Boomski

Classic Firearms had this little beauty for sale a few weeks ago for $199, and I couldn't resist it. It's a military surplus M57 Tokarev, manufactured by Zastava in what used to be Yugoslavia (I believe the factory is now in Serbia). It was the standard Yugoslavian sidearm for decades, and the pistol is still manufactured for export (although mine was probably made back in the 1970s). The pistol is modeled on the Soviet Tokarev TT pistol, which came out in 1930 (the TT was, in turn, more or less a clone of John Browning's FN Model 1903). It's chambered in the round known as 7.62x25 Tokarev: a smallish, necked cartridge that is very high velocity (one of the biggest risks, in fact, is over-penetration). The pistol came with two 9-round magazines.

Surplus firearms can be a little quirky, and this one was no different. It came coated with cosmoline, so I had to completely disassemble the gun, including the firing pin, in order to clean all that gunk off. That thing was hard to get out, but even tougher to get back in. I tried for hours to reinsert the firing pin assembly, with no luck; however, Mrs. Paco, being both smarter and more patient than I, got it in on her fourth or fifth try. When I took it to the range, the gun consistently failed to eject spent rounds. I surmised (correctly, as it turned out) that the sticky slide action had something to do with the safety, which is installed (on older guns) by the importer in order to comply with rules governing the sale of these weapons in the U.S. (the guns were not originally manufactured with external safeties). Once again, Mrs. Paco came to the rescue, suggesting that I take a Drimel and mill the bar on the safety that extends from one side of the frame to the other. Success! The gun now works like a charm: shoots straight, fits the hand beautifully, and affords relatively little recoil. A fun shooter.