NOTE: I'll begin with a overview of the process, or the story of how this gun was made and the small problems along the way and then I'll write the review. The subjects are bolded so if my bantering is obnoxious to you just skip to the bolded section title review after the
Long Line of Great Justice(tm)
Well it was around a year ago at castle I decided that I wanted something new. At the same time though I didn't want to change guns as I have been shooting Draco for around a year. I was perplexed, what could I possibly change on my awesome pistol that would meaningfully impact the gun without drilling or permenantly changing it. After a lengthy search, and stripping my battlegrips because I'm retarded I found the segison K-frame. But it was only for pumps! Luckily I had far too much extra money at the time so I contacted sergison and he agreed to set off on a new endevor, making the first k-frame for a semi.
the plan
I gave sergison a rather flexable timeline to produce the truly custom work as it had never been done before. A great many airsmiths have quit the practice from people hassling them to have their gun ready for "game X" and I was going to try to not be one of them. At the same time though I was on the list for the first VIP game and I can't play for beans without my gun so I gave him just about a whole season to get the work done intime for that game, but if it wasn't done I wasn't going to pitch a fit or anything.
The original idea (in my head) was that it would be the same setup as the original grips. It would maintain it's backbottle ASA and the original 3-way would be housed in the grips. This wasn't paramount though, the only two rules I had was that he was not to drill the original body or modify it in anyway and it had to be reliable enough that I would never, ever, ever have to touch it.
version 9-1
Sergison suprised me, as he consistantly did throughout the process when in just a few months with his hard work and countless e-mails from myself (only a few where obnoxious I swear!) he produced version 9-1 right in time for me to sling it at last years ION. He literally took less time to custom fabricate a design that had never been done before than gruntball took to annodize the bloody frame. I digress,
Version 9-1 was an early release of sorts of the work so that I could test run the design at a game I didn't really care too much about. This way if there was anything I wanted changed it could be done in time for the VIP game at blanding. I also couldn't stand being away from my gun for so long.
Three original plans didn't work out. First the mockup of the backbottle ASA on the top of the grip looked like caca. It also would have made the grip unbelievably uncomfterable to hold. Under his advisement I agreed it was a horrible choice and instead said "well I only run remote anyways, can we put a nipple on like the bottom of the grips or something? Make hardline run to it because a hose would look like caca" which he did by fabricating a custom nipple into the butt of the gun shown here,
Also the original 3-way wouldn't fit so he built one directly into the frame as shown here,
I was shocked he had the ability to do this. The 3-way to me is the heart of the gun though and therefore I was worried over if it would work as well as the old heart which had served draco well for about 8 years or so. My worries where pushed aside when the gun performed flawlessly in that regard at ION.
Also he was not able to keep the original trigger shoe that Draco had. This bummed me out because I wanted to keep as many original parts of the gun as possible.
There where two problems with version 9-1. First the air fitting that connected the hardline to the internal regulator pictured below sucked balls.
This is the hazzard of getting something that no one has ever done before made, stupid little pieces. The fitting was a pressure fitting with two o-rings that the hardline slid into. Unfortunatly when a decent amount of pressure as applied to the side of the hardline it would bend rather easily and cause a leak. When I strained my left knee at ION while walking down the side of a hill I fell down and popped the hardline moving it a little. Latter the pressure of clicking the strap of my holster into it's fitting pushed the hardline enough for it to leak profusely.
This was against rule two, the rule that I would never, ever, ever have to mess around with the bloody gun. At first though I thought that the reason for the breaking of this rule was because of the body slam I inadvertantly pulled on it so I let it go.
The other problem was that the grips where way too small for my massive hands. This wasn't segisons fault but a problem that resided in the model itself. The round butt k-frame I found out is built for the purpose of having a concealed carry firearm. Unfortunatly sergison only builds k-frames and I wasn't about to ask for a whole new frame he had never built before. I figured I was boned.
So I sent the gun back to him to get anodized black by gruntball.
version 9-2
Version 9-2 was simply the gun anodized black with a fixed fitting. Unfortunatly gruntball changed it's policies forcing it's customers to have to order a minimum of 75 bucks of anodizing or something after sergison sent it. They failed to tell him this for a lengthy period of time which caused a ridiculous delay in the anodization process. Even after it was fixed they took a while to get the frame done.
Again though the problem with the bloody airfitting reared it's ugly head at a local tourny. The pressure of the carrying case my fiance bought for me, and I therefore had to use, made the hardline leak again. It was quite easy to dickup and then make worse for someone who has no idea of how to mess around with paintguns. Sergison said he could put a much more secure fitting on for like 20 bucks or something if I sent it in.
I decided to wait a bit. The grip problem was bigger than I thought as the tourny clearly showed me. Everytime I shot my aim would be off to the right or left because it was impossible to hold the gun correctly without pinching the skin of my middle finger. To partially solve this I had to hold the foregrip everytime I shot. This was still unacceptable to me and I lamented the possibility of scraping the project all together.
I searched all the smith and wesson forums and articles I could find trying to figure out how big handed individuals delt with the problem.
I found out four important pieces of information,
1. Stock S&W grips apparently suck balls
2. Most custom grip manufactures get insulted and give you the F-U price when you ask them to make custom grips for a paintgun
3. The locking device on new S&W guns randomly activates so someone is going to die and liberal goverment is the devil.
4. It's a PITA to find grips for dudes with big hands for the k-frame
In the end though I found the grips and version 10-1 was a complete sucess. After the first VIP game was cancled I told sergison to take his time. I don't remember how long it took him to install the new fitting and fit another pair of grips but I didn't care so I don't think it's fair to judge on that. Version 10-1 came just in time for the VIP game which is when I requested it for.