Tanio Koba – USP Gas Blowback Pistol
I must admit, that before starting this review, I knew very little about the manufacturer of this gun, Tanio Koba. A quick web search found a few of their products, but apparently there are a lot more that are not available on the Airsoft scene in the UK. They seem to produce realistic Ruger 10/22 replicas which are gas operated. Being a fan of the real steel, it’d be nice to see one of those.
Tanio Koba have two guns that you’re likely to encounter in this country, the USP of which we are reviewing, and the H&K VP-70M, a strange looking pistol with a three round burst facility when the butt-stock is installed. They also have been producing another interesting product, rifled barrels for the Airsoft market! Now, one would presume that a rifled barrel would have little effect on a spherical object such as a 6mm BB, but I am assured by Fire-Support that they increase accuracy and range quite a bit, and a number of Airsoft skirmishers are using them.
Now we move onto our test piece, the H&K USP. As first glance, this appears to be a very well made and realistic replica. Until now KSC have primarily dominated the market for gas blowback USP models. Western Arms seem to stick to their Beretta and Colt models, and Marui only produce the MK23 non-blowback (although very popular). I’m not a big fan of KSC, as I’ve never had a good experience with them (a broken Mac 11, Glock 19 and Glock 17), so it’s nice to see another manufacturer stepping up to the mark. Tania Koba are a Japanese company, which means you can expect Japanese build quality and performance.
Looking at the box it is by no means an elaborate affair. Brown cardboard with the details of the model on the front and side, and a poorly translated safety message printed on the back. Nothing like the boxes Marui have been packaging their weapons in recently. But lets face it, who pays £110 for a box? It serves it’s purpose, and protects the gun in storage and transportation.
The USP is made of ABS plastic, although picking the weapon up you wouldn’t immediately notice. It’s quite heavy (over 900g, 60g heavier than KSC’s version) and the plastic has a certain ‘coldness’ to it. It also has matt dull metal finish to it, so it really does look the business. Another interesting feature on this gun, is that it features all of the H&K trade markings, something which may 
cause a problem with Airsoft consumers across the pond in the USA. It does however display some small text on the right hand side of the frame reading ‘This soft airgun is not the product of H&K, but the duplicate to extract the attractiveness of USP’… hmmm, ok.
Those who are a fan of USP’s, MK23’s etc will know they are a fairly chunky pistol, the slide having distinctive angular looks, everything about this gun is big. The trigger and trigger guard are extremely wide, with plenty of clearance for gloved fingers. Those with smaller hands may find it slightly difficult to operate the controls, especially the slide lock lever which seems a little bit too far forward, or perhaps my right thumb is a little too short?
There are a fair number of metal parts on this model, being the trigger, hammer, slide release, de-cocking/safety lever, threaded part of the barrel, spring guide, hop chamber, fully adjustable rear sight, fore-sight and magazine release. As mentioned before the quality of the plastic is very good, and the markings are nicely etched deep into the slide and frame of the pistol. Those are H&K trademarks, ‘USP’, ‘TACTICAL’, ‘,40 S&W’ and then the serial number which can be found on the shell ejection port. 
So lets look at some of the features of this pistol. The first thing I noticed was the fully adjustable rear sight for windage and elevation. This is something that none of the KSC pistols have, and I think is a really handy addition. The next thing you can see is that the barrel is 14mm CCW threaded for the addition of a silencer, again something that would be an aftermarket product for the KSC range. The pistol also comes with a rail adapter which allows the use of standard 20mm rail accessories, such as an M3 style tactical light.
Whilst handling this pistol throughout the review, I noticed two problems / slight nags which I’m sure don’t only affect the Tanio Koba model, but I’ll mention them now. Firstly, I feel that the stippled grips are a little on the sharp side for un-gloved hands, a minor point but I think comfort should be something of consideration. The second is caution needs to be exercised when operating this gun that your thumb joint does not engage the safety lever upwards, which can be done easily if you grip the frame too hard. This, as you can imagine would be disastrous at the wrong moment in a skirmish situation. I also find the magazine release a little fiddly, but that is thanks to where Heckler and Koch decided to put it!
The safety-lever serves a dual purpose. Pushing up whilst the hammer is engaged will disengage the trigger mechanism and effectively make the gun safe. However, if you pull it down, it will de-cock the gun for you, returning the hammer to the default position, making it much safer to carry around loaded in a holster. As this is a double action pistol, once cocked and the first round is chambered, you can fire it with the hammer pulled back, or in the de-cocked state.
