Airsoft manufacturers in 2019 followed hot on the heels of the real steel world with the rising popularity of the Pistol Caliber Carbine, with a myriad of new designs being brought forth by various manufacturers. None have quite garnered as much fanfare as KWA’s QRF series, however. This new gun was initially teased at SHOT Show 2019 which led to a subsequent explosion of interest across social media. Fortunately for would-be buyers, KWA was able to bring this to market within the year of announcement – something a few other companies could pay attention to (*cough* PTS *cough*).
Unlike the earlier TK.45 series, which has some reminiscence to the Kriss Vector, the QRF follows a more traditional submachine gun layout, with two options being currently available:
- QRF MOD 1 – takes 80 round curved style magazines
- QRF MOD 2 – compatible with TK.45 120 round magazines
In all other areas, these rifles are identical and both feature the Variable Performance System (VPS), which is an adjustable FPS quick-change spring guide. The QRF’s come standard with the excellent PTS EPG-C motor grip and PTS EP-BUIS back up sights, ambidextrous controls, an M-LOK rail and compact “tanker” style PDW stock.
In this review, I will be specifically covering the QRF MOD 1, with a follow-up article discussing upgrade options and potential.
Initial Impressions
I’m normally remiss to describe the box, or have anything to do with the box (because who cares about the box?), but I feel it’s worth mentioning here that the QRF box marks a bit of a radical departure from KWA’s traditionally muted and understated boxes of the past. This one is striking and has a visually eye-catching design.
But the real pièce de résistance is of course the rifle itself. Aesthetically speaking, this rifle feels like a fusion of an AR-15 and MP5 and honestly rivals a lot of real steel PCC concepts for pure sex appeal. Beyond the aesthetics though, the QRF is solid. What we have here is a full metal, upper and lower receiver group with superbly fitting components. There’s no flexing, rattly, shaky bits or cheap gaudy plastic with gross seams. At 5 lbs. 13 oz, it’s in the average weight class for most full metal SMG style platforms.
As with all current generation KWA’s, modularity was in mind with the design of this rifle and you can easily swap upper receivers from your RM4 and VM4 on the fly (keeping in mind the hop up chamber is a little different). It should be noted that the TK.45 upper receiver is not compatible as it is longer in length than the QRF receiver.
Both versions of the QRF sport the compact “tanker” PDW style retractable stock, with a newly updated buttplate; marking the 3rd revision of this style of stock to date. In particular, users will find that this revision is most closely reminiscent of the MP5A3 buttplate and is also the most comfortable of the three. There are two adjustment positions on this stock, which works well if you happen to wear a bulky vest and need to bring the gun in closer. There is some nice aggressive checkering on the portion that indexes into your shoulder and it grips well without being overly done.
Between the stock rails is the actual battery compartment, which will house most PEQ-15 sized LiPo’s and some smaller buffer tube sized batteries too. Airtech Studios makes an extension cap for using larger batteries if so desired. A standard mini-Tamiya plug with fuse can be found inside.
Moving to the front end, we have a distinctive looking muzzle brake with standard 14mm CCW thread pitch. This one is actually anodized orange vs. the more traditional heavy paint that is typically found on stock KWA’s. It would have been nice to have had a black brake included as standard fare, but this is not often the case with a lot of AEG manufacturers. Replacement black brakes are available from the KWA Pro Shop, however.
The forearm consists of an slim M-LOK compatible rail system which is incidentally the same as found on the T6 PDW. Included with every QRF is a pair of M-LOK picatinny rail sections for mounting accessories that use that interface. Visible underneath is a gas block with a faux gas piston style arrangement similar to the HK 416 style rifle. A heavy contour 6.75″ one-piece outer barrel finishes it out. I’m a huge fan of one-piece barrels as they are a lot stiffer than the older TM method which usually involves a separate assembly for the receiver insert that’s simply held in place with set screws. The mounting of the rail is very secure and there is absolutely no movement whatsoever. If past experience is any indicator, I would expect the barrel nut is torqued on as has been the case with every preceding rifle before this.
