Army MEU ( R27 ) Review & Compatibility Report

[juicy]

Just got mine in the mail an hour or two ago (with everything but the original box), so here is a preliminary review. I will update this with performance/reliability pros and cons as time moves on (and I get myself a few TM MEU mags).

My Army R27 is - from what I can tell - a 99.99% copy of the Marui MEU. Army Armaments even copied the plastic three-panel grips, rather than using a rubber wrap-around Pachmayr type grip, like some other clone companies have done. I believe KJW is the one that I'm talking about here, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong... I installed stock TM M1911A1 grip panels on mine, due to the fact that they're slimmer and feel more natural in my hands. Perfect fit, minus the part about the grip weights being a hair too wide to properly fit in the slots in the frame for them. Oh, and I found what looks to be the only Army trademark on the gun under the right grip panel (the magazine notes that it is made by Army as well)!

The Army MEU is full metal, and it feels damn good for a clone GBB. Very little barrel wobble and play in the slide - and the hop up unit/inner barrel is fixed in place as well as a stock TM 5.1. And I'm a nit-picker when it comes to barrel/slide fitment! No seam lines anywhere. Sights have no dots, but the front sight post is serrated (supposedly to increase visibility in certain conditions, this feature is present on the RS MEU). Paint/finish is very nice to the touch, and seems durable enough for regular game play/target shooting usage. Wide, ambidextrous safety levers are both solid, with less than a millimeter of play when the hammer is not cocked, yet the engaging of this safety system with a cocked hammer leaves something to be desired (however, the disengaging of the safety levers gives a very positive feel and click). Hammer drops forward from a cocked position with less vigour than I would have liked, and also lacks a half-cocked position. Grip panels are god damn plastic though... and are wider than your standard M1911A1 grips - I didn't like them one bit. Trigger is a "WTF were you thinking?" super-shiny silver (not quite as polished as chrome though), and does have a hole for a trigger stop set screw... but doesn't have the screw. Cocking serrations at the front and rear of the slide are a blast - I was getting accustomed once more to cocking serrations only at the rear, following the sale of my Socom Gear Wilson Combat. Racking the slide sounds (and feels, but that's not the best part about it) wonderful - not much more to say here. The slide lock looks to mount slightly off centre, but the pin itself looks to have a moulding flaw and thus the entire external part of the pin isn't as perfectly round as the rest of the pin is.. what a fail on the part of Army - but oh well, its been worth the money so far!

Trades are close enough for me; however, I'm no trade whore so as long as there's something scribbled somewhere that looks half-legit, I'm happy. The left side of the slide reads: "MODEL 1911-A1" and "CAL .45" is underneath that. The right side of the slide bears what looks like the Springfield Armory logo and trade ("SPRINGFIELD ARMORY", what else did you think it would be?), but something is a little fishy about it (remember that I haven't cared enough to look up what the real steel MEU trades look like yet). The right side of the frame says, "UNITED STATES PROPERTY" and "N22250162" on the grip-side of the slide stop pin, and "M1911A1 U.S. ARMY"/"1295" on the muzzle side of the slide stop. The chamber has "NW7125 .45 ACP". Rear sights look to me like they're probably a drop-in fit to the Hi-Capa 4.3, and are marked with "NOVAK'S" and "PAT D [...]", sorry I gave up trying to read what the number actually reads here. Front sight post looks to be removable, though I'm not going to bother as of yet.

Popped a mag in, one dry fire. Thankfully, the mag was left gassed up by the person whom I bought this from (for all intensive purposes, as BNIB). Sounds and feels.. meh. But that's how I feel about all Marui-type stock piston heads of the Hi-Capa, 1911 varieties. Hammer spring isn't all that weak after all, though. Nice kick for a stock GBB, regardless. Recoil spring is of a sufficient strength as is - I won't be mucking around with this one as I would like to conserve as much gas as possible for the skinny single stack mags and their small gas capacity.

Next, time to do a disassembly of the slide bits. I installed an Action aluminum piston head, with a design very, very similar to the Nine Ball Dyna piston (just with a different number of ports, and silver instead of red) - the provided screw has the same sized hex pattern as the rest of the BBU screws too - neat-o! No surprises regarding the removal out the outer/inner barrel & hop up stuff - though I found the barrel bushing wrench to be absolutely useless. Oh well, I've got another neat-looking tool to throw in my pistol case now. The BBU came out with one hex wrench, one screw at the position of the firing pin on a RS, one screw atop the slide, going through the rear sight. And... it was greasy beyond lubricating anything. You can see what it looked like, before cleaning in one of my attached pictures - gross, eh? Cleaned that junk up, had to clean out the loading nozzle return spring as well, popped the new piston head in (the stock one looks to be black plastic), and voila! Note that the inside of the slide has some sort of rail spacer in it, underneath the ejection port; removal of this allows me to use my MEU top end with a Hi-Capa frame. Looks to me like my slide lugs have already worn down a bunch as well. Oh well...

