HOUSTON RICK:

That's a really nice example of the Mosin. They are a robust and useful rifle for their time. They are still pretty amazing firearms capable of great accuracy, and shooting a cartridge that has survived for 125 years or so.

Best Regards, Les

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Sort of....it is a Tiger (TIGR) dressed up in Drag wood, I have been trying for years to get a flash suppressor for it but those things are not only rare they are quite spendy. I also have a black polymer stock set for it somewhere in the man cave.

The Tiger carbine was imported back in the 90s. Other than the barrel it is all Dragunov. Somewhere around here I still have a case (2 spam cans) of 7N1 ammo.



bob

John:

Nice firearms. I'm tickled to see that I'm not the only Smith guy to have succumbed to the lure of the "Cold War" weapons.

Thanks for sharing,

Best Regards, Les

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Faulkner:

Nice! I also have one of these unique handguns. I understand that they are capable of handling hotter ammo than the Tokarev in the same caliber. Thanks for sharing.

Best Regards, Les

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That's one of those things that's disputed on the Internet constantly. There is proof both ways. Only the designers of the CZ know, since it came out after the Tok

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Warren:

That is a great photo, and a testimony to the curiosity of both sides about the other. I found something similar on my visits to Russia. Here is a photo that I've posted before of me with a Russian policeman in Moscow, back in May, 1998. It fits in with this thread because I'm holding one of the little AKSU-74s, which was pretty ubiquitous among the officers at the time:



The folks that I met there were curious about Americans, and wanted to show their hospitality at every occasion.

Best Regards, Les

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Here is my one and only CZ75, purchased in 1986. I got the Ross (made in South Africa, and not importable due to ill-advised American boycott) holster in Vienna, Austria, of all places.

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One more...

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Bob:

Great firearms. I'm with Arik, that Tiger (Т****************р in Russian) is super. They are going for in the neighborhood of $4,000.00 today, if you can find one. There weren't many that made it into the country. Nice!!!

Best Regards, Les

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There are Soviet M44's in circulation, but one does not come across an M38 often. These were manufactured without a bayonet.

It doesn't show well in the close-up, but this one was made in 1943.

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Warren:

Yes!!! Those are great!! When I was a kid, my dad had a woodworking shop, among other hobbies, and he made me some wooden toys that I treasure to this day.!!!

Best Regards, Les

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Warren:

Well, that's one that I "always wanted", (how many times have I said that?)... but never got around to getting. So many guns, so little time!!! (And money). I see that it is an early version, with the original style stocks. If I ever get one, that's what I'm looking for.

Nice!!

Best Regards, Les

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You will notice one has a folding stock from an AMD 65. I shortened it about 2 inches, and then modified it to fit onto the 3/4" plywood "gun". The kids love it!!!

There was a short window of time in the 80's where our government would allow them in. When that window closed, no more same in until after the fall of Communism.

I had seen CZ75's pictured in magazines and books, but I had never seen on in real life until I got mine. I really liked it, and shot the living **** out of it, as you can see in the pictures. This is one of the last guns I would ever sell.

Yep, some bad, mostly good.

Haven't seen one of these posted yet..VZ52... 7.62x45 non import marked. I also have a few 91/30's and M44's..a few Yugo Toks..Steyr model 95 in 8x56r. I have an early Krebs built AK on a Russian receiver that I traded a Russian SKS..still have my other Russian SKS. Back in the late 80's early 90's I had a 01FFL and a small business in my home prior to my retirement so I could feed my reloading habit. Back then the Nagants were considered Russian junk. I did a lot of business with SOG in Lebanon Ohio. On several occasions I would purchase 91/30's by the case..20 per case with bayonets at $599 per case..that's $29.95 per rifle with bayonet! Sold em all day for $50 a piece. I still have a few of the old ones from back in the day..sold a hex Finnish capture last year for $275. Here's a few pics. Rich.

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Dug another one out of the armory. This is an "unissued" 1944 Finnish Tikka M91/30 with hang tag. I really like the potbelly stock the Finns used on these and other 91/30's. I've had this one a long time and have never shot it. AFAIK neither has anyone else since 1944. I'll have to pull the stock and see what year the receiver is. This is the only one of these I've ever run across in my area.










Also spied a Finn M39 a"41" capture 91/30 and a Russian M38 but those will have to wait for another day.

