Surplus TT33 - Tokarev as first pistol?

GSG 1911 or Ruger 22 MkIII (or IV) Bull barrel 22/45, Browning Buckmark (never shot one myself) are a good start, as is an FNS 9mm if you can swing it. Everyone will have an opinion, but these are all around $400-500. All will be great beginners pistols, or stay in your collection forever. Yes, the Rugers are a PAIN to take down, but they can be taken down, and are very accurate, especially the longer barrelled ones (5.5" at minimum.)
 
Try a zasvata M70A, 9mm, same design as a TT33 but the grip is longer, feels better in hands.

edit: there is just a new ads on EE for one at $295
 
Wendell said:
No.

It's rude, crude, and obsolete. It isn't good for much except collecting, plinking, and WW2 reenactment.

Don't do it!


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In Trumps famous words,,'Wrong!' Not sure what you mean by rude, unless you were just trying to rhyme, crude,, Naa, it was based on Brownings designs and close to the 1903 and 1911, slimmed down! It is really a beautiful streamlined 1911, awesomecsteel in it, accurate if you work on your form, most folks don't with this pistol and just plink, but it is accurate and very well made! Obsolete, nope, fires an awesome .30 cal. Round at high speed, can penetrate some types of body armour,,! So very simple to field strip and clean. I guess the only thing it doesn't have is Mag capacity, not a big deal in this country but would be nice to carry a few more rounds! As Hickok 45 said ,it would be a great CC, if we had that in Canada! Oh yea, the sights could use some work, but that isn't hard to do.
 
Wendell said:
No.

It's rude, crude, and obsolete. It isn't good for much except collecting, plinking, and WW2 reenactment.

Don't do it!

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This. Pistol can't be used in three of the action pistol sports, has poor ergonomics, crude sights, and useless for anything but offhand plinking from what I can see at our range. Buy something you can use beyond making a noise. There are other options which make way more sense on the used market. Check out the EE.

Take care

Bob
 
Action pistol sports is not the only valid shooting application. How are the "non-sport" shooters worse than "sport"-shooters? Blue blood? What % of RPAL owners shoot at least one of three sports? Slim.
TT-33 is not IPSC pistol and never intended to be. TT-33 is Soviet military model and served it's purpose very well. It is good first pistol - slim, full-metal, simple and reliable, based on proven Browning designs. It is accurate, easy to clean and it eats cheap ammo. Poor sights? Standard European open sights, I don't find them poor I find them normal, sorry red dots were not very popular in 1930x. Not very comfortable grip and only 8 rounds are only real "drawbacks", but all pistols have drawbacks - it's a matter of understand limitations of the gun. Oh right, if you plan to shoot indoor - you better go for 9mm Luger version. If you decide to go with Yugo - avoid commercial ones, go for military.
P.S. Don't forget about zombies in armour plates. What stops 9mm Luger won't stop 7.62x25.
 
While not tacti-Kool, the better made specimens are a solid and reliable pistol.

Not everyone is interested in formal action pistol shooting.

If you just want to informally shoot targets for fun, and not become a weekend warrior, then it's as good a pistol as any.

The Romanian and Yugoslavian pistols are reputedly the better ones.

As a first pistol, however, a .22 target gun would be best to learn on. That way, hopefully, you would learn the fundamentals of trigger squeeze and sight alignment, without the distraction of recoil and and a heavier trigger pull.
 
Lonesome Donkey said:
While not tacti-Kool, the better made specimens are a solid and reliable pistol.

Not everyone is interested in formal action pistol shooting.

If you just want to informally shoot targets for fun, and not become a weekend warrior, then it's as good a pistol as any.

The Romanian and Yugoslavian pistols are reputedly the better ones.

As a first pistol, however, a .22 target gun would be best to learn on. That way, hopefully, you would learn the fundamentals of trigger squeeze and sight alignment, without the distraction of recoil and and a heavier trigger pull.
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Good idea, a reasonBly priced quality .22, even a good used one is inexpensivetrigger time, and if you have to have a gun with more noise and kick then the tt 33 isnt a lot of cash.
 
BCRider said:
I had two of the super cheap 9mm M213 Chinese copies for a while. Both turned out to be real shooters. Neatly accurate.

But the guns are simply not comfortable to hold for anyone with larger hands. The grip area is too short and larger hands end up with their pinkies floating off the lower edge all the time. And the shape of the rounding from the back strap up into the extension that holds the hammer is a poor shape that drives itself hard into the web of the hand. And that creates a point of low contact support in the grip just under that rearward arching curve. I found that this made the gun rise more in my grip if held up high on the grip and even with a two handed hold.

These issues MIGHT be curable if the gun is equipped with a set of the "tokegypt" wrap around grips. But it'll still be too short and find the pinky falling off the lower edge.

On top of all this they are a single action which has no safety. So they don't fit in with any of our more common competitions. All of which is why I ended up selling them.

Now don't think it was all hate on my part. I really did like the design. The way the whole action group lifted out for cleaning is BRILLIANT! But there are too many other issues with how these guns fit the hands when trying to use a modern two handed hold over the classic one hand hold. That on top of the lack of a safety which renders the guns unusable in most competitions made me give up on them and sell them.

For casual plinking? Not a bad gun. For learning good habits as a first gun? I'd go with any of the better options.

So no, as much as I like them I don't think that they are a good idea as a first gun.
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Very fair.
I can't disagree. The old TT33 is venerable but it would be terrible as a competition gun for speed and ease of comfortable use.
But for straight up shooting at the range and picking off targets with 100% reliability at a fraction of the cost of any other gun out there, they can't be beat.
 
