Army MEU ( R27 ) Review & Compatibility Report
 

Just got mine in the mail an hour or two ago (with everything but the original box), so here is a preliminary review. I will update this with performance/reliability pros and cons as time moves on (and I get myself a few TM MEU mags).

My Army R27 is - from what I can tell - a 99.99% copy of the Marui MEU. Army Armaments even copied the plastic three-panel grips, rather than using a rubber wrap-around Pachmayr type grip, like some other clone companies have done. I believe KJW is the one that I'm talking about here, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong... I installed stock TM M1911A1 grip panels on mine, due to the fact that they're slimmer and feel more natural in my hands. Perfect fit, minus the part about the grip weights being a hair too wide to properly fit in the slots in the frame for them. Oh, and I found what looks to be the only Army trademark on the gun under the right grip panel (the magazine notes that it is made by Army as well)!

The Army MEU is full metal, and it feels damn good for a clone GBB. Very little barrel wobble and play in the slide - and the hop up unit/inner barrel is fixed in place as well as a stock TM 5.1. And I'm a nit-picker when it comes to barrel/slide fitment! No seam lines anywhere. Sights have no dots, but the front sight post is serrated (supposedly to increase visibility in certain conditions, this feature is present on the RS MEU). Paint/finish is very nice to the touch, and seems durable enough for regular game play/target shooting usage. Wide, ambidextrous safety levers are both solid, with less than a millimeter of play when the hammer is not cocked, yet the engaging of this safety system with a cocked hammer leaves something to be desired (however, the disengaging of the safety levers gives a very positive feel and click). Hammer drops forward from a cocked position with less vigour than I would have liked, and also lacks a half-cocked position. Grip panels are god damn plastic though... and are wider than your standard M1911A1 grips - I didn't like them one bit. Trigger is a "WTF were you thinking?" super-shiny silver (not quite as polished as chrome though), and does have a hole for a trigger stop set screw... but doesn't have the screw. Cocking serrations at the front and rear of the slide are a blast - I was getting accustomed once more to cocking serrations only at the rear, following the sale of my Socom Gear Wilson Combat. Racking the slide sounds (and feels, but that's not the best part about it) wonderful - not much more to say here. The slide lock looks to mount slightly off centre, but the pin itself looks to have a moulding flaw and thus the entire external part of the pin isn't as perfectly round as the rest of the pin is.. what a fail on the part of Army - but oh well, its been worth the money so far!

Trades are close enough for me; however, I'm no trade whore so as long as there's something scribbled somewhere that looks half-legit, I'm happy. The left side of the slide reads: "MODEL 1911-A1" and "CAL .45" is underneath that. The right side of the slide bears what looks like the Springfield Armory logo and trade ("SPRINGFIELD ARMORY", what else did you think it would be?), but something is a little fishy about it (remember that I haven't cared enough to look up what the real steel MEU trades look like yet). The right side of the frame says, "UNITED STATES PROPERTY" and "N22250162" on the grip-side of the slide stop pin, and "M1911A1 U.S. ARMY"/"1295" on the muzzle side of the slide stop. The chamber has "NW7125 .45 ACP". Rear sights look to me like they're probably a drop-in fit to the Hi-Capa 4.3, and are marked with "NOVAK'S" and "PAT D [...]", sorry I gave up trying to read what the number actually reads here. Front sight post looks to be removable, though I'm not going to bother as of yet.

Popped a mag in, one dry fire. Thankfully, the mag was left gassed up by the person whom I bought this from (for all intensive purposes, as BNIB). Sounds and feels.. meh. But that's how I feel about all Marui-type stock piston heads of the Hi-Capa, 1911 varieties. Hammer spring isn't all that weak after all, though. Nice kick for a stock GBB, regardless. Recoil spring is of a sufficient strength as is - I won't be mucking around with this one as I would like to conserve as much gas as possible for the skinny single stack mags and their small gas capacity.