Just remembered, there was a spare parts zip-locked baggie containing a few O-rings - not sure what for, possibly the magazine - as well as a spare hop up rubber and loading muzzle with floating valve/blocker/spring already installed. Apparently, the Army loading muzzles tend to break easily.

Onto the magazine, essentially the same as any cloned Marui MEU mag - plastic bumper screwed onto the bottom of the mag, a valve that looks (from the outside, as is installed right now) like a high flow, follower that does not lock into place but provides extra space for loading BB's by pulling the follower all the way down. I really like the MEU feed lip design, though they are potentially fragile (just don't drop the mag feed-lips-down). Insertion of the mag into the (shoddily, might I say. Bevels are not smoothed/rounded out in relation to the inside of the grip at all) beveled magwell is a well-practiced maneuver for me. Oh, right - feed lips won't be spewing BB's all of the place if you do happen to mess up and insert a mag with the feed lips on either side of the frame; I really like this about the design, especially since inserting BB's by hand through the feed lips is so damn easy too.

I haven't had the chance to go outdoors for a decent target shoot, nor have I skirmished this yet. I will update this thread when that time comes. Also, I have not yet disassembled the internals in the frame, but they do feel solid with every trigger pull - no trigger slop out of the box, and none has developed so far. I am wary of installing an upgraded hammer spring at this time, due to the unknown nature of the internals (clones tend to have lower-quality metals used throughout the guns).

[juicy]

Update 1: I just came back to my new MEU to discover that the fill valve-area had sprung a leak. The reason? Destroyed O-ring between the base plate and the fill valve. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any of the included extra O-rings fit here... Time to steal a fill valve from another clone!

Update 2: Yup, still looks to be a copy of the TM MEU. Includes shock buffer. Also, after a days worth of racking the slide and such, the hammer is showing signs of wear, from where its striking the rear of the BBU from racking the slide with a dropped hammer. The trigger could probably use an adjustable trigger stop, as there is quite a bit of overtravel still (is that what its called, again?).

[erblr]

Hi, i have the same gun but im having some trouble with the mags holding gas. Would you be interested in buying It to fix or for parts? let me know if your interested and how much you would pay.
Thanks

[MoreToasties]

Originally Posted by erblr

Hi, i have the same gun but im having some trouble with the mags holding gas. Would you be interested in buying It to fix or for parts? let me know if your interested and how much you would pay.
Thanks

The ARMY mags are terrible. Invest in some TM 19111 mags.

However, never post a WTS ad, especially for guns, outside of the classifieds.

[juicy]

Originally Posted by MoreToasties

The ARMY mags are terrible. Invest in some TM 19111 mags.

However, never post a WTS ad, especially for guns, outside of the classifieds.

Agreed. Army mags are frigging horrible. In addition to shitty fill consistency, my fill valve died on my first day of just plinking.

[spartan117]

Originally Posted by erblr

Hi, i have the same gun but im having some trouble with the mags holding gas. Would you be interested in buying It to fix or for parts? let me know if your interested and how much you would pay.
Thanks

1) you're selling some thing that's broken
2) You never post ad outside of classifieds

[Loathing]

I'll second...third...fourth that? The fill valve on mine never made a complete seal right from the get go and the mag itself didn't want to hold gas.

Time to buy some TM one's when I get a chance!

Originally Posted by juicy

Agreed. Army mags are frigging horrible. In addition to shitty fill consistency, my fill valve died on my first day of just plinking.

[cdn_]

I have one and like it. I bought some TM mags... I had to. The o-ring went in my classic Army mag!
I didn't read your entire article, but how come the pistol grips are different in the first half of the pictures then the second half? I imagine you changed them out.

[MoreToasties]

Originally Posted by cdn_

I didn't read your entire article, but how come the pistol grips are different in the first half of the pictures then the second half? I imagine you changed them out.

Every ARMY MEU ever released comes with an alternate grip set.

[juicy]

Originally Posted by MoreToasties

Every ARMY MEU ever released comes with an alternate grip set.

Nope, you're wrong, Ethan. Nothing of that sort was ever included.

I swapped mine to stock TM 1911 grips... I thought I mentioned that, but I might not have. Anyway, TM grip weights don't fit without modification to the dimensions between the screws.. and I don't feel like inhaling a crapload of lead dust particles at this time. Consequently, I'm now on the lookout for some nicer grips, as those plasticy Army/TM MEU type ones drive me nuts.

