Y&P USP .45

     This USP (compensator model) is one of the most inexpensive gas pistol on the market.  However, this disaster proved that you get what you pay for - and sometimes not even that.

     At just $36 for a gas pistol, it's hard to pass up.  You could spend that much on gas and BBs for it.  The problem (for me at least) is that it didn't work.

Externals:

     On first inspection. the externals are acceptable for a $30-$40 pistol.  Just don't expect too much.

     The first thing to catch your eye is the hideous orange tip.  It's in the middle of the gun!  The orange is on the side of the normal USP section before the compensator.  Don't let the pictures fool you.  If you're wondering why in my pictures it doesn't have the orange, that's because I painted the tip because it was unbearable.

     Note that normally I'm against painting the orange tip for safety reasons, but I made an exception.

     The weight is about a pound, which is a little lighter than would be nice, but it's okay.  Most of the weight is in the magazine.

     Almost all the externals are a slightly flimsy plastic.  The trigger, hammer and safety are metal.  That's it.  The lack of metal externals would be less noticeable if the plastic were better quality to begin with.

     The compensator style was half the reason I bought this.  The compensator is removable but exposes the extended barrel.  The reviews on Airsoft Gi said removing the compensator made the BBs go "completely out of place".  This makes no sense to me because the compensator doesn't even touch the barrel, it's just some plastic around it.  Since I couldn't shoot it regardless, I can't say definitively whether these claims are true or not.

Internals:

     The first thing that made me worry about the quality was the trigger pull.  I took it out of the box to check it out and pulled the trigger.  It had a very long, tough trigger pull that barely released the hammer at the end of the pull.  After about 20 pulls it would occasionally fail to release the hammer.  After about 50 it was completely broken.  This was without shooting it at all.

     When I first got it I saw the instructions and raised an eyebrow at the detailed pictures of the internal pieces.  As if I'd need that, I thought.  I kept it anyway, on a hunch, and it's good that I did, 'cuz boy did I need it.

     I decided to take the whole thing apart with rather little knowledge of the inner workings and figure it out after I had ripped it all apart.

oops.

     To take it apart I had to first take out the mag, then take off the compensator, then push out the lever that would be the slide lock on a real/blowback version, then pull off the slide itself.

     After that I took the barrel and hop up out of the slide.

     Then I took a closer look at what could be causing the trigger problem.  The trigger was connected by a lever to a gearbox-like contraption behind the trigger.  The lever was out of place with one of the pieces so the hammer didn't release at the end of the stroke.

     I reset the lever in place and put it back together.  It worked like before until, after about 30 trigger pulls it broke again.  That failing, I took it apart once more to see if I could make some other arrangement.

     To clarify, when I say once more, I took it apart tons of times.  I could probably field strip the gun and replace all the parts in a minute or two by the time I finished the whole operation.

     It became clear that some alternate arrangement was definitely necessary.  I was by this point hardly worrying about making it work, which became hopeless, and decided instead to focus on making it a nice replica.

     After a few other attempts at getting it working again, I removed the trigger lever entirely.  Firing it is, still completely possible, but to shoot one shot you must hold down the trigger, pull back the hammer, and pull down the safety.  By this point, using a spring pistol would be no slower.

     This alleviated the horrible trigger pull.  To make it a better replica I did a couple other simple mods including removing the compensator and extended barrel to make it a plain USP, glued a piece of the mag that kept falling apart and painted a white dot on the front sight, not to mention painting the orange tip.

     In the end I got it to be a decent replica, but it was still disappointing that it didn't work.  Regardless, for the price you could get a better, working pistol if you just went with a nice springer instead.  Since then I have gotten a Taurus 24/7 spring pistol that cost slightly less and was far better quality than this and I can't in any way recommend getting this USP, particularly compared to other pistols on the market.

The Bottom Line

Pros:

     Gas pistol for $30-$40

     Compensator design

Cons:

     Rather cheap externals
     --Didn't work--

Summary:  I may have gotten a lemon so I'm not sure how to pass judgement on it.  If you make the gamble and get a working one you've got a decent deal.  If you lose, you're stuck with a prop.  Well, it was an interesting experiment at least.

Overall Score:  *