Milsurp After Hours

Saw a Guns & Ammo piece called Battle of Berlin 1945 yesterday in the latest issue. Garry James did a side by side show and tell with the main German WWII auto pistol, the P38, and the best Russian issue equal to it, the TT 33. He of course shot them and came to the conclusion that both were first class and he liked the P38 for the better safety and the better sized grips but thought the TT33 was a fine enough pistol. The original TT33's didn't have a safety, only a half cock as an alternative. The later day imports all have safety additions to fill the well intentioned but over protective requirement imposed on imported guns.


For the first time in a long while I went out to the range with an idea of doing my own test. Drove the 30 miles to the range today. I expected it to be less crowded now that hunting season was over...and considering the cost of gas, and ammo, and the $12 to shoot. But.... it looked like feeding time at the zoo just the same.

In the P38 I was shooting some Russian hollow point in 9mm Luger and the the 7.62 fodder was full metal jacket Seller and Bellot..which is Czech ammo.

Well... with an aiming eye from hell from two operations and also being old and not so good a shot as a general thing anyway....I found that if I buried the front sight of the P38 and still aimed under the bullseye I could get the bullets to register someplace on the target at about half the test distance of Jame's 25 yards. The TT33 seemed to aim better for me with a normal haphazard sight picture. And.. I did better standing with either than supporting the guns in any way using a rest.

The P38 sometimes balked at loading the first round of the hollow point but digested the rest of a magazine without any problem. The TT 33 had no hiccups.

I think I'd take the US 1911 auto over either of them, but either would be decent protection..... if shooting at fat men at close ranges.

The targets were shot with the P38 on the left and the TT33 on the right.

Thats a nice way to spend the day Robert, plenty of sunshine and two classic pistols to test out.

Joe

Looks like a good day out.

It was a good day out. I'll have to do it again real soon.... just get there early before the crowd arrives. And I think I'm due for a change of glasses before I go again too.

A friend of mine recently acquired a Tokarev with no safety and no import marks. Odd duck. With no import marks ....import marks came about in 1968... it must have been in the US for a while or it may have been a bring back trophy from Vietnam or one of the Muslim wars. Guy my friend got the gun from got it from someone else. No gun marks on it that he can find either.

There were some other sources other than Russian. Chinese M20, Hugarian M48, Yugoslave M57, Chinese Type 51, Norinco Type 54-1, Chinese Type 54, Sportarms M213. Any of them that were made without a safety would have had them added if imported from 1968 on.

By the way... the spring on the opposite side of the pistol from the slide catch is just to hold the slide catch and not part of the safety.

I'm adding some photos of mine which has the import safety addition on it.

https://gundigest.com/more/classic-guns ... its-clones

I have shot the P38 a lot, and the Tokarev some. The recoil springs on your P38 may be needing replacement, causing the jam you experienced at the beginning of a magazine. The only pistol I had for many years was a post-war P38, and surplus ammo was cheap when I was a boy. With all that shooting, I never replaced the recoil springs, then one day I noticed a crack working up the side of the slide at the locking recess.

I have a 1940 Russian, and a Polish Tokarev. A cop came into my favorite gunshop with a big box of pistols his deceased veteran neighbor had owned, and out of it I got the Russian. Other than weak magazine springs, it has been reliable and fun to shoot. The Pole also had weak magazine springs, is a recent import so has the silly trigger-blocking safety, but is also a good shooter.