I’ve always liked KSC/KWA’s H&K USP line of pistols, the feel and ergonomics are great however I hate the proprietary HK rail. Finding H&K compatible accessories is an absolute pain and the H&K rail to picatinny converter just looks stupid. When H&K announced the HK45 pistol, I knew it was only a matter of time before KSC/KWA came out with the airsoft version. 🙂
Anyway fast forward to today and woo I am the owner of a new KWA H&K HK45 airsoft pistol. It’s a full sized gun with a polymer lower, metal slide and plastic barrel. The retail kit also comes with the KWA HK45 manual, warranty card, KWA sticker, bottle of silicon oil, bag of 0.2g BBs, lock out key, hop up tool and another grip backstop.
The HK45 uses the same NS2 gas system that powers all of KWA’s current generation pistols & GBBRs, though this gun is not officially a PTP (Professional Training Products) device. That’s ok with me though, I don’t like the ugly PTP markings anyway. 😉 There are the standard Umarex markings and warnings on the right side of the HK45. It doesn’t bother me but I know it would bother the purists. After picking up the pistol, you’ll notice that it has pretty good heft to it at 0.87kg, though about half is due to the magazine.
If you’ve handled a USP or MK23 pistol in the past, you’ll feel right at home with the KWA HK45. For those who are new to the platform, the biggest thing you’ll have to get use to is the magazine release. Unlike the typical button mag releases on the M9, Glock or 1911 platforms, the HK45 uses a lever system. Rock the lever towards the grip of the gun and the mag will slide right out. It’s not as fast as the button release (then again I probably just need more practice) but the big advantage is, you won’t accidentally engage it when the gun is holstered. I know I’ve lost some Glock and Hi Capa mags in the past using cheap holsters (not a problem if you use a platform specific holster like a Safariland).
The KWA HK45 slide locks back after you’ve fired the last round from the magazine, slap a new mag in disengage the slide lock and you’re ready to rock and roll. Both the magazine catch and slide release are ambidextrous which is good news for lefties. On the left side of the gun’s manual safety/decocker but it’s only accessible when the pistol is held in the right hand.
The hammer can be manually cocked into the rear position and reset with the decocker. The KWA HK45 has dot iron sights, line up the three dots and pull the trigger. As mentioned earlier the HK45 comes equipped with a standard 20mm picatinny rail which allows you to bolt pretty much anything you’d want onto the gun. With the USP or MK23s, you need custom accessories compatible with the proprietary rail. I was able to install my Streamlight TLR-1s on the HK45 with no issues. Under the picatinny rail, you’ll see the H&K markings along with faux serial number (I don’t know if they’re unique or the same on across each gun) and the standard H&K warning under the trigger guard.
The pistol grip is grooved for your fingers and the pistol grip is textured to improve grip. There’s an extra base plate that comes with the KWA HK45 and the extra one I have is the same as the one installed on the gun. Not sure why you’d get two of the same but it’s possible my retailer mixed things up. Personally I did find the pistol grip a bit big by default (I have small hands) but it wasn’t too uncomfortable and it’s definitely not as large a MK23 or Desert Eagle pistol grip…
The HK45 mag is well… a magazine. As with all KSC/KWA pistols pull the follower down to the bottom and a button will activate which keeps it locked in place, allowing you to load BBs into the gun easily. Unfortunately the mag lips are reinforced so you won’t be able to use a speed loader’s GBB tool. On the baseplate there’s it says HK45 and there’s a hole for the fill valve. KWA fill valves are silent and do not indicate when full, a good 5-7 second gas charge should be sufficient.
Taking the KWA HK45 apart is identical to its USP line of GBBs and very similar to 1911s. Align the slide’s notch with the slide release and pop it out by pushing on the rod on the right side of the gun. After that’s done pull the slide back then push forward and it should slide right off. Oh before doing the above though, remove the magazine first haha!
With the slide off you can take the outer/inner barrel and recoil spring guide out. Should you need to repair the trigger mechanism, you can take everything apart but for the purposes of this review I’m going to be lazy and leave it as is. I’m also going just show a picture of the blow back mech, I don’t really feel like taking it apart either. Note the KWA HK45 hop up is different from the USP line, new design which hopefully makes the HK45 more consistent than the regular KWA pistol.
To adjust the hop up with the KWA HK45 you’ll need to keep the hop up adjusting tool handy (it’s the same for all KSC/KWA pistols), counter clockwise is turning hop up, clockwise is turning hop down. With the HK45 I found that when the slide was in the locked position, the hop up unit was too far for me to adjust with the tool. Rather it was easiest to adjust the hop up with the slide 3/4 way back.
Silencers are cool for pictures but I don’t use them on the field so I removed the orange threaded tip from the black plastic outer barrel. Took all about 5 seconds with the pliers, after I just shaved off some of the orange bits of plastic left on the black outer barrel and gave it a quick once over with a sharpie so everything looks nice and clean.
Now to the fun stuff
Thought I’d never get through posting details about the gun but woo let’s get to the shooting! Like all NS2 KWA pistols, the blowback on the HK45 is excellent. Very crisp and quick, the gun feels great to shoot and it’s pretty darn loud! With 0.2g BBs the HK45 chronies in at 345 fps according to my Madbull chrony (I don’t trust this thing much frankly but I don’t have my old Guarder anymore) at around 24C. With 0.3g BBs the Madbull chrony is reading 340 fps or the same energy as 414 fps with 0.2g BBs! Remember GBB/Rs are variable energy weapons so play fair and adhere to the energy rules when you go to games. I’ll be buying another chrony soon and will retest the HK45 though to be fair fps readings I get are consistent with what I’ve seen other HK45s online and is similar to my old KWA M9 PTP (god can’t believe that review is almost 5 years old already).
The magazine holds 29 rounds and with a full gas charge I can get about 2 1/2 mags worth of BBs through the gun, that’s pretty efficient!
Oh I did notice one thing, buying HK45 specific holsters is quite difficult! There are not many on the market and I absolutely hate using generic or universal holsters. I read that USP holsters should work but haven’t been able to confirm it yet, I may just take the plunge and pick up a used Safariland 6004 USP holster anyway as they’re not too expensive on eBay. Probably won’t use it much as my secondary (the team runs TM 1911s there) but when I do use it, I’d like to use a good holster.
TM 1911 MEU, KWA HK45, TM Glock 18C
That’s it I guess, I will post updates when there are some. If you’re a Canadian you can order this gun from Revolution Airsoft for $195. I didn’t buy my gun through them but it’s a pretty good price none the less.
