Roy J. Tellason wrote in a message to Dana Booth:

 DB> Not a Makarov per se, 

 RJT> No?

Several pistols shoot 9x18 Makarov; Makarov's, Hungie PA-63's, Polish
PA-83's & 93's, and even my wife's CZ-83, (Czech) among others. The
Commies called a Makarov a "PM", a "Pistol Makarov", or
the commie translation thereof. :) A Makarov is like the pistol it
imitates, the PP; just because it shoots .32 doesn't make it a PP, and just
because it shoots 9x18 doesn't make it a Makarov. :) However, the FEG PA-63
is quite renowned as an excellent pistol, I'm surprised you had the trouble
you did!

 RJT> Yes.  Shoots .380,  too,  I'm told.  I was at a range once and
 RJT> found a live round laying there on the ground,  tried it,  and
 RJT> yeah,  it did. 

It'll work, but it'll also chew up the chamber & bore really bad, 9x17
(or .380 auto or 9mm Kurz, whatever you want to call it) is caliber .356,
or about 9mm, while 9x18 Makarov is about 9.1- mm, slightly larger. Put
them together and look at them, and you can see the difference with the
naked eye.

 RJT> I did look at one that was at a dealer once,  it was Russian as I
 RJT> recall,  and it wasn't made that well from what I could tell.  Not
 RJT> that I'm any kind of expert or anything like that,  it just felt
 RJT> "rough" in terms of parts moving against each other.

I know what you mean... In fact, my best "feeling" Mak is my East
German, a very well machined gun. Butt ugly, though, and of course I have a
bullshit story about how the East German cop who carried it died, and the
gun sat in his blood for awhile and corroded. (hey, who knows?) My favorite
Bulgie is a beautiful gun though, but feels quite rough when you jack the
action. I trust it completely, though, hundreds of rounds through that gun
without a fault.

 RJT> The one I have got slightly rough,  didn't want to fire properly, 
 RJT> and when I asked at the dealer about a smith the guy there removed
 RJT> one of the grips,  shimmed it with a thin layer of paper,  and the
 RJT> problem went away!  I don't know what that bit of the action is
 RJT> that's right underneath that grip,  but apparently it was binding
 RJT> just a bit,  or something.

That's weird, the mainspring in a PA-63 is a leaf behind the rear mag ride.
Other than that, I can only think of the mag follower spring on the left
side of the gun, both under the grip. I had that happen on a CZ-52 right
after I Picked it up at a show, but I tensioned up the follower spring and
the problem went away. Not a similar gun, but a similar follower spring.

 RJT> Other than that minor hassle (which unfortunately had to happen
 RJT> when I had taken my lady out to the range to get her into it :-(

I hope that didn't let her down! Did you follow the old rule: if you ever
take women shooting, take a .38 revolver with you, too, they never fail! :)

 RJT> I've also had people call it "surprisingly accurate" for what it
 RJT> is. 

9x18 is about as strong as you can get and still keep a blowback feed. The
nice thing about blowback is that, without barrel movement, it's naturally
accurate. It's tough to beat a good 1911 for accuracy, but damn, those
fixed barrel jobs do well! :) 


Dana Booth


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