Canadian Airgun Forum

Another review for those who prefer action pistol shooting over rifles (I’m one of the bunch). I purchased the Blackwater 1911R2 from Airgun Source for a pre-order price of $139.00 plus tax. The pistol is manufactured by KWC in Taiwan. It is styled after the Kimber 1911 family of “tactical” pistols. It has a black matt painted frame and slide, brushed “tactical” trigger with holes in it, brushed outerbarrel shroud and brushed front bushing. On the left hand side of the slide and frame there is a laser etched “bear paw” logo of the Blackwater Worlwide (previously known as Xe Services LLC) security company. Some people may like it, some others may not. It’s a bit controversial. On the same side there are laser etched “R2” and “BW1911”. A tactical picatinny rail is molded into the front end of the frame. The right hand side of the slide has usual white “idiot-markings” (NOT A TOY, blah blah blah) because the pistol is distributed in the US by Palco Sports/Cybergun. Interestingly, these “idiot-markings” never appear on the items coming directly from KWC (as on a KWC KMB-77AHN pistol equivalent to the Blackwater).
On the right frame side there is laser etched “BW1911 R2”, “.177CAL 4.5mm”, the letter S in a circle (?), a serial number and the F in a pentagon for the German market. The solid plastic grips are black having a very rough molded texture without typical 1911 “diamond” inlays. The hammer has a “tactical” not a classical 1911shape. The pistol has a working side safety lever and grip safety exactly like the Tanfoglio 1911. Overall appearance of the Blackwater 1911 is extremely pleasing to an eye. I am attaching three pictures for your perusal.
The front part of the outer barrel is recessed 11mm and has a 11.6 mm diameter with a fake rifling which is a very realistic replication of 0.45cal. The internal barrel is made of brass, exactly the same as that for the Tanfoglio Witness 1911. Personally, I would prefer a steel barrel that would match better to the overall appearance.
The pistol is fully “field strippable” like the Tanfoglio Witness 1911 and obviously the real Colt 1911. However, at the final stage of field stripping I couldn’t figure out how to remove the inner brass barrel from its aluminum outerbarrel shroud so I quit. Perhaps, someone else will be smarter. The magazine is full size and identical in dimensions with the one for the Tanfoglio 1911 which fits the Blackwater 1911 without any problem. Both are exchangeable. The magazine follower spring is very strong which makes BB loading a bit tedious.
The material used for the frame, slide, outer barrel, front bushing and “tactical” trigger of the KWC Blackwater 1911R2 is the same aluminum casting alloy used for the same parts of the Tanfoglio Witness 1911/ KWC KMB-76AHN pistol. The Blackwater parts are die cast which makes the fit and finish second to none. The surfaces are very smooth and devoid of any mold lines. An interesting fact is that the Kimber 1911 .22LR firearm, which is nearly identical in appearance to the KWC Blackwater, has also the frame and slide made of aluminum alloy. It seems that KWC follows a permanent trend of moving away from the traditional zinc cast alloys (popular “pot metal”) to the aluminum cast alloys for their air weapons. On one hand, this is good news because aluminum parts are generally not so fragile as zinc cast parts. On the other hand, the items cast from aluminum alloys are slightly more expensive than their zinc alloy counterparts which is reflected in the price of the Blackwater 1911/Tanfoglio Witness 1911, if compared, for example, with the price of the Walther P38.
Now shooting. Measurements were made at the temperature of 19C. I RAPIDLY fired a ten shot string using Daisy Premium BBs (5.3 gr) and a fresh Daisy CO2 cartridge. The highest velocity measured was 307.8 fps, the lowest was 277.3 fps (average of the 10-shot string was 291.6 fps, s = 10.7). After loading the second CO2 cartridge I decided to heat up the magazine for a short while with an electric heating fan. The second rapid ten shot string gave the highest velocity 330.1 fps, the lowest was 315.6 fps and the average 322.2 fps, s=5.0 fps with only 10.45 fps max. spread which makes for a very small freezing factor of 1.45. The advertised velocity is 312 fps. So the pistol conforms exactly to the specs. In contrast to the Tanfoglio Witness 1911, the Blackwater 1911 has “tactical” front and rear sights with three large white dots which make aiming a breeze. After aligning the three dots it shoots exactly to the POI. Very nice. The trigger pull is light and predictable. The pistol has very strong blowback which feels even stronger than that for the Tanfoglio. It’s a very good pistol for training if you have a real powderburner semi-auto pistol and can’t go to the range too often.
The grouping at 25 feet is on par with the Tanfoglio Witness. For a 40 shot string (standing, two hand grip) 50% shots were grouped within a 2” circle and the rest within a 4” circle. On a 25ft. rapid fire Crosman target only 4 shots (flyers) were outside the 6 ring.
You can get 60 good shots from one CO2 cartridge.
By comparison, I rank the Blackwater 1911 R2 (or the same KWC KMB-77AHN) a notch higher than the Tanfoglio Witness 1911.

