I ordered my CA870 shottie from Redwolf Airsoft, for $80, with $26 s/h on top of that. I put the order through on a Saturday, but not after having fumbled around a bit with their strange way of handling Paypal orders. I then got a shipment confirmation on the following Monday. And it was in my hands on Wednesday, not to shabby by my tastes. I was at work when my mail-carrier attempted to deliver it though, but after a call to my local post-office when I got home, and a five minute drive later, I had my shotgun in hand. So, first off, just a little about this gun. It is a spring shotgun made by Maruzen (Japan), and shoots 1 BB per pump. The hop-up is set for .2 gram BB's, but also works well with .25's. And I believe this gun is based off the Remington M870, although it is not an exact match. The gun is made mostly out of fiber-glass, with some metal, and a little plastic. It is supposed to be a new "low maintenance" design, which requires no oiling or the like, although it would probably make the gun last longer with some occasional oiling. With that said, lets get to the review.

I got my new toy home, and tore apart the paper-wrapped shotgun box like a kid on his birt hday. I lifted the lid, and was met with 22 inches of black and brown fiber-glass. Quite a beautiful site it was, except for the orange on the tip of course, but there are ways around that. The gun itself is somewhat hefty. I measured it to be about 2.8 lbs, which isn't very heavy, but for the size of it, it's respectable. Even though it is not all that heavy, it still feels quite satisfying to hold. One of the first things out of the box that caught my attention is how well this gun is constructed. Now, let me tell you, I do not have experience with a lot of guns, but from what I can tell, this one seems to be built like a tank. I was very impressed with the quality of this piece, the people at Maruzen really know how to build a quality gun. The fiber-glass body has a pretty nice feel to it as well, it's smooth, and feels more solid than plastic.

Metal parts on this gun include the safety catch, trigger, sling attachment points, two bars on either side connecting the pump handle to the piston assembly, the magazine tube cap, and much of the internals are metal as well. Looking into the magazine well, clearly reveals some of the metal internals. The outer barrel, pump handle, and pistol grip are made of solid fiber-glass, while the receiver is just a fiber-glass shell, a few millimeters thick, encasing the metal receiver underneath. The plastic parts on the gun include the magazine, magazine tube (or rather, what would be the magazine tube on a real shotgun), shell ejector cover (which is stationary, by the way), and a few of the internal parts such as the piston and it's assembly.

One of the only gripes I have with this gun, is the overly flimsy magazine. It is extremely light, and when in the gun, it rattles a bit. But it does hold 40 rounds, and comes with a quick loading tool, so it kind of balances out. And, although the magazine is a slight bit loose in the gun, I do not foresee it as being much of a problem, as it is still very secure in the gun and will never come out of the gun unless you want it to.

Performance wise, this gun can't be beat for the price of it (well, maybe, but it would be pretty damn hard). It is powerful, accurate, and has reasonable range. The specifications on the side of the box state that it shoots 284 fps, and this is further reinforced by conducting Redwolf's pop can test. I conducted the test with a .2 BB, at roughly 2 inches away from the can, and the BB easily penetrated one side of the can and left a small dent on the other side (which indicates 290-310 fps velocity). On the box, Maruzen claims .75J of energy, which I guess would be about right.

This gun is also fairly accurate, although, there is one aspect which will prevent you from using its accuracy to the fullest, the gun has no sights. That's right, there are absolutely no sights, in any way, shape, or form. So, precision 80 ft shots are out of the question here. This was a major concern I had when deciding whether or not to buy the gun. But, the lack of sights is not as big of a problem as one would believe. Once you get the hang of aiming this beast, you can basically predict where you are aiming and where the BB will hit. It might take you a couple shots to hit your target though, but that is almost no problem with the 40 round magazine and the fast-cocking nature of a shotgun. One thing I noticed as a direct effect of the lack of sights, is that I tend to shoot people in the head much more with this gun than any other gun, let me explain. Because there are no sights on this gun, I tend to use the barrel as a guide for keeping my aim straight, but the barrel of the CA870 is slightly tapered, so it is smaller at the tip and larger nearer to the receiver. This has the effect that I have to raise the tip of the gun slightly higher to be able to look down the barrel, and this in turn raises the angle of the inner barrel from where I am aiming. This has the result of making my shots go higher than where I am aiming, and consequently, I tend to hit people in the head a lot. Not a big problem, and can be remedied by aiming lower than normal, but I thought I would mention it anyway. The side of the box also states that this gun sports a 203mm long, 6.05mm inner-diameter barrel, so despite the lack of any sights, the gun should be pretty accurate if you are aiming in the right place.

The range on this gun is pretty good, although I don't have a measuring tape that goes nearly as far as this gun can shoot. I would estimate accuracy to about 80-90 ft, and the total range to be somewhere close to 150-170 ft. But, they're just estimates, so don't quote me on those.

This shotgun is really a blast to shoot. The trigger is very solid and smooth to pull, although there is not much of a throw to it, pull it just a tiny bit and it fires. The safety is also one of my favorite aspects of this gun, as it is extremely solid, being all-metal. With the safety engaged, you can pull the trigger with a great deal of force, and it still feels solid as a rock. You see, I come straight from the world of spring pistols, where the majority of the triggers and safeties are flimsy plastic, and to have a gun with a solid metal safety and trigger assembly is almost amazing to me.

One thing I noticed, and I don't know whether it is model-specific or just on my gun, but I noticed when I fire a shot, after about 80-90 ft the BB's start to curve to the left and down. I am sure it is probably normal for the BB to drop after about this distance, but I think they should still fly straight. I thought that my hop-up could be misaligned slightly off the 12 o' clock position, but I have not taken the gun apart to confirm this. But the thing is, that the BB's fly straight-as-an-arrow up until the point where they curve left, so I am not completely sure if the hop-up is the culprit, and I know it is not the wind, as the problem is consistent wherever I go. Either way, it is still very accurate up until that point.

If you are looking for accessories for this gun, you might be out of luck. The only accessory that you could really put on it without any fuss is a sling. You might also be able to purchase some real steel accessories for the Remington M870, and with slight modification, make them work with the CA870. I have seen a scope mount for the Remington M870 that at first sight I thought might work, and have further assessed that it would take slight modification to make it fit. I believe it was on Cabelas.com that I saw it. A creative and skilled person might also be able to fashion some sort of flashlight that extends out the end of the magazine tube (which is hollow), which would be helpful for urban or night games. Other than that, I don't believe there is much (if anything) in the way of accessories.

This gun has only been in my possession for a little over two weeks, so sadly, I cannot attest to the long-term reliability of this gun. But, it is such a solid gun, I would not be surprised if it lasted for a very long time with regular use. The Maruzen CA870 sawed-off shotgun is a strong weapon, not to be overlooked. And, for the money, you can't beat the performance. It would fare well as a backup to an AEG, a good CQB weapon, or even a respectable primary in outdoor springer battles. It has a good price tag, nice power, nice accuracy, a 40 round magazine, and a host of other features which make this gun stand out from the rest. If my gun somehow broke (although I am not sure if it is possible, given how damn strong it is), I would definitely buy a new one. All in all, this is a great spring shottie, and should not be overlooked if you are in the market for one.