On the receiver side, we have KWA’s new nylon fiber ejection port cover and fully ambidextrous controls; specifically the charging handle, bolt lock lever, selector switch and magazine release. The latter actually consists of three magazine releases and is quite interesting in operation. Aside from the left and right button release, there is also a paddle style lever sprouting from the bottom of the receiver. All of these sport oversized buttons and control surfaces.
The ambidextrous selector switch is made from nylon fiber, with the right-side lever being slightly shorter than the left. These are easily reversible depending on your preference. These have also undergone several revisions over the release cycle of KWA’s rifles.
The bolt hold open device allows one to manipulate it with either their left or right hand. It’s sole function is to simply lock back the fake bolt cover, which makes adjusting the hop up easier.
The charging handle has a nice wide grasping area and feels a lot beefier and stronger than comparable designs. The T-Shape itself is actually one piece and does not hinge off the central drawbar like some designs do. I’ve previously had bad experiences with some ambidextrous charging handles, so it’s nice to see a strong design on this rifle.
Rounding out the receiver are a mock forward assist and brass deflector and a pair of captured takedown pins. The trigger guard is actually a part of the lower receiver as is the magazine well area, which lends to the sturdy feel of this rifle.
Lastly we come to the magazine. This is a curved 80 round capacity magazine made from nylon fiber, which also features a follower guide that feeds every round. Currently these are available in 3-packs with pricing equivalent to the TK.45 series mags and K120’s. It works out to $12.33 per magazine, which is very competitive. These were actually a little shorter than I was expecting, to be honest. Conversely, they aren’t as “fat” as some SMG style mags either – they easily lend themselves to fitting into HSGI TACO’s and similar SMG magazine pouches.
Internals
Moving into the guts of this gun, we will start first with the barrel group. Accessing this is a simple matter of depressing the front push pin and sliding the upper receiver off the lower. The barrel consists of a nicely polished piece of brass with a 6.05 diameter bore and an overall length of 184.15mm. A rotary style one-piece hop up chamber and conventional G2X bucking is affixed. While visually similar to the chamber found in the RM4 and VM4 series rifles, this one actually has a shorter feed tube.
Removal of the gearbox is the exact same process as found on the VM4, which is practically the same as most Ver. 2’s. It is not necessary to remove the magazine release or fiddle with the selector switches (such as with a Krytac). The only thing to keep in mind is that you have to remove the VPS spring guide, which takes less than a minute.
The gearbox shell is the newer reinforced type as found in the T6 and TK.45C, and is fully compatible with Gate TITAN electronic triggers. It should be noted that the Gate ASTER is not compatible due to the placement of the optical sensor. As these gearboxes are designed for a TITAN, there is no mechanical last-round cutoff lever feature on this box. For players who still desire such a feature, it can be obtained via the Expert firmware upgrade on the TITAN which allows you to program in your magazine capacity and a reload time delay.
As you can see, everything comes well lubricated. Fortunately it’s not the thick glopped on axle grease that’s found in a lot of Chinese guns. You can also see that many of the internal components are the same as found on other current generation KWA rifles.
With regard to the powertrain, we have KWA’s excellent 18.72:1 ratio setup here which ride in 9mm bearings. This is powered via a “high torque” motor with a Switch Life Extender (SLE) installed. This is basically a ‘flyback’ diode that helps reduce (but not eliminate) trigger contact arcing in lieu of an actual MOSFET. The motor is a long type shaft and uses conventional Ferrous style magnets and is a 21 TPA. All of the components mentioned here are standard Ver. 2 compatible.
