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I'm calling this the Jungletoy Special because it came in Jungletoy packaging without a real manual and with a Jungletoy Product Advisory attached to the trigger guard. It may be a special deal worked out with Tanaka, since I've not seen a pistol exactly like this one available for sale on any HK dealer website. The actual model, however, is the Tanaka SAA Civilian.

I've been wanting the Tanaka SAA revolver for a while, and finally decided to get one. I didn't want to spend the $150+ price tag plus an additional $30 shipping from HK, so when I saw that Jungletoy had one, I jumped. I didn't know exactly what to expect from it, mainly because the price was so low and I hadn't seen this version anywhere else. At $124.99, it was just too irresistible to pass up. I slapped down my American Express card and ordered.

When the package arrived, I quickly tore it open, revealing my Bolle T-800 goggles, 3 bags of Infinity .28g, and, of course, the Tanaka SAA Civilian version. The box was professionally packaged by Jungletoy, with a price tag, Picture of the contents and a product advisory, presumably required by California state law. This is what first lead me to believe it might be a Jungletoy / Tanaka deal.

I opened the box to reveal the pistol, single sheet manual, free 'pearl' grips, small bag of BBs and a small bag containing the gas loading tool, an allen wrench, an o-ring and an unknown tool. I could immediately tell that the grips were real wood. After taking a few pictures, I lifted the pistol and got that "Oh, hell yeah!" feeling. This pistol is heavy. According to my postal scale, it weighs in at 1 pound 9.1 ounces and is just over 10 and 1/4 inches long. You get the feeling that if the BB doesn't convince your opponent they're out, the pistol whipping will.

The upper frame and outer barrel are plastic, and the finish on them is what you might expect from a mid priced plastic replica. It's not spectacular, but it also didn't cost me $200. The loading rod, trigger, hammer, cylinder, screws, loading gate and lower frame (trigger guard and metal under the grip) are metal. This is what makes the gun so heavy and feel so sturdy. The metal is a decent finish. It's better than my real CZ-52, but not as good as my real Sigma slide. It's better than any KJW metal, also.

The wooden grips, although lacking Colt medallions, look great. The pearl grips look pimpin’ cheesy, but they were free and are currently installed until I get some real Colt SAA grips.

I suspect that any Tanaka SAA purchased from HK would be finished better, and this also leads me to believe that this is a Jungletoy / Tanaka deal. If it isn't, it's certainly a US version, as it totally lacks trades, save for the Tanaka trades. Let me be clear that I have absolutely no complaint with this replica. I am of the belief that you get what you pay for, and I got a good looking Tanaka SAA for a great price. For an additional $75 I could have gotten a great looking replica, but I am very pleased with what I got.

To complete the look of Tanaka SAA, I needed a cowboy holster. It didn't fit well or look good in my tactical holsters. I searched high and low, but you know me, I'm cheap whenever I can be. That's when I ran across a little gem on eBay, which I won for $20. It was from an estate sale and wasn't taken care of. From the looks of it, it's been in storage for probably 50 years and needed some TLC. The leg and hammer strap were dried and broke simply from bending them, so I replaced them with leather lacing from WalMart. The holster was dry, but that's nothing a good old fashioned Army spit shine can't handle. The holster is beautiful and looks awesome with this pistol. The holster saw many years of use carrying a Colt SAA and, because of this, the Tanaka SAA fits perfectly.

Loading the SAA is simple. You pull the hammer back to the half cocked position and insert one BB at a time into the barrel end of the cylinder, turning the cylinder to load the next BB. Once this is done, you remove the loading rod by depressing the fake screw under the muzzle and removing the plunger. Drop in 12 BBs and replace the plunger, giving you a total of 18 shots.

The SAA fires in single action only, meaning you have to cock the hammer back, which turns the cylinder, before each shot. As the BB fires, it leaves an empty chamber. 2 shots later, as the cylinder turns, a BB from the loading tube is forced into this empty chamber.

Gas is loaded by opening the loading gate, pulling the hammer back to the half cocked position, and rotating the cylinder until you see the gas fill valve. Attach the provided gas loading tube to the end of your gas can and fill as you would any other gas replica, stopping after 5 seconds.

The Tanaka SAA has a fixed hop-up that seems to be set for .25g BBs when duster gas is used, and .28g BBs, or higher, when propane is used.

