(Click any image for hi-res original photo, and links throughout the review lead to other photos)

Intro:
A year or two ago, I was reading reviews of gas guns at Arnie's Airsoft, and I stumbled upon Antagon's review of an MP5 made by a company I had never heard of called Youth Engineering. My interest piqued by the realistic finish and build quality, I read on and saw that this gun also had blowback and still shot ~320 fps out of the box and was accurate enough to hit a man-sized target at over 90 feet every time. However, there were a few things that discouraged me from finding and buying one of these rare guns, such as the fact that the price was well over my limits at the time, and the fact that the gun used rare (and expensive) YE-made magazines only and lacked adjustable hopup. Also, the gun required a $150 CO2 rig including a tank, hoses, regulator, gauge, and fittings, which at the time was too much of a hassle for me, so I somewhat reluctantly stuck with my AEGs. The sentence that really stuck in my mind from the review was Antagon's overall conclusion:



Fast forward to early March, 2006. With more money invested in airsoft guns and a lot more experience, my curiosity led me to classicairsoft.net, and I soon remembered the Youth Engineering MP5 I had always wanted. I investigated a few threads with YE MP5s for sale, and I considered buying an MP5SD56 with upgraded internals for $800. However, after asking about the gun here in the classic airsoft section, Sinn Fein pointed out the new Escort MP5s that were being built from older YE MP5s, and I decided to investigate.

Escort is a company in Japan which produced the classic blowback system on which guns such as the Youth Engineering MP5 series and Sun Project M16 series operate (as well as some other products such as the Escort hand grenades), and Sniperx (their US sales rep) posted a thread on the classicairsoft.net forum about a new limited production run they were doing. These guns are Youth Engineering guns with some added features such as the ability to use AEG magazines (a big plus), adjustable hopup (another big plus), an improved recoil spring, steel recoil screw (shearing off the brass screw was a common problem on the YEs if gas pressure was turned up over 110psi), and a steel mag catch connecting rod. The new guns had everything I wanted and more, so I sold my Maruzen APS-2 SV and paid the $636 shipped for an A5 and bought a used gas rig (12oz tank, Palmer Pursuits female stabilizer, Ashcroft 0-200psi gauge, McMaster-Carr fittings, and 6mm hose) for ~$120 shipped.

First Impressions:
After patiently waiting a few weeks for the gun to be modified, tested, and packaged by Escort, I recieved the gun on a Friday afternoon. Here's a photo I took with my cell phone right after opening the box (click to enlarge):


The "Youth Engineering Co., Ltd." emblazoned box includes the gun (with metal 3-lug flash hider painted in a thin coat of orange paint and H&K trades covered with easily removed putty) as well as 1 STAR 30-round magazine, a manual booklet, a loading tool, a small bag of BBs (apparently .2), and a plastic bag with several spare parts & tools (including a spare front sight, spare body pin, spare sling swivel, spare fire selector, and a small allen wrench for adjusting the hopup).


Fire selector/lower reciever closeups

Upon picking up the gun, you can tell this is a serious piece of equipment. Everything about the gun is rock solid. The metal body is stamped aluminum (not pot metal like many AEG MP5 metal bodies) with real hand-welded parts, and the finish on all metal parts is extremely nice. On the top of the reciever is a unique serial number (mine is # 01158 out of what I'd assume is a few 1000 YE MP5s) as well as a trademark stating "HK MP5" under a piece of plasticy putty which peels right off. The metal 3-lug flash hider unscrews to reveal 14mm CW threads, so attaching my KM 245mm CW/CCW suppressor is easy. All the plastic parts of the gun are very solid as well, and the lower reciever and foregrip have a nice orange-peel texture which my TM MP5K lacks. The only small areas where the gun is lacking cosmetically are the front sight (plastic, although you can't really tell by looking at it, and a spare is included) and the cocking handle grip (plastic, although still very solid).


