GSG-5 Range Review
Ill try and be objective, sometimes thats not easy.
First time with this little make believe black rifle. I dont know much about AR type guns but this one is NOT one of those!
Started off well with about twenty rounds of high velocity Federal .22 LR, No problems with function, yet. The rounds were at least twenty five years old, been sitting in my cases for years from back in my High Standard bulls-eye days. Cycled fine but it was a clean chamber. The little rifle handles well, decent balance with a rather stiff but predictable trigger break and a long reset. Not really any noticeable recoil and follow up rapid fire shots are easy to place on a 6 target at fifty yards. I would recommend high velocity ammunition if I were shooting it regularly.
Went through another thirty of forty rounds of Remington Target rounds and had several cycling problems because (I think) I was resting the magazine on the bench, once I kept it off the bench, it seemed to cycle fine. I proceeded to sight the little bug in with the rotating peep that it comes equipped with. I found the age old notch rear position and a level steady hold on the center of a 2 bulls eye produced the best results for me. The other three are progressively smaller peep holes down to about 1/16 diameter. Since I cant see for shite, the notch works and its what Im most used too. Shooting accuracy was pretty good and the right shooter is probably capable of sub 2 MOA groups at fifty yards or about 1. Im just not that guy! I was able to achieve a couple of good groups when I really gave it a good effort.
Took a little break because the stock was loosened up and needed to be retightened. After tightening, it didnt seem to stop wiggling.
Checked the function, loaded some mags and proceeded to check my sight picture before shooting my Postal Match targets, ran one ten round mag through and the front sight blade fell out of its slot, lost the pin from wiggling loose or something. Tried to shoot a few targets without a front blade but thats like throwing rocks with this little gun, hit the paper but not much else. After finding a piece of a adhesive price tag on the floor of the car, I taped the blade back on the gun and managed to shoot one decent target.
Impressions? Its a cheaply made, overly expensive, pretty accurate little rifle that would be fine if it didnt need constant tightening of this screw or that nut. The magazines are tough to load and were restricted to the ten rounder which means its the stock mag with a block installed to take up the slack. Im not sure but the mags are probably proprietary and expensive. It has a faux suppressor on the barrel that looks rather silly but after all, its designed after a REAL rifle of some sort so kids feel TactiCOOL or something. It came loose during my shoot and I didnt have the tools to tighten it up. There is really no where to place your support hand on the fore end, its a bit short so I had the tendency to hold the fake suppressor.
Final thoughts, though American Rifleman liked this little rifle, Ill take a pass and buy two Rugers and a Savage for the price of this one rifle alone. My SIL bought this because of his shiny penny problem but over the long haul, its going to end up belonging to his little brother for chipmunk assassinations!