Review: TM P90TR

[LeapingLizard]

*Updated/Fixed

This review is probably as up to date as it'll get until spring and summer roll around. I hope it's easy enough to read.



Intro/My Airsoft History/The Rest Of The Review -Because I'm just so darned organized

I'm a real-steel shooter, and a hunter. My hobbies revolve mostly around firearms and police/military tactics. But my time spent participating in this sport has been very limited, but is soon to pick up as soon as the temperature does. As of today my experience "on the field" consists only of four games at Xtreme Tactics here in Winnipeg. I found even the first time around, that I really have some skill for this. Ahhh yes, great memories of the day I had my airsoft cherry popped. WolfPack CQB Training Day. AKA Newb Day. My kill to death ratio was just under 3:1, kills being about 28? I don't remember exactly. The second time was for my 17th birthday. I had a 4:1 K/D ratio. Getting better! Third time out I had just under a 5:1 ratio with 29 kills and 6 deaths! All three of these times I used the CA M15 rental.

I ordered. Eherm- My dad ordered the P90TR, my very first airsoft gun, from 007 airsoft. Now that I am 18 my AEGs are in my posession, however at the time the order was made, I was 17 in anticipation of a very long wait. It was a fairly long wait, but very understandable considering how many out of stock items I ordered. Ken is a great guy and nice to do business with. Many of you know him and appreciate him as much as I do. Especially since he and Mark of A&A are the only two retailers (I currently know of) in Canada.

Now keep in mind as I boast about this AEG, I have never owned, or really used any other AEG. So I don't have much for comparison, these are just my thoughts. Now I say I own no other AEGs, but that's only because I don't consider my PTWs AEGs Yup, I recently aquired two M4A1 MAX PTWs in SCK form. Yes, I have spent A LOT of money on these things for my age/time in airsoft. About $1500 on the P90. Seriously. PTWs and required goodies alone were over $4200 for initial order, and $800-$900 soon for more accessories, but that's not what this review is about, (PTW review planned in the future) so, back on topic...

Finally the fourth time was part of my supervisor's Stag party. The P90 had arrived and I would get to game it. Woot! Unfortunately, I had just upgraded the P90 with a MadBull 110 spring. Little did I know it would bring me up to 415FPS! Dude, wtf? 110 m/s is 361 fps. No, I didn't bring it to XT like that. I have a chrono at home, and so chopped the spring and reinstalled it. No problem. But when they chronoed it at XT half the shots were over 350, so they had to stick a velocity reducer on it. Anyway, The P90TR blew my mind the way it handles in close quarters. The butt pivots on your shoulder perfectly as you snap the weapon up and down. The sight picture pops up into the same place every time with no effort. With say an M4, the weight of the gun results in a momentum that you have to learn to control to effectively snap-shoot. With the P90, this isn't a problem. (Not that practice and technique can't overcome this with a heavier weapon.) The P90 can also handle like a large handgun. In fact I found myself doing this, as it was the best way to use the iron sights with a full-face mask. I think that once I add a simple, open-style red dot sight, it should be high enough to use while shouldering the weapon. Without the silencer attatched (How I like it for CQB) the P90 is about as far from cumbersome as an AEG can get. (Okay MP7 fans, I give this credit to the MP7 too.) So this new level of controllability aided me in my game enough to improve my K/D ratio this time around to 10.5:1! That's 21 and 2! Okay, I'll admit, I was playing with a bunch of new players, some who had never played before. But what a first game for the P90. I was out of the arena more than twice, but only because I went through ammo soooo fast. The games mentioned are 45 minutes by the way.

As you may guess, I have been a bit of a "conservative" player, however I can be very agessive. I gave myself the name on these boards "LeapingLizard" to describe how I play. I like to crawl very low, but change my height rapidly to confuse my oponents. One second you see my head pop out in a door 5' up, then next I'm on the other side right on the ground (Jump accross doorway and lay down) . It works quite well. Not the tactics I would practice with the real deal, but hey, whatever it was fun.

The "compactness" is one thing. But what will sell a lot of people on this AEG is the accuracy and range you get from such a small gun. Now I know I don't have to tell anyone here about the design regarding the P90 barrel. I hope to have some thorough accuracy tests to add to this review, but that probably wont be until we see some warmer weather. The hopup has stayed where I put it, and works very consistently. I have taken the P90 apart and put it back together more than several times now, and never found it a problem. If you're mechanically inclined, and are careful, it's not too hard to do upgrades yourself. If you're not too sure though, ask for help. Upgrades so far: Tight seal nozzel, Madbull spring cut for about 340FPS, Prometheus 6.03mm x 363mm TB barrel. I'm using some 10.8V batteries made for the P90 and sold on onlybatterypacks.com. I had to order 6 (six), yes six (6) of them to reach the minimum purchase limit. I also ordered my charger from them. (Pictures at review's end.)