Next, time to do a disassembly of the slide bits. I installed an Action aluminum piston head, with a design very, very similar to the Nine Ball Dyna piston (just with a different number of ports, and silver instead of red) - the provided screw has the same sized hex pattern as the rest of the BBU screws too - neat-o! No surprises regarding the removal out the outer/inner barrel & hop up stuff - though I found the barrel bushing wrench to be absolutely useless. Oh well, I've got another neat-looking tool to throw in my pistol case now. The BBU came out with one hex wrench, one screw at the position of the firing pin on a RS, one screw atop the slide, going through the rear sight. And... it was greasy beyond lubricating anything. You can see what it looked like, before cleaning in one of my attached pictures - gross, eh? Cleaned that junk up, had to clean out the loading nozzle return spring as well, popped the new piston head in (the stock one looks to be black plastic), and voila! Note that the inside of the slide has some sort of rail spacer in it, underneath the ejection port; removal of this allows me to use my MEU top end with a Hi-Capa frame. Looks to me like my slide lugs have already worn down a bunch as well. Oh well...

Just remembered, there was a spare parts zip-locked baggie containing a few O-rings - not sure what for, possibly the magazine - as well as a spare hop up rubber and loading muzzle with floating valve/blocker/spring already installed. Apparently, the Army loading muzzles tend to break easily.

Onto the magazine, essentially the same as any cloned Marui MEU mag - plastic bumper screwed onto the bottom of the mag, a valve that looks (from the outside, as is installed right now) like a high flow, follower that does not lock into place but provides extra space for loading BB's by pulling the follower all the way down. I really like the MEU feed lip design, though they are potentially fragile (just don't drop the mag feed-lips-down). Insertion of the mag into the (shoddily, might I say. Bevels are not smoothed/rounded out in relation to the inside of the grip at all) beveled magwell is a well-practiced maneuver for me. Oh, right - feed lips won't be spewing BB's all of the place if you do happen to mess up and insert a mag with the feed lips on either side of the frame; I really like this about the design, especially since inserting BB's by hand through the feed lips is so damn easy too.

I haven't had the chance to go outdoors for a decent target shoot, nor have I skirmished this yet. I will update this thread when that time comes. Also, I have not yet disassembled the internals in the frame, but they do feel solid with every trigger pull - no trigger slop out of the box, and none has developed so far. I am wary of installing an upgraded hammer spring at this time, due to the unknown nature of the internals (clones tend to have lower-quality metals used throughout the guns).

Update 1: I just came back to my new MEU to discover that the fill valve-area had sprung a leak. The reason? Destroyed O-ring between the base plate and the fill valve. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any of the included extra O-rings fit here... Time to steal a fill valve from another clone!

Update 2: Yup, still looks to be a copy of the TM MEU. Includes shock buffer. Also, after a days worth of racking the slide and such, the hammer is showing signs of wear, from where its striking the rear of the BBU from racking the slide with a dropped hammer. The trigger could probably use an adjustable trigger stop, as there is quite a bit of overtravel still (is that what its called, again?).

Meu 1911
 

Hi, i have the same gun but im having some trouble with the mags holding gas. Would you be interested in buying It to fix or for parts? let me know if your interested and how much you would pay.
Thanks:)

The ARMY mags are terrible. Invest in some TM 19111 mags.

However, never post a WTS ad, especially for guns, outside of the classifieds.

Agreed. Army mags are frigging horrible. In addition to shitty fill consistency, my fill valve died on my first day of just plinking.

1) you're selling some thing that's broken
2) You never post ad outside of classifieds

I'll second...third...fourth that? The fill valve on mine never made a complete seal right from the get go and the mag itself didn't want to hold gas.

Time to buy some TM one's when I get a chance!

I have one and like it. I bought some TM mags... I had to. The o-ring went in my classic Army mag!
I didn't read your entire article, but how come the pistol grips are different in the first half of the pictures then the second half? I imagine you changed them out.

Every ARMY MEU ever released comes with an alternate grip set.

Nope, you're wrong, Ethan. Nothing of that sort was ever included.

I swapped mine to stock TM 1911 grips... I thought I mentioned that, but I might not have. Anyway, TM grip weights don't fit without modification to the dimensions between the screws.. and I don't feel like inhaling a crapload of lead dust particles at this time. Consequently, I'm now on the lookout for some nicer grips, as those plasticy Army/TM MEU type ones drive me nuts.