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Well, I see that I have only posted one gun so far. I am just blown away at the response to this topic. I always suspected that there were a lot of folks like me, who were children of the "Cold War", and who always wondered what was behind the "Iron Curtain", and when the curtain began to move to the side a little bit, we couldn't stand the suspense, and had to see what it was all about.

Here is a family album of my Makarovs.

First, here is another shot of the Russian Makarov, the original, from which the satellite and allied countries were to model theirs:



Next, here is a Bulgarian Makarov:



Here is an East German Makarov:



And finally, here is my Chinese Makarov:



I have some other handguns that fire the Makarov cartridge, but will post them in a separate post.

Best Regards, Les

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When they first started coming in, you could get an M91 from Century arms for $19.99. Some had a cracked or missing handguard, but most were complete, or the crack could be repaired.

Rich:

That's one that is pretty rare, and non-import marked makes it even rarer. I always meant to add one to my stable, but just never got around to it. I used to have an FFL myself, and I too dealt with SOG... That's where some of these guns came from. Those were the days!!!

Thanks for sharing with us!

Best Regards, Les

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Richard:

That's another treasure!!! I don't know what I'd do in your case: the temptation to shoot it would be great. And the temptation to leave it "mint" would also be great!! I have a Finn M39 that was made in 1970, and it was mint when I got it ( I'll post it later), but I did shoot it. Only with modern commercial non corrosive ammo, though. The brand new Finn barrel was, and is pristine, and I intend to keep it that way, but think it's ok to shoot, as long as you don't abuse.

Best Regards, Les

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Here is my Russian made SKS...

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Warren:

I suppose that if there is a quintessential "Cold War" firearm, that we were allowed to import without restrictions, the Russian SKS would be it. How many military parades have we seen photos of during the Cold War, where the troops marched with SKSs shouldered?? I would include the AK varieties, and will get to them, but we were never allowed to import unmodified, full auto AKs like we were the unmodified SKSs.

You have a beauty there. I notice that importer insisted on stamping the English letters of the serial, even though they are the same as the Cyrillic letters. Gotta admire bureaucracy in action!! I have one also, and will post it later.

Again, thanks for sharing your collection with us!!

Best Regards, Les

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Love the Makarov PM. Mine is in .380 auto for ammo availability, and I have a lot of .380 to begin with.

For ~350 bucks, you get: An all-steel pistol with a chrome lined barrel that is 100 percent reliable and will last forever. Easy to carry, and pretty darned accurate due to the fixed barrel.

I actually like the way it looks too.

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Makarov:



Great pistol.

American:

A friend of mine just picked one of these up in a pawnshop, used, but like new in the box, with all the papers and what-not... For $260.00, dealer paid the tax. He texted me about the deal, and asked whether I thought that was a good price... Well, I said I would buy them all day at that price. His was like yours, a 380 version, with the adjustable sights. Marked "Baikal". I think he got a heck of a deal.

Thanks for sharing with us...

Best Regards, Les

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JayFramer:

Nice Bulgarian Makarov. I like them, and I think that they are still available. I think that seeing yours posted on your thread (click here for link) http://smith-wessonforum.com/firearm...bulgy-mak.html was one of the things that led me to start this thread. These little guns are built like a bank vault, and have been one of the great open secrets of the shooting world since the ammo became readily available. They will last forever, we are getting them for less money than it would take to make them in today's market, and since all the different countries made basically the same gun, there are plenty of replacement parts out there in the unlikely event that something could ever go bad!!!

What's not to like??? Thanks for sharing....

Best Regards, Les

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I once bought a pretty rare CZ motorcycle from a friend of my brothers, a guy we called "DR. Science". He would go on at length about what cool guns the CZ 52s were.

A few years later, I had owned a number of Jawa and CZ motorcycles, and developed an appreciation for their construction and craftsmanship. Another buddy thought I might like his CZ pistols, and offered them to me at an attractive price, so I bought them.

Since then, I have bought a CZ 75 BD Police, which is simply a splendid pistol. Unfortunately, however, I passed on a CZ 82 a few years ago, and have been kicking myself ever since. It would have filled a glaring hole in my modest array of CZs.

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Not in jail.

Thanks for starting this interesting thread.

The ONLY thing I would complain about with the .380 Mak is the adjustable rear site. It's sharp and it gets in the way for carry.

I did purchase an aluminum fixed sight that can be installed in place of the adj. site---I just have to find it and CAREFULLY install it one of these days. Also, the front site could be a little thicker and taller.

But honestly, for what this pistol is for (close quarters defense), it's all good.

