After much deliberation I decided on a MP446 viking for my first pistol. I bought it from Ben at interammo.com with the 6 mags and steel frame. Customer service from Ben I must say is nothing short of excellent and his price with 6 mags is too tough to beat.
She arrived in a plastic covered cardboard box, with 6 mags steel framed pistol, manual and cleaning rod. The outer paper it was wrapped in was wax, with an ammonia smelling inner paper wrap.
The grip of the pistol feels great. The polymer feels good and of just the right size for my hands. The safety is stiff, and the slide release is just in front of the safety and i have to shift my grip a bit to work it with my right hand. Double action was heavy, but the SA was very nice and with a short reset. It has front and rear serrations on the slide. The dots on the sights aren't a pure white but more of an eggshell brown like. The extractor which is located on the top of the slide also acts as the loaded chamber indicator. Only the safety is ambi from factory, however with the punch of a pin you can swap the mag release to the left side.
Machining marks on the viking were slightly noticeable on the outside and apparent on the internal frame and slide, but everything that mattered was finished pretty well (ain't pretty but it works in true Russian fashion!).
The spring guide rod is of quite a wierd design and the barrel is built to take the super hot russian ammo. I found taking the barrel, spring and guide rod out all at once to be the easiest then spring and guiderod then barrel.
The cleaning rod that came with the viking is simple and very practical if you don't have an actual cleaning kit available. Using just that rod I was able to get the pistol broke down as shown in the picture.
Firing pin removal is easy, just push in on base of pin and lift the keeper up, just be sure to not let the firing pin and spring fly across the room when removing. Replacing it requires a bit of patience as you need to compress the firing pin and spring into its place and slide the keeper down over top.
The magazines are a double stack and feed from both sides, not narrowing down and feeding from the center like many pistol magazines. I find loading fairly easy by rolling the rounds into place (much like C7/C8/AR mags). All the mags were marked with mag capacity on one side, and the caliber, serial number and every magazine was also numbered in sequence from 1-6.
One thing I noted was some mags loaded easier then others despite all being new. Magazines are sturdy as can be and stupidly simple to take apart, just push in the polymer spacer of the base plate and slide the plate off the bottom and the follower, spring, and polymer spacer come right out. Finish was pretty weak, but hey they all worked perfectly and dropped free from the handgun!
I bought a variety of ammunition for this critter to see if she'll hiccup. And ended up putting her through her paces on several range days over thanksgiving. List of ammo is as follows:
-American Eagle 115gr FMJ 50 rds
-American Eagle 147gr FMJFP 50 rds
-Blazer Aluminum 124gr FMJ 50 rds
-Remmington UMC 115gr FMJ 50 rds
-Winchester 115gr FMJ 101 rds (100 rd value pack with a bonus!)
-Canadian BDX 124 gr FMJ 100 rds
For starters, not a single FTF/FTE through the 400 rounds that went through it. Fed the aluminum cased ammo like everything else and kept asking for more.
Casing ejection many times is straight up and landing either to my right, behind me or on my head with one going down the back of my shirt. And spins the ejected case so fast several rounds even had a whirring sound to them.
One problem we all had with this pistol is it shoots low. About 8-12" on the 115gr and 124gr ammo. Now when I was shooting the 147 gr it seemed to be dead on, however it being my first pistol and myself lacking experience I cannot be certain with how the 147gr was shooting especially since it was my first box through the viking. But my friend, father and myself agree that it shoots low with 115 and 124gr ammo... I pretty much have to have the bottom of the front sights bead sitting on the rear sights top edge (if that makes sense?) to get rounds on target at 12 yards. Sketchy if you ask me. Anyones questions/suggestions are welcome, because the sights don't look elevation adjustable. If its just that ill have to use heavier rounds then I'm just fine with that, but will confirm this with the 147's next time i make a range trip.
After 400 rounds how did she fare? Well I must say the talk of an easily wearing finish is true. The slide and barrel show wear marks as well as where the slide catch rests on the lower frame.
And the good? It ate everything and spat it out without issue. Accuracy of the viking? cannot say, for it certainly is more accurate then I am. And in the upcoming months i plan to get additional kinds of ammo to see if anything can make it jam (I see SFRC has quite the selection of rounds I have yet to try and will be ordering from them soon)
Bottom line? when I take every chance to go out and shoot it and go 3 times in one weekend I think I clearly made the best choice for myself. For a rough, robust and reliable pistol with 6 mags for the price that Ben sells them for I'm damn glad i dealt with him and got one.