Compatibility report
 

So far, these parts are a confirmed fit:

Aftermarket piston heads (I have an Action in there)
Hammer/recoil springs
Loading muzzles/various other bits related to that
Hop up unit (and all the parts inside of that)
Rubber
Slide stop - Hi-Capa one's fit in there, so I assume that it is to TM specs
Mag catch (Guarder is the only other one I have so far, note that Army mag externals are a pretty soft metal)
Grip panels (sort of - the weights don't fit, and plastic TM panels need a bit of coercing to slip on there)
MAIN SPRING HOUSING - yes, a Nova DOES fit

Expect updates on a KM 6.04 barrel, TM mags (duh, they should fit), Dytac front/rear sights, no name trigger, Airsoft Surgeon (or clone) lightweight BBU. Further down the road will be a hammer/sear/etc kit, new trigger stirrup, new leaf spring and a replacement spring kit just for the hell of it. These should all fit, but hell - it doesn't hurt to know that they'll fit for sure, right?

Anyway, I have no mags still, so I haven't had a chance to test it out every now and then. I did, however, completely dismantle my MEU a few times - the sear has issues with getting a full range of motion, at least in comparison to a Hi-Capa. This makes re-installation of the left safety lever a bitch, as well as makes the trigger response uneven. Grease in this area is not too bad.

And god damn, I have to say this - the stock inner barrel is disgusting. If you've got an Army MEU or have one on the way, I strongly suggest you replace it, even if you get a stock TM one... anything will be better than this one, with its lack of crowning, poor polish, and disheartening weight as compared to a stock inner barrel for a 6" Hi-Capa.

Update, as promised (though I'm not sure anyone is actually paying attention to this thread anymore)...

http://i43.tinypic.com/6fxmp0.jpg

These fit nicely:
KM 6.04 barrel - perfect.

TM mags (2 of the 3 I ordered fit perfectly, i.e. drop out when released)

MAG replacement spring kit for TM 1911 (everything feels... smoother now, only stock spring remaining in my MEU is the stock recoil spring)

ACM grip panels (have space for TM grip weights too!)

Action loading muzzle for Hi-Capa's (the stock Army loading muzzles were a bit thin, and thus were starting to freak me out a bit) - note that this works great with the Action piston head

These will fit with slight modification:
Dytac front/rear sights - rear sight is NOT a drop-in fit... it is a tad too tight, but I believe it was designed to be held in place by friction alone, as the rear sight "screw" is just a detail moulded into the rear sight. Front sight hasn't been removed yet, so I can't attempt to fit the new one in, right?

Nova MSH - took more time to reassemble everything... and still no dice on getting a good fit in a way that will allow for a functional pistol. There is a little piece of the MSH that pushes against the leaf spring, and as the Army leaf spring is a little bit thicker than your standard Marui one... well, it just won't fit.

http://i41.tinypic.com/34nsenb.jpg

And... well, it fires great. That trigger will be replaced with a not-so-shiny one (also non-adjustable) ASAP. Future upgrades still include a lightweight BBU, light leaf spring, and further down the road, a new trigger stirrup and hammer/sear/valve knocker kit - just for the hell of making it shoot even better than now.

With the current bits that are in there, performance is noticeably better than my first impression with my MEU (Army mag and all stock internals). Cycling is surprisingly quick and snappy, and I can drill a paper plate with a 1/2" grouping from 15 ft away (big whoop... I know - but hey, that's really good for me when I'm requiring sleep). Cool down is NOT noticeable (hurray for TM mags)... but gas consumption really suffers with the slim, single-stack-form-factor magazines - I can squeeze out 18 rounds fired in quick (not as rapid as I usually would) bursts of 5-8 rounds. And... well, I have to say it, but cleaning the internals of all that thick grease made a world of a difference for me in terms of overall feel and performance - I think you should do so, as well. Or... get a friend/gundoc who knows their stuff to do that for you. Either way, the Army MEU is really shaping up as a great base gun for a few simple upgrades that take very little time to install.

Will be taking my MEU out for a field test on the 27th (and for a side-by-side comparison with a TM MEU, if I remember to ask for someone to bring theirs out) - but no worries, you'll hear more from me before then... I still need to fit in the night sights (I can't shoot very well without any dots) and chrono this before I game it.