[juicy]

So far, these parts are a confirmed fit:

Aftermarket piston heads (I have an Action in there)
Hammer/recoil springs
Loading muzzles/various other bits related to that
Hop up unit (and all the parts inside of that)
Rubber
Slide stop - Hi-Capa one's fit in there, so I assume that it is to TM specs
Mag catch (Guarder is the only other one I have so far, note that Army mag externals are a pretty soft metal)
Grip panels (sort of - the weights don't fit, and plastic TM panels need a bit of coercing to slip on there)
MAIN SPRING HOUSING - yes, a Nova DOES fit

Expect updates on a KM 6.04 barrel, TM mags (duh, they should fit), Dytac front/rear sights, no name trigger, Airsoft Surgeon (or clone) lightweight BBU. Further down the road will be a hammer/sear/etc kit, new trigger stirrup, new leaf spring and a replacement spring kit just for the hell of it. These should all fit, but hell - it doesn't hurt to know that they'll fit for sure, right?

Anyway, I have no mags still, so I haven't had a chance to test it out every now and then. I did, however, completely dismantle my MEU a few times - the sear has issues with getting a full range of motion, at least in comparison to a Hi-Capa. This makes re-installation of the left safety lever a bitch, as well as makes the trigger response uneven. Grease in this area is not too bad.

And god damn, I have to say this - the stock inner barrel is disgusting. If you've got an Army MEU or have one on the way, I strongly suggest you replace it, even if you get a stock TM one... anything will be better than this one, with its lack of crowning, poor polish, and disheartening weight as compared to a stock inner barrel for a 6" Hi-Capa.

[juicy]

Update, as promised (though I'm not sure anyone is actually paying attention to this thread anymore)...



These fit nicely:
KM 6.04 barrel - perfect.

TM mags (2 of the 3 I ordered fit perfectly, i.e. drop out when released)

MAG replacement spring kit for TM 1911 (everything feels... smoother now, only stock spring remaining in my MEU is the stock recoil spring)

ACM grip panels (have space for TM grip weights too!)

Action loading muzzle for Hi-Capa's (the stock Army loading muzzles were a bit thin, and thus were starting to freak me out a bit) - note that this works great with the Action piston head

These will fit with slight modification:
Dytac front/rear sights - rear sight is NOT a drop-in fit... it is a tad too tight, but I believe it was designed to be held in place by friction alone, as the rear sight "screw" is just a detail moulded into the rear sight. Front sight hasn't been removed yet, so I can't attempt to fit the new one in, right?

Nova MSH - took more time to reassemble everything... and still no dice on getting a good fit in a way that will allow for a functional pistol. There is a little piece of the MSH that pushes against the leaf spring, and as the Army leaf spring is a little bit thicker than your standard Marui one... well, it just won't fit.



And... well, it fires great. That trigger will be replaced with a not-so-shiny one (also non-adjustable) ASAP. Future upgrades still include a lightweight BBU, light leaf spring, and further down the road, a new trigger stirrup and hammer/sear/valve knocker kit - just for the hell of making it shoot even better than now.

With the current bits that are in there, performance is noticeably better than my first impression with my MEU (Army mag and all stock internals). Cycling is surprisingly quick and snappy, and I can drill a paper plate with a 1/2" grouping from 15 ft away (big whoop... I know - but hey, that's really good for me when I'm requiring sleep). Cool down is NOT noticeable (hurray for TM mags)... but gas consumption really suffers with the slim, single-stack-form-factor magazines - I can squeeze out 18 rounds fired in quick (not as rapid as I usually would) bursts of 5-8 rounds. And... well, I have to say it, but cleaning the internals of all that thick grease made a world of a difference for me in terms of overall feel and performance - I think you should do so, as well. Or... get a friend/gundoc who knows their stuff to do that for you. Either way, the Army MEU is really shaping up as a great base gun for a few simple upgrades that take very little time to install.

Will be taking my MEU out for a field test on the 27th (and for a side-by-side comparison with a TM MEU, if I remember to ask for someone to bring theirs out) - but no worries, you'll hear more from me before then... I still need to fit in the night sights (I can't shoot very well without any dots) and chrono this before I game it.

And...... because I feel lonely like I'm the only one that reads anything in this thread - which one would you prefer?

[spartan117]

very nice man. How is the gun holding up?

[juicy]

Originally Posted by spartan117

very nice man. How is the gun holding up?

Very nicely now. Having some issues getting the Dytac sights in... might just give up and just paint my own dots on the existing sights, lol.

Still looks pretty good though, a little bit of wear here and there... meh, for the price, it is still well worth it.

[Aegiis]

You are not alone, don't worry.

Much interested, since I own one too now

Gotta get TM mags, the fill on the stock one is utter c.r.a.p.

Continue with the good work !