Now I’ve mentioned a couple of positive points that this pistol has over other makes, the unfortunate negative is the magazine capacity. A rather disappointing 20 rounds, as opposed to KSC’s 25. Not the end of the world perhaps, but that extra 5 rounds could be 2-3 more kills in the playing field. That said, the magazine is an easy affair to load, with the BB follower easy to pull down and hold, even for those of you (who like me) bite their finger nails. Once the follower is pulled down, BB’s are simply dropped into the magazine, rather than pushed in, therefore easy to load even without a speed loader. The magazine holds enough gas for a BB refill and perhaps a few more shots, so that’s about 45 full power shots per fill of gas before the fps drops off.
The hop-up function on this gun is something that I’ve never encountered before. Slightly more fiddly that the Marui ‘Wheel’, yet a lot more secure that KSC’s hop-up adjustment design. The Tanio Koba USP utilises a small Philips screw to adjust the level of hop. This is something that you’re more likely to find on a Western Arms model, (although they use an Allen key) and can be a pain to set, but once done, stays in place. To set the hop-up, you will need to remove the slide which is easily done by first removing the magazine, then pulling the slide back slightly whilst pushing the slide release lever in from the right hand side of the pistol, then removing it. You can see the hop-up adjustment screw detailed in the picture on the left hand side. A few clicks clockwise will increase the level of hop, which out of the box is accurate to about 25 metres. Depending on the weight of ammunition or the range at which you are engaging your targets, you may need to play around to find the correct setting for you.
On the topic of adjustment, I found the sights to be set perfectly for about 15 metres, with only a minor adjustment required for 25 metres, which is the range at which I was testing this pistol. Again, the sights are set with a small Philips screwdriver. The sights themselves are fairly chunky in design, with bright white dots on the front and rear to aid quick target acquisition. These may be able to be replaced for tritium ‘glow in the dark’ sights, which would be really handy for night games, a service that fire-support offer for around £30.
So how does it shoot? Surprisingly well actually. I’m not a big fan of USP’s, or indeed gas blowback pistols, having been converted to the Marui AEP range (Glock 18c for me!) late last year. I still enjoy the realism that a gas blowback pistol offers, but find the practicality of an AEP far better. The kick on this gun can be felt, although not as strong as the Marui 1911 which I reviewed last. When cocking the pistol, the slide return spring feels a little weaker, so perhaps that can be improved with after market parts, but this does not affect the functionality of the gun at all. I was using Cybergun Winter Gas, and the temperature was about 16 degrees, which is fairly warm for late October. Use Green Gas in this at your own risk, but I wouldn’t say it needs it at all. I tested firing single shots, allowing a second or two in between for the magazine to warm up, and I also rapidly emptied the magazine in several seconds, the gun fired fine each time. Even when firing shots in rapid succession, you still get more than 40 shots out of the mag without allowing for cool-down time. At 10 metres the grouping was fairly consistent at about 5 inches diameter. More accurate than the 1911, but I would have expected it to be with the adjustable sights.
Not having access to a chronograph at the moment, I would estimate this gun is firing around 305fps (will update with an accurate reading shortly), which is plenty powerful indeed. As mentioned above, I was testing this gun at 25 metres, of which you can easily hit a chest size target. 30 – 35 metres would be the effective range of this pistol, hitting a man sized target, but this weapon is more likely to be used in close quarter combat or as a backup to an AEG. Those who are a fan of night games will probably install a tactical light on the rails, and coupled with the tritium sights and a spare magazine, this gun would be perfect.
Conclusion… Would I buy this pistol? No. For the reasons mentioned previously, I’m not into gas blowbacks unless it was something of a collectors piece, which the Marui 1911 was to me. Should YOU buy this pistol? If you want a competitively priced USP, an alternative to KSC, that is of quality construction and comes with a host of features you would have to spend extra money on for after-market parts… then YES, definitely. This pistol, in a tactical sense is ready to go. Simply screw a silencer onto it, stick your M3 style tactical light on the underside and you’re sorted. And even if you decide to keep it stock, it’s a brilliant gun for the money. I will definitely be looking out for other Tanio Koba products as this is one Japanese manufacturer who has not disappointed me.
For £110 you’re getting a gun that is already pretty well kitted out, and of high build quality…
But don’t take my word for it, go buy one and see for yourself and get a fully licenced H&K USP replica with realistic trademarks from the Umarex range of pistols