She arrived in a plastic covered cardboard box, with 6 mags steel framed pistol, manual and cleaning rod. The outer paper it was wrapped in was wax, with an ammonia smelling inner paper wrap.
The grip of the pistol feels great. The polymer feels good and of just the right size for my hands. The safety is stiff, and the slide release is just in front of the safety and i have to shift my grip a bit to work it with my right hand. Double action was heavy, but the SA was very nice and with a short reset. It has front and rear serrations on the slide. The dots on the sights aren't a pure white but more of an eggshell brown like. The extractor which is located on the top of the slide also acts as the loaded chamber indicator. Only the safety is ambi from factory, however with the punch of a pin you can swap the mag release to the left side.
Machining marks on the viking were slightly noticeable on the outside and apparent on the internal frame and slide, but everything that mattered was finished pretty well (ain't pretty but it works in true Russian fashion!).
The spring guide rod is of quite a wierd design and the barrel is built to take the super hot russian ammo. I found taking the barrel, spring and guide rod out all at once to be the easiest then spring and guiderod then barrel.
The cleaning rod that came with the viking is simple and very practical if you don't have an actual cleaning kit available. Using just that rod I was able to get the pistol broke down as shown in the picture.
Firing pin removal is easy, just push in on base of pin and lift the keeper up, just be sure to not let the firing pin and spring fly across the room when removing. Replacing it requires a bit of patience as you need to compress the firing pin and spring into its place and slide the keeper down over top.
The magazines are a double stack and feed from both sides, not narrowing down and feeding from the center like many pistol magazines. I find loading fairly easy by rolling the rounds into place (much like C7/C8/AR mags). All the mags were marked with mag capacity on one side, and the caliber, serial number and every magazine was also numbered in sequence from 1-6.
One thing I noted was some mags loaded easier then others despite all being new. Magazines are sturdy as can be and stupidly simple to take apart, just push in the polymer spacer of the base plate and slide the plate off the bottom and the follower, spring, and polymer spacer come right out. Finish was pretty weak, but hey they all worked perfectly and dropped free from the handgun!
I bought a variety of ammunition for this critter to see if she'll hiccup. And ended up putting her through her paces on several range days over thanksgiving. List of ammo is as follows:
-American Eagle 115gr FMJ 50 rds
-American Eagle 147gr FMJFP 50 rds
-Blazer Aluminum 124gr FMJ 50 rds
-Remmington UMC 115gr FMJ 50 rds
-Winchester 115gr FMJ 101 rds (100 rd value pack with a bonus!)
-Canadian BDX 124 gr FMJ 100 rds
For starters, not a single FTF/FTE through the 400 rounds that went through it. Fed the aluminum cased ammo like everything else and kept asking for more.
Casing ejection many times is straight up and landing either to my right, behind me or on my head with one going down the back of my shirt. And spins the ejected case so fast several rounds even had a whirring sound to them.
One problem we all had with this pistol is it shoots low. About 8-12" on the 115gr and 124gr ammo. Now when I was shooting the 147 gr it seemed to be dead on, however it being my first pistol and myself lacking experience I cannot be certain with how the 147gr was shooting especially since it was my first box through the viking. But my friend, father and myself agree that it shoots low with 115 and 124gr ammo... I pretty much have to have the bottom of the front sights bead sitting on the rear sights top edge (if that makes sense?) to get rounds on target at 12 yards. Sketchy if you ask me. Anyones questions/suggestions are welcome, because the sights don't look elevation adjustable. If its just that ill have to use heavier rounds then I'm just fine with that, but will confirm this with the 147's next time i make a range trip.
After 400 rounds how did she fare? Well I must say the talk of an easily wearing finish is true. The slide and barrel show wear marks as well as where the slide catch rests on the lower frame.
And the good? It ate everything and spat it out without issue. Accuracy of the viking? cannot say, for it certainly is more accurate then I am. And in the upcoming months i plan to get additional kinds of ammo to see if anything can make it jam (I see SFRC has quite the selection of rounds I have yet to try and will be ordering from them soon)
Bottom line? when I take every chance to go out and shoot it and go 3 times in one weekend I think I clearly made the best choice for myself. For a rough, robust and reliable pistol with 6 mags for the price that Ben sells them for I'm damn glad i dealt with him and got one.
