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A review of the Novritsch SSP-18 - The brand people love to hate

2009 Views 30 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  iCUeadNow, 
TannerGil
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I currently carry a G19 as my EDC and liked the idea of having a Glock airsoft gun. I even convinced myself that it would help me in training with my real firearm lol. I did a lot of research and eventually purchased a WE G17 with a repro SRO back in 2019. To be honest I was really displeased with the performance of the gun even after purchasing multiple upgrades. After selling that gun I was on the hunt for a Glock series handgun that didnt require upgrading.

I have been playing airsoft since 2005 and have owned a lot of crappy airsoft products in my time. Ill admit, I missed the "I hate Novritsch because he is a sellout" train that seems to still be going strong. Because I didnt get the memo that we arent supposed to like Novritsch and his many products, I bought one. In this write up I will attempt to provide my thoughts on the SSP-18 and compare it to a real Glock product.

Trigger Air gun Gun barrel Gun accessory Wood


Pros

  • Trigger -

    The trigger on this gun is probably one of the best airsoft triggers I have used. When you put your finger on the trigger the first thing you notice is that it is a flat faced blade trigger. I like this as I find it comfortable on my finger.

    After applying pressure, the trigger glides a short distance backwards to the back wall and stops. The back wall is quite pronounced and it is very obvious when you have hit it. After applying more pressure there is some resistance and a bit of creep until you break the wall. I have fired quite a few real handguns in my time and can honestly say that the break on this trigger is better than some real firearms. It feels like breaking through a small piece of glass with an audible click. This provides a lot of confidence when pulling the trigger and certainty when the firearm will go off.

    The reset is short and provides another audible positive click that can be felt even in the midst of "battle". Its also a nice plus that it has a working safety "dingus" like the real Glock firearm.

    Hood Automotive design Automotive tire Trigger Automotive exterior





  • Trigger Guard - Overall the trigger guard is nice. It has a high cut on at the back of the trigger guard that allows for a high and tight grip with the shooting hand. There is also a cut toward the front of the guard that allows for a high thumbs forward grip with the support hand. This is great and even real Glocks dont come with this feature even though they should.

  • Frame - The frame that the SSP-18 comes with is a pretty nice frame. The stippling is quite nice and resembles interlocking chains. It does a good job of keeping the gun in your hand even with sweat. Its also great that it provides a Picatinny rail at the front of the frame where the Glock proprietary rail typically is. The frame is also very solid and has no flex/bend (cant say the same for my previous WE G17 MOS). Lastly, the mag release is large and pronounced much like the Glock Gen 4/5 release.

    Air gun Trigger Gun barrel Composite material Gun accessory



  • Slide - The Slide is one of the better Airsoft handgun slides I have manipulated. It has great front and back serrations that allow you to really get a grip on it when racking the slide. The fiber optic front sight post is excellent and really pops when pushing the gun out to acquire a sight picture. The fire selector is low profile and has a very positive click when switching from simi - full. It will not be bumped on accident due to how stiff it is, which is a good thing. The barrel is fluted in a spiral and is Nov's signature on his guns at this point. The barrel is also threaded and comes with a great cap which is a much appreciated inclusion.
Gadget Gas Cable Electronics accessory Event

  • Performance - In my opinion, This is one of the best performing handguns on the market out of the box. The hop unit is a wheel style hop with free travel (more on this later). The unit shows which way to turn the wheel to apply more hop or less. The bucking is a Maple Leaf Autobot 50 deg. IMO, this is a great bucking and should have no problem hoping most BB weights you would use in a handgun. I am able to hit a target at 120ft (36M) with decent precision. Thats quite impressive for a sidearm. The recoil is snappy and reminds me of shooting a neutered .22LR handgun. The gun seems to be efficient with gas when comparing it to other gas blow backs. I typically run C02 out of it, and am able to get 2-3 mags through it before needed to change it out. Your mileage on this may vary depending on environmental factors. There is also a good deal of parts that Nov sells to customize and improve the gun (again more on this later).
Fluid Automotive tire Bumper Automotive exterior Gas


