ASG MK23 SOCOM

[sp00n]

At the time of writing this i have only done some back garden plinking with this gun, but i will update this when i have chance to skirmish it with more details ... and some pics.

So i have done what i said (in my CYMA g18c AEP review) i wouldn't do and i have bough myself a gas pistol, but not any gas pistol, as there is method in my particular brand of madness, let me enlighten you

let me start of with a quick pro/cons

Pro's

1) its cheap, they can be had for around £60 mark

2) mags are cheap (£21 at firesupport atm) even the TM MK23 guys love them!

3) No blow back which should mean a steadier aim and (in theory) more gas efficient

4) looks good, and is quite imtimidating (more details in cons)

5) has a adjustable hop, thought it says its fixed on the box and the manual wont tell you how to get to it

Con's

1) Its plastic not that well made (a small part broke off mine, not that anyone will see mind)

2) Its HUGE!!! i cannot stress how much bigger it is (with out the silencer) than say a glock, you need big hands for this gun!

3) no trades (not really an issue for me, some people like them though)

4) no blow back

5) it uses gas (sorry i detest this as gas aint that cheap, and in my view gas guns are a step back in time as pre TM famas, all airsoft was gas/compressed air)

in the box you get, the gun/silencer/mag/manual and some bb's. The manual is well not that good in my view.

So its cheap, but is this a bad thing? if i was to break it or loose it, i could in theory get 2 for the price of most other pistols

FPS, i get 311fps on 0.25's (thats just below 350 on 0.2's), yet with the silencer on i get 358fps on 0.25's (thats just a smidge below 400 with 0.2's), please note the silencer is actually a barrel extension.

as to my madness, in theory being none blow back, it should be very gas efficient, and from my arm chair tests, i can get 80 continual shots off before the mag is out of gas :blink: (which is wayyy more than my WE dragon at 29 shots). Also its very light with out the mag in.

Hop - this is adjustable, but the manual wont tell you how, as to be honest its in a right bugger of a place. to get to it you have to pull the slide back 10 - 15mm untill the slide lock aligns with a small cut out in the slide, then pop the slide lock out and remove the top slide. no on the under side of the slide you can see the hop adjuster. A little note on the slide lock, its not actually a slide lock, its the hammer forward (home) safety catch, the rear safety catch is for when the hammer is cocked.

Its HUGE, really i cannot stress how big this pistol is, if you have large or smaller hands this aint the gun for you. And its LONG, longer then a test match series! (with the silencer fitted). Holsters can be an issue and or problematic.

Other items of note -

You don't have to cock it to make the pistol ready to fire, simply insert mag ... blast away, similarly when unloading drop the mag out, and its done . cocking the gun only really cocks the hammer back.

One issue is when the mag is empty of bb's, unless you watch for bb's you will be doing nothing but shooting gas (though there is a tone change in the gas blast when you are empty)

It has a RIS mounting point ... so you can mount something :lol:

it has a lanyard strap

so what am i gunna do with it .......... h34r: h34r: i have a cunning plan

nice MK23 appraisal http://www.airsoft-forums.co.uk/index.php/topic/20481-who-makes-the-best-mk23-socom-pistol/

Update 7/11/2014 (sorry about the huge pics .. and i know there not brilliant)

so as some of you have read i had an issue with over hopping (not tested results yet). So i have taken a few pic's showing how to get to the hop adjuster and how to adjust it (if your gun is like mine)

first things first .. removing the slide

as you look at the side of the gun with the "slide release" facing upwards, note the cut out on the slide.

pulling the slide back abit, align the slide release pin with the cut out

turning the gun over push the slide release pin

with the pin removed your gun will now look something like above

ease the slide forward so it now looks like the above

lift the top of the slide like above, and genteelly pull the slide forward

now you can see and set the hop adjust

If life me yours is over hopping, to get to the hop arm, you need to :-

carefully push the barrel/chamber assembly slightly forward, then angle it down, before finally extracting it

then looking at the hop wheel, you need to remove the chamber dust cover

genteelly lift the bottom of the dust cover so, the locating pegs are clear, then repeat on the other side

remove the cover

looking at the top of the barrel/chamber assembly, you can see the hop arm. Ensuring that hop is wound fully off, if needed very very genteelly lift the arm upwards to remove excessive hop, keep looking down the barrel to check how the hop rubber looks.

