RETAY BARON HK (P228 REPLICA) BLANK GUN - BLACK

This is a really nice blank gun, one that struck a chord with us the moment it landed and we first did a thorough inspection of its features. Speaking thus of which;

Key features;

• SIG SAUER P228 Replica
• One of the only all-metal blank guns in medium size available, save for the EKOL FIRAT COMPACT. Has a broad / bulky handle and similarly dimensioned barrel / underbarrel assembly, which does help to balance the pistol.
• SAO / Single Action Only
• 3/4 Wrap-around polymer stippled grip - front of the handle is featureless
• Features a de-cocking lever, to carefully reset the hammer, even w/ a round chambered.
• Beefy slanted cocking serration, to cock the pistol easier
• No need to decock the gun like a GLOCK by pulling the trigger, after the gun has been cleared
• Full metal trigger and controls

This is the second Sig Sauer blank that RETAY is doing, the first being the replica of the legacy SP2022 model, which brought a slew of firearm-operating innovations to the world since the firearm counterpart's inception - all the controls w/in reach of the thumb's forward digit and the lower profile motion arc of the hammer.

Otherwise, this pisol has a real hearty 'classic' H&K USP feel to it - the hammer looks and feels very similar - featuring a a high, angled thin slope that is easy to get one's thumb around. For a SAO pistol, manual hammer operation will be of cardinal importance - please do acquaint yourself as such with it.
The cocking serrations are slanted, w/ wider gaps and narrower risers that are sharply machined at right angles, for easy traction - quite in accordance w/ the level of detail-attentiveness we expected from RETAY. The cut grooves run along the whole height of the slide, making it that much easier to grab ahold of - and rack the slide, despite its stiff blowback spring.

The sights on this pistol, however, is a cross-over of an H&K USP MK 23 type, which we think is really nice.

The ejection port is completely open top and to the right, for ease of ejecting spent brass casings - the extractor claw is a pair of metal sheet pieces held spring-loaded in place by a pin - we find that, as a rule of thumb, that, that extra extractor does help ensure extra / more thorough grip on the rim of the casings, to ensure higher extraction success.

The trigger otherwise, is metal and features a slight-bending curvature, not the more aggressive spoon-shape of the USP, nor that of the P228 either, but rather leans more toward the modern sporter series of Sig Sauer pistols.

In terms of the controls - we have the slide catch release tab, which sits above the grip stock, free floating, at an acute angle, more or less 45°. Its face is horizontally serrated to improve grip traction. The fact that this lever is free-floating, means it toggles easier, in our opinion, as opposed to a frame-hugging tab, that toggles w/ a little more effort. This certainly is a unique feature among all blank guns we've had the opportunity of handling and inspecting.
True to Sig Sauer's style of this era, the decocking lever, (found in the stead of the safety, as you'd have it on the SP2022 model), presses downward like a dummy feature, though can only be toggled if the hammer is cocked, to disengage the hammer off the sear and, as you bring the decocker tab back upward, you can choose how hard or how softly the hammer resets, though normally, just quickly flicking this switch, should reset the hammer soft enough to not cause critical stress on the primer-cap in battery.
This decocker lever is also raised off the frame and the pedal is free-floating too, although not angled, but parallel to the pistol frame. It features an arc movement path too, that is ergonomic for one's thumb, allowing one to decock the pistol w/out relinquishing much of one's grasp on the pistol handle.

Also another note on the handle - there are no thumb rests like you'd have on modern pistols but instead, a riser / plateau, that serves to discourage one's thumb from veering toward the aforementioned controls unintendedly, whilst keeping the thumb back-rested in the ideal position to toggle the magazine release - this is a raised square / circle-ish shape canted to follow the angle of the handle, as are the tiny debossed parallelograms on this button's face. Certainly a unique checkering type if we've ever seen one!

The magazine is your standard RETAY 14-shot type, w/ a flat floorplate basis. The magazine can be disassembled separately and split up into its various components for inspection and maintenance - necessary if you might find, for example, that your cartridges aren't reliably feeding upward, as in the case of rust inside of the magazine walls.

Technical Specifications: