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Old 04-26-2017, 01:23 PM
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I recently purchased one of those $200.00 Bulgarian Maks that were imported by C.A.I.. I finally got around to firing it for function. I first touched off a couple of Hornady Critical Defense 95 grain. It went bang bang as expected, fairly mild recoil nothing exceptional.
I pulled the magazine with the expensive Hornady stuff and loaded a magazine of PPU Serbian FMJ plinking stuff. Holy Cow the Serb stuff was hot. It make the Mak a nasty thing to hang on to, and it is a heavy piece of iron.I was resting the pistol on a firm rest and the first round doubled.
I'll warn my wife before she fires it. :-)
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Old 04-26-2017, 01:32 PM
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You may have fired submachine gun ammo. There were two military loadings, one for pistol, and one for the machinegun. Your Mac should handle limited use of the submachine gun ammo though. Do not use it in one of the aluminum frame versions for 9X18.
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Old 04-26-2017, 03:18 PM
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If it is commercial PPU then it is not sub-machine gun ammo. European Ammo is often hotter than USA stuff. It is still probably going 1100 fps.
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Old 04-26-2017, 03:36 PM
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There's no PPU submachine gun ammo. Furthermore, Yugoslavia nor Serbia used any 9x18 Makarov. It's possible they had access to them but neither the gun nor the caliber was ever a general issue. The military and police used the 7.62 Tokarev up until 1992. The submachine guns they used were Yugoslav variants of the Russian PPS and PPSH, both chambered in 7.62x25 Tokarev.

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Old 04-26-2017, 04:12 PM
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PPU has long provided military ammo, and special loads. This is not the first time this has come up, the hot ball ammo has showed up in several brands. Usually in bullet weight greater than 95 grain. I had some accidentally shipped to me about ten years ago, could not use it in my PA-63. I finally sold it last year. It is brutal to the hand in a handgun, which sounds like the case for the OP. The increased recoil is a good indication it is loaded much hotter than the commercial ammo.

From what I can find the commercial loading for PPU is 93 grain at slightly over 1000 fps. This should be in the 380 acp recoil range. The hot ammo will be likely over 100 grain, and clock around 1100 fps. If he indeed has the mild ammo might be a good idea to chrono it. It could have gotten a batch that has been loaded too hot. I shoot 95 grain commercial/military through my PA, and the recoil is about the same as wife's SMC380 with commercial 380 acp. Both guns are alloy frame Walther clones.

Last edited by Walkingwolf; 04-26-2017 at 04:25 PM.
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