This is how mine now looks with hop off, bear in mind that you don't get loads of hop adjustment, so go easy with it.

note reassembly is the reverse of disassembley, be aware that some parts need a wiggle to get in position etc special note to replacing the barrel assemble back in the slide (aligning the spring and recoil rod is tricky), also realigning the slide back on the body can be tricky. Take your time!

edit 08/12/14:-

One thing that was bugging me was, i wanted to use the silencer ... but not shoot at 400FPS!, after abit of google'fu i was running out of idea's as the standard silencer/barrel-extension isn't 14mm, when i accidentally found out that it has a 16mm cw thread ... then after some more google'fu i stumbled upon a "Hephaestus Kriss Vector Silencer Adapter 16mm CW to 14mm CCW" , From milspec solutions.

Result - now i have a even silenter MK23 lol

Edit 13/12/14:-

i have also aquired a "1 x Nine Ball Under Mount Base For Marui MK23 Fixed Slide (Ver.2)" from Airsoftglobal.com £46.30

so combining that with my llm01 ... i get

think i need a smaller torch lol

 

[Airsoft_Mr B]

Nice review

Wouldn't call the mags cheap though, £20 is a fairly standard price.

 

[AK47frizzle]

HOLY SHEET!! SPOON WHERE U BEEN?!!!

Heard they were very reliable.. so hmm.. too bad i can't get a hold of gas.

 

[sp00n]

Nice review

Wouldn't call the mags cheap though, £20 is a fairly standard price.

i stand corrected, though most mags i have seen have been closer to the £30 mark, but in my defense i have not been following prices, and looking at TM prices ... the ASG mags aint that bad

HOLY SHEET!! SPOON WHERE U BEEN?!!!

Heard they were very reliable.. so hmm.. too bad i can't get a hold of gas.

damit he's found me .... back into hiding .... just kidding

to be honest i have had a few health woe's (i have only played twice so far this year), but i think i am back on track B)

gas is over rated, elastic-trickery ... that's the way forward :lol: , serious now, i am in no way putting my cyma G18c AEP away, or allowing it to take a back seat, its a work horse ultra reliable and lots of fun. This pistol is a cheap project

 

[straffham]

Nice review, the fact its advertised as having fixed hop had put me off it, but if its adjustable then dang, I may have to get one!

 

[team flex]

Cheers for the review, can't wait for the skirmish update

 

[sp00n]

*semi skirmish update*

so i had it with me last Sunday, and while i did want to run with it i discovered a minor problem, which prevented me from using it.

basically it was over hopping with 0.25's ... like crazy over hopping. And unfortunately for me i forgot my bottle of 0.3's ... so i just ran with my work horse (G18c AEP)

that said i need a holster ... and i would like a silencer which isn't a barrel extension (i want the silencer cool looks, with out the high/hot/insane FPS)

i am going to do some more testing, maybe strip it down and have a look at the hop arrangement etc B) . On a plus note i know the hop works ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

EDIT :-

so i just tried to strip it down to have a look at the hop etc .... and there lies my first problem, you see on ASG webby, there is a great exploded drawing of the gun, and according to that drawing the outer barrel is held on by a screw that goes through the hop assembly and nips on the opposite side of the outer barrel .... only there isn't, it looks like a pin to me, and i could not get it to move <_<

not to be put off or any thing, by removing the fake spring loaded cartridge eject port cover, you can see the metal top of the hop arm .. applying a small amount of pressure can and will cause the arm to bent slightly ... need to do some testing but it looks alot better now B)

 

[sp00n]

updated! added pics and strip down etc etc

 

[sp00n]

updated! added info about fitting a normal silencer instead of the standard silencer (as the standard silencer is a barrel extension and increases fps from 350 to 400!!)