Cons


  • Trigger Guard - The trigger guard has some positives but it is on the small side. Anyone using thick gloves will have a challenge fitting a finger fully in the guard. The picture below shows how much space there is with very thin gloves. If you wear thick gloves in a cold environment, keep this in mind.
Air gun Trigger Wood Shotgun Gun accessory

  • Takedown - Takedown is not very easy similar to real Glock. This requires smacking back of slide to get it off frame and isnt very easy especially if you need to make adjustments to the hop in the field.

  • Finish - The finish on the slide is awful. It has worn very easily and exposes the raw metal underneath. This slide really needed primer underneath but looks like they painted the metal directly which means it is bound to wear away. Im eventually going to have to paint it because of this. Typically I dont mind if paint wears away from use, but because this is directly on the metal, it is just exposed metal which doesn't look great.
    Building Font Asphalt Event Circle

  • Hop Up - So finally we get to the main issue with this gun, the Hop up....So I know I praised the hop up performance in the performance section but this hop up has some serious issues. My first time using this gun I was very pleased with the performance but noticed that things were changing. After a few matches, I noticed that the gun was not hoping BBs and only shooting out to around 60ft (19M). Concerned, I wrestled with the gun and eventually got the slide off to take a look at the hop up only to find that it was completely off... Frustrated, I did a field adjustment and put it roughly where it was previously.

    After a few more games, I realized the same thing happened and I was having no hop applied. Over the coming months I tried tightening the hop unit and applying different tapes. Currently, I have black duct tape on the wheel to prevent it from moving and it seems to be working OK. Apparently you can add a small O ring to behind the wheel to apply more friction. Nov also sells a separate outer barrel/hop unit with an included TDC for $33.

    For $200 this gun should have come with a TDC and a hop unit that works flawlessly. The SSX 23 comes with a TDC and costs less than this gun. There really is no excuse for this and really puts a huge damper on my feelings about this gun. Yes there is a fix and yes you can get another barrel but at $200 these things need to be figured out.

So in conclusion I really do like this gun and when the hop up isnt acting up it performs as well as you would ever want for a sidearm. With its hop issue, it feels like they made it %95 way there and then released it with a significant issue.

Thanks for reading my overview. If you have any questions feel free to ask! I will be doing a video review on Youtube soon and will post it here for those who TLDR.

Thanks!






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M
A consistent review of Nov product with no one sided bashing? BLASPHEMY!

All jokes aside, nice review. Might consider picking this up if I ever want a glock type sidearm.
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TannerGil
mrvanagas said:
A consistent review of Nov product with no one sided bashing? BLASPHEMY!

All jokes aside, nice review. Might consider picking this up if I ever want a glock type sidearm.
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Thank you! I would say that it is a great gun but expensive for what it offers. The OEM is KJW. The gun is a good option if you are willing to spend more money for an already upgraded gun.
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Doctor Jest
I used to bash Nov but upon reading reviews of his SSP5, gave his SSP2 a chance.....I was not disappointed. It could be considered expensive but considering it's a full CNC Hi-Capa with an innovative slide, TDC, and decent barrel + hop bucking I don't feel as if the price is too high. Extremely accurate, has excellent rage, consistent FPS, and is built like an absolute tank. I even went so far as to also purchase an SSR4 which does need some TLC (the main issue is that the stock bucking and nun are garbage - going to be replaced with Maple Leaf) but I haven't had a chance to form too much of an opinion beyond nothing that.

