Umarex Clearsoft P30

[JLiang]

Hello ASC! I's JLiang, back doing another review.

This time, it's another clearsoft gun! Rejoice!

The only reason why I'm risking my Man Card to do this is en request from a friend, who actually gave me this pistol. I guess I had to thank him for giving me an airsoft gun, so I'm doing this review.

So, without further ado, here is my review on the shittiest gun I have fired in my life.



In real life, the P30 (Or, Prototype P3000) is a pistol designed by German firearms manufacturer, Heckler und Koch, GMDb. The P30 was introduced in 2006 as an alternative for law enforcement and military usage, as well as being available for civilians. The P30 is a semi-automatic, recoil-operated pistol, with a polymer frame and metal slide. The magazine holds 15 rounds of either 9x19mm Ammunition, or .30 Ammunition. It's sister pistol, the HK45, shares the same ergonomics whilst chambered for the .45 ACP round.

Now, for the Airsoft Version. This is an electric-powered, blowback-equipped pistol. It is powered by 4 AAA Batteries, although I have tried firing it with actual batteries of voltages up to 8.4 volts. Umarex has made and licenced this pistol; However, it claims to have 'accurate trades', but, in reality, that only refers to the "HK" and "P30" letters stamped all over the place. The majority of the trademarks are not accurate to the real steel.


Slide Detail


"Accurate Trademarks" my ass...

The pistol fires .12g BBs (:gasp: "Blasphemy!", you say) at a velocity of 180 FPS. Firing .20s is dismal; The fixed hop cannot handle the weight and slings them only about 20-40 feet before falling. With .12s, the range is slightly better, at around 50-60 feet.

The BBs are loaded into a proprietary stick magazine, single-stack, 16 BBs per magazine.



The unique shape of the magazine is to compensate for the motor and batteries located in the grip. The pistol comes stock with 2 magazines, but I was not supplied with a second. My friend is trying to deliver it to me in the near future. The magazine is inserted forward of the battery compartment, and stretches to feed it into the barrel assembly, near the 'ejection port'.


You can see the faint outline of the rails inside the clear body.


The pistol's power source.

The pistol is equipped with an EBB System. Yes, it does come with blowback. No, it does not come with recoil. This thing's 'blowback' is the most pitiful thing I have ever felt. Because of the way the system works, it is pulling AGAINST a spring when travelling back, and springs back FORWARD. Subsequently, there is ABSOLUTELY NO felt recoil WHATSOEVER. The only reason I haven't disabled it is that it's actually vital to the operation of the pistol, serving as a secondary electrical lock, or a redundancy. That, and also the fact that it looks relatively cool to have the slide move back and forth.


"Can't you make this thing go back any further? It's so unrealistic!"
"No, sir! This is the slide's maximum distance!"

Accuracy at mid-ranges is surprisingly good. I can get 1-inch groupings with .20s at around 10 feet, and 3-inch groupings at 20 feet with bench testing. However, there needed to be angling in order to reach the distance required.

The sights are fixed blade sighs, dovetailed into the slide itself. The white quick-acquisition dots were painted by myself. THE STOCK SIGHTS DO NOT COME WITH WHITE DOTS. THEY ARE SOLID BLACK. Because of the dismal range, I find myself training myself to actually estimate the trajectory of the BB, because the pistol will not reach the ranges I require when firing PTG.


My custom-painted purtiful sights.


Rear Sight


Front Sight

The pistol, albeit having lackluster performance, has, surprisingly, a large amount of detail intertwined in it. For example, the thumb-decocker next to the hammer is present, albeit molded into the body, the ambidextrous slide releases, also molded and non-functional, are also present, and the comfortable, grippy textures and contours of the grip are perfectly represented. The front of the pistol is bevelled to make reholstering easier:



The hammer, even though it doesn't lock, is functional:




And there is a bump in the trigger guard.



On the real P30, this bump is to help gloved personnel shoot better, without the gloves jamming the trigger in place. With trigger guards like that of the M9, for example, where there is a dimple, a thick enough glove will simply get caught, regardless of the depth of the dimple, whereas on the P30, the glove is actually actively pushed up onto the trigger to allow unrestricted trigger movement. A nice touch, especially for winter fights here in Canada with uber-thick gloves.

However, a detail not paid attention to was the inclusion of a fire selector. The real P30 is a locked semi-auto pistol, without the capability of firing in a fully automatic mode. The Airsoft P30 can switch from semi- to fully-automatic, with a selector switch located underneath the trigger guard.



However, with a stock ROF of 200 RPM, I can't imagine anyone ever using the Full-auto selection. I know I just stick to semi, both for realism and ammunition conservation.

Another small inaccuracy is the inclusion of a grip safety. The normal P30 has a traditional safety switch, something not included on the Airsoft Version. Instead, in order to fire, the second finger of the firing hand has to depress a small lever, which electrically allows the main trigger to fire the weapon. It is surprisingly light, however, and I've had multiple ASDs where I thought I wasn't gripping the safety hard enough, but actually was.

The internals are completely plastic. I will be posting internal pictures and a disassembly guide soon, so stay tuned.

All the parts are proprietary, so if something breaks, good luck. Unfortunately, the frame and slide are both plastic, as are the trigger, fire selector, grip safety, and even magazine are all plastic. It's not a good plastic, either, unlike that of my FAMAS.

Another thing to note is that the under-barrel rail is actually slightly wider than 20mm. It's kinda like 21 1/2mm, just a tiny bit over. Not much of a problem for me, because I don't like putting things on my pistols, but just a word of warning.

The MSRP of the pistol was $30, but in Canada, it can be sold upwards of $50-60. I got it for free, thankfully, but for a full-plastic, proprietary-parts, >180 FPS pistol, I'd have to say don't get it. Sure, it's a fun plinker (Really fun; I've blown through a good 1K rounds with the one 16-round magazine by now :P), but in terms of combat-effectiveness, it's not going to do much. If you want an airsoft P30, you're going to have to wait.


Pros:
~Can shoot anywhere, due to low FPS
~"Blowback"
~Powered by commonly found power source
~Accurate
~Great attention to detail

Cons:
~High Canadian Price
~Clearsoft
~Low FPS
~Low ROF
~Combat Ineffectivity
~Weak Blowback
~Extended Orange Tip


Overall, I'd say buy this if it's on sale for <$30, and if you want a fun little toy to plink around with inside, but using it in combat would render you at a vast disadvantage. You can also use it to experiment with painting (What I'm going to be doing), or shoot birds with it and not hurt them at all. (Can you say, 'Low FPS' again?) It also makes for a decent, cheap movie prop.

The H&K P30 is a pistol of great innovation and advance, but the Airsoft Version just doesn't cut the par. If you really need a sidearm, I'd still suggest a GBBP over this, unless you need it for under $50. Even then, I'd tell you to save up. This pistol falls under the stereotypical "Don't buy clearsoft because it sucks" cliche, and although I enjoyed my free gift, I'm still going use a different sidearm for games.

[solidgear34]

I AM LAUGHING SO HARD RIGHT NOW!!!!


good review very descriptive and kind of a fun way to break from all the "big guns"

[JLiang]

Ahaha! You're a bit late on that.

Next time, check the date before you post.

But thanks for the feedback! And yeah. It already broke. Spur Gear stripped, and the motor burned out. I guess there's a reason why everyone prefers the 'big guns'. :P