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KSC Glock 34 vs WA S&W Sigma 40F
Published: 10/04/2004
By Snowman
Background
The ubiquitous Glock from Austria is easily recognised. Nearly every police force in the western world equips at least some of its armed officers with a Glock of some kind and it crops up in films all the time (US Marshall’s “Get yourself a Glock and lose that nickel-plated sissy pistol”, Bad Boys (with a shiny slide) and End Of Days (when Arnie carried a G34, supposedly because the 17 looked too small in his hands) being the first examples to spring to mind.
It achieved initial worldwide fame due to its unusual (but not unique as many suppose – Heckler & Koch’s VP70 was the first) plastic frame. This caused worldwide mayhem as news agencies, erroneously, labeled it as a ‘terrorist weapon’ which would pass, undetected, through x-ray machines.
Of course, although the frame is invisible to X-ray, the slide and barrel are steel and show up as well as anything else. With its widespread adoption by law enforcement agencies, it is actually more of the ‘ANTI terrorist weapon’.
The beauty of the Glock is its simplicity. It has no external safety (except the two stage trigger) and a double action only system, meaning it is never cocked ready to fire and so can, theoretically, never go off by accident. Basically, with a Glock, you just point and shoot. This made it very popular with all sorts of shooters, from people looking for a self-defence weapon at home, through law-enforcement agencies looking for a near foolproof handgun, to the demanding Practical Shooting community.
This popularity didn’t go unnoticed by the US gun manufacturers and, quite quickly, (then British owned, ironically) Smith & Wesson launched a similar weapon, in the form of the Sigma. So similar, in fact, that very quickly Glock launched a successful lawsuit against S&W for patent infringements. This was settled by S&W paying a sizable lump sum to Glock and the Sigma continued in production.
Dimensions/Weight (real Vs airsoft)
The Glock is available in subcompact (Glock 26 in 9mm. In .45 there's an even smaller 'slimline' model, the 36), compact (19 in 9mm), standard (The 17 that started it all) and "practical tactical"(34)/competition (17L) forms and an impressive array of calibres, including the 9mm, .40 S&W and .45ACP . There's even a select fire 9mm - The Glock 18.
The Sigma has been available in a number of frame sizes (the original 4.5” barreled version replicated by WA, the smaller 4” barreled and rail equipped current version and a compact version) and chambered for .380, .40 (10mm) or 9mm.
The guns I am testing here are a KSC Glock 34 (the ‘Practical Tactical’ long barreled version of the Glock, 34 indicating the 9mm version) and a Western Arms Smith & Wesson Sigma 40F, based on the early gun, chambered for the .40 round.
In real steel form this example of the Glock is 207mm long, 138mm high and 30mm wide with a 135mm barrel and weighs 728g with an empty magazine. By contrast, the ‘standard’ sized Glock 17 (which was the original) is 186mm long, with a 114mm barrel, but identical in other dimensions. There is actually a longer version of the Glock, the G17L, which is 20mm longer and has a 153mm barrel, but this is generally considered a speciality target weapon.
The Sigma, in Smith & Wesson form is 197mm long and 142mm high with a 114mm barrel (identical to that of the Glock 17) and weighs around 740g.
The various members of KSC Glock range are widely acknowledged as the best airsoft Glocks available and the 34 comes with a frame which bears the Glock logo on the grip (this may not be true of US bound versions). It weighs 750g with an empty magazine, slightly heavier than the real thing!
The WA Sigma is, as you would expect, cosmetically excellent and it weighs 700g with the magazine fitted, so not a million miles away from the real thing.
Performance
Accuracy
I test all my airsoft pistols in my improvised 5m range, otherwise known as my garage. Shooting off hand, with .25g BBs the two guns provided remarkably evenly matched.
The best 5 rounds of each gun were around 1.5 inches (the Glock JUST shading it at 35mm vs 37mm for the Sigma, but so near as to be irrelevant – At 5m it’s impossible to see where the rounds are hitting) and all 6 rounds from each gun were in, or on the edge of, the target centre.
Neither produced absolutely top-notch accuracy in my hands, but 1.5 inches at 5m is good enough for most purposes and is certainly comparable with all but the most accurate guns I have tested.
Power
It was a very warm day when I came to test these guns back to back, but I only had the fairly powerful Cybergun Winter gas to hand, so that’s what I used. Bear in mind it was 30C (90F), so you probably won’t see such high figures in cooler climes.
The Glock averaged 336 FPS with .2g BBs. The Sigma averaged just 295 FPS, in contrast.
Overall impressions
KSC Glock 34
The first thing that struck me about the Glock 34 when I opened the box was that there was a huge bit of the slide missing. However, a quick check around the web proved this to be correct, the slide has a large rectangular opening over the barrel.
The frame, at least on this KSC Glock 34, seems identical to the Glock 17.
The slide appears to be made of heavyweight material (like that on the KSC Beretta M9 and Mk23), which lends the gun a most un-Glock-like heft. This all plastic gun was actually heavier than the KWA Glock 19 with a metal slide.
Also unusual was the adjustable rear sight – Unique to the 34 in airsoft form, as far as I can tell, and hinting at the 34’s true nature. It is described as “Practical Tactical” on Glock’s own site.
Western Arms S&W Sigma 40F
The WA Sigma is, as you would expect of WA, beautifully finished. The frame is very smooth, except for checkering to the front and rear of the grip.
Whilst most of the gun is plain black (and of a less shiny material than the KSC Glock 34), the barrel and chamber are nicely replicated in a matt stainless finish.
Build quality, as well as visual appearance, is of the usual high WA quality. The logos on my particular gun are accurate to the Smith & Wesson, but there was an odd case of airsoft imitating real-steel life with On-Off production and a version of the gun with WA only logos.
The Sigma looks a more styled gun, with a slope to the rear of the slide and grip designed to fit the hand, rather than Glock’s uncompromising square frame. However, features like the take down levers, two part trigger and entire barrel assembly are very close to those of the KSC Glock.
Conclusions
The Sigma was S&W’s answer to the Glock and, although not as popular as they had hoped, it continues (in a modified form) in S&W’s line-up today.
The Glock, meanwhile, has become the default sidearm of choice for law enforcement and personal defence throughout the developed world.
That popularity is reflected in the airsoft world, with nearly everyone having owned (or, at least, used) a KSC/KWA Glock at some point.
As a sidearm the WA Sigma makes an interesting and usable alternative to the, seemingly, default choice of a Glock, but the 34 itself would certainly attract some attention.
Accuracy wise, both are more than good enough for skirmishing, although the KSC seems to have the upper hand in terms of power (at least on more powerful gasses. WAs are designed expressly to use 134a and may have an advantage there), which will probably translate into greater range.
Getting spare magazines for the WA Sigma may prove tricky as the gun is now out of production, whereas the airsoft world seems full of KSC Glock magazines, both new from dealers and used from the forums. It’s also worth considering that there’s a 50 round magazine for the Glocks, although, personally, I find the guns unwieldy with it and it makes little sense except with the full auto 18C.
If you are just looking for a solid skirmish sidearm, there is little reason to look further than KSC/KWA’s Glock range, but if you fancy something a little different, it might be worth searching out a Sigma.
Addendum : KWC now make a CO2 powered version of the Sigma, complete with a metal slide and barrel, which seems to be getting good reviews and certainly looks good, although I have yet to shoot one myself.
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