I recently received a KWA M9 PTP (Professional Training Pistol) so I figure I’d write a quick review on it. 🙂 According to KWA the M9 PTP has been totally redesigned for better gas efficiency and reliability but since I do not have access to a first generation KWA M9, I can’t do a direct comparison. The gun is suppose to be a 1:1 copy of the real M9 and weighs in at ~1kg, one nice feature is that the weight is not all in the mag and it’s pretty well distributed.

In typical KWA fashion, the gun is devoid of trademarks but that’s normal. The M9 PTP comes with a hefty metal receiver and slide but the outer barrel is plastic. The colour of the receiver is very slight matte brownish, the slide is a flat black and the outer barrel is matte flat black. The combination may bother some, but I don’t care much.

On the err left hand side of the gun there’s the slide starting at the top right is the safety switch, there’s the slide lock, slide/barrel lock, trigger and mag catch button. On the right side we find the other side of the ambidextrous safety switch and a button (just below the circle near the middle of the gun) which needs to be depressed to disengage the slide/barrel lock.

As with all other GBB’s when the gun is empty the slide locks back, pop in a new mag, flick the slide lock down and you’re ready to rock and roll. The KWA M9 PTP is a double action pistol which means you do not have to rack the slide or cock the hammer to fire (although your first shot will be dry because no BB is chambered). One nice feature of the M9 PTP that no other airsoft M9’s have is its functional safety decocker (KWA is wrong when it says it’s the only one with this feature, KSC and WA M9s also support this). If the hammer is locked back, flick the gun to safety and the hammer will jump back into the forward position.

To access the hopup pull the slide back and lock it into place, once that’s done you’ll need the hopup adjustment tool (the one that comes with all KSC/KWA GBBs). It’s fairly simple to do but of course that means if you want to adjust your hopup on the field, you’ll need to carry it with you and it’s small and easy to lose unfortunately.

Taking down the KWA M9 PTP is very easy simply eject the mag, press the button on the right side, turn the slide/barrel lock and the slide the whole assembly forwards. To take out the barrel first remove recoil rod and spring, slide the barrel forward a bit so everything clears the nozzle then pull backwards. The inner barrel and hopup assembly is held in place with a pin so you’ll have to remove that first to get the whole thing out. The inner barrel looks like a normal KSC/KWA as does the hopup rubber. I think aftermarket rubbers (if they’re available) and regular aftermarket KWA M9 inner barrels would be compatible but I don’t have any to test compatibility with. If you lost your hopup adjustment key, you can adjust it now with your fingers.

The iron sights are integrated into the pistol slide and are not adjustable but they’re very easy to use. The white dots make lining the gun up extremely fast and it’s possible to sight things with both eyes open.

Performance

Heh finally the good stuff… 😉 The blowback of the KWA M9 PTP is nice and crisp, although it’s not strong, there’s less recoil than with my wife’s KSC Glock 19. According to KWA the M9 PTP is suppose to fire at 325 fps with 0.2g BBs when using propane but my Guarder Speeder 2000 records a muzzle velocity of 360 fps! With 0.25g the gun was shooting 350 fps and with 0.28g chronies 340 fps (same energy as ~400 fps with 0.2g!) GBBs are variable energy weapons which is why the heavier BBs have more energy.

The KWA M9 PTP requires a custom mag (second generation M9 mag) and is not compatible with first generation magazines. The KWA M9 PTP mag holds 25 rounds and in my condo at ~20 degrees Celsius I can get 30 shots from each gas fill. Not exactly the best gas efficiency but I guess it uses a lot in order to get that high muzzle velocity. KWA touts this new fill valve which it claims prevents gas from escaping during fill up, personally I prefer the old TM/KSC design as you know when the mag is full. With this one, I try and listen till the propane tank stops making noise or leave it for five seconds.

It’s about the same size as my TM M1911A1

I have yet to game with the gun so I cannot comment on its accuracy however KWA/KSC generally aren’t bad. I’m hoping that I can get its consistency up to TM levels but I guess that will have to wait for the spring outdoor season as the KWA M9 PTP fires too hard for TTAC3 (350 fps with 0.2g maximum). It’s new so there haven’t been any problems yet but when they arise I will be sure to post them. The KWA M9 PTP has a lot of potential, too bad I won’t be able to try it out till spring.

Apr 27/08 Edit: Please check this out too for an update on the KWA M9 PTP.