GHK Tactical SG553 Gas Blowback Airsoft Rifle

"Have yet the field it. Have only shot 1 mag through it. Build is great except for the stock. Upper and lower is very difficult to get back together. I had to basically tourniquet the two together just to get the pin back in. The stock on the new versions are not great. They either use really weak glue or not enough. My 13 year old ICS 551 and 552 are both still in one piece. My brand new GHK 553, not so much.

Has really good gas efficiency though. Shot a full mag plus 25+ dry firing with maybe a 2 second fill. Have heard you can get 4+ mags on one full fill.

If you plan on buying a GHK 55X. Pick up some JB plastic weld just to be safe. Will update review once I take it out for a few games.

"Pretty good performance out of the box. I suggest the use of heavy weight BBs with this gun (.3g+). It does have the Sig grey cerakote on it just like the non-tactical version. The dull grey and black tail combo looks excellent. The picture from Evike shows a blued finish, which is not correct. Previous versions of the rifle had magazine issues where it was stiff going into the receiver which caused the translucent casing to eventually crack (probably due to the thicker cerakote coating). GHK has solved this by changing the receiver dimensions to allow for easier loading of the mag (less stress on plastic casing) and they changed the type of plastic to a tougher polymer (to know the difference, the mags are an opaque black). The magazine’s male and female pegs have been reinforced as well.

Accuracy and range is amazing. Roughly 200ft range with 8/10 shots on a torso sized target at that range. Be sure to take apart the gun and clean it prior to use. GHK uses thick silicone grease on all internal parts, especially the hop up and it was on the inside of my bucking and the barrel was pretty dirty—causing bad accuracy at first.

One major issue that most people will have is that it shoots very hot out of the box. My gun is clocking in at 1.78J on a .32g with propane in 70*F weather. You’ll need to find either buy a low flow nozzle, a wide bore barrel or grub screw mod the nozzle to lower the FPS (YouTube the grub screw mod if you’re not sure what this is).

Pros:
- Great range and accuracy. Very accurate with impressive range for the very short, sub machine gun length inner barrel.
- AEG barrel and bucking compatible (LOTS of upgrade options…the sky’s the limit on this).
- Hop design is one of the best, if not the best, GHK design by far. Allows for AEG nubs so you can R-Hop, flat hop, etc.
- Easy disassembly to get to the hop system.
- Easy hop adjustment—can easily adjust in game.
- FPS consistency is great. Only a few FPS difference per shot (just like an AEG).
- Insane gas efficiency. You’ll get roughly 4 mags worth with each gas charge (using semi auto and not mag dumping). DO NOT fully fill the mag…wait until it sounds like it is about to be full and then stop. That small amount of “empty space”, so to speak, allows for proper pressure to give the best consistency.
- Feel of rifle is top notch. Gives a real steel feel.
- Internals are FULL STEEL. Trigger grouping, recoil spring/rod, recoil spring cover, bolt carrier group and receiver are all a good quality steel.

Cons:
- Iron sights are pretty lacking. Rear sight flips up and doesn’t lock in place. It easily moves around, but it will stay up.
- Field stripping is different than what most people will be used to. The receiver pins are an interesting, but innovative design (may not be a con, I’m just knit-picking).
- High FPS even on green gas/propane.
- Coating on steel bolt carrier is not very good. It’s rough, reminiscent of a truck bed liner. Use sand paper on the inside tracks of the bolt (or let it wear naturally) so it cycles quicker. Paint flakes will be found in the receiver during the break-in process.
- Bolt return to battery is very lacking. It is noticeably slow and doesn’t appear to have any power to it. This is so the gun is great on gas efficiency. So it personally doesn’t bother me due to this reason.
- Half-travel bolt. It doesn’t bother me because it’s for a higher cyclic rate and gas efficiency.
- Felt recoil is kinda low compared to other brands. But this seems to be the same with all half-travel guns GHK produces. Again, doesn’t bother me because there are functional reasons for this.

4/5 stars only because of the high FPS, not allowing for use in most fields until something is purchased or modded to be able to use.