- Location
- On a resonably direct route in NS
Most Tokarev shooters are familiar with the strange marks the firing pin leaves on spent primers. Some worry that there's something wrong with their pistol, or that this will result in increased stress and eventual breakage of the tip of the pin.
As per this post, there was a later re-design of the hammer that attempted to correct this, by machining a slight step/notch on its face to very briefly slow the recoil of the slide and allow the firing pin to retract.
But does it work? How well? Is it possible to retro-fit on examples that were not issued with the new hammer? I decided to do the experiment.
Guns used were a Soviet post-war TT-33, with a smooth hammer, Chinese M213, notched hammer, and Serbian M70A, smooth. A war-time TT-33 with a re-furbished notched hammer was not fired in the test, but its hammer was switched in to the smooth guns.
These have all been cleaned, including scrubbing out the firing pin channel, lubed, and run well.
I fired four shots from each combination, but with the way they eject all the way across the room I was usually only able to keep track of three cases landing, with confidence that I was not mixing them up. It was hard enough having four pistols laid out in pieces and constantly re-assembling them without losing track of parts matches!
I have a bunch more Tokarevs I could throw into the mix, but I think these results speak loudly enough:
The TT was shot with Czech surplus 7,62x25 ('53 head-stamp as you see), first with its own smooth hammer, then the Soviet re-furb notched hammer. You can see the typical drag marks with the smooth hammer, certainly less than on some others' guns that haven't been cleaned as judiciously. Switching to the notched made a real difference; the firing pin is still swiping across the primer as the barrel tilts, but the drag marks visible on all cases are universally weaker.
The Zastava was shot with commercial 9mm ammo, with its smooth hammer, then the Soviet re-furb notched. Commercial primers should be softer than military, but the worst marks only seemed about as bad as the best marks from the TT above. Using the improved hammer, it was reduced to a tiny ding, sometimes barely visible unless under close scrutiny.
The Norinco was shot with commercial 9mm ammo and its notched hammer. Due to the design of its safety lever, the hammer housing needs a cut-out on the bottom of the left plate, so I was not able to switch hammers to a smooth one. However, you can see minimal dings using the improved hammer.
Conclusion:
The re-designed hammer works, producing primers that in all cases were dragged on less than with the original design, and in the best cases were barely noticeable. It doesn't work as well with the harder-recoiling surplus 7,62 round.
The next step is to measure the two hammer types, to ascertain whether we can do slight grinding ourselves to replicate the notched design.
All of my (ten) Toks have a firing pin long enough that the tip protrudes if the hammer is pushing fully forward on the striking surface at its rear. This includes the Zastava, which has a different firing pin design, owing to the pin block safety on that pistol. Pin strikes are conspicuously deep; this direct firing pin engagement was deemed to be more desireable in terms of fewer failures to fire under adverse conditions, with potentially lesser life-span compared to an inertial firing pin.
As per this post, there was a later re-design of the hammer that attempted to correct this, by machining a slight step/notch on its face to very briefly slow the recoil of the slide and allow the firing pin to retract.
But does it work? How well? Is it possible to retro-fit on examples that were not issued with the new hammer? I decided to do the experiment.
Guns used were a Soviet post-war TT-33, with a smooth hammer, Chinese M213, notched hammer, and Serbian M70A, smooth. A war-time TT-33 with a re-furbished notched hammer was not fired in the test, but its hammer was switched in to the smooth guns.
These have all been cleaned, including scrubbing out the firing pin channel, lubed, and run well.
I fired four shots from each combination, but with the way they eject all the way across the room I was usually only able to keep track of three cases landing, with confidence that I was not mixing them up. It was hard enough having four pistols laid out in pieces and constantly re-assembling them without losing track of parts matches!
I have a bunch more Tokarevs I could throw into the mix, but I think these results speak loudly enough:
The TT was shot with Czech surplus 7,62x25 ('53 head-stamp as you see), first with its own smooth hammer, then the Soviet re-furb notched hammer. You can see the typical drag marks with the smooth hammer, certainly less than on some others' guns that haven't been cleaned as judiciously. Switching to the notched made a real difference; the firing pin is still swiping across the primer as the barrel tilts, but the drag marks visible on all cases are universally weaker.
The Zastava was shot with commercial 9mm ammo, with its smooth hammer, then the Soviet re-furb notched. Commercial primers should be softer than military, but the worst marks only seemed about as bad as the best marks from the TT above. Using the improved hammer, it was reduced to a tiny ding, sometimes barely visible unless under close scrutiny.
The Norinco was shot with commercial 9mm ammo and its notched hammer. Due to the design of its safety lever, the hammer housing needs a cut-out on the bottom of the left plate, so I was not able to switch hammers to a smooth one. However, you can see minimal dings using the improved hammer.
Conclusion:
The re-designed hammer works, producing primers that in all cases were dragged on less than with the original design, and in the best cases were barely noticeable. It doesn't work as well with the harder-recoiling surplus 7,62 round.
The next step is to measure the two hammer types, to ascertain whether we can do slight grinding ourselves to replicate the notched design.
All of my (ten) Toks have a firing pin long enough that the tip protrudes if the hammer is pushing fully forward on the striking surface at its rear. This includes the Zastava, which has a different firing pin design, owing to the pin block safety on that pistol. Pin strikes are conspicuously deep; this direct firing pin engagement was deemed to be more desireable in terms of fewer failures to fire under adverse conditions, with potentially lesser life-span compared to an inertial firing pin.
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