WE Nighthawk Custom

[loneranger]

Hi all. I have a few questions and looking for some helpful criticism if need be. As you can see by the subject the gun in question is a WE Nighthawk Custom. I bought it from Evike's boneyard( I couldnt pass up a gun at more than 50% off, even if it needs work.)

Links: The one I bought www.airsoftpost.com/product_info.php?products_id=34822

all 3 www.airsoftpost.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&keywords=WE+Full+Metal+Nighthawk+Custom&Submit=Search

On to the questions:

1)From my research it seems that WE is a good brand but I wanted to get some more opinions.

2)Has anyone actually held or used one of the Nighthawks? I ask because it says at Evike that they are on preorder...
(Edit: It seems that only the black one is on preorder.)

3) lastly I just wanted to see what the overall MIA sexy rating is. ( I personally love the look of it, considering I am not that much of a 1911 guy)

Thanks all!
Loneranger

[Mles]

First off, read this, miairsoft.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gas&action=display&thread=31331 , if you have any questions about buying a GBB, but you have already bought one so it is not much help.

1) WE is not a good brand. You will either get a great pistol or a really crappy one that will break down in a month or two. I, personally, would not take that chance.

2) I have never used a Nighthawk, but I have used other WE pistols. It should function like a typical 1911. The MEU I shot was actually really accurate and had a pretty nice blowback, but the gun actually self destructed later down the road.

3) I like the Nighthawk design a lot, it is dead sexy.

[TheEnd]

WE's are alright. I have a SOCOM gear (rebranded and mildly modded WE) 1911 I use for outdoors so that if I lose it I'm only out $100 or so. I'm not sure what Evike did to make it custom, so some of these part recommendations may be useless.

WE 1911's have a rather large design flaw. The recoil spring guide is too long. When the slide blows back the recoil spring cup (proper name?) slams into the spring guide. After a while this will eventually blow out the front end of the slide. SOCOM gear swaps out the stock WE part for a shorter one (they do for sure, I have one WE and one SOCOM gear and they are different). You can either grind down the WE part or buy a SOCOM gear unit.

The stock piston head leaks like a sieve. Mine was unable to fire all 14 bb's on a full mag of gas. Replace that with a PDI piston head to get a nice O ring seal. It makes a huge difference.

The rubbers on top of the mags are also molded a little too short. They leak a lot of gas. Tokyo Marui rubbers will fix the issue, but I've heard they are either expensive or hard to find. I simply made styrene gaskets to lift them up. Doing this will further help your gas efficiency.

Lastly replace the hop up bucking with a 9 ball or firefly bucking. I put a 9 ball bucking in mine and it shoots great.

Or leave it stock. A couple guys on my team have stock SOCOM gears (with the replaced recoil guide rod) and they are happy with them. Like Miles said though WE is hit or miss. It's the price you pay for a cheap GBB.

[Kulprit]

All three of the gas pistols that I have owned are WE. My first one was just the 5.1 high capa. Loved it. Only problem I had with it was an o-ring. Easy fix. The second one I owned was the MEU. I never had a problem with it either. I really missed having a double stack mag, so that led to the purchase of the CQB Master. Its a very dependable and accurate sidearm. Even outside cqb ranges. I use it every time I play and find it to be my favorite so far.