And...... because I feel lonely like I'm the only one that reads anything in this thread - which one would you prefer?

http://i42.tinypic.com/2l95uhi.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/wqu2xl.jpg

very nice man. How is the gun holding up?

Very nicely now. Having some issues getting the Dytac sights in... might just give up and just paint my own dots on the existing sights, lol.

Still looks pretty good though, a little bit of wear here and there... meh, for the price, it is still well worth it.

You are not alone, don't worry.

Much interested, since I own one too now :)

Gotta get TM mags, the fill on the stock one is utter c.r.a.p.

Continue with the good work !

Any idea which outer barrel sets will work? I've been looking for a chrome outer set (also have a army 1911).

I'm not 100% as I haven't tried any others myself - however, the Army barrel lugs are pretty standard with all other TM-type bull barrels, and thus, any of the TM compatible 1911/MEU barrels will work (you could even go for a bull barrel and do away with the barrel bushing if you really wanted to). My barrel isn't locking into the lugs properly, which doesn't seem to affect anything functionally, but I do intend to be ordering a Nine Ball as I've read nothing about them yet - I figure someone might as well take the fall and try them out.

Woo hoo - update time...

Got the Nova magwell on - note that a KJW leaf spring (believe it or not - improved trigger response, though an aftermarket one would probably do an even better job) will not fit in the place of the Army one without a bit of modification (grinding down the left side). The Nova magwell (adds lots of weight to the rear of the gun, plus makes changing magazines much quicker) will not fit without grinding down a tab that pushes against the leaf spring. In addition, the MAG spring kit for TM 1911's that I installed has really livened up my clone, in my opinion - everything feels.. snappier, crisper, smoother.

As to stock parts - my magazine catch is starting to wear down - there is a little tab (moulding imperfection possibly?) that seems to act as a make-shift trigger stop (if this was intentional or not is another story) that has worn down considerably. This makes me concerned as I have noticed increasing over travel of my trigger over the past days, as well as my worries on how the magazine catch might just wear down/snap like WE 1911 ones are known to do. The slide's finish is starting to show some wear along the side/top corners. Finger grease is starting to work its way into the finish, as well - I haven't bothered to clean the externals yet, haha.

I have ordered a set of nitesiters (glowing dots) for addition on my MEU's blank sights, as I'm finding that quick acquisition of a proper sight picture is proving to be a problem.

Also, as an edit to one of my above posts - it was a 7/8" 22-or-21-shot grouping, after measuring it somewhat more accurately (i.e. used a ruler to measure the diameter of the hole instead of just eyeballing it). I'm not that good of a shot, lol.

Yup, I'm definitely going to be gaming my MEU on the 27th, and I'll bring a field report back with me. To be honest, my MEU probably shoots slightly better than I can perform as a shooter, as of this moment. We'll see.

I have this gun too. The army mag lasted 10 one hour indoor cqb games. Now all the propane escapes after the first shot. Luckily I have a tm mag. It fits very very tightly into the gun. To the point where you push the mag release button, and the mag stays in unless you force it out with your thumb. But it works. After about 15 one hour cqb games, the trigger became faulty. Im not sure if its a problem with the safety, or the trigger itself. But it takes 2-3 pulls of the trigger for the gun to fire. A gun tech is currently looking at it.

2/3 of my TM MEU mags fit fine. The third one fits the same as yours, Ross. Tried out two other TM MEU mags, and they also fit fine.

Army MEU mags suck. Hands down. Way too many problems with them out of the box.

As to trigger stuff screwing up - the leaf spring that comes with the MEU honestly sucks. Chances are that replacing your leaf spring ASAP would be good. I'm not sure if this is wrong with yours, but I know I junked my leaf spring (called a sear spring on some of the overseas retailers' sites) ASAP.

Apparantly the problem was lubrication. I lube my gun, but this piece is deep in the gun components. I havnt got it back yet so i dont know moar than that.

Hell yes. Mine never saw a game before the fill valve died. TM ones worked fine, tested them today in a game setting.

Tight fit for both of mine.

Consensus? Army MEU magazines suck. If you're buying an Army MEU, be prepared to replace the included magazine the day that you pull your MEU out of the box. TM's are your best bet (minus a few fitment quirks)... good luck with finding one at a good price, short of importing your own.

I'll see what I can do inside the MEU to get a better fit for the TM mags.

