The MSK is a rather special design from WE. It has a completely new trigger group inside, abandoning the previous WE tradition to utilize the M4 trigger system for every one of their rifles. At the same time, the hop up and the nozzle are the same as the ones from their M4 replica, without major changes.

The quality of external parts reflect the typical WE standard. Whoever held a WE M4 in their hands, will know what I’m talking about. It has weight, it is massive and holds together well even after years of usage. The texture of the polymers are nice, they do not crackle (unlike the average airsoft plastic parts). Painting the replica in a decent tan tone is still a challenge for them, though. The bolt carrier is thick, feels oily and is noticeably sticky inside the receiver. It is worth noting that after cleaning both the bolt and the receiver parts, the cycling of the rifle felt completely different. It became faster and smoother.

Unfortunately, the outer barrel was designed with a huge wobble, which completely destroys the accuracy of the replica. I remedied this by adding a few screws and bending the handguard on a vice-bench, these fixes made the accuracy much better.

The replica itself is rather heavy, massive and comes with a spectacular handguard. Just like the original ACR/Masada platform, it has thick, clumsy dimensions which do not work well, unfortunately. The quick-change barrel feature allows it to quickly swap between CQB, carbine and DMR roles – it is not a bad idea to get a second barrel set use this feature. The quick-change system is especially useful when it comes to hop up setting – otherwise, the 1.3 size allen screw on the hop would be much more pain to adjust.

The replica comes with a polymer-body magazine which is sitting very secure inside the magwell, providing stable BB feeding and spread. The Masada nozzle is slightly modified by WE, mainly around the gas intake port which now wraps around the gas route rubber on the magazine.

If the user fixes a bunch of wobble issues, and gives it enough care, this has the potential to become a good GBBR. Although, just like other WE GBBRs, this model will still struggle with fully automatic shooting – it is going to stutter and get stuck. On the other hand, it has a relatively solid performance when used with semi auto mode. Adding the RA Tech steel trigger is a good idea, but I had to file down the top of the hammer because it was too tall and the bolt was continuously getting stuck on it. Another recommended upgrade is the W&S enhanced recoil spring and bolt catch kit (which was a pain to swap out thanks to WE gluing everything in the replica). Also, the aluminum Angry Gun hop up chamber gave very promising results.

This model definitely requires some fixing right out of the box, but after working on it and accepting some compromises, it has the opportunity to become a rare gem on the battlefield – Masadas are rather uncommon nowadays.

Photos: Batmause
Text: Batmause
Translation: Yssomru