On the compression side, we have the standard nylon-fiber piston with a metal release tooth and an unported aluminum piston head. This rides inside a brass 3/4 ported air cylinder with a (presumably nylon-fiber) cylinder head capping the front. Experience has shown these pistons are fairly strong, but definitely benefit from some AOE correction. On a technical note, the piston, piston head, cylinder head and cylinder are all Ver. 2 compatible. A compression test on this example showed excellent results, with no air loss while attempting to compress the piston.
The air nozzle is the new updated design which interfaces with a proprietary tappet plate. This setup houses an easily removable o-ring for better air compression, which is a nice step up from the old metal nozzles which did not feature o-rings. Length of the nozzle is 20.8mm. As done with the T6, the tappet plate can be switched out with the older style allowing for use of aftermarket air nozzles.
The trigger switch is slightly redesigned from the version found in the RM4 and VM4 rifles and should be considered proprietary. There is also an interesting two-piece cutoff lever design that is also proprietary.
The Variable Performance System (VPS) spring guide remains unchanged here. For those unfamiliar with the VPS system, this is an adjustable spring guide that allows you to set your desired FPS via a provided T-handled allen wrench. I cover the VPS system and how to adjust it in depth here. Of particular note, it would be entirely possible to convert this platform to the VM4 buffer tube and run a conventional M4 stock, or even the RM4 buffer tube and recoil system.
Shooting Test
Knowing this gun has the new nozzle design, one of the first things I wanted to check out was the compression and FPS consistency. I am pleased to say it’s substantially improved over the previous models with the metal nozzle and no o-ring. In fact, it rivals a lot of stock guns for FPS consistency.
Out of the box, this rifle chrono’d in at an average of 352 FPS with the guide unadjusted on .20g BB’s. It should be noted this was after slight adjustment of the hop up. On an unadjusted hop up, average velocity was 345 FPS.
With the spring guide fully adjusted out, the rifle was capable of an average of 380 FPS with no hop up adjustment and using .20g’s. Here’s where I saw a dramatic jump in FPS though – as an adjusted hop up was pushing 394 FPS on average – a tidy gain of approximately 14 FPS. FPS consistency also tightened up at the higher velocity, which might be attributable to the bucking having warmed up a bit by then.
Rate of Fire was a steady 20 RPS on an 11.1v 20C LiPo. Obviously with some motor upgrades and / or gear ratio changes this could be changed.
On the downrange side, I opted to test with .28g Elite Force BB’s, which generally run well in just about everything. The magazine had no issues keeping up with the ROF and once the hop up was dialed in accuracy was definitely good out to about 75 – 80 yards. Like any AEG, however, I consider most OEM buckings as “placeholders” and a quality aftermarket bucking or R-Hop installation will really help make a world of difference. For a purely stock gun, however, I was not unhappy with the performance and would have no qualms about skirmishing with it out of the box.
In the past, my chief gripe about KWA’s was the nozzle design. This has largely been fixed with the new guns and I am hoping it eventually transitions to being outfitted in the rest of the lineup. If I had any negative remarks about the current generation, I would say they are limited. Primarly I would like to see KWA move forward with obtaining a quality Neodymium motor design, a ported piston head and a bucking designed for the US market (and climate). Oh, and Deans plugs ; )
Conclusions
The QRF MOD 1 represents another excellent entry into KWA’s current lineup of rifles. Externally, the fit and finish is superb and the rifle is just plain solid. It feels well balanced and points easy. The new stock design is a great improvement over the older iterations, and makes shouldering this gun feel natural. The compact size and fully ambidextrous controls will please everyone regardless of hand orientation, as will the fact that you can stack twice as many mags on your person as you can with M4 type in the same amount of space. The adjustable FPS system is a great feature which allows for a lot of versatility between field and CQB use, making this a good multi-role platform for all occasions.
All-in-all, the QRF would make a great option for someone who doesn’t want just another M4 and desires something compact, lightweight and with a lot of versatility. As I have proven in the past, these smaller format guns can easily compete with their longer brethren with just a few good upgrades. In the next article I will be covering some of the upgrades that can be done with the QRF series.
Stay tuned!