Well, I took a couple of pictures of my 1954 Russian SKS. I've had this one for about 25 years and paid the whopping amount of $59.00 for it.

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Faulkner:

Don't you wish we could go back in time and buy more of those?? That is a beauty!! The Russian SKSs are the original, and yours comes right out of the heart of the "Cold War". I know that we ask this question about all of our historical firearms, but wouldn't you like to know where it was issued, and to whom? Where it served, and so forth??? What a chunk of history, and a darn good shooting rifle as well.

Thanks for sharing,

Best Regards, Les

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When they first started allowing the import of these guns, the adjustable sight added "points" that are needed for the Feds to allow import. Like the PPK was too "small" to import, but if fitted with a PP frame, and made into a PPK/S, it is now OK to import. Weird stuff, but bureaucracy has its own strange logic that is incomprehensible to ordinary mortals. Anyway, good luck with your nice Mak!!!

Best Regards, Les

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Yeah, that darned 1968 import law. But gun laws in general make no sense.

I'm thinking of getting a clean CZ 83 in 380 or .32.

I have t CZ 82 in the 9mm Mak caliber. An original Czech military issue. But the CZ 83 is basically the same gun, but in .380. Since you already use that cartridge, that might be your best bet. I have lots of calibers that I shoot, so I don't worry too much about having another gun in a different caliber. The little CZ 50s and 70s used to be inexpensive alternatives in the .32 acp caliber. All cool stuff from behind the "Iron Curtain "!!!

Best Regards, Les

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I've only owned a CZ-75B in the current Czech Republic form, with the black epoxy finish, which has been durable. It is both accurate and reliable.

My son had a Makarov, which he liked. And he had close exposure to a Dragunov (sp?) when he shot the man running across a room in Baghdad with it. The individual had just run downstairs from a roof, where he'd been shooting at US troops with it. A single 9mm bullet from my son's Beretta killed him.

I've fired my son's AK and, I think, an SKS. Shot another AK on a range. They're okay, I guess, but I have no affection for them. They don't fit me well, and I can't get excited about them. Indifferent accuracy, too. I'd rather have an M-14 or an FN-FAL. I'm really more into my Winchester M-70 Fwt. Classic .270.

My interest in non-US military arms has been British. That's my heritage, so may be logical. But I'd sort of like to try a Makarov. They're pretty size-efficient and reliable. If they shoot as well as my Walther PP .32 did, they'd kill small game and snakes well.

I hear the Nagant revolvers have atrocious trigger pulls. And the grip checkering is usually crude.

Texas:

Glad you stopped by! I was hoping you would. Unfortunately for my bank account, I have a wide ranging interest in firearms, and seldom meet one that I don't at least want to examine, and usually want to take home with me. Most of the guns that I have posted, and will post on here are ones that I've collected some years ago. Some of the photos are ones that I took back then, and some are more recent.

I think that I have told you how I became hooked on knowing what was behind the "Iron Curtain". I have, in addition to studying the arms of the ComBlock, read widely, and as you know, visited and studied in several Eastern European countries.

I'm glad that you dropped by, and hope that you will check in from time to time. You might find something that you like here.

You are right, the Makarov is a fine firearm. It incorporates some of the features of the Walther PP and PPK series. Takedown is similar, and it is quite robust for the caliber. Russians are still using it, although they have some more recent designs as well.

You are right about the Nagant revolver, but we can blame some of the design flaws on the Belgian guy who was responsible for much of its design. The grip checkering on the ones that have been recently imported is a result of most of them being "Arsenal Refinished", and new made grips fitted. The original grips on the early ones was similar to checkering on American handguns.

Best Regards, Les

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Different Nagant revolvers were used by other countries, like Norway and Sweden. I think Belgium used some.

Were those any better than the Russian examples? Calibers were 7.5mm. The Russian 7.62mm was probably hotter.

I've read that Russian tank crews liked Nagants better than Tokarev autos, because they could be poked out the slots and fired.

I don't think they were any better since they were all designed by the same man and considering the era it was made in I'll say the trigger pull wasn't bad. For today it's horrible

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Of course ammo and the shooter play a big role but the accuracy of an AK and a FAL are about the same. Somewhere between 2-4 moa

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If we are limited to military arms I have two. A common CZ 7.65 pistol and seldom seen variation of SKS.

You know what this looks like...




Have you seen one of these?

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No life story has happy end.

