearbox body - no failure here, I saw no major difference to Japanese counterpart. It seems reliable and durable, in the body itself I couldn't find any prodruding unifinished parts. Both parts of body fits well with each other.

- Bearings are 6mm plastic bushings. Racks there are working well.

- Wiring is the most difficult part for me, because my knowledge at this part is below basic. Nevertheless while testing replica with batteries from 8.4V to 12V there were no short circuits or any effect of overheating wires. They didn't fail in any way.

Shooting range

Some open air tests. I tried to concentrate on accuracy of shots. As a target I took a soft drink can (with cardboard in the back) and I placed it on distances of 20, 30 and 40 meters.

- 20m - almost all shots in the target, only a few shots were visible on the cardboard.

- 30m - the other way round, only a few BBs reached the can, most of them painted the cardboard with large radius (42cm). Such a spread is unacceptable.

- 40m - BBs could not reach a can in a straight line (upper lob). I did not see any reason for taking tests at this distance any longer.

UPGRADE

Stock replica has about 322 fps and 25m of effective range and maybe 35m total range. As an effective range I understand a range on which 8/10 shots would reach the target. Because stock replica at this part is pretty weak, let's try to make it better.

1) Inner barrel replacement, HU rubber and distancer:

- Systema, precise barrel (247mm - 6.04mm);

- black silicon HU rubber;

- distancer G&G

Result: 326fps, about 36m effective range and much better accuracy (17cm in comparison to above).

2) Spring replacement with stock parts (avarage measures taken on 10 shots):

- Systema M100: 313 fps;

- Guarder SP100: 329 fps;

- Guarder SP110: 346fps (it is worth mentioning that the noise was even worse with that spring, and it all made an impression that something is gonna fell apart in a moment);

3) Spring, spring slide, cylinder head, nozzle and piston head replacement:

- reinforced spring slide with Prometheus V6 bearings;

- reinforced Prometheus V6 (Aero) cylinder head;

- sealed Prometheus nozzle;

- POM Prometheus pison head;

Result: (10 shots avarage):

- stock spring: 331 fps,

- Systema M100: 326 fps,

- Guarder SP100: 352 fps,

- Guarder SP110: 379 fps,

First thing is, that after the last replacements, sound of replica was much more pleasant to hear. There was still grating sound of racks, though when I took some time on washers it also disappeared. Unfortunately I did not had a chance to check the ROF with all the respective springs.

After small adjustments in the stock we might fit there 12V battery based on small cells. Such a work is exactly the same as you need to go through in the Tokyo Marui. It requires to cut off some piece of plastic stop which secures the GB, which would be most convenient to see on the pictures below (red line in the second picture shows where to cut).

According to taken tests, it seems replica is easy to tune up.

Replica was tested thanks to Classic Army distributor - ActionSportGames:

(Translated by Bukhart)