The Tokyo Marui H&K MP5 SD6 is an electric airsoft airgun. This means that it uses an electric motor to drive an internal air piston, which fires the BB's. The whole system is powered by a rechargeable NiCd battery.

This particular MP5 SD6 comes from CQB Airguns, a company that specializes in airsoft airguns and accessories. CQB is mail order only, and can be reached at its website or at (714)731-9706.

Since CQB Airguns meet all current U.S. laws and regulations, this SD6 had an orange band painted at the muzzle end of the barrel. Also, although the Japanese SD6's have the "HK" trademarks on the airgun, this specimen had these trademarks removed. Apparently, the real firearms company, Heckler and Koch, "HK" does not license their trademark out to the airsoft industry. Japan gets around this by just ignoring the trademark laws.

Included with the airgun was an 8.4V, 600mAh NiCd battery, a U.S. rated charger, a metal 50 round magazine, a cleaning rod, a magazine loading tool, and 200 BB's.

Visual inspection of the SD6 is a real treat. As I mentioned, the gun is superbly detailed and accurate. Holding the SD6 is even better. The external dimensions of the airgun are exactly similar to the real firearm. The airgun is about 25 inches long with the stock closed, and about 31 inches with the stock open. The only real noticeable difference is the weight. The real HK SD6 weighs about 7 pounds. According to the manual, Marui's SD6 weighs about 4.4 pounds. However, it feels heavier and has a nice "heft" to it.

Like almost all airsoft, the SD6 is made mostly of a high impact ABS plastic. But don't let the lack of metal parts disappoint you. This airgun is perfect. All the surfaces are done in various shades of black, and the plastic is not painted black, but the plastic itself is black in color. This give the appearance of a matte black metal, just like the real thing. Also, the surfaces are textured in all the right places, giving that extra attention to detail and realism that you wouldn't believe. For example, on the mock silencer, the tube is textured with a "crinkle" type surface. It not only looks cool, it looks authentic.

The metal parts on the SD6 include the trigger, the front sight, the rear sight, the magazine, sling mounts, paddle magazine release, the screws, and the telescoping stock. I would have liked to see a few more metal parts on the airgun, but what is there adds a nice accent to the overall look and feel to the piece.

Now for the shooting. I charged the NiCd battery, and then loaded 50 rounds of 0.2g BB's using the loading tool into the magazine. The manual that came with the airgun recommend using only the 0.2g BB's. I know that there are lighter BB's being sold, but my experience with airsoft supports what the guys at CQB Airguns tell me: lighter BB's do jam in the airgun. The BB's are stacked into the spring loaded tube magazine, allowing for a very reliable feed system.

First I set the airgun to semi-auto using the selector switch. The selector switch on the SD6 has three positions, just as on the real firearm. The first position is "Safe", the second is for "Semi-auto", and the third is for "Full-auto". On semi-auto, the airgun fires one BB per trigger pull. On full-auto, the airgun fires BB's as long as the trigger is held down - just like a machine gun.

Setting up a cardboard box as a backstop, I taped up some targets. As the airgun is electric, upon pulling the trigger there was just a slight millisecond delay just before the BB shot from the barrel. Also, there was a slight "slapping" sound and a very slight recoil. The "slapping" sound and recoil are the result of the air piston slamming into the front of the chamber. It's a nice effect that adds just enough realism to put a smile on my face. Just as advertised, the BB's went into a 2" circle at about 20 feet.

The full-auto mode is really what these electric airguns are about. Switching the gun to full auto, the BB's streamed out of the barrel at a rate of about 700 rounds per minute. I was able to empty the magazine in about 5 seconds. I was impressed.

The BB's were chronographed at about 265 fps. This was right in the range of the advertised 250-300 fps.

I really liked this airgun. In fact, I liked it so much I decided to buy this one. A number of accessories are available, such as scope mounts, dual magazine holders, slings, etc. I'm told that any item that can fit on the real SD6 will fit on the airgun - so lasers, laser mounts, flashlight mounts are also available. Now if I can only save enough to buy that Steyr-Aug, and the MP5 A5, and the SIG 550, and the......