- DAW’s Review of the Echo 1 G36C -

Since Echo 1 is becoming a popular brand in the world of Airsoft, we here at DAW decided to get one, shoot the hell out of it, and then let you, our VALUED customers, read what we discovered. This review has been done with an eye to build quality, durability and toughness, and overall functionality/reliability.

Echo 1 Airsoft is NOT a manufacturer of airsoft guns. They are a reseller that partners with Asian manufacturers to bring their products to the US/North American market better than the manufacturers can themselves. Echo 1 imports the guns, thoroughly tests each one, then repackages them with their branding and trademarks, and offers them with a 30 day warranty.

Initial Impressions

We have to say that we were impressed with the gun immediately. First, no “generic” brown box that is typical of imported goods from Asia. Instead it is a nicely branded, quality box with color graphics.

When we opened it and removed the gun the build quality was immediately apparent. Yes, it is an ABS gun, but then again so is the “Real Steel” version. Instead of the cheap ABS a lot of the other MPEG’s are made of, this is a very sturdy gun. Some parts are metal, to include Bottom rail, flash hider, bolt cover, sights, trigger, selector switches, the button for folding the stock, and all the pins and screws (DUH!). Heavy, but not in a “Damm I don’t want to lug this thing all day” kind of way, but more of a “This is going to last” kind of way. No creeks or squeaks, but a rock solid platform to use with any scope, sight, laser, or how about a grenade launcher (yes, there is one for the G36C.

Next, we plugged in the 8.4v 1200mah battery to the wall charger (which are BOTH INCLUDED) and set it to charging. We needed to give it a minimum of 4 hours before we could start to have fun. This is really the only battery size option available unless you upgrade or MOD your gun by adding the larger sized foregrip or go with an external battery. This is usually ugly and not our thing, so we would buy an additional battery (or two) and keep a charged one on hand for longer games. Battery life is pretty good as we went through almost 5,000 bb’s before we needed to recharge it. That’s over 10 full mags. Not too shabby at all.

We then each took a turn at reading the included manual (as EVERYONE should do!), but for anyone who has ever bought something produced in Asia, then had those instructions translated into English by NON-English speakers, will understand our pain here. It was funny to the point to of frustration, so we just figured it out from the pictures. Good thing is this is NOT a very complicated weapon to operate.

Hey Echo 1, as a part of your repackaging how about a manual written FOR English speakers written BY English speakers?

Observations
As stated above, this is a heavy, sturdy feeling weapon. It has a number of things that our staff here was impressed by:

1. Folding Stock: This is a feature that a lot of other guns have just done wrong by going cheap, and for a few pennies more could have really made their weapons shine. Echo 1 did it right. Theirs is beefy with a button and hinge that are silent and sturdy (have we used that word enough?) and locks open for a convenient CQB weapon
2. The cocking lever opened the “chamber” to access the hop-up. This makes adjustment VERY simple and easy. You will have your G36C adjusted in no time.
3. The rear site is not only adjustable for windage and elevation, but it also flips to different apertures depending upon target distance.
4. HiCap magazine – or – LOTS O’ BB’s! It seemed initially to be light and cheap, however it performed flawlessly!

Adjusting the hop-up, as previously stated, is very easy. Simply pull back the cocking lever (which is ambidextrious!), which slides back the bolt cover to access the hop-up wheel. The hop-up wheel is very large and easy to turn so adjusting the hop up is very easy to do, even the very small fine tuning is much easier than the over under, too much too small adjusting of other guns. This is a feature unfortunately over looked in a number of much more expensive weapons. Rolling the wheel upwards is "Hop Up" and rolling the wheel down is "Hop Down"

Another point to note here is that the Echo 1 G36C is completely compatible with Tokyo Marui and all their parts, mags and accessories. So if you are the kind of person who HAS to mod and upgrade their weapon, this is one more thing in favor of the Echo 1. We are already talking about a SOCOM Suppressor (it is NOT a silencer!!), longer precision inner barrel, and an electric CMag – 3,500 bb’s and no winding.  Cool!

The G36C comes with a full metal version 3 gearbox, which means that is comes ready to do damm near anything that a gun costing 3X as much will do and just as well.

Battery Installation

After playing with the gun while we waited for the battery to charge it was finally time to lock and load! Well, not exactly. First we have to get the battery installed, a seemingly simple task that can be a very frustrating experience with some grip mounted battery. Always remember to check the weapon is in SAFE mode before installing a battery.

• Step 1 – Removing the foregrip. This is accomplished by pushing out the metal retaining the pin that holds the foregrip in place. The pin on our gun was pretty snug and we had to use a tool to push it out (if you can call a ball point pen a tool!) Once the retaining pin is removed the foregrip will slide straight forward and off, exposing the front wiring harness, fuse, and battery connector. Be sure to remove the safety muzzle cover first.

• Step 2 – Attach the fully charged battery. A very cool feature of this design is that the fuse is located right next to the battery. So, should you need to replace it the job is very simple. Attach the battery connector to the connector on the gun and hold the battery in position while pushing the wires into place. You will need to make sure the wires are tucked in properly or getting the foregrip back on will not happen

• Step 3 – Replace the Foregrip. This can be a frustrating wrestling match because the wires must be tucked in properly or the foregrip will not go back on. If it feels tight or stuck, STOP. Forcing it can damage or even cut the wires and then you are screwed. After we did it a couple of times it was not a problem at all. While holding the battery in place slide the foregrip over the muzzle and back into place. Simply replace the pin and it’s time to start shooting!

Performance Testing

We started by setting up a target on a backing of a thick walled cardboard box about 30’ away. We fired enough shots in single auto to adjust the hop up, although it was pretty close already.

Accuracy at 30’ is very good, especially when you consider this is a short barreled gun. One of the biggest impressions we had at this point was that this gun is shooting fast. While we have NOT chronographed this gun as yet, we have based we were our impressions on the fact that it went through both sides of the box that we were using as a backstop, the Styrofoam inserts inside the box (was an old monitor box), and still dented the wall tells us it is shooting every bit of the advertised 330 fps. We completely and fully admit that this is not a terribly scientific process to measure the velocity of the gun, we understand that completely, however this should be enough to give you the general impression it gave us along with some “physical data.”

So far the reliability of the gun has been truly excellent. Everyone in our office has taken a couple of turns shooting a couple of mag’s through it. Unfortunately for me I was “one of those things” as I came into work one day. Spilled my coffee and everything! To date we have feed approximately 10,000 bb’s through and reliability has been better than we ever expected based upon the “low end” price.

In our debriefing we have identified the same 2 issues with this weapon; one ours one theirs. Theirs is the selector switch. While it works fine, it feels a little wobbly and cheap. This and the magazine are really the only parts of the gun to give us this impression. Ours is we keep forgetting to wind the mag because we are having so much fun shooting the gun. Other than that we have not experienced a single feeding related issue, including double feeds and the like.

Rate of fire is impressive (hence the mag winding issue). On full auto Tracy actually wrote his name with bb’s. The funny part is his Airsoft writing is better than his handwriting.

Final Thoughts

Overall we here at DAW are very impressed with this AEG. For the money we feel this is one of the best guns on the market. We feel that you can get the Echo 1 G36C, an extra battery, a couple of mags, a sight, and LOTS of bb’s and still come out a lot less that the Tokyo Marui AEG.

Pros

• Tough and Solid
• Awesome Reliability
• Pre-upgraded gearbox
• Price

Cons

• Selector switch feels loose
• Battery can be a pain to install/change
• Nearly useless manual

Overall we rate this AEG 9 out of 10. This gun is an excellent value and is an great choice for the casual user and the hard core player alike.