I had a Makarov but traded it several years ago on a revolver. Probably
should have kept it for what little I got in trade. It was very reliable.
I, and perhaps some of you, pronounce it Mack a rov with emphasis on
Mack? I had a genuine Russian student correct me. It is pronounced
Mu care ov with emphasis on care.

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In Omnia Paratus

Correct. It's not Mack Arov. It's Maa car ov.

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SP:

Thanks for contributing. I am partial to the CZ pistols, and this one has a really interesting operating system. I have been looking at the SKS, and other than noticing that it lacks a bayonet, I am not sure. I know that some of the imports from China had to remove the bayonets before they would allow importation. Could it be one of the Norinco imports? I'm just guessing.

At any rate, thanks for stopping by, and thanks for posting.

Oh, and by the way, we are not limited to military guns, if you have some target or hunting or other variations, we would be happy to see them.

Best Regards, Les

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Phil:

As Arik pointed out, that is basically correct. The problem with trying to be accurate in our attempts to properly pronounce Russian words is that then to be consistent, we would have to incorporate Russian grammar. Without going into it too deeply, and because I forget a lot of the grammatical rules......

Nouns, and "Макаров" (the Russian spelling of Makarov in Cyrillic) is a noun, and nouns change their endings depending on how the are used in a sentence, whether they are the subject, or the object of a preposition, or whatever. Also, if we have a plural, the ending will change. When we add a plural ending, for example, Макаров would be Макаровы, and this would be pronounced in a different fashion. So the П********сто********ет Макарова, or ПМ (PM) can be a lesson in Russian language and grammar in and of itself.

Example 1.
"May I examine your Makarov pistol?"
"может ******** ********зуч********ть ваш ****************сто********ет Макарова?"

Example 2.
"May I examine your Makarov pistols?"
"может ******** ********зуч********ть ваш******** ****************сто********еты Макарова?"

Here we see that the plural ending goes to the word "****************сто********ет", which becomes "****************сто********еты", while Макарова stays the same.

I have to admit that I may have forgotten exact spellings here. So please forgive me if I mangled the language. It has been so long since I've used any of my Russian, that I forget much. The point is, that when we try to follow foreign pronunciation rules, we should be consistent and try to incorporate the rest of the grammar, and then it starts to get complicated. Not to mention that the average English speaking person will wonder what you are talking about.

I might point out that the Russians also pronounce many of the other weapons designs differently than we do. Mosin, Tokarev, etc.

Just some random thoughts on the topic.

Best Regards, Les

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Probably was a Comblock weapon at the end of it's career. This is a Steyr M 95 that was originally in 8X50R. It was made by Steyr on a Bulgarian contract, and has the Bulgarian crest on the receiver ring. The left rail is stamped Steyr and the date, Later it was rechambered to 8X56R, and probably remained in Bulgarian service until they sold all their Steyrs (and they had a BUNCH of them they'd collected over the years), in the 1990s.

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This is a rather scarce rifle. The Treaty of St Germain des Près ended World War I with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and spread their Steyr M 95 rifles all over the Balkans as well as Italy. The new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later to become Yugoslavia, got a bunch of them. They liked the German Mauser rifle, so they converted their M 95s to 8X57JS caliber and renamed them M 95 M. This entailed a new barrel and serious modification to the magazine, bolt head and extractor. They were loaded from Kar 98K stripper clips.

Very few of these have showed up in the US and most of them are beat to death; they fought the Partisan war against the Nazis under very difficult conditions. I've never seen one in this fine condition.

Photo 1; The rifle.
Photo 2: The receiver marking.
Photo 3: Note the clip guides in the receiver for the Mauser strippers. M 95s in the original caliber of 8X50R didn't have this.
Photo 4: Very Mauser-looking rear sight.
Photo 5: The magazine did not have a hole for dropping the clip out the bottom, as did the 8X50R caliber rifles loaded from a clip that entered the magazine and became part of the feed mechanism.

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les.b I would be interested to know where/when you learned Russian.
I was a cryptographer with USAFSS and NSA back in the 50s and worked
around & with Russian linguists.

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Cyrano:

Yet another beautiful example pulled from your vault!!! Really cool, and certainly unique. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to share with us.

Best Regards, Les

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Cyrano:

Yet another rare bird!!! These just keep getting better and better. Keep them coming!!! That is yet another that I'm nut sure I've even heard of.

Best Regards, Les

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Cyrano:

Yet another rare bird!!! These just keep getting better and better. Keep them coming!!! That is yet another that I'm not sure that I've even heard of.

Best Regards, Les

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