KWC 18 CO2 Blowback Steel BB Pistol Field Test Review
I had the chance to take the KWC 18 CO2 Blowback BB Pistol out for some shooting today to see how it performs. It’s a Glock-styled 4.5mm steel CO2 BB pistol with full blowback and selectable semi and full auto. It’s not an officially licensed Glock, but if you own (or have shot) Glocks, the controls and overall feel will be instantly familiar.
I’ve already done a close-up tabletop video for the KWC 18 covering specs and details, so if you want the up-close visuals and feature breakdown, make sure to check that out first.
For this session I concentrated solely on performance: a quick 5-shot chronograph run in semi-auto to record velocity, a 10-round semi-auto group at 30 feet, and then a full-auto mag dump to get a practical feel for controllability and “real world” accuracy—right out of the box (no tuning).
Velocity Testing (Chronograph)
For the chronograph testing, I ran five shots in semi-auto with a brand new CO2 in the magazine. The numbers came in at 293, 294, 282, 290, and 282 fps, for an average of about 288 fps. The spread was tight and the pistol felt extremely “snappy” while shooting, there’s a lot of pop in the blowback and you can feel it cycling hard.
One important note: this is a single-action-only style system, so you do need to rack the slide to cock it before it’ll fire (ask me how I know…).
Accuracy Testing (30 Feet)
For accuracy, I put a paper target out at 30 feet and fired 10 rounds in semi-auto. After a quick adjustment (the pistol was hitting very low at first), I aimed higher and got a roughly 3-inch grouping. The group was well centered left-to-right, but the pistol was still shooting noticeably low overall.
This is the kind of thing you’d simply keep in mind while shooting, and depending on the setup, you may be able to tweak elevation a little (but with steel BBs at short range, don’t expect miracles).
Full Auto (Mag Dump)
Then I loaded up and did a full-auto mag dump. As expected, it was basically spray-and-pray at 30 feet. The rate of fire is insane, and between that and the strong blowback, it was extremely difficult to keep rounds on target. I may have only landed a couple hits on paper.
Final Thoughts
All told, the KWC 18 is a really fun Glock-style blowback BB pistol if you want something that feels familiar in the hand and delivers a crisp trigger with serious recoil-like blowback. In semi-auto it’s manageable (even if it shoots low out of the box), but in full auto, at least at 30 feet, it’s more about the fun factor than practical accuracy.

