Bell G3 SAS review

nonex · 13-01-2007 1:27pm #1

Review: Bell G3 SAS

A metal-bodied clone of the Marui gun
It comes with battery, charger, sling, unjamming rod, and the little bag of complimentary BBs.

First Impressions
It weighs just a under 3.8 kg. The magazine is all metal, and has a capacity of 500 rounds. The battery is an 8.4v 1150 mAh mini battery, which resides in the gun’s stock. The charger is a 150mA trickle charger, and it takes roughly 8 hours to charge the battery. The included BBs are of decent quality.

The Gun
The gun’s metal body is a clamshell-style body, meaning that it is simply two halves screwed together. While it may not be the most attractive, the contoured rubber plugs fill the screw holes very well, and you don’t really notice them that much. The clamshell body also makes working on the gear box a breeze: pop out the screws and separate the two halves and you’ll be at the gearbox.
The body does have some mock trademarks on it; however they aren’t very detailed. and Made in China is on the right-hand side of what would be the lower receiver. The fire select markings show positions for safe, semi automatic, two-round burst and full automatic fire. There are also various mock weld marks which look quite nice.
The selector switch on the Bell G3 SAS is rather interesting; the switch on the right side of the receiver is cast in place, and only the left is useable to select fire modes. The gun has two selector switch positions, but three modes. The first position and mode is safe, the second position is fire. The trigger itself is a two-stage trigger, similar to that on the AUG. Pulling halfway fires one shot, while pulling all the way back lets out a full auto burst of plastic. but once you get used to not moving a switch to change from full to semi, it’s pretty handy.
The body of the Bell G3 SAS is too wide to accept any available scope mount; however, the RIS handguard is perfect for mounting lasers and what have you, just don’t overload the rails, the plastic is kind of bendy.

The hop up is a clone of the Marui G3 series hop up, and it works quite well. It is adjustable for almost any range. Though it has great hop abilities.
As previously mentioned, the magazines are all metal, and also use the clamshell-style construction. They are not interchangeable with the Marui G3 magazines. The magazines will hold 500 rounds, and feed very smoothly.
The only plastic parts on the outside of the gun are handguard, stock and ejection port.

Performance
The Bell G3SAS has, so far, been an admirable performer. The hop-up unit functions very nicely, and is adjustable to meet the same range as a Marui gun. The rate of fire seems to be around 12-15 rounds per second, slightly slower than TM and CA guns. The gun fires with a rather loud clack, and definitely stands out amidst the other AEGs which tend to have a whine sound.

The sights on the weapon
Even with the hop up turned off; the rounds tend to impact above the point of aim.
To test this I fired 10 rounds at three targets, one at 25 feet, one at 50 feet and one at 75 feet. The rings had a diameter of 12 inches, the outermost being worth five points, and incrementing one point by ring. At the time the tests were conducted with a gentle wind from the west at 2-5 mph. Ammunition used was .20gram BBs.

Durability
The Bell SAS is built much like a brick, save for two parts rear sling point the front sight,
After a full day, and nearly 3000 rounds, I tore the gun down to check the gearbox for wear; everything still looked just fine.

The Guts
Internally the gun uses an EG706 motor, The gearbox has limited compatibility with Marui compatible version two parts. The gearbox itself is constructed of cast pot metal and has numerous shades in its color. The bushings are nylon, and the gearbox has no selector plate; instead, a bar on the selector switch handles fire selection. The gears are manufactured by XYT, and are fairly well shimmed, although the sector gear seems to drag a bit on the spur gear. The entire gearbox and even the charging handle seem to be lubricated not with white lithium grease, but with Vaseline.

Below is a list of V2 parts and their compatibility with the Bell gearbox.
Spring guide – Not compatible
Barrel – Possibly, though the differences in the location of the hop up make me think it is not. The stock barrel does use the same design to connect to the hop up chamber as does the Marui, so a custom-cut one is feasible.
Motor – Any short length motor should do just fine
Spring – The gun can take other springs, but the longer gearbox makes getting the correct spring for the desired fps difficult. A 110 spring is the same as the stock spring.
Bushings – 100% compatible
Cylinder – Can use standard parts only if changing cylinder head, piston and piston head
Cylinder Head –Same as cylinder
Piston – Same as cylinder
Piston Head –Same as cylinder
Tappet Plate - Compatible
Nozzle – Same as cylinder
Anti Reversal Latch - Compatible
Gears - Compatible

Conclusion
The Bell G3 SAS is a nice gun for €150. The metal body is a very nice feature, and really makes the gun feel less toy-like. The two-stage trigger
takes a bit of getting used to. The incompatibility with Marui magazines is a downside, but with 500 rounds in the included mag, it’s not that bad for a backyard skirmisher. The gun can also be built-up to perform better.