This replica is designed for R134a, or duster gas, and I’ve seen FPS listed anywhere between 200 and 250. Because of this, the hop-up is set really high. This is fine when using low powered gas, but I wanted something impressive and went with the more powerful propane. Another issue I experienced when using duster gas was a severe cool down effect when loading the gas. Immediately after loading the gas, the pressure wasn't high enough to fire a BB, so several would get jammed into the barrel until they would roll out or weakly fire at once. If I let the pistol sit for 15 minutes or more and warm up, it would operate just fine. With R134a, or duster gas, the Tanaka SAA hop-up seems tuned for .25g BBs, since they give a nearly perfect level flight, only rising slightly about 50 feet out.

With propane, the BBs punch right through both sides of a soda can and punch through the bottom, also. In a close quarters skirmish with a 13 year old, my opponent was brought to tears when he was shot at 5 feet in the meaty part of his palm, so be aware that this pistol IS NOT for close range. Because of this drastic increase in power, I've had to use heavier BBs. .2g BBs fly all over the place because of the severe over-hop. .25g are better, but still fly up at about 40 feet. Luckily, I purchased 3 bags of .28g BBs to use with my VSR-10, and they seem to be just about right. I'm right on target shooting Altoid cans at 50 feet using the .28g BBs, but they still head upwards at about 80 feet. .3g BBs will five a level flight out to more than 100 feet before heading upwards. I'll probably remove some of the hop-up to make it work with .28g BBs, but until then, I know my target is in trouble when it's within 80 feet.

Here are the chrono results:

One point of interest is the number of shots you can get from a single fill of gas. I only tested with duster gas because after firing 300 shots, I didn’t want to start over with propane. That’s right, on a single fill of duster gas, I was able to get 300 shots with a pause of two seconds between each shot. Between shot 290 and shot 300, the FPS was between 240 and 260 with .2g BBs. I released the rest of the gas, so I can’t say how many total shots you can get with duster, but 300 is a pretty good number.

If this is your sidearm, be aware that reloading isn't as easy as with a magazine fed pistol. You will enter the field with 18 BBs at the ready, but after emptying the pistol, you will either have to find a safe place to reload, or you can half cock the hammer and load 6 BBs, one at a time, into the empty chambers. If you're down to your sidearm as your main weapon, you will need to learn to make the shots count. If you're using Green Gas, though, your target will certainly know when they've been hit, and you'll outrange most AEGs.

Accuracy is decent with heavy BBs during the day. At night, though, it’s a different story. The sights are unlike anything you’ve experienced on a modern automatic pistol. The front blade is fine, but the rear ‘dovetail’ isn’t really a ‘dovetail.’ It’s more of a groove with a slot just in front of the hammer. It’s not well defined and is nearly impossible to see at night, leaving you guessing as to the actual point of aim.

This pistol is also a nice flat black, and that adds to the difficulty. If your target is lit, you should be able to hit a person at 80 (120 with .3g BBs) feet, but with no light, you’ll be in trouble. At night, with no light, I found myself outgunned by a clear Cybergun M9, but let me tell you, when I did hit him, he screamed in pain. I suspect the nighttime accuracy will improve with practice. I mean, come on, Wild Bill, Wyatt Erp, Billy the Kid and Doc Holiday did alright for themselves.

Accuracy isn't one of this pistol's strong points, though it makes a very effective sidearm for the field. You shouldn't expect to enter any target shooting competitions, but you will be more than able to defend yourself in a battle.

I bought this gun because I wanted a great field use cowboy revolver at a great price. It hasn't let me down. It's not the finely finished show piece you might get with the chrome plated Tanaka SAA pistols, but it still looks good and performs well. Even though this pistol is advertised with power in the low to mid 200’s when using R134, the pistol it’s really in the range of a stock AEG. You can boost this with more powerful gas, but you will also have to use a more expensive, heavier BB. In large games, with a wide variety of players, I’ll be using duster gas to prevent complaining or injuries. With my own team, I use Propane because we love pain.

I'm very satisfied with this replica and I will be buying another along with a double leather cowboy holster. This pistol has decent power with the recommended gas, and can be boosted beyond most players’ needs just by using propane so I’m sure if you like revolvers, you’ll love this pistol, too.

Pros:

• Looks good.
• Very heavy and solid.
• Unique.
• Capable of incredible power.
• Very gas efficient – more than 300 shots per fill.
• Very nice price.

Cons:

• No trades.
• No real manual.
• Not as nice a finish as HK versions.
• Use of Green Gas requires heavier, more expensive BBs.
• Not as easy to reload as a magazine fed pistol.

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