My only "complaint" is that they're both a little spicy out of the box! 360fps on the SSR4 and slightly under 1.1j on the SSP2.
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SiliconeSword
I wonder if a hole could be drilled into the outer barrel or chamber to add a TDC somehow, but idk if that TDC barrel requires a different chamber to be used.
That should have been included in the gun though, as I presume that the barrel is die cast or CNC and adding a TDC would have been rather simple I'd bet. Just another thing to make you spend another $40, and to buy more shit to make their shipping worth it.
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TannerGil
Doctor Jest said:
I used to bash Nov but upon reading reviews of his SSP5, gave his SSP2 a chance.....I was not disappointed. It could be considered expensive but considering it's a full CNC Hi-Capa with an innovative slide, TDC, and decent barrel + hop bucking I don't feel as if the price is too high. Extremely accurate, has excellent rage, consistent FPS, and is built like an absolute tank. I even went so far as to also purchase an SSR4 which does need some TLC (the main issue is that the stock bucking and nun are garbage - going to be replaced with Maple Leaf) but I haven't had a chance to form too much of an opinion beyond nothing that.

My only "complaint" is that they're both a little spicy out of the box! 360fps on the SSR4 and slightly under 1.1j on the SSP2.
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Yeah I think his handguns are pretty solid even if they are just redesigned guns from Chinese OEMs. The upgrades he makes, in my opinion, are worth the price for the SSP18.

SiliconeSword said:
I wonder if a hole could be drilled into the outer barrel or chamber to add a TDC somehow, but idk if that TDC barrel requires a different chamber to be used.
That should have been included in the gun though, as I presume that the barrel is die cast or CNC and adding a TDC would have been rather simple I'd bet. Just another thing to make you spend another $40, and to buy more shit to make their shipping worth it.
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I found out that you can add an o ring behind the hop wheel to add tension to the wheel as you adjust it. I think im going to try and go that route once I get more information on how to go about doing it. I have a bunch of tiny gbb mag o rings.
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W
The only Novritsch models that I would pick on are the M4’s, they aren't really all that special but at least they aren't all that bad either.

I have been known to chortle at players who bought a Novritsch bolt action, and thought that it would instantly make them the scourge of a field.
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SiliconeSword
Yeah, I guffaw at the plentiful SSG10 plus lots of gear sales on HopUp, sometimes for the exact price it is new, but with more expensive shipping....
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TannerGil
Whamhammer said:
The only Novritsch models that I would pick on are the M4’s, they aren't really all that special but at least they aren't all that bad either.

I have been known to chortle at players who bought a Novritsch bolt action, and thought that it would instantly make them the scourge of a field.
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SiliconeSword said:
Yeah, I guffaw at the plentiful SSG10 plus lots of gear sales on HopUp, sometimes for the exact price it is new, but with more expensive shipping....
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Agreed to both. I think the thing is that Nov has done such a good job at marketing that those who want to get into airsoft sniping are easily drawn to his products. I have a much better understanding of what to look for and avoid in airsoft sniping than I did two years ago and know now that the bolt guns are mediocre entry points for sniping. That said, I only know that because I have spoken with a large number of folks who have sniped longer than me and have helped me find better brands/options.

A lot of people dont necessarily go to airsoft forums to research the best options. A lot of players dont have the skills or patience to build a custom VSR 10. Heck even if they go with a company like Silverback (My current sniper is a SB Tac 41), they have plenty of issues of their own.
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TannerGil said:
Agreed to both. I think the thing is that Nov has done such a good job at marketing that those who want to get into airsoft sniping are easily drawn to his products. I have a much better understanding of what to look for and avoid in airsoft sniping than I did two years ago and know now that the bolt guns are mediocre entry points for sniping. That said, I only know that because I have spoken with a large number of folks who have sniped longer than me and have helped me find better brands/options.

A lot of people dont necessarily go to airsoft forums to research the best options. A lot of players dont have the skills or patience to build a custom VSR 10. Heck even if they go with a company like Silverback (My current sniper is a SB Tac 41), they have plenty of issues of their own.
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In general people tend to not build their airsoft rifles themselves. They rather have something that works out of the box and is good enough than having to spend time and money on upgrading. While you can save allot of hassle and money by upgrading stuff yourself.
It is the whole reason why krytac is popular for aegs lmao. While a specna arms or cyma with some simple upgrades is just as good or better.