Bolt closed------------------>Bolt open

The internals of the gun are mostly brass, but it's easy to see that they are strong. The bolt carrier piece (the piece you see moving in the ejection port) is aluminum, although the black paint began flaking off this piece right away, so I sanded it to a very nice shiny silver finish and it looks great IMO. Bolt pull is smooth and feels awesome, and since the cocking handle/tube are metal you can perform the "HK slap" as much as you want. The fire selector turns with a smooth click, unlike AEG fire selectors which can be hard to turn and are far from smooth. Actually, my fire selector has 5 settings for some odd reason, one between semi and full (gun fires full-auto in this setting) and one past the full setting (the gun acts like it's on safety)... I don't know why this is, but it really doesn't bother me since the 3rd setting is where burst would be on some real MP5s, and I never turn it to the 5th setting. (EDIT: I just talked to SniperX and he tells me the 3rd selection was originally planned to be a burst-fire mode and the 5th setting was a "super-silent" non-blowback mode which was never implemented).

Having examined the externals of the gun, I was ready to hook it up to my gas rig and fire away...

Firing:
With 95% of classic gas guns, external gas must be used. Storing gas in magazines or inside the gun works fine for a sidearm such as modern GBB pistols, but when you're using a GBB as a primary weapon, internally stored gas cools down and runs out too fast. Therefore, classic guns typically have a 6mm hose running out of the pistol grip which must be attached to a gas "rig." For those of you who know little about classics, here are the basic components of a gas "rig":

• Gas tank - these are simply paintball CO2 tanks, and most rigs use a basic 20oz tank. With this gun, a 20oz tank will probably last for about 4000-5000 shots at 130psi (according to SniperX). Typical cost for a 20oz tank is about $30.
• Regulator/stabilizer - this is a metal cylinder which attaches to the tank and regulates the amount of CO2 flowing out of the tank. Most classic guns run at 80-150 psi, and this gun's optimum psi is around 120 (beyond 150psi you will need an upgraded spring to see any improvement, but SniperX said that running the gun at over 120psi is "at your own risk"). Typical cost for a Palmer Pursuit female stabilizer (with low-pressure spring kit and no gauge selected) is about $80.
• Gauge - this tells you how much CO2 is flowing out of the tank and into the gun. Typical cost for a 0-200 psi gauge is $6.
• Fittings - various attachments that attach the hose to the regulator and to the hose coming out of the gun. You need one fitting which attaches the reg to your 6mm hose and another fitting which attaches that hose to the hose coming out of the gun's grip. Typical cost for these 2 items is less than $10.

For a complete step-by-step guide on how to build and operate a CO2 rig, check out this guide.


My gas rig connected to my MP5; gas rig inside my vest's hydration pouch

After you have a rig, put everything together and teflon tape the fittings' threads to get a good seal. Then add a drop or two of silicon oil into your reg and hose, hook it up to the gun, and start slowly turning up the regulator/stabilizer's CO2 flow using an allen wrench, shooting the gun every 30-40 psi to release the CO2. Once you're at 120 psi, throw the CO2 bottle in your vest's hydration pouch and you're good to go.

Anyway, back to how this gun fires. One word: incredible. The kick of the gun at 120 psi is about double that of any conventional GBB, and the sound is amazing. Switch the gun into full-auto and listen to the music of the metal bolt slamming back and forth at 900 rpm, and you'll know like I did that this thing makes AEGs look like toys. The kick is enough to actually make precise aiming difficult, and it's a totally new experience in an actual game to have to adjust your aim for recoil. The recoil and sound of the Escort system add a whole new dimension of realism to games... instead of the hum and vibration of an AEG motor, you hear a loud clacking sound and feel the gun bouncing around like crazy in your hands. Also, with a suppressor, the gun's muzzle noise is reduced dramatically, and at 100 feet all you hear is the bolt clacking (no motor whine like AEGs ).

