Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns MAKAROV

Well I finally got my grips from marschalgrips from Budapest, Hungary .
They are made out of Zebra wood .
They fit like a glove and look pretty good .
Have all sorts of bullets coming to do some load testing from jacketed to cast .
This is a fay cry from testing my Hand cannons to this small 9mm .
The bullets that are shown witht the pistol came with it .
They are steel core ,not sure about that .
I am going to unload one and then cut it in half to see for myself

RR

Nice grips.

You'll enjoy the workups, and will likely be pleased to find it a very loadable round, not fussy at all. Do be sure to buy the right bullets for it, as it is a true 9mm. Bullets for the Mak need to run .363" for jacketed and at least .364" for lead.

I got good loads with a wide variety of powders, from 700X through Unique. One caution: the loads suggested in older versions of "Cartridges of the World" are way too hot. That was before the rounds and guns were well known, so I'm sure they were guessing, and they sure guessed wrong.

That's a nice chunk of timber you have wrapped around that little pistol.

Well I did the test today .
I used a ammo hammer to get the lead tip out and catch the powder.
The bullet weighed 95 Grains and had 3.8 grains of powder , green powder to boot ??
Here are two pictures of the bullet.
I cut it in half and pulled the lead out and there was a steel cap on top of the lead .
I had a business card magnet and the jacket stuck right to it .
What do you think .

RR

It's a copper-washed mild steel jacket with a lead core. When steel is cheaper than copper, that's a common bullet-making method. The very thin copper wash (plated on) is there to add lubricity and prevent rusting, but the steel is quite soft and won't hurt the bore.

It looks like I'm going to get my East German Makarov back from my nephew this fall when he comes back out here in September from D.C. and I will be looking for a set of grips for it. Would you PM me with the Info on where you had yours made and the cost as I might just have me a set made.

You will love your Mak!! They pretty much all shoot great. Dennis makes some great grips. I have a set for all my 9x18's: Makarov, P-64, and PA-63.

Here is my '79 Bulgarian Mak:



Dennis' Zebrawood on my PA-63:

Neat little pistols, and a very nice set of grips. Congratulations.