P698 Glock 26 Type Early spring Pistol Evaluate and several Addendum Feelings

Wow! This P698 Glock 26 Style Spring Pistol is often a nice little piece and has a lot opting for it, especially in this price range of spring airsoft guns. First, the entire appearance is pleasing, or even entirely accurate regarding the outer lining texture variations between the slide and molded grip-frame which may be typical of the actual Glock. There are very noticeable molding lines on the trigger, slide, frame and magazine base, in this price range this will be expected.

Also, the gun is pictured with an orange colored muzzle end slide face, but as supplied includes a full length black slide and orange barrel extending approx 1/4 to 5/32 inches beyond the slide, which I at the very least find more attractive. The picture also indicates ‘COMBAT DELTA’ and 9×19 indented into the left slide face, but mine arrived ‘smooth’ ;.

So….how does it feel and shoot. In a word – good. It’s no surprise Glock’s are very popular. It really naturally fits, at the very least in my own hands. The grip contouring and thumb indentation, even including the ‘pinkie rest’ on the magazine extension, the rear strap shape and radius, trigger and trigger guard notch are all ergonomically correct for an intuitive ‘grip’, site picture & target acquisition. What I find remarkable is how the leading site blade visually indexes so accurately within the ramped Novak style rear site blade (and on this kind of inexpensive pistol), allowing a very precise site picture which minimizes the effect of the short site radius.

I’m sure this makes sense to those who appreciate such things. GLOCK 19 GEN 5 The magazine holds 9 BBs, and is fed by manually retracting a spring loaded ‘follower’, thus allowing the insertion of BBs into the ‘ammo well’ ;.The follower incorporates a detente notch allowing an individual to lock the follower spring in the base position while loading – a great touch – though perhaps not necessarily necessary. Keep in mind to release the follower to make certain proper feeding just before reinsertion of the loaded mag. Depressing the magazine release once the pistol is vertical will immediately drop the mag – there’s no binding – the mag catch clicks and holds securely. Being that it’s a spring airsoft gun, the slide should be manually retracted to compress the spring and cock the pistol for each discharge (shot). Incidentally, I’m certain this really is ho hum stuff to many of you, but for those a new comer to Airsoft, it’s not bad info., especially since this really is this type of great ‘starter gun.’

Anyway, the spring feels really firm, perhaps because this really is this type of small pistol, and I came across it necessary to grip the slide virtually along it’s length between the four fingers and thumb of my left hand. Perhaps one ‘can’ cock this pistol by gripping just the cocking serrations on the trunk of the slide, but I don’t recommend this technique, as this takes a grip tight enough to dimensionally compress the slide. After several times though, it becomes second nature. The very first shot was a real surprise. This thing shoots hard for a low cost springer, and I highly advise proper eye protection, particularly when there’s any chance of a ricochet. I didn’t ‘bench’ this thing for accuracy, but it would be interesting to observe how it groups and at what distances.

Trigger action was also a great surprise, without take-up like most real Single action/double action Euro wonder nines. Apply pressure and the trigger moves rearward about 1/8 – 3/16 of an inch and releases crisply (on my example). Trigger pull is tactile but not as stiff. Incidentally, I didn’t subject the pistol to any torture tests or put a gazillion rounds through it, but however, it still impresses me at this price. The gun comes in a cast Styrofoam box with a printed cardboard cover and a sample pack of.12 gm. BBs, all of which were quickly dispensed through my example, with out a hitch. So….there it is. I like the P698, to their education it’s sort of hard to place it down. I just wonder if any real Glocks may be sold as a result of someones discovery of the fun little thing?

Addendum thoughts: To begin with, why this type of lengthy report on a cheap spring pistol? First, there isn’t always a definite and technically measurable correlation between the cost of something and the enjoyment one experiences in experience of it’s use. Put simply, it doesn’t always take a lot of money to have plenty of fun. Sometimes, there’s an an inverse expenditure/benefit correlation (more money, less fun). Besides, Airsoft customers appear to be very passionate regarding their opinions of everything Airsoft, and no wonder.