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Also, I prefer the Makarov honestly.
In all truth of all the handguns I've shot, owned and ended up selling over the years (sig 226, many 1911 variants, browning hi power, CZ, 1873 etc etc) the Makarov was by far one of my all time favorites. Especially with the upgraded beefy rubber hogue grip.
It was crazy accurate (fixed frame barrel/blowback) very compact, easy to shoot, great sights, extremely reliable with safety and decock lever.
I even had the Spetznaz push through to chamber a round, flick off the safety holster I got from Interammo. Most fun I've ever had shooting a hand gun in long long time. I got very very good at shooting that pistol.
I shot all the mak 9mm I could get my hands on, ran out eventually then could find no more anywhere in the country for sale except dribs and drabs. It became a pain in the a*s. I had one of my favorites all time hand guns ever and no ammunition for it anywhere! I sold it eventually. Like John Wayne said: "A gun without bullets in it ain't much good now is it!?" :(
 
BCRider said:
On top of all this they are a single action which has no safety. So they don't fit in with any of our more common competitions. All of which is why I ended up selling them.
.
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BC, TT33 do have a safety, by pulling back the hammer 1/4 it clicks and everything is locked, probably not suitable for competition, but it is a safety.

Cheers
 
tazik said:
BC, TT33 do have a safety, by pulling back the hammer 1/4 it clicks and everything is locked, probably not suitable for competition, but it is a safety.

Cheers
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It is not the gun that makes it illegal it is the cartridge. The 7.62 round will go through or severely dent most steel poppers and plates which is why the Toks using that cartridge don't play in IDPA. With a 9MM barrel the gun would be legal in ESP Division. The gun is SA so it is not allowed in IPSC Production but would certainly qualify for Standard Division with a different cartridge, 9MM shooting minor would work.

Take Care

Bob
 
I've not seen any rules where a half #### is considered as a valid safety. So that's why I didn't mention it as an option.

I did use one of my M213's for a practice night once for S&G's. I used two different starting conditions just to see which seemed faster and easier. One was chamber empty and rack at draw as I've read the Mossad supposedly uses. The other was hammer down with loaded chamber and #### during the draw once it was up and pointed downrange far enough. It was fun but slower than my usual CZ with hammer down and a DA first round.

Someone mentioned above that not everyone plays in the matches so they don't need a gun that qualifies. And that's true. But for some standing and perforating paper gets old fairly soon. And if they start with a gun which is usable in the local competition scene then they won't need to buy another one if they want to try it out.

Another reason for not selecting the TT33 as a first gun might be the posts here that report group sizes that resemble those from handfuls of pea gravel thrown at the target. If the gun and ammo cannot shoot small clean size groups then how does the shooter know when they are doing things right? If a gun shoots that badly then is it much better than a noise maker that rattles their fillings? Seems to me it would be better to start with a gun which is known to shoot well so as the shooter makes improvements in their own stance, grip and trigger control that they see instant feedback from the group size.
 
I think that it is reasonable to point out again that not all shooters who buy a semi-automatic handgun will automatically want to become IPSC or competition shooters, just as not all shooters who buy a Single Action Army style of revolver will automatically want to become CAS competitive shooters.

Also, not everyone who buys a .22LR semi-automatic pistol will want to become a serious paper-punching competitive target shooter.

Many people just want to punch targets and ring steel gongs at the range. That's just as valid as any other part of the shooting sports if you follow range rules, and the many people who do this do follow the rules.

With this in mind, there is no reason why anyone should not just simply buy a handgun for the purpose of learning to shoot it well, within the limits of whatever handgun they choose. There is more to shooting as a hobby than competition.

So there is no reason why someone who wants to buy a Tokarev pistol, or a G.I. 1911A1, or a Single Action Army clone, or an S&W Model 10 .38 Special, or whatever, should not do so. I've shot many different handguns over the years and enjoyed them all.

I just wanted to shoot them as well as I could, learn about them, and did not worry if they were capable of the same groups as the finest target pistol.

As a first pistol, the Tokarev is not a good choice. But, after having attained the basics of good shooting, a great pistol to enjoy at any range where the 7.63 ammo is not disallowed.
 
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Still alive said:
If all you want to do is make large fireballs with cheap surplus ammo in a cheap un-ergonomic gun that thinks it's a 1911 then, sure, good choice!
If this will be your first pistol and you've never shot a pistol or had proper training before with one, then it's not the best choice especially if you want to improve. Gritty trigger, weird grip, lousy sights and heavy recoil all stack the odds of improvement against you.
The Tok is a fine economy gun to add to an existing collection of someone who understands the fundamentals of shooting a handgun. It will handicap you as a first gun, unless you shoot under the supervision of a trained shooter.
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What he ^^^ said.
 
Reword the op question to, 'was your first car a clunker or porshe' a clunker may not be a race car, but it got you and your friends to and from school and you probably have awesome memories in/with it.
 
My first handgun was TT-33, it not the nicest gun to shoot, but I figured that it's interesting to learn to shoot it iAfter all it was good enough to serve in WWII and many years after that. I got Sharow after and Shadow is way better to shoot, but I still like my TT-33 and not going to sell it any soon. No regrets of TT-33 as my first gun.
 
was my first and was followed by other icons 1911 ,p22,92fs all great and all a lot o fun but every mosin and sks owner needs their little brother around
the great TT33
 
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