First
Impressions
The packaging is pretty similar to that of the Marui 552 for those
who are familiar with it. The gun is held in place with foam inserts on top
of it and then foam inserts underneath a layer of cardboard supporting it
from the bottom. The package arrived in good shape and the gun was fine, so
it does its job. After all, this is a cardboard box we're talking about, not
high-end art.
After opening the box I was under the impression that the gun's receiver
was a flat black. This was really disappointing to me; I like the grey finish
on the Marui. However, this was simply a result of the lighting. The color of
the receiver really depends on how the light is hitting it and the light source
itself. Anyways, the finish itself is nice and the grey tone of the receiver is
actually quite good. It's similar to the Marui if not actually a bit better.
It feels solid as well and I initially thought it might have been metal until
I looked in the magwell and scratched a bit of the plastic off the inside.
After opening the box I was under the impression that the gun's receiver was a
flat black. This was really disappointing to me; I like the grey finish on the
Marui. However, this was simply a result of the lighting. The color of the receiver
really depends on how the light is hitting it and the light source itself. Anyways,
the finish itself is nice and the grey tone of the receiver is actually quite good.
It's similar to the Marui if not actually a bit better. It feels solid as well and
I initially thought it might have been metal until I looked in the magwell and
scratched a bit of the plastic off the inside.
There are a couple complaints though. The gun really does look plain without the
trademarks found on the real steel and Marui versions. I understand this is for legal
reasons, but I would've liked to have seen at least the "Made In Switzerland Cal .223
Rem" and "For Law Enforcement / Export" text on the left and right sides of the
receiver. Oh well. Also annoying is the lack of actual holes in the handguard. The
Marui and real steel both have holes there, but the JG for some reason does not. I
assume this is so the battery can not be seen. However, I would've preferred the holes
to be there and to have handled it on my own with some electrical tape if I felt it
necessary.
Speaking of which, the battery is brightly colored and is at least better
aesthetically than a lot of the batteries I've seen in clones. It's 8.4
volts and 1100 mAh and has a label on the cells informing the user how long
to charge it for. The charger claims to output an actual 8.4 volts as well
and functioned fine for the initial charge. It's a pretty standard accessory
bundle here, charger, battery, manual, and BBs. The BBs are highly polished
and showed no noticeable imperfections and fired fine. The manual is pretty
good as well and written in a mix of Chinese and English. It also pictures a
SG 550 and 551 as available models, this may be a result of cloning the
Marui manual, however I do not have one to confirm this with.
Disappointingly, there is no speed loader included to fill the single
hi-cap magazine with. The magazine seems to feed okay, I had some times
where it appeared to be skipping shots, but I'm not sure how much of this
was due to me not winding it properly. I don't have a lot of experience with
hi-caps as I choose to avoid them whenever possible, instead opting for
mid-caps or real-caps. The mag is the standard SG magazine and includes the
clips for attaching it to another mag. Like most hi-caps, there's no fake
bullets behind the transparent plastic which I feel really hurts the
appearance. I'll be purchasing a Marui mid-cap for it soon, however I wish
clone manufacturers would start shipping their guns with mid-caps instead.
Moving back to the gun itself, the gun features a rotating drum rear sight
like that found on many HK weapons. The sight also has a "SG" logo behind
it, sadly the only marking on the gun. It rotates from position to position
easily and securely and gets the job done. I'm personally a big fan of this
style of sight and find it easy to use. However, if you disagree with me,
there's three rails on the gun - one on the top of the receiver, the bottom
of the handguard, and right side of the handguard. I've opted to install a
40mm red/green dot sight on the top rail and a vertical foregrip, leaving
the right side rail open to laser or flashlight in the future.
As you can see in the picture above, the hideous orange flash hider can
be removed and replaced with anything with a 14mm counter clockwise thread,
in the picture above it's replaced with the SOCOM silencer which came with
my Marui P90 TR. The flash hider was not glued on and was easily removed
with my bare hands. It's a solid piece of metal but is coated in a rather
thick layer of paint which makes it feel almost rubbery. There appears to be
no paint beneath the orange (which is rather difficult to remove). Due to
the thickness of the paint, I suggest fulling removing the paint first if
you feel the need to paint it black.
The stock of the gun is excellent. It unfolds and locks into place
beautifully. No wobble whatsoever, the thing is 100% rock solid. I was
really impressed and it feels great. Likewise, the stock stays in place when
folded and does not interfere with the operation of the weapon assuming you
are right handed. Even the hop-up remains accessible.The gun, itself, seems reasonably accurate but is badly let down by the
sights. The optical SUSAT sight is functional but very toy-like and the iron
sights, since they’re mounted on top of the SUSAT, are also prone to
inaccuracy caused by the mounts being rather flimsy.
Out of the box, the gun severely over-hopped with the provided BBs. I
don't know if this was the BBs' fault or not, as I didn't have much time to
actually fire the gun. I had to turn the hop nearly all the way down before
I could it to function appropriately. Thankfully it's a simple process - you
pull back the handle on the ejector port and turn the dial to adjust the
hop. With the hop adjusted, the gun seemed to be achieving decent groupings
and going out a good distance. Again, I unfortunately did not have much time
to actually fire the gun (I had to leave home to go back to campus, and
obviously I can't bring it with me), so I don't have any solid numbers or
tests for you.