Videos of the gun firing as well as a GBB and an AEG for comparison:

• Escort MP5A5 firing
• Xekueins' custom Mac-11 Carbine (KWA Mac-11 based) firing
• Xekueins' customized 350fps P90 TR firing

As you can see from the videos, the MP5 is the loudest, and sounds meaner than the Mac-11's popping report and the P90's whine. Only the Mosquito Molds grenade can beat the MP5's muzzle report

Accuracy and range are good, but not quite as good as a well-tuned AEG. At about 150 feet, I could rarely hit a 2'x2' target with the Escort MP5 (.23 Excel BBs), but I hit it most of the time with my MP5K (using the same BBs but with a perfectly tuned and broken-in hopup). Nevertheless, I am totally satisfied with the gun's performance, and I can easily hold my own against AEG users with it. If nothing else, this gun makes people nearly piss their pants when they hear it, and that's enough to let me get an extra 20 feet closer to get the kill. This gun is about on par with AEGs in a woodland setting, and I can tell it would be absolutely unstoppable in CQB (instant trigger reaction + finely adjustable FPS + intimidation). As Antagon said, the Youth Engineering MP5 has "good range [and] plenty of power for CQB and woodland," and the Escort-tuned gun simply improves upon this already excellent performance with adjustable hopup and added power.

Upgrades & Accessories:
Internally, there really is no need for any upgrades. However, Sniperx did say that a new spring will possibly be released in the future so the gun can handle even higher CO2 psi for even more power, recoil, and ROF.

Externally, this gun is almost 100% compatible with real MP5 accessories, and I am beginning to see that AEG MP5 parts can be modified to fit the gun (some barely require modification, others require extensive modification or may not fit at all). For example, the gun came with a standard front foregrip, but since I like the look of the tactical flashlight foregrips, I decided to buy one from a friend and modify it to fit. It took about 5 seconds of dremeling 2 small notches off of the inside of the foregrip (could easily be done with a file), and now it fits perfectly and saved me $100+ that a real MP5 flashlight grip would cost. I also bought a Marui MP5-J flash hider to add to the gun, but this proved much more difficult to fit since the Marui apparently has a smaller 3-lug flash hider than the real gun, so it took about 30 minutes of dremel work to grind away enough of the MP5-J flash hider to get it to fit over the Escort's 3-lug (even now it only fits by friction, the locking mechanism had to be removed). The third thing I tried was to add a NCStar brand low-profile scope mount, but after 30 minutes of struggling with it and trying to grind enough away from it to get it to fit, it never fit over the MP5's body. I'm not sure if the NCStar is built for a real MP5 or not, but I'm going to buy another scope mount made for the real thing and hopefully it will fit more easily.


My MP5 with MP5-J's Navy-style flash hider and ICS (or possibly CA) flashlight foregrip

Conclusion:
I agree with Antagon's conclusion that calls the Escort system the "ultimate evolution of the airsoft gun." This gun is solid internally and externally, about as realistic as is possible with an airsoft replica, and fires as well as most AEGs. If you have the money and are sick of dealing with AEG problems (or just want to try something different), I definitely encourage you to take a leap of faith and try out classic guns, especially the Escort MP5. For info on where to get one of these guns, contact SniperX at classicairsoft.net or post in this thread to get in line for one of the remaining guns (as far as I know, there are less than 20 guns left in this production run).


The MP5 brothers

If anybody has any questions or comments, please post them here and I'll do my best to help you.

This post has been edited by -=Bloodred=-: Apr 23 2006, 01:30 AM

Extremely good review, the gun is looking sharp to ;)

Nice job.

VERY nice review, and the videos were a huge plus, thanks a lot.

I will now be looking to find a classic AR variant. Thanks for emptying my wallet out for me.

Thanks guys, I noticed that there wasn't much info out there on this gun, so I wanted to do a very detailed review to help out anyone who might be considering the gun. There's nothing more uncomfortable than spending $800 on a gun that you have never read a review about.


Good to see another classic user. If you want an AR variant, check out the Sun Project guns... they use the same Escort system, and I hear good things about them (although they do need some basic mods to shoot well such as adjustable hopup). That will probably be my next purchase, if I decide to buy another airsoft gun in the near future.

definitely, I'll be trying to get one soon I guess. :)

wow, my friend, excellent review...
and thanks for making me want to find an asahi mp40
which is wicked expensive and rare...

sweet deal.

