WELL R4 MP7 Review

[Fallen One]

The WELL R4 MP7

This is FALLEN ONE giving you one of my D.A.M.* Reviews!

*(Dependability, Afford-ability, Mod-ability)

Table of Contents
Real Steel History
First Impressions
Appearance
Feel
Build Quality
Function
Performance
Skirmish Test
Accessories
Modifications
Overall
Conclusion
D.A.M. Good Buy?
Misc. Pics

Real Steel History
The MP7 is a personal defense weapon manufactured by Heckler & Koch (H&K) and chambered for the 4.6 x 30 mm cartridge. It was designed in conjunction with the new cartridge to meet NATO requirements published in 1989 calling for a machine pistol or submachine gun with greater effect against body armor than current models which are limited due to use of standard handgun cartridges. It is a direct competitor of the FN P90 also developed to meet the new NATO requirements. The weapon has been through four revisions and the current version is the MP7A1 (Wikipedia)

First Impressions
When I got home and found the box, I quickly ripped the paper off to reveal a glossy black box with an MP7 on the front. Unfortunately, I threw away the box, so I can not point out any "Engrish" that might have been on it.

I opened the box and found the gun sitting tightly in its Styrofoam slot with some bb's, a loading tool, battery and charger, manual, and a magazine. When I lifted the gun up, I was surprised how much it weighed for a pistol/SMG, but that's largely due to the gearbox, being entirely metal. The body is also slightly glossy, but has a nice textured finish. I was also surprised to find nothing terribly wrong with it. Since WELL isn't known for the best stuff, I was preparing myself for something that was maybe comparable in build quality to a pile of hot poo, but it seems that WELL is trying to turn their reputation around, because my MP7 came to me flawless! The ambidextrous selector had the positions marked out on both sides, and to my relief, it came with the white S for safety, and a red F for fire on both sides, indicating that I got a V2 MP7.

The orange ring around the flash hider was very ugly and popped right off, but it took a chunk of paint with it, thus blemishing the look of the gun.

Appearance
I looked at the MP7 and said, "Wow, this looks pretty nice for a $90 China gun!" There were no scratches, blemishes (besides the flash hider), or trademarks for that matter. The magazine however says "Made in China" on the bottom of the base plate. The gun is a slightly glossy, textured black ABS plastic shell with a good amount of metal on it. The trigger, stock pins, flash hider, barrel, RIS rails, gearbox, magazine (yes, the magazine), and other misc. parts (pins and such) are all metal. The seam isn't too bad, and only really noticeable if you're looking at the seams on the bottom. The sights are a slightly lighter color, so they stick out, and look very ugly. I took them off (for reasons explained later) and slapped on my RDS (red dot sight). Much better! The side rails are also a bit lighter than the rest of the gun, but not nearly as noticeable as the iron sights, and they didn’t detract from the overall look. With the fore grip down and the stock extended, the MP7 looked quite intimidating, and quite sexy for that matter, and with everything folded and collapsed, it gave it a sleek and stylish look. No matter how you look at the MP7, it’s just a beautiful piece of art.

Feel
On the front and back of the grip, there is a bit of rough texture, and I really like it. It makes your palm and fingers feel secure, but even so, the plastic the gun is made out of is a bit slick, so quick swinging motions and not paying attention may cause you to drop the MP7 (almost happened to me), and you don’t want to drop a plastic bodied gun. Fully loaded and with the battery in, the balance is perfect in my opinion with the stock extended and the fore grip down, it gave me a very powerful feeling (laughs). The only thing is that if you wiggle that stock up and down, it collapses, and shooting sometimes makes the stock pop out. The stock doesn't seem to be the most reliable, so I usually just leave it off (I actually fixed the problem, it’s under the Mod section). The trigger feels great, but the trigger pull is a bit far and a little too hard in my opinion, and a bit sloppy. The grip has some sort of pattern on it to help you keep a firm grip of the gun, but it doesn't do much. I think it's just too smooth. The whole gun is so small, that there is no flex or wiggle in the body (besides the stock and a little from the fore grip). Sometimes when the selector switch is on full auto, it rubs against my index finger, and that gets very annoying. Besides all that, I think it's fine.

Build Quality
What can I say, it's from China, so the materials won't be of the best quality, but they sure aren't bad! The whole gearbox is metal (but the bushings are plastic), the MP7 also sports brass barrel, and there is no flex or shimmy in this baby! It's rock solid. Granted, I wouldn't throw this on concrete or anything, but this will treat you well as long as you're good to it. The only thing that would easily break with any force is the sling mounts, as they are plastic. Don't use them, they suck. I recently opened the gearbox to find that all the gears are metal, that the shim job was actually not bad, and that the piston's last tooth is metal (since this is my first electric gun, I'm not sure if that's standard or if that's a bonus with this gun). Granted, the shim job isn’t the best, but nothing is grinding, the only thing is that the gears are a little loose it the mechbox. They have a bit of side to side play (but nothing horrible). The only things that might be “annoying” is the fact that the shell separates at the mag well, and this “C” shaped friction fitted thing on the fore grip pin pops off occasionally. The grip separation is nothing big, as the gun won’t explode from it, but I didn’t like it. The problem was easily remedied with some CA (not Classic Army) super glue. As for the pin, I really don’t know what to do about it. I currently just have a piece of duct tape covering it so that I don’t lose the damn thing. Other than that, there is nothing that seems to be “odd” or sticks out. Everything is good to go.













Function
The MP7 can really get the job done! It works as it should, and it won't let you down! It clicks soundly into safety and semi auto, but it kinda slurs into full, but it still functions wonderfully. The fore grip folds down, but without doing anything, you can just push it back into the folded position, and the stock wobbles and doesn't lock into its positions. The flash hider also unscrews and you can mount something on it with counter clockwise threads. Also, the iron sights that came with the MP7 suck so just take them off and use them with something else, that's why I have a RDS on my MP7.

Now to the hop-up. The gun shoots fine to 50 ft. but I wanted to see how far this gun could reach out, so I adjusted the hop-up... nothing. I set the hop-up to the max, and I barely noticed any hop at all. I remembered something from a thread that said that everything was greased, so clean it all off, so I thought that maybe the hop-up was greased too. I used this cleaning guide(http://www.airsoftretreat.com/forums/index.php?topic=29022.0), but kept the hop-up on so that the cleaning patch would wipe it down.
I went out to shoot it again, but forgot to set the hop-up back down from the max position, and then the bb's went skyward!!! Cleaning the hop-up really did the trick and now the gun effectively hops! It might just be because I haven't broken in the hop-up yet, but the hop is a bit finicky, but now it works great and shoots to right about 120 ft. I can't complain about that.


Performance
I do not know the actually fps that this gun packs, but Evike says it goes 240-250 fps with .2g and that's believable, since mine can't pierce one side of a coke can. Accuracy is great with this at the distances that I tested it with, and I know that this makes the perfect sidearm because of the ROF and the surprisingly good accuracy. I shot all my targets with 10 .2g Crossman bb's, no hop-up, indoors, and in the prone supported position to keep the discrepancies to a minimum. The red circles are where the bb's hit, the red line is the first grouping size, and the teal/blue line is the second grouping size. I simply measured the two bb's that were the farthest apart for the first grouping, then I took away the one bb that was the farthest away (the "discrepancy") and then concluded the second grouping size from the given data.







As you can see, even at 30 ft, I could consistently place groupings under 3 in.

The best type of bb that I recommend for the MP7 is high grade (AE, TSD/Stealth, etc.) .23g bb’s since the hop-up can take the added weight, and since they’re heavier, they are more stable during flight.

I also got a vid showing me destroy a coke can from 5 feet away! Sorry if the video is kinda dark...


