Tanaka 229 357 Sig

Tanaka 229 in 357 sig, this is a great looking model and with a new round a 357 sig with a new piston that has holes in it that  make the round louder. As I have found with a number of models they need a bit of running in and this one took around 3 mags before it started firing well, the mag also needed lubing as rounds were failing to chamber as the head of the round were dipping down, lubing up cured that. I thought this model took ten rounds but found that the tenth round would chamber as long as you manually pushed the slide forward, if you just let the slide go it would not load and on ejection the next round would fail to chamber, so only loaded 9.

Does the new piston design make it louder, well it has a good crack to it but not sure if its that much louder than some other models, one thing and something that is not obvious on the vid, is that the silencer actually does reduce that noise and its sound is a little more muffled.

One thing  on the Tanaka round design is  using this tube system for cap and piston can cause such a good seal that the piston becomes difficult to push down into the tube, its like you cannot compress the air any more. This does cause some failures to fire at times, though with this model pulling the trigger a couple of times would normally fire off the round.

When I came to clean it I also found why it seemed to fire better with the threaded silencer barrel, as the grub screw on the side of the chamber (not the one that holds the det pin) came out, so it was possibly scrapping the slide and causing problems. For some reason this is a smaller grub screw then the det pin and I dont have a key small enough to secure it back in place.

So is this a good model, yes is the answer I am very pleased with it, it does fire well with the usual problems you get with modelguns, it looks good has a bit of weight to it and does make a good noise when fired.

One last thing, I have now started to spray the seals and cartridge with a little silicone spray when I put them away, never given it a thought before but seals do dry up and once I have fired one it goes away for a good while as I move on to the next.

https://youtu.be/HfhWaFGn33o

Looks good

Great video, mate. I really enjoyed it on a not so good weekend.

Thanks for the idea of spraying the seals with silicone oil, that sure can't do no harm.

claymore wrote:

Tanaka 229 in 357 sig

So is this a good model, yes is the answer I am very pleased with it, it does fire well with the usual problems you get with modelguns, it looks good has a bit of weight to it and does make a good noise when fired.



https://youtu.be/HfhWaFGn33o

Thanks for the review Claymore, I am just trying to choose which to go for, this or the 226 MK25. I had an early Glock 17 from tanaka and it was very..... poor, chewed itself up after a few days but this was circa 15 years back.

I've read what i can on them and these new Evo 2's seem to be leagues better so i don't have any real worries there. Just cant decide on the 226 or 229, is either better made / quality in your opinion? I love how these replicate function that is my main basis for collecting, so I like models with good positive ejection etc, not sure how the bottle neck carts work on a manual basis?

Your opinion would be much appreciated

I have to say that i like this 229, exactly why i cannot say, but most likely the new round perked my interest. There is not really much difference in either model apart from the 229 has a slightly shorter slide, build quality is the same and Tanaka have made good improvements to their new models especially the evo rounds which way less stress on the gun.
You can get a threaded barrel for both to fit a suppressor, you can now also get a double cap round and det pin for the 226, which is good if you want a bit more noise and flash.
Not sure if there is any differnce in cost between the normal 9mm round and theis new 357 sig, as i cannot remember what i paid last for the 9mm evo round but these new sig rounds are expensive so that may make a difference. c-tec also do a det pin so you can use normal 7mm caps 9mm rounds, that may be a plus for some.
All said there is no differnce apart from the round they use and the 229 being slightly shorter, otherwise the same, so down to which really jumps out on you.

Thanks Claymore,

I’ve opted on the new 229 as for the same reasoning as you, the new calibre.

I’ll post my thoughts when I get it in my hands

Yes they are circa £3 each I’m not a heavy user of the carts so they few it comes with will do for now. The option of the threaded barrel is nice for the 229, I’ll be picking one of them up soon.

Got a nice MGC 1911 coming too so will be a happy man when the postie turns up