This is a work in progress, please let me know what you folks think.
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Review: Bell G3 SAS
Author: Cheesehead
Published:
I was approached sometime ago by snicker with an offer to review a new airsoft gun for Airsplat. Of course I said yes, and was quickly put in contact with Kent Wu from Airsplat.
I was told I’d be receiving a new AEG from China the Bell G3 SAS. A metal bodied version of the Marui gun by the same moniker. Once the gun was in stock it was sent to me ASAP.
Upon receiving the gun I opened the package and inspected its contents. It comes with all the things we’ve come to enjoy in MPEGs; battery, charger, sling, unjamming rod, and complimentary BBs.
First Impressions
Upon lifting the gun from its foam compartment, I was very surprised by the weight of the little thing, it weighs just a hair under seven pounds. The magazine is all metal, and has a capacity of 500 rounds. The battery is an 8.4v 1150 mAh mini battery which resides in the guns railed hand guard. The charger is a 300mA trickle charger, and it takes roughly 3.8 hours to charge the battery. The included BBs are of decent quality.
The Gun
The guns metal body is a clamshell style body, meaning that it is simply two halves screwed together. While it may not be the most attractive, the contoured rubber plugs fill the screw holes very well, and you don’t really notice them that much. The clamshell body also makes working on the gear box a breeze, pop out the screws and separate the two halves and you’ll be at the gearbox.
The body does have some mock trademarks on it, however they aren’t very detailed. “G3.SAS” is stamped into the magazine well, “2006” is on the upper receiver, and Made in china is on the right hand side of what would be the lower receiver. The fire select markings show positions for safe, semi automatic, two round burst and full automatic fire. There are also various mock weld marks which look quite nice.
The selector switch on the Bell G3 SAS is rather interesting, the switch on the right side of the receiver is cast in place, and only the left is useable to select fire modes. The gun has two selector switch positions, but 3 modes. The first position and mode is safe, the second position is fire. The trigger itself is a two stage trigger, similar to that on the AUG. pulling halfway fires one shot, while pulling all the way back lets out full auto burst of plastic. I must admit this is a bit different than I am used to on my CA33E, but once you get used to not moving a switch to change from full to semi, it’s pretty handy.
The body of the Bell G3 SAS is too wide to accept any available scope mount, however the RIS hand guard is perfect for mounting lasers and what have you, just don’t overload the rail, the plastic rails are kind of bendy.
The hop up is a clone of the Marui G3 series hop up, and it works quite well, it is adjustable for almost any range. Though it has great hop abilities, the chamber also has a fatal flaw. It is about 1-2 mm too short to consistently engage the BB hold back on the top of the magazine.
This flaw prevents the gun from feeding, unless the magazine is used as a vertical foregrip.
I managed to remedy this problem by carefully building up the back side lip of the hop up chamber. The gun now feeds flawlessly. While the problem is correctable, it should not even be an issue in a $149 gun.
The magazines, as previously mentioned are all metal, and also use the clamshell style construction. They are not interchangeable with the Marui G3 magazines. The magazines will hold 500 rounds, and feed very smooth.
The only plastic parts on the outside of the gun are the front site and muzzle, hand guard, and ejection port.
Performance
The Bell G3SAS has, so far, been an admirable performer. When chronographed with .20 AE BBs it logged a consistent 264fps. The hop up unit functions very nicely, and is adjustable to meet the same range as a Marui gun. The rate of fire seems to be around 12-15 round per second, slightly slower than TM and CA guns. The gun fires with a rather loud clack, and definitely stands out amidst the other AEGs which tend to have a whine sound.
The first game with the Bell SAS took place in the Wisconsin winter, with temperatures hovering around 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The small 1150 mAh battery performed beautifully, and didn’t seem to be at all affected by the cold.
I do find the gun a bit difficult to aim because it lacks a stock, and can’t really be held like a pistol; however in the first scenario the gun racked up two kills at ranges over 80 feet. Not bad considering there were three enemies firing at me. The sights on the weapon are useless, even with the hop up turned off; the rounds tend to impact above the point of aim.
As the previous paragraph alluded to, accuracy isn’t all that great. To test this I fired 10 rounds at three targets, one at 25 feet, one at 50 feet and one at 75 feet. The rings had a diameter of 12 inches, the outermost being worth 5 points, and incrementing 1 point by ring. At the time the tests were conducted it was snowing lightly, with a gentle wind from the west at 2-5 mph air temperature was 33 Fahrenheit. Ammunition used was Airsoft Elite .20gram BBs.
At 25 feet, the gun scored 79/100. all shots were high, landing between the 9 ring and the outer edge of the 6 ring. The grouping was 3 ¼ inches between the two furthest shots.
At 50 feet the grouping opened up significantly, however a man sized target is still easy to hit at this range. All but 1 shot was to the right of the bull’s eye; total score was 60/100. Three rounds landed in the nine-ring, two in the eight-ring (one was touching, so it is assigned the higher ring) one in the seven-ring, two shots landed in the five-ring, again one was touching. There were 2 rounds that were outside the five-ring and therefore counted as zeros.
At 75 feet the grouping, if you can call it that, opened up to the size of a mans chest. The total was 37/100. half the BBs landed outside the five-ring and were worth zero points. Of the remaining five rounds, one hit in the nine-ring, two in the eight and two in the six-ring.
All the shots were chronographed and an average of 264 was recorded with a high of 268 and a low of 261.
Due to the guns slightly below average stock velocity, the user has a harder time punching through tall grass, but then again, it could just be that I'm used to the way my CA33E performs.
Durability
The Bell SAS is built much like a brick, save for two parts that I managed to break. When I went to sling the weapon over my shoulder, the rear sling point pulled apart under the weight of the swinging gun. The gun crashed to the cement floor, cracking the front sight, and marring the finish on the pistol grip. The broken sight was able to be glued together, and the gun still performed fine all day. It may be possible to reattach the real sling loop, but I have not yet tried to do so.
After a full days skirmish, and nearly 3000 rounds, I tore the gun down to check the gearbox for wear, everything still looks just fine.
The Guts
Internally the gun uses an EG706 motor, which one would assume would be the Chinese equivalent to an EG700. This is also a short version of that motor. The gearbox has limited compatibility with Marui compatible version two parts. The gearbox itself is constructed of cast pot metal and has numerous shades in its color. The bushings are nylon, and the gearbox has no selector plate, instead a bar on the selector switch handles fire selection. The gears are manufactured by XYT, and are fairly well shimmed, although the sector gear seems to drag a bit on the spur gear. The entire gearbox and even the charging handle seem to be lubricated not with white lithium grease, but with Vaseline.
Below is a list of V2 parts and there compatibility with the Bell gearbox.
Spring guide – Not Compatible
Barrel – Possibly, though the differences in the location of the hop up make me think it is not. The stock barrel does use the same design to connect to the hop up chamber as does the Marui, so a custom cut one is feasible.
Motor – Any short length motor should do just fine
Spring – The gun can take other springs, but the longer gearbox makes getting the correct spring for the desired fps difficult. A 110 spring is the same as the stock spring.
Bushings – 100% compatible
Cylinder – Can use standard parts only if changing Cylinder Head, Piston and Piston Head
Cylinder Head –Same as cylinder
Piston – Same as cylinder
Piston Head –Same as cylinder
Tappet Plate - Compatible
Nozzle – Same as cylinder
Anti Reversal Latch - Compatible
Gears - Compatible
Conclusion
With a little work, the Bell G3 SAS is a nice gun; however, you should not need to do any amount of work to get a $150 gun to feed properly. The metal body is a very nice feature, and really makes the gun feel less toy-like. The two stage trigger is very cool, even though it takes some getting used to. The incompatibility with Marui magazines is a downside, but with 500 rounds in the included mag, it’s not that bad for a backyard skirmisher. The gun can also be built up to perform better.