And since it's already useless, I'll see what I can do about that crappy original mag. I'll post when I have something to report.

I do have to say, even stock, with the TM mags, despite the "bad" weather yesterday (humidity and a bit cold), it performed well.

Sorry for bringing back this thread, but I just got my own R27 in the mail yesterday and it's great! It's my first airsoft gun.

I had a question about barrel wobble, how much is there supposed to be in there really, I just want to know if the wobble I have in mine is normal.

For the mags, I personally had problems, but now... everything is magically solved. I did two things:

1. Buy el-cheapo refillable lighters (mine were buthane jet lighters for 1$ each)
2. Hit them with whatever you want (hammers work well lol )
3. Use the o-ring to replace the one on the Army fill valve
4. Put in your silicone oil bottle for a day to make sure the valve & oring is soaked with oil

And also, the only place mine was leaking is on the front, under the spring. I filled that area with hot glue, and voilÃ*! It's been working for a month without leaks, we'll see how it holds up (on 2 Army mags, surprisingly my Tercel mag didn't have a single problem since last august)

LOL. Fair enough. Update on the mag issue... got a fourth TM MEU mag, as well as tried out optix's two MEU mags... no problems with any of the other ones, just that one seems to not be quite to spec. It seems like the feed lips are slightly wider than the others, though I couldn't care less, as I'm not letting my MEU mags free-fall to the floor.

No worries for bringing back the thread, I was just about to post again myself. As to wobble, it doesn't frigging matter, lol. It's just a pet peeve of mine. The design in Marui-type GBB's basically means that the hop up unit (and thus the rubber/inner barrel) are fixed in place on a metal bit inside the frame. Therefore, if your outer barrel wobbles all over the place, it has a very minimal effect on accuracy (though increased wear may occur?).

On the note of barrel wobble... my barrel bushing decided to take a hike yesterday while playing. Turns out that the TM one (thanks optix, I used yours will taking apart your MEU, lol) doesn't fit in the Army slide. I'm sure that with some modification, something could be worked out, but it's just a pain in the ass that the stock Army barrel bushing is just so damn loose. I will try to fit a TM or Guarder or whatever-else-I-can-find barrel bushing properly into the Army slide, ASAP... though I'm sort-of considering just slapping in a bull barrel and ignoring the fact that the spring guide plug isn't designed to be used with one (in terms of the RS).

Final note for this update: KA air seal rubber thing plus KM tight bore = love for Matrix .25's. Dead accurate, at least as accurate as my ability dictates that I can make use of.

Thanks Juicy, I'll put that on my list of things to do!

I had another question though : Is it normal that my slide does not lock when the mag is empty? I really find it odd it doesn't.

thank you for your time.

Uhh... it should lock back, no problem. If you rack the slide back by hand with an empty mag in there, does the slide lock back?

Not really, I will get a half-cocked hammer when the mag is empty, but since I've had it (saturday the 15th) no slide locked back when I emptied mags, I have the original mag and 2 TMs.

Even when dry firing? Like don't load up any BB's, and gas up your mag until it starts to spill. Insert mag, rack the slide, pull trigger. Your hammer should fully cock. Ideally, your slide should be locked to the rear. If your hammer isn't fully cocked, that's the source of your problem.

My hammer stays cocked the whole time, all the way I guess. But when I empty the mag the slide doesn't lock, it does seem to go all the way to the back of the gun when firing. I just thought it would be the slide not cycling far enough, but even racking it manualy doesn't do it. I'll try to find some info on that!

I know what it is.

Could anybody who own this gun post a picture of their slide catch please? I want to see if mine has really something wrong with it : I think the notch that is supposed to catch on the empty mag's follower is a bit short as it does not really "lift" when I insert the empty mag in with the slide on.

I found this by loading an empty mag with the slide being off the gun, there's is not alot of space for that thing to catch the follower.

I have this gun. I've had it for a few months. The black paint is starting to yellow on the barrel. I'm thinking of sanding it and painting it.