Back to Nov, he just found a really nice gap in the market of having "upgraded" bolt actions that perform better than most stock bolt actions and that is for most people enough. Albeit it stays funny if you have around the same range as them with a Specna arms that simply has a better hop up rubber and nub and shoots 1.15 joule 🤣
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Whamhammer said:
I have been known to chortle at players who bought a Novritsch bolt action, and thought that it would instantly make them the scourge of a field.
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This is the issue with Nov his marketing targets new players and shows them something that takes patience and some small amount of experience to get right. The guns he sells aren't bad it's just the sales pitch is I find.

The people that build a sniper rifle tend to play better as they understand the limits the rifle has and the fact they are inherently playing at a disadvantage from a firepower point of view for 2/3 of the effective range they have.

I get it's not fun to watch a 6-7 hour game day video and editing is needed to make it interesting but trimming 7 hours of play into a 10 min video of your best shoots will always be misleading to new players.
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Dolovo said:
In general people tend to not build their airsoft rifles themselves. They rather have something that works out of the box and is good enough than having to spend time and money on upgrading. While you can save allot of hassle and money by upgrading stuff yourself.
It is the whole reason why krytac is popular for aegs lmao. While a specna arms or cyma with some simple upgrades is just as good or better.

Back to Nov, he just found a really nice gap in the market of having "upgraded" bolt actions that perform better than most stock bolt actions and that is for most people enough. Albeit it stays funny if you have around the same range as them with a Specna arms that simply has a better hop up rubber and nub and shoots 1.15 joule 🤣
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Yeah exactly. For me I am a lot more likely to upgrade a rifle than I am a handgun (even though I have upgraded my SSX23 a good amount lol). When I purchased the SSP18, I wanted a pre-upgraded gun that I didn't have to mess with and this filled that niche.

RonSwanson said:
This is the issue with Nov his marketing targets new players and shows them something that takes patience and some small amount of experience to get right. The guns he sells aren't bad it's just the sales pitch is I find.

The people that build a sniper rifle tend to play better as they understand the limits the rifle has and the fact they are inherently playing at a disadvantage from a firepower point of view for 2/3 of the effective range they have.

I get it's not fun to watch a 6-7 hour game day video and editing is needed to make it interesting but trimming 7 hours of play into a 10 min video of your best shoots will always be misleading to new players.
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Yeah it's a catch 22. People don't want to watch the downtime moments between action that happens in sniping but then the non stop action videos are misleading. And of course he is going to use his own products and explain how much he likes them and how good they are so that just adds to it.

I'm actually in the process of starting to record gameplay and I'll probably just end up using the gameplay that is actually interesting.
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TannerGil said:
Yeah exactly. For me I am a lot more likely to upgrade a rifle than I am a handgun (even though I have upgraded my SSX23 a good amount lol). When I purchased the SSP18, I wanted a pre-upgraded gun that I didn't have to mess with and this filled that niche.
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And that is totaly fair. For a side arm it just needs to reach the 30-40 meter reliably and then something like this is fine.
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Dolovo said:
And that is totaly fair. For a side arm it just needs to reach the 30-40 meter reliably and then something like this is fine.
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Yeah those were my thoughts. I had previously had a WE G17 MOS (as mentioned in the review), and wasnt really thrilled with the performance or quality of the gun even after upgrading it and messing with it a ton.

