In 2005, to celebrate their 10th anniversary, KSC launched a new series of STI’s. These were a 4.3″ Sea Hawk, a V ported 5.5″ Eagle and the one to be reviewed – the 5.5″ Eagle Hybrid. When you first see the gun, you can’t deny it’s a beautifully looking piece of work. The fit and finish is excellent. The metal parts (polished outer barrel, hammer, grip safety and thumb safety, plus black finished mag release, recoil rod, slide lock, trigger and sights) look amazing and the silver paint is extremely evenly applied. There are no visible seams anywhere, except on the plastic grips, but even there, they are very faint. The blue/purple grips may not be to everyone’s taste, but they are comfortable in the hand and feature STI logos moulded into them. Performance-wise the gun is excellent – it’s very efficient and accurate. Mind that you’ll get better results using gasses more powerful than 134a. Taking down the gun is easy and I’m sure you won’t have any problems with that. Cleaning and maintenance are also easy. Here’s the basic info about it:
System: Gas Blow Back
Built Material: ABS Plastic
Magazine Capacity: 24+1
Weight: 948g
Overall, the KSC STi looks and feels great. It performs perfectly and if you like the way it looks you should absolutely go for it. The one thing you should mind before getting the gun is the unavailability of spare and upgrade parts. Why are they so important? As I said you’ll get greater performance using more powerful gasses (like Green Gas), but you know those gasses tend to damage the gun easily, so if you get stuck without spares in a while the gun will become useless. Using the 134a will spare you those problems. The price is about $190, which is not cheap, but the STi 5.5 Eagle Hybrid definitely deserves it. In the end it’s all up to you.