Nice review. I am hoping mine is as flawless as yours is. I had a bad time with 3 tanfoglios and even 2 ASG STI Duty Ones. All guns were defective in some manner. It seems the best time to buy the TFW witness was between 2010 and late 2011. I bought mine in late 2012 and it was a defective piece of junk paper weight. The mags would leak and the third gun just jammed up. Hopefully KWC put more work into the BW1911.

This is indeed very weird. I’ve never heard that someone could have so many problems with those pistols. I have a Tanfoglio which I bought in June 2011which most likely was manufactured in late 2010 or early 2011. I also bought a spare mag. So far, so good , no problems. But my Tanfoglio was indeed an "early" production batch.
Nevertheless, I don’t quite understand why the “newer” Tanfoglios (2012-2013) could have so acute mechanical problems. May be your problems were related to the magazines? Actually, the mags are easy to disassemble and repair.
Anyways, good luck with your Blackwater pistol. And remember to use a drop of Pellgunoil on the tip of each CO2 cartridge. It cures a lot of problems. I’ve been doing this for years for each of my CO2 guns and they still shoot without any problems.

Yes it is odd and very frustrating that I had so many problems with them. Some of the problems were with the magazines and the third was with the gun itself.

Thanks!

I use Pellgunoil all the time. I just bought a new tube with my blackwater 1911 from PA.

Great review. The only thing I continue to ask myself about these popular (for an obvious reason) KWC guns is why they make them so gutless. 400+ fps on blowbacks is certainly not unheard of.

Because they would need longer barrels and people would complain about how little shots they're getting out of their guns. We've all seen that guy who wants a gazillion shots at 499fps with exceptionnal accuracy out of his 60$ BB gun and who always complains about the CO2 price.

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You can’t buy a single airgun for everything. Golfers use many different clubs, airgunners need more than one gun

Thanks! I really like the Blackwater 1911 more and more.

Doc is absolutely correct on the barrel length. It is the King for all CO2 pistols. Increase it to say 19 inches and a BB pistol would shoot around 700-800fps. Some time ago Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier made testing and came to the conclusion that increasing the barrel length of a CO2 pistol beyond 19 inches is not beneficial. So it is kind of a length limit.
However, why would anyone need in a BB blowback pistol muzzle velocity even near 500fps being unhappy with the 320-350fps? Even with 500fps a BB pistol is just a paper puncher or a tin can/glass bottle killer. Nothing else.
The BB CO2 blowback pistols like the Blackwater, TW1911, Sig Sauer P226 and GSG 92 manufactured by KWC are 1:1 converted from the airsoft counterparts shooting 6 mm plastic BBs (balls). KWC just changes an inner brass barrel from 6 to 4.5mm diameter. Furthermore, these pistols in airsoft and airgun versions function exactly as the real firearms which they replicate. They have full size magazines, full blowback (the slide moves the same distance as in a firearm), the chamber stays open after the last shot and they are fully field strippable. The major advantage of these pistols is that they simulate 1:1 the action of a firearm. This way they are excellent training tools for shooting in a basement or somewhere outdoor without frequent visits to the dedicated shooting range and wasting expensive ammo for people who owns firearms. Their blowback feels on par with a .22LR pistol or even stronger. In these pistols a large amount of CO2 energy goes for a blowback action. Sure it is easy to re-design valves to release more CO2 to increase a muzzle velocity and reduce the number of shots to say 10. But then as Doc correctly noticed a lot of people would complain.
I’d also add that the second group of BB blowback pistols represented by the Umarex Walther P38 is designed from a square one rather than converted from airsoft blowback pistols. They have higher muzzle velocities (400+fps) but their blowback action is only partial (the slide moves at a short distance) and much weaker. But the chamber stays open after the last shot. Also they have stick type magazines and a BB is chambered with each trigger pull.
The third group is blowback-revolvers like the Umarex Beretta PX4Storm and Desert Eagle and the Gamo PT-25&85. Their revolving ammo clips are operated by the trigger pull, they exhibit pretty strong blowback and the slide cocks the hammer. The chamber does not stay open after the last shot which is impossible to achieve with a revolving clip. They have muzzle velocities 350-400fps with 7gr pellets. But the number of good shots is usually only 30-40 per cartridge.