I've only taken velocities with the stock spring so here it is:

*Cooler than your average comfortable room temp. (Most would find it quite chilly)

TM P90 TR. Stock Internals + Guarder Tight-Seal Nozzle And Prometheus 363mm 6.03mm TB Barrel.

AE .25g BBs.

266.6 FPS
266.2 FPS
264.6 FPS
265.9 FPS
265.2 FPS
264.5 FPS
266.8 FPS
266.3 FPS
265.6 FPS
266.9 FPS

Average: 265.86 FPS

Extreme Deviation: 2.4 FPS

Is this kind of consistency normal, or did I get lucky? Here's a site I found useful for converting the velocity to different BB weights and more: http://cybersloth.org/airsoft/trajectory/index.htm

Soo. Performance-wise what else do I need to talk about? The silencer! The silencer actually works! IIRC it costs about $110 to buy this silencer separately. You save some change right there if you planned to buy one. Threads are 14mm- (CCW) It's constructed of metal, looks great. I will use it only when I play outdoors, as I will have the 363mm TB barrel installed. Roughly half the silencer is still used with that barrel, and it sure is quiet. I brought the gun to a paintball outting with relatives to show them, and just to confuse the hell out of my cousin, I went into the bush with the P90 instead of my paintball gun, silencer attatched, and shot at him from a distance. He said he couldn't here the gun's sound report at all. He just saw the BBs flying his way, and then felt them. I plan to update this review later, not only with an accuracy test, but I'll test what distance the gun becomes completely unheard in the bush and out, with both barrels, and what not. It'll be months away though. I've slightly upgrade my gun, but I do remember that stock performance was very impressive. So if you plan to leave it stock... no worries.

Hopup access is easy. I love this part. You can see a picture below. There's a little sliding door that snaps open and closed with a good, tight positive "click" right above the base of the thumb on your trigger hand. Inside it a round plastic piece you simply rotate (while looking at it) left for more hop, right for less. No tools needed. It's easy to fine tune and it stays put for me so far. Oh, which reminds me. How many rounds have I actually put through this thing? It's hard for myself to belive, but already about 6K. I went through the first bag of 4K pretty quick. I'm using AE .25s. Thumbs way up.

I've done a couple little mods to the gun. First was putting some hockey tape around the end of the 363mm barrel. Just enough to make it fit snug in the foam inserts inside the silencer. I did this because I noticed slight inner barrel play. Whether or not it helped much I'm not too sure. But it didn't hurt. It may have helped the full-auto spread. The second thing I noticed was the charging handle rattled a bit. So I simply stretched the spring inside and it's still good and tight. No more rattle, even when I shake the gun. Not really a mod, but if the battery rattles in the stock, I just put a small piece of foam in there to make it fit tightly. Now the guns rattle and clunk free.

Magazines. It's up to you to decide if you like the idea of the size of the P90 mags. I will be oh so happy once I get a thigh holster for the mags. ( http://cgi.ebay.com/CADPAT-Triple-P9...sid=p1638.m118 ) That's just too sexy. But last time I just put the spares in the pockets of my CADPAT pants. Since I only carried four. That's the limit at XT. I am limited to locaps, which kinda sucks. Maybe others will have more success, but I bought two hicaps, and both are completely useless. They may feed about a dozen rounds, then jam. I smack them around for a bit, but am lucky to get another dozen after a minute of work. The box-mag mod, allowing the use of M16 mags is an option. One that I wouldn't go for beause of what it does to the P90 aesthetically, but one that some may just love. It permits storage of a larger battery too, since there is space where the P90 mag would usually go. I don't care for a larger battery though. I'd rather have many smaller batteries. They last long enough. My solution for the mag problem, only because I will use the P90 outdoors and need more ammo, is to have two thigh-mag holsters and carry seven locaps. This AEG was only meant to be my CQB weapon anyway.

