Tokyo Marui SPAS 12 Review
Luigi Franchi are well-known for Italian shotgun manufacture. they developed this SPAS (Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun) series for police and military rather than sporting use.
Developed from the earlier SPAS-11 (and apparently using the action of the PG-80 Franchi shotguns), the SPAS-12 is a short barrelled semi-automatic shotgun with a folding butt which has been configured so that it can be locked under
the armpit and allowing the shotgun to be used one-handed.
The SPAS-12 featured two firing modes automatic and pump action.
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Automatic mode – the fore-grip is locked into the forward position, while a gas system loads each round when the trigger is pulled.
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Pump action mode- “Classic pump action operation” as the fore-grip must be manually pumped back and forth after every shot. This will eject the spent shell and load a new shell from the internal magazine.
The SPAS-12 can use a wide range of ammunition, from buckshot and solid slug to tear gas rounds. A shot spreader attachment is available which fits on the muzzle to give much greater short-range , there is also a launching attachment which fits the muzzle and which permits the firing of grenades to 150m
Don’t be too surprised if you think this shotgun looks familiar, as the SPAS-12 has appeared in such blockbuster movies as Jurassic Park , The Matrix and the Terminator 1 and 2 films.
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The SPAS12 was a good popular choice for Tokyo Marui’s first airsoft shotgun weapon, sporting 3 independent barrels, all of which have their own fixed hop-up unit. That’s right folks this shotgun shoots not 1 but 3 Bb’s per shot. Each cartridge / magazine holds 30 Bb’s meaning that 10 shots can be fired before a magazine change is called for. Marui opted to power this beast of a shotgun with a spring, which for me makes this an ideal gun to pack in the car for each skirmish, as unlike an AEG no battery charging is required or Gas needed, if your primary weapon fails then a quick trip back to the safe zone to pick this up and you’re back into the game. |
| I’m not normally one of those kind of people who takes much notice of a box but, but I found this one quite striking with the artwork. Opening the box reveals the usual kind of well packed polystyrene box that Tokyo Marui produce. The Box includes the SPAS-12, Usual naff speed loader, Packet of BB’s, English / Japanese instructions manual.Sadly Marui have decided to only include 1 shotgun cartridge magazine. Space is provided in the box for another two magazines and you have to wonder why Tokyo Marui do not include them as one definitely is not enough. |  |
This shotgun definitely has the wow factor I was looking for, not having actually seen a Spas-12, I found it is a lot bigger than I initially imagined measuring in at 800mm. Taking it out of the box I was surprised by its weight. The gun, while bulky looking is only 2 kg the real SPAS-12 is over twice the weight at 4.4 kg.
What initially strikes you is how much metal has been used in this gun, especially on the front.
With the barrel, magazine extension (which can be used to store extra shells), front site and the rotating sling point all made from a height quality metal that will take a few nocks and still look good.
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Looking down into the outer barrel you can see that the 3 inner barrels are recessed about several inches.I have yet to figure out why this was done instead of making the barrel run the full length of the outer barrel, perhaps it has something to do with the way the spread of the Bb’s is about 1ft in diameter to mimic the spread of a real shotgun?
Due to the spread of the shots Its quite possible to take out several opponents with 1 pull of the trigger. |
The receiver pistol grip are made of the height quality ABS material TM normally use. Metal parts used here include the trigger, and shell eject cover and leaver and safety leaver.
Also present are the only markings on the gun SPAS 12 TOKYO MARUI CO LTD MADE IN JAPAN
Unfortunately the plastic used on the front fore-grip is poor is a little too shiny and just crying out to be roughed up a little to take the sheen taken of it.
This is not only evident which the pictures shown in this review where a flash was used on the camera, but is also noticeable on sunny days.
Conclusion
Skirmishing with a shotgun is quite different to using any other weapon I have used before. While range is not the greatest with the SPAS-12, I did find that a could match some AEG’s on the field. At times you have to be a little more tactical due to the low rate of fire, it is possible to speed up shots by holding down the trigger and continuously pumping the fore-grip back and forth, however over time this may cause quicker wear and tear on components. That said its a great feeling to go charging into a room pumping shots into your opponents.
The downside to using the shotgun has to be to low capacity cartridges, with 10 shots I tended to loose count only to dive it a room pull the trigger and find nothing shooting out. Also beware as opponents know how many shot you have and may count them getting ready for when you run out, I found it handy to have a pistol ready to get anyone that did this. I have however read that its possible to construct a ‘high cap’ magazine, this is something that would be very useful and will be something I may do in the future.
Other accessories available for the SPAS-12 include a smokeys Vertical fore-grip which attaches to the fore-grip to make pumping the weapon easier, and a folding metal stock.
It is possible to upgrade the spring however I would recommend against it, as although I found pumping the SPAS-12 easy, its not something i would like to do continually with a stronger spring. Also its worth remembering that the fps of this will be between 250 and 300 fps for each of the 3 BB’s it would not be nice to be hit simultaneously with anything stronger.