Good answer, too!

Good evening, fellas.
I really like that review. Really informative.
But not only that, I've got my hands on that precious pistol. Which is my first airgun, by the way. But enough talking off topic.
Does anyone know what grips would fit that R2?
Marui 1911-variants grips?
Or maybe Cybergun got some?
Or probably the real stell pistol's grips would fit, would they?
I appreciate any info about that, 'cause I couldn't find it myself.

Thanks for nice words on my review! Appreciate it!
You can fit any Colt 1911-type or Kimber-type grips on your Blackwater 1911R2 (Kimber America is a gun company that produces modern iterations of the Colt 1911- http://www.kimberamerica.com/1911). Like I mentioned in my review the Blackwater 1911R2 is a 1:1 detailed replica of the Kimber Custom II Warrior .45cal pistol. You will find tons of grips on the Kimber America website. The Colt 1911-type grips you can find at quite reasonable prices on the Marstar Canada website in the Products/Accessories/Exotic Pistol Grips/1911 Grips section. However, whatever grips you buy they would need a little bit of dremel work to fit them to the pistol grip frame because the CO2 cartridge slightly protrudes when the mag is inserted. However, this is not a big deal and you can find tons of videos on You Tube how people do it. Also some members of our forum have done it e.g. post388874.html
However, I would like to point out that the original grips on the Blackwater are exactly the same as those you will find on a Kimber Custom II Warrior .45cal pistol. So, they are really authentic.

Since the Blackwater 1911R2 is your first blowback semi-auto BB pistol I give you a few more pointers, littlesoldier1.To keep your pistol in a top shape put a drop of Pellgunoil on the tip of each CO2 cartridge. Furthermore, right away grease the slide rails and few other moving parts by sparingly applying white lithium grease. It is very good grease for sliding parts in pistols and other mechanisms. The blowback semi-auto pistols work pretty hard and they must be well oiled. When you are ready to shoot don’t load more than 15 BBs in the mag even if the manual says that the mag will hold 18 or 21 or whatever number of BBs. Also, it is recommended to lock the slide back before inserting the full mag into the grip well. This way you can avoid jamming. Don’t slam the slide by releasing the slide lever when the slide is locked back. The metal from which the Blackwater and other similar pistols (e.g. KWC Colt 1911/Tanfoglio Witness 1911) are made is aluminum alloy. It is much softer than ordnance steel on real firearms. So be careful.
Happy shooting!

X2, it's all very good advice. On the grease thing I think the most important part is sparingly

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You can’t buy a single airgun for everything. Golfers use many different clubs, airgunners need more than one gun

Absolutely! I use a regular Q-tip swab slightly dipped in grease and then distribute grease very thinly and evenly on all sliding surfaces. If you look under the light at the surface you can see that it is shiny but still transparent to light. I repeat that procedure twice a year after cleaning the old stuff. With that thin layer of grease even the sound of moving slide is slightly different that the dry one. More like a firearm.
Too much grease is no good. Like too much beer (or wine?).

What safeties are on the Blackwater? Is the beaver tail safety present?

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The safeties are nearly exactly the same as those on a regular Colt 1911 that means the AMBIDEXTREOUS thumb safety (that's a difference with respect to the original Colt 1911 which has it on the left side only) and grip safety (beaver tail safety). Obviously, they are fully operational like on a real steel.