Hi all, last week I was in Vancouver for business meetings, and after we checked out of our hotel and were heading south on Burrard, I realized we were close to Lever Arms so I stopped in. I was hoping to find a No.5 (no such luck), when Blair Hagen walked in. He pointed out the TT33's, but having just spent $1000 on winter tires and rims, I was reluctant. My wife, who had been shopping, turned up about then, and said "Only $169.00 for a pistol? You should get it."
Major kudos to my wife, and great thanks to Blair, and to Lever Arms: this arrived in yesterdays mail, 2 days after the transfer was approved:
After cleaning, two things came to light- the feed ramp is sorry looking but i can tidy that up, and the barrel, which looked... not great, after one patch through it turned out to be the shiniest, smoothest, mirror-brightest bore I've ever seen on any firearm. I doubt it ever had more than the factory test rounds through it.
I tried to get a pic that really shows how clean it now is, but none really turned out well. Anyway, I have no idea how well it will shoot, and I do realize I'll be painstakingly handloading every one of these bottlenecked pistol cartridges, and I'll have to buy dies, brass, and projectiles. A fate worse than death to some, but another winter project for me. Tell you one thing that's annoying as hell- the base of the mag has two 90 degree corners that rub on the hand because the grip is so short. Since it came with 2 mags (one numbered to the pistol, these things are all-matching fwiw) I'll try taking a file to the spare (not matching) mag first and see if that cures it or reduces it to a dull roar.
Still, all things considered, this may be one of the truly great bargains of our time, provided you're willing to either handload, or are willing to strip and clean it after every use of the corrosive surplus that's available. With the pristine bore I have, I won't be using any surplus.
The TT33 is like the Netflix of pistols.
Major kudos to my wife, and great thanks to Blair, and to Lever Arms: this arrived in yesterdays mail, 2 days after the transfer was approved:
After cleaning, two things came to light- the feed ramp is sorry looking but i can tidy that up, and the barrel, which looked... not great, after one patch through it turned out to be the shiniest, smoothest, mirror-brightest bore I've ever seen on any firearm. I doubt it ever had more than the factory test rounds through it.
I tried to get a pic that really shows how clean it now is, but none really turned out well. Anyway, I have no idea how well it will shoot, and I do realize I'll be painstakingly handloading every one of these bottlenecked pistol cartridges, and I'll have to buy dies, brass, and projectiles. A fate worse than death to some, but another winter project for me. Tell you one thing that's annoying as hell- the base of the mag has two 90 degree corners that rub on the hand because the grip is so short. Since it came with 2 mags (one numbered to the pistol, these things are all-matching fwiw) I'll try taking a file to the spare (not matching) mag first and see if that cures it or reduces it to a dull roar.
Still, all things considered, this may be one of the truly great bargains of our time, provided you're willing to either handload, or are willing to strip and clean it after every use of the corrosive surplus that's available. With the pristine bore I have, I won't be using any surplus.
The TT33 is like the Netflix of pistols.
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