Me destroying three other items!!!


Or you can see the video on YouTube... www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6CB2QH-IiA

Skirmish Test

As of now, I haven't skirmished the MP7 yet, but I'm sure that this little puppy won't fail me

Accessories
Since there are three RIS rails, there are many different things you can mount on this. As you can see in the pictures below, I took off the iron sights and replaced them with a cheap RDS that I purchased at Academy. There are many different things that you can mount to the MP7, you just need to get creative with the rails, or just slap things on.
The accessories that came with the MP7 are as follows; one 35 round magazine, a loading tool and rod, cheapo-depot bb's, battery and trickle charger, allen wrenches, manual, and removable iron sights.

Modifications
There are a few things that can be done to the MP7 to boost performance. You can get tight-bores (DB Custom and PDI), a new cylinder, and Nineball springs and (maybe also) hop-up bucking. With those upgrades, I'm sure you can reach 300 fps. Just be careful, as of now, I believe that there are no after market motors or gears, so if you burn out a motor or strip a gear, you need a new gun.
Also, I believe some people modded their batteries so that they are wired to a PEQ box so they got more battery power.

So far, the upgrades and mods that can be easily done are...
New cylinder, piston head, metal bushings, spring, tightbore barrel, make the stock port holes bigger (not sure if the upgrade piston head is ported), external battery source, and the O-ring mod (check under the AEG section of the forums).

There is also a way to make a home made external battery source. It isn't easy, but my dad and I are almost done with ours.

Also, if you want to modify your gun, or just give it a tune up and keep you gun in good heath; you will most likely need to take your gun apart. <b><a href=http://www.airsoftretreat.com/forums/index.php?topic=40161.0>!!!This Guide!!!</a></b> will show you how to takedown your MP7 into all it's major components. As for the gearbox, it's pretty straight forward. Unscrew the screws that hold the two halves together, pull two the two halves apart and you’re in!

~Update~
I fixed the stock problem!!! Granted, it's ugly as hell, but it works. All you need is a house hold rubber band! You can also file down the stock where the notches are so that they're more square, but the rubber band works fine.





Sorry if the vid is a little dark, but that's the best I got


[glow=teal,2,300]Overall[/glow]

[glow=blue,2,300]Pros[/glow]
Small
Accurate
Well balanced
Can take mods and different optics
Extra mags available
*Extra battery available (only fit through slight mod)
Lots of metal
Good looking and feeling
Both safety features function properly

[glow=red,2,300]Cons[/glow]
Plastic Shell may break if handled rough
Plastic mag release
**Some of the spare mags don't feed right
Iron sights suck
Sling mounts suck
Stock doesn't stay in place
Slightly glossy
The shell body splits at the grip

*The Tokyo Marui Batteries are slightly longer than the WELL batteries, so cutting down the two prongs on the MP7's front assembly and adding cardboard or some other spacer to the WELL mag will work just fine

**The MAG mags that I got only fed properly after I put two layers of electric tape on the top front of the mag.


Conclusion
As you can see, the cons are quite minor, and the pros completely outweigh them. If you get this gun, you will not be disappointed. As a sidearm, I give the WELL MP7 an [glow=red,2,300]8/10[/glow] because you need a little work to make it a perfect performer.

Dependable? Vary dependable! The MP7 will NOT fail you as long as you treat it right and tweak it into perfection.
Affordable? Also quite affordable! (about $90 compared to Tokyo Marui’s $240+ MP7)
Mod-able? With a few things here and there, a you can make yourself on hell of a CQC weapon, and many performance improving modifications can be done easily and cheaply! I personally got my MP7 to shoot around 270-275 fps without buying a single aftermarket upgrade part!

With the power invested in me, I, Fallen One, conclude that the WELL R4 MP7 is a D.A.M. good buy!

P.S. If I missed anything or if you need additional info, feel free to PM or e-mail me.

Misc. Pics