I figured the slight upgrades that Nov provides in this package was good enough for my purposes. I didnt know about the hop wheel issue which is one of the reasons I am reviewing this gun. Let people know about that shortcoming.
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T4nkcommander
Excellent review - I agree on pretty much everything, as you already know. I know you mentioned my o-ring hop up fix, so for those interested in my video on it you can find it here:

Something to add to both of our reviews is that cold weather performance is not great. C02 does ok up until around 40F, but then you can expect only a handful of semi-auto shots before freeze up. For those of us in the states stuck with green gas you pretty much have to be playing in the summer to prevent cooldown. The drum mag is a lot more resilient to freeze up but it still degrades with temp drop. Oh, and the silencer is awful. Absolutely awful. After three game days of it jamming up full of bbs I dropped it.

Now if they would ever get around to releasing the damn carbine kit.....

Oh, and for those saying Nov's bolt guns aren't any better than whatever built gun they claim I call BS. In all my years of airsofting I haven't seen any custom gun do any better than a [properly-functioning] Nov gun with the same power and bb weight. It is pretty funny - online everyone hates Novritsch, but in real life everyone is either running one or wants one. My SSP18 in particular gets incessant compliments, and my SSG10 usually attracts a lot of positive attention as well. All I care is they work well and give good bang for the buck (heheh)
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TannerGil
T4nkcommander said:
Excellent review - I agree on pretty much everything, as you already know. I know you mentioned my o-ring hop up fix, so for those interested in my video on it you can find it here:

Something to add to both of our reviews is that cold weather performance is not great. C02 does ok up until around 40F, but then you can expect only a handful of semi-auto shots before freeze up. For those of us in the states stuck with green gas you pretty much have to be playing in the summer to prevent cooldown. The drum mag is a lot more resilient to freeze up but it still degrades with temp drop.

Now if they would ever get around to releasing the damn carbine kit.....

Oh, and for those saying Nov's bolt guns aren't any better than upgraded ones I call BS. In all my years of airsofting I haven't seen any custom gun do any better than a [properly-fucntioning] Nov gun with the same power and bb weight. It is pretty funny - online everyone hates Novritsch, but in real life everyone is either running one or wants one. My SSP18 in particular gets incessant compliments, and my SSG10 usually attracts a lot of positive attention as well. All I care is they work well and give good bang for the buck (heheh)
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Oh yeah good call outs. I typically use my SSX during the winter so I haven't had a ton of experience with cold lock up. If you had to estimate, how many shots are you getting through on a C02 cartridge?

Going to watch and try your o ring mod. I currently have duct tape on my hop unit and it's less than ideal.

Yeah seems like they must have had a serious issue with the carbine kit because it's been teased for over a year now I believe.

Also to your last point Reddit is lousy with Nov hate. If you want a good laugh, check out my reddit posting of this review.

https://www.reddit.com/r/airsoft/comments/11qfhbc
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Leo Greer
Nice write up! I appreciate the detail.

Dolovo said:
It is the whole reason why krytac is popular for aegs lmao. While a specna arms or cyma with some simple upgrades is just as good or better.
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Krytac definitely isn't the worst choice, but IMO their internals are outdated for the price at this point in time. Everything they use is very solid, and I think their barrels groups are still very good, but at this point something like Arcturus's ME line has plain better internals for $200ish instead of $400-500. Krytac's proprietary gears, while being high quality, are still a pain to deal with and to shim correctly. In order to actually remove the infamous "Krytac squeak" I had to do minor mods to the gearbox shell and the selector switch. The $100 Cyma M4 my buddy got sounds better out of the box.

Back to the actual point of this thread, my opinion of Novi has actually changed drastically over the last year. He no longer recommends snipers or pistols to new players on his website, which is a big deal, and his SSR4 really isn't bad for the price.

I see a lot of hate by people that really can't provide good reasons. They also tend to be the people who buy new batteries every month since theirs are trash, the people who buy OEM identical parts for ridonkulous prices and claim they're huge upgrades, and the people selling their "amazing custom" for market price of parts on eBay with tags that say "amazing rifle, just needs work, parts missing, broken gearbox shell".

Basically, people who don't know what they're doing with do one of two things: learn what the heck they should be doing, or embrace whatever they currently believe with all of their body, mind, and soul.