 

[sp00n]

Update time

so i have found a nice torch off ebay, its not mega bright (bright enough), it takes 2 cr123's (i have rechargables so thats cool), it has a laser and its quick disconnect ..... but no strobe

gunna keep my eyes open for another torch with strobe ... just in case

as to the gun, i am more impressed each time i use it. The range i can hit people at just blows me away! so much that I now have 5 mags for it, and i happily run just this for a game or 3 (i could easily run this for a full day, but i have other guns and they need some loving too :lol: ).

one "bad" thing i noticed, after a while the trigger started to get abit "sticky", a quick squirt of silicone oil down the mag well soon sorted that out though B) :lol:

on a side note i have been made aware that taiwangun sell these guns and mags even cheaper under there STTI brand, but i cannot confirm this (as i have not ordered one etc ... well not yet anyway ... hmmm dual wielding mk23's)

 

[Bob43]

Hey does anyone know if the ASG MK23 SOCOM has an alloy slide?

Thanks

 

[Prisce]

No it’s plastic.

 

[Asomodai]

Hey does anyone know if the ASG MK23 SOCOM has an alloy slide?

Thanks

No reason to be metal as its a NBB. 

 

[Canen]

I just started off with the very same Socom for CQB (two toned as I'm currently going for UKARA). I found it very gas efficient (about 2 - 2.5 mags per charge) and although it is quite big I found it very effective and accurate. My only gripe is that the MK23 mags (of which I have five, probably overdoing it there for CQB) don't allow you to speedload from the side as the gap isn't wide enough to get a .25 BB in. The double stacking can also be a pain when manually reloading and between games you find yourself hyperventilating trying to sort yourself out before the next game. 

 

[Prisce]

I just started off with the very same Socom for CQB (two toned as I'm currently going for UKARA). I found it very gas efficient (about 2 - 2.5 mags per charge) and although it is quite big I found it very effective and accurate. My only gripe is that the MK23 mags (of which I have five, probably overdoing it there for CQB) don't allow you to speedload from the side as the gap isn't wide enough to get a .25 BB in. The double stacking can also be a pain when manually reloading and between games you find yourself hyperventilating trying to sort yourself out before the next game. 

Slightly file the walls down the bottom of the mag where the BBs go. Then you can speed load them from there, I have done that to all mine and they work perfectly.

 

[Canen]

Slightly file the walls down the bottom of the mag where the BBs go. Then you can speed load them from there, I have done that to all mine and they work perfectly.

Cracking idea. Thanks!

 

[Watsy]

I've not long bought one of these.
 After adding a new nub to the hop up,  the original hop adjustment had next to no effect, and a couple of strips of gaffer tape behind the feed mechanism to make better connection with the magazine, I've found I can shoot 0.40g BBs at 300fps lol. With the silencer it now does 380fps!  So I'll take your advice and get a new silencer. I may have to play under DMR rules with it at my local site but what a gun.

 

[Jubbs]

Just received today and after watching your videos was able to find out how to access the hop unit. Thanks ?

Having gutted my CM701 sniper suppressor with scouring pads to make it more quiet I thought I'd try with the supplied silencer.

Quite easy, I was lucky, the end cap (in my case very lightly glued in) fits inside the housing with a short length of connection which only requires a penknife to be gently cut across the join. You'll feel it give in several places as you go round the rim, don't try to prise it away, eventually, you can pull it off revealing the barrel ext and spring.

Take these out and if you have any of those non scratch washing up pads, the 5mm thick ones, you can cut them to fit the inside of the suppressor with just one layer. leave a little for the cap to go on with a little glue and you have yourself a silencer.

I use the thinner pads as they have a wiry hair surface which with the thicker ones may influence the flight of the BB.