You should do something like that, I did on the first day I got it. Look good so far and Yes, Army MEU magazines is very suck, I broke my fill valve on the first but find a solution to fix those and currently it's only last for 15 BBs. 3 TM 1911 magazines is on the way. I will report those since a lots of people only buy TM MEU magazines but since I don't like the bumper and shiny in my pouch so I stick to 1911 magazines. So far so good, I will try to replace all internal once I got enough time and money but since nothing since to wear down so far, I would keep it stock but once thing, I would replace right away is the thumb safety on both side. It's very crappy and only hole buy a piece of metal stick in the middle.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3348/...1b367f8b_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3406/...544b7821_b.jpg[/img]

Good call on the thumb safety, KND. It does wobble like a mofo right out of the box (and it only gets worse.. up to a point). I personally don't shoot offhand with my MEU too much, so I never bothered to think about that... but hell, if wobbles aren't your thing (they're not mine, that's for sure), replace it.

Guarder barrel bushing arrived today - it was a drop in fit, surprisingly. I would hate to see what would happen if you tried to fit one of those in a TM though... yikes.

Necro!

Well, it was my fourth time fielding my MEU yesterday (still all stock except for my two trustworthy TM mags) and even though I know I have to start modding it one thing still really aggravates me : the #*!?ing gas comsuption issue!

Is there anyway this can be helped? Lighter slide? Changing the valves, etc. ?

I'll start soon enough to change the basic stuff, then i'll add my own updates if Juicy doesn't mind.

Np. What are you talking about in terms of gas consumption? I've been fielding mine a whole bunch with TM mags and have been getting off a mag and a bit easily per gas fill in 15-20 degree weather. Might be differences in your recoil spring from mine? I'm honestly thinking about getting a stiffer recoil spring in mine... it's all flaccid right now and kinda putt-putts around in terms of snappiness of the recoil.

Oh, and the Army brand mag follower? Yeah, the nub that pushes up on the slide stop has almost worn down to nothing - this is with minimal usage as I just had a TM fill valve lying around that I popped in there for kicks, 2 weeks ago.

I fill my TMs for 4-5 seconds, and I always have a few bbs (varying from 2-5) still in the mag with no gas left.

Update : Replaced the original fill valve with a short Madbull. Works fine now !

Does anyone know what slide stops will work? Mine broke and I ordered a guarder one and it's a bit too long and the pin that engages the magazine so it locks after the last round is too short so it never locks on the last BB.

I had the same exact problem, mine is kind of "barely holding" right now

you bought that one?

http://shop.ehobbyasia.com/guarder-s...meu-black.html

Try a TM one? If a TM fits, pretty much any aftermarket except for Guarder will probably fit. That being said, the Guarder barrel bushing fit, whereas the TM didn't - so who knows.

I'll experiment with that on the weekend - will try to post up results Friday, if not, Monday.

I'm having trouble removing the inner barrel and hop up adjust piece from the silver outer barrel. There just doesn't seem like a way to get it out. Can anyone help?

That's the one I bought indeed. It's a bit too long and the nub that engages the magazine is a bit short so you can get it into the gun but your slide will never lock back.

Use force. Pull hop up unit/inner barrel towards rear of chamber/outer barrel, while twisting it off to the side where the chamber doesn't have stuff to lock onto the hop up unit. Pull hard.

Did you do this with sand paper? Doesn't look that bad.

And thanks goes to Juicy. Got the inner barrel out.

Sorry to bring this back from the dead but just received a R27 from a friend and the back part of the slide is melted he weled the slide with it all in what will fit to fix it

Could you post pics of what you mean please. A little hard to understand your sentence.

cant post pics not received from mate yet but it's the assembly at the back of the top slide near the hammer sorry if being a bit cryptic

This is the unit what can i replace this with please some advice would be great

i can only guess that a tm nozzle would fit that. But i don't know

So would hi cappa parts fit or 1911 parts made for TM

reviving thread again XD

while my age verification is processing, im currently researching 1911s as a first gun, i really like the SFA 1911s like this one, but reading this thread, shows several problems! though since im new to airsoft i dont know the severity or what not of these problems. would u recommend this as a first gun? are the fixes easy/cheap?!

i did try to research more, on upgradable slides to get that SFA meu look, but i dont even know wat gun to get! im very interested in a silver full metal one like the army. any suggestions?

I'm thinking about using a metal slide from Army r27 with the frame and all internals (from frame and slide) from Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1. Tell me please your impressions about that