I do like that Nov shows what he's doing and how he tests different stuff, as well as cheap mods that can be done to his stuff to improve it instead of always selling crap. Not to say he doesn't sell some silly stuff, or some overpriced stuff, or does some brand name jimping on YouTube, but his stuff is for sure less trash than, say, 80% of the other stuff out of the box.
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TannerGil said:
Also to your last point Reddit is lousy with Nov hate. If you want a good laugh, check out my reddit posting of this review.
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Airsoft Reddit is hilarious in that kind of stuff.

Leo Greer said:
Krytac definitely isn't the worst choice, but IMO their internals are outdated for the price at this point in time. Everything they use is very solid, and I think their barrels groups are still very good, but at this point something like Arcturus's ME line has plain better internals for $200ish instead of $400-500. Krytac's proprietary gears, while being high quality, are still a pain to deal with and to shim correctly. In order to actually remove the infamous "Krytac squeak" I had to do minor mods to the gearbox shell and the selector switch. The $100 Cyma M4 my buddy got sounds better out of the box.
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Oh I know Krytac isn't bad it was just the thing that came to my mind haha.
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TannerGil
Leo Greer said:
Nice write up! I appreciate the detail.



Krytac definitely isn't the worst choice, but IMO their internals are outdated for the price at this point in time. Everything they use is very solid, and I think their barrels groups are still very good, but at this point something like Arcturus's ME line has plain better internals for $200ish instead of $400-500. Krytac's proprietary gears, while being high quality, are still a pain to deal with and to shim correctly. In order to actually remove the infamous "Krytac squeak" I had to do minor mods to the gearbox shell and the selector switch. The $100 Cyma M4 my buddy got sounds better out of the box.

Back to the actual point of this thread, my opinion of Novi has actually changed drastically over the last year. He no longer recommends snipers or pistols to new players on his website, which is a big deal, and his SSR4 really isn't bad for the price.

I see a lot of hate by people that really can't provide good reasons. They also tend to be the people who buy new batteries every month since theirs are trash, the people who buy OEM identical parts for ridonkulous prices and claim they're huge upgrades, and the people selling their "amazing custom" for market price of parts on eBay with tags that say "amazing rifle, just needs work, parts missing, broken gearbox shell".

Basically, people who don't know what they're doing with do one of two things: learn what the heck they should be doing, or embrace whatever they currently believe with all of their body, mind, and soul.

I do like that Nov shows what he's doing and how he tests different stuff, as well as cheap mods that can be done to his stuff to improve it instead of always selling crap. Not to say he doesn't sell some silly stuff, or some overpriced stuff, or does some brand name jimping on YouTube, but his stuff is for sure less trash than, say, 80% of the other stuff out of the box.
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Yeah. When I posted this on Reddit the main reasons I heard for the hate are as follows:

1. People are pissed that he uses other companies to manufacture the guns and they feel Nov doesn't credit them enough or something like this. I explained to them over and over that using outside manufacturers is very common and happens in both airsoft and gun industry.

2. Some sort of accusation that there was a ton of false advertising and that people caught him on his lies and so he went back and changed the advertising after people had already bought the items and lied about it.

3. That he purchased positive reviews of his products.

4. That he forces his employees to give positive reviews.

5. That his customer service team sucks. I can attest to the fact that I have had some bad experiences with their customers service teams. Sometimes it seems to be attributed to a language barrier.
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TannerGil said:
1. People are pissed that he uses other companies to manufacture the guns and they feel Nov doesn't credit them enough or something like this. I explained to them over and over that using outside manufacturers is very common and happens in both airsoft and gun industry.
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Those people are going to love the rabbit hole of how many airsoft replicas are made by other companies for other companies. Like GHKs bodies are made by LCT most of the time, E&C makes stuff for Specna arms. Cybergun and umarex are mostly license suppliers that are put on other manufacturers replicas. The list would go on and on and on lmao
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