The fit of the gun needs to be determined by you as an individual. Don't ask someone, "Is it too small?" Go find one to molest. I'm a big guy. Only 5'9", but I have fairly long arms and certainly big hands. The P90 is NOT to small for me. And I have absolutely no problem with the grip angle, operation of the safety, or anything else. The way it connects and moves with your body is actually a very beautiful thing.

Field stripping. It couldn't be easier to slide the upper off and get to the inner barrel. See pictures below. Unless you want to get to the gearbox no tools are needed.

Externals. I love metal. But this gun is quite solid and looks very realistic being completely plastic, aside form the sexy metal flash-hider (Or silencer) and the charging handle. Oh, and the rails. And screws. Some of them. Don't be fooled by the fake hex screws in the body and strip them. The real ones are darker* The markings, aside form the sticker on the right side, look good to me. The "SS90" etched on the side is a little out-of-date. But I can forgive TM for this. A metal upper would be nice. Other than that there is no lack of metal. Can you imagine if the P90, real or airsoft, had an aluminum lower? It'd be just.. yuck.. if you ask me. Oh yea, and the fake ammunition in the locaps looks cool. You may get some looks from people who don't know better. The iron sights are easily usable without eye protection, which you should always be using, or with safety glasses, but with anything more you may not be able to use them while shouldering the gun. In CQB I used them effectively by holding the gun like a pistol.

If you're looking for a CQB gun that's small and wont go for a GBB or an MP7 (Because of low battery space, or lack of upgradability maybe) certainly keep looking into the P90. For outdoor use it can do very well too, just consider the variables, strengths, and shortcomings, and decide for yourself.




Picture time! 56K I am sorry for any frustration. I remember those days.

In some pictures the gun is quite a light grey. That's just the flash. Those who haven't seen the TR, be at ease. It's actually quite dark in color. I think the color it is, is much nicer than actual black.


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1270.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1287.jpg

The metal flash hider

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1284.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1283.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1282.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1279.jpg

The safety/firing modes. The P90 has, when in full-auto, a dual stage trigger.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1281.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1263.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1265.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1259.jpg

The 10.8V 1500MaH's from onlybatterypacks.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1028.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1026.jpg

Battery compartment.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1271.jpg

ICS Laser

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1278.jpg

The door.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1290.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1291.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1289.jpg

The Button:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1295.jpg

The Result

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1297.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...w/IMG_1296.jpg

Video just simply to show the ROF. This is with the stock spring. (Hopefully more videos in the future)
This is a couple hundred rounds after charging the battery. And if it makes a difference the battery was never slow charged, it's the one I've been charging at 1C from the beginning.


Video of TM P90TR, 10.8V, Stock w/363mm 6.03 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Yes my wall is okay, I have a board in the back of the box, and a shirt stuffed in front.


That's all for now folks.


Question are welcome. Heck, encouraged.

[CDN__Player]

I have been looking at this gun for while now

How long will your internals last with a 10.8 volt batt?

[TCLP]

Like any other gun running 10.8V isn't recommended. Especially on a stock tm. Since tm's bushings are nylon and wear out fast.
But as far as the V6 gearbox is concerned I've only ever heard of 1 EVER breaking.
And pop flare pouches can be used as mag pouches.
And I used my old p90 as an outdoor only gun, it was shooting stock at about 280fps w/ .20's. And it was out ranging upgraded m4's. Why? because of the hop up design.
Good review.

[mcguyver]

Originally Posted by CDN__Player

How long will your internals last with a 10.8 volt batt?

Blap..Blap..Blap..Blap.....Zzzingg!!

About that long!

Not recommended on stock internals.

[sushicake]

what's with the 50+ batteries?

[cbcsteve]

Oh man this thread is almost a year old now.

When I had my TM P90 9.6v was good enough. But a 10.8v like Mcguyver said in sound effect terms which means your internals will deteriorate much faster

[Styrak]

Originally Posted by sushicake

what's with the 50+ batteries?

Yeah, why so many batteries? You can't possibly need more than 2 (or even 1 if you're not trigger happy firing off 3000+ rounds) for a day of airsofting.
And TEN POINT EIGHTS? ARE YOU CRAZY?

[White_knight]

i have one of the sanyo 9.6v j-batts and holy fuck did that thing fall apart, tight as a bitch to fit in the p90 even with the j-batt mods. managed to keep the fuse and fit the batt, then the wires just cracked and fell apart. they were no caught on anything they just split and are being held together by electrical tape. mines a 400fps gun so i need a bigger batt, i wonder if these 10v L-batts are a good idea.