Bloodred,
Not only a great review but I thought it was awesome that you included some videos of the guns firing. I recentley bought my first AEG and I don't consider buying a new one for a while. However in about a year or so (for next christmas) do you suggest I invest in a classic gun, or do I need more expierience?

wow that mac 11 looks pretty sweet, care to share how it was made, what body or whatever :D lol

Manlyman: At this point, I would suggest to stick with your AEG for a while (maybe upgrade it) and then decide what to do. AEGs are nice because they just work without tweaking, but classics are more for the kind of people that like getting their hands dirty and adjusting things to get the gun firing just right. Classics are also a lot more expensive... I could have gotten almost 3 TM AEGs for the overall price of this gun, rig, mags, etc. but I wanted something different. If you love realism and recoil (although most classics don't have recoil), don't mind carrying a CO2 rig, have the cash, and won't be annoyed by having to do a little more work to keep your gun maintained, classics are great.

Jordanstreet: For info on the Mac-11 Carbine, talk to Xekueins or do a search for "mac-11" and I'm sure you'll find some of his pics. Most of the body is built from reinforced scrap plastic (clipboards, modeling sheet plastic, etc) combined with an L85A1 springer pistol grip, WELL M4 magwell, and WELL M16 stock. It took a lot of work, and it's still not really done. He's also currently working on adding a Classic Army G36 scope carry handle to it (looks awesome) so that's why the top of the body is unpainted in parts.

This post has been edited by -=Bloodred=-: Apr 26 2006, 04:28 PM

It's definately a nice piece. I remebered hearing about them a couple of years a go and they sounded just like what I wanted, although the price was too steep for me. There really wasn't much info to be found on them either. Although a turn off for me was the external rig, but its advate over internal kind of made it ok. I'd like to actually see one in person so I could compare it to the KWC CO2 Mini Uzi I have. From the video, it didn't seem like the MP5 had an abundance of recoil. I know that my Uzi has quite a bit and it hard to aim with one hand beacuse of the recoil (no accuracy). It is loud too, which is a nice thing. It certainly makes people run, probably because they know that it's pretty strong. It could use a little tweaking to conserve some gas and be useable in the field, but all it's good features would go down as well unless some custom work was done. The Uzi definately my weapon of choice.

Well, the UZI is smaller so there's probably about the same recoil proportionally. I've fired one of those CO2 UZIs, and the kick was about the same IMO. In the video, I'm holding the gun level and compensating for the recoil, and I'm also running the gun at less PSI than I can (I think it was 100 psi, since my hose had a leak and if I went higher it would leak more). But when you're looking down the sights, you can really tell that it's kicking.

By the way, if you want to increase gas efficiency on your UZI, I know a guy that installed an improved piston head cup thing and now he can get an entire mag of BBs out on a CO2 powerlet.

This post has been edited by -=Bloodred=-: Apr 26 2006, 10:38 PM

Yea, I heard about that a while ago, I remember looking for a piston that looked similar to the Uzi's. I just never got around to buying it since I haven't bought anything from overseas for a while.

What's the max psi the MP5 can handle?

We have tested up to 120 here at the shop, any higher is not necessary, psi does not equal fps.

Awsome review, I hope you do more.

cool review, does escort make them from scratch, or do they refurbish actual YE guns, also, is there any other guns made by escort?

I believe they are YE refurb guns. And I believe escort does do a few other guns, but either by request only or they are customs...

Hey guys, just wanted to let anyone interested know I'm selling this gun on eBay... I just don't have enough time to airsoft regularly anymore, and she deserves a better home now

Item number 130126124189 for anyone interested... starting price is $400 plus shipping for the gun, full CO2 rig, 8 mags, and some extras.

This post has been edited by -=Bloodred=-: Jun 18 2007, 12:15 AM

First off let me say great review. I have a couple of questions though. Does anyone make tight bore barrels for this gun? Is the hop-up compatible with aftermarket upgrades. Thanks.

This post has been edited by GUNFIGHTER6: Jul 29 2007, 03:18 PM

The gun is beautiful. Great review. If it wasn't so darn exspensive I'd love to have one of those. Maybe in the future aeg's will adopt blowback systems (atleast more commonly) and work on their sound.

Another ebay escort: Feel free to PM me any questions.

Item=290144747912