Makarov - sights and recoil spring?

daekken

daekken

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Finally got to take the Makarov out for a second time. The first time was short range shooting water jugs and whatnot just for fun, but this time I decided to actually try a target. At 15 yards I found it to be quite low and right. Once I corrected for this I think I shot pretty well, particularly satisfactory for carrying, if I can ever find JHP in 9x18. I definitely could use more practice with it though.

20181110_142454.jpg

In terms of sights, has anyone heard or know about adjusting the rear sight?
Also, in terms of recoil, I've heard about 19# and 21# recoil springs to reduce the recoil a bit. Being blowback, it's probably not surprising that it's more recoil than I expected given the weight. I'm still on the fence about reloading 9x18; the cost savings would be great but I don't know if I'm going to shoot it enough to justify it. If the brass were more abundant, perhaps. Buying Starline brass makes reloads equal to the penny versus factory.

Still, size wise it fits a niche between my LCP II and G19.
 
greencobra said:
your cost goes down each time you reload them.
Click to expand...
This is true, but I am only able to recover about 60-75% of the cases in the couple of times I've shot it. Last time I was lucky in that I was the only one using the pistol area at the time and someone had swept brass recently so it was reasonably easy to find my cases. Plus I ran a sharpie over the headstamp to make it easier to differentiate from 9x19.

If anyone has tips on recovering your brass, that would be cool. All my other reloading is either for bolt guns or calibers that are so common, brass is abundant.
 
daekken said:
Finally got to take the Makarov out for a second time. The first time was short range shooting water jugs and whatnot just for fun, but this time I decided to actually try a target. At 15 yards I found it to be quite low and right. Once I corrected for this I think I shot pretty well, particularly satisfactory for carrying, if I can ever find JHP in 9x18. I definitely could use more practice with it though.

View attachment 253900

In terms of sights, has anyone heard or know about adjusting the rear sight?
Also, in terms of recoil, I've heard about 19# and 21# recoil springs to reduce the recoil a bit. Being blowback, it's probably not surprising that it's more recoil than I expected given the weight. I'm still on the fence about reloading 9x18; the cost savings would be great but I don't know if I'm going to shoot it enough to justify it. If the brass were more abundant, perhaps. Buying Starline brass makes reloads equal to the penny versus factory.

Still, size wise it fits a niche between my LCP II and G19.
Click to expand...
used to be a website for custom parts for the Makarov.com? The rear sight is dove tailed so you can drift it for windage. Do you have a fixed front sight?
You could always have someone like greg derr or other pistol smith cut in a nice set of sights both front and rear.
 
daekken said:
This is true, but I am only able to recover about 60-75% of the cases in the couple of times I've shot it. Last time I was lucky in that I was the only one using the pistol area at the time and someone had swept brass recently so it was reasonably easy to find my cases. Plus I ran a sharpie over the headstamp to make it easier to differentiate from 9x19.

If anyone has tips on recovering your brass, that would be cool. All my other reloading is either for bolt guns or calibers that are so common, brass is abundant.
Click to expand...
lol, I have fits chasing my .357 sig all over the place. I started playing with the caliber last year and loose 3-4 out of every 50. i'm relentless at the range, i'll hunt those buggers down all day before I leave. but, a few get away down that rabbit hole. I bought 1,000 pieces from starline, it ain't cheap either.
 
mac1911 said:
Are your pistols consistent in ejection
Click to expand...
At one of the clubs I belong to yes, since it's pretty open air, you basically have a concrete box to yourself so the wall does a good job of piling it. At the club I was at this time it's a hut kind of thing with stack of target stands on the side, etc. Deflecting off the ceiling and near the stands and near trash barrels and stuff, there were just a lot of factors, but I found most of the brass.
 
daekken said:
At one of the clubs I belong to yes, since it's pretty open air, you basically have a concrete box to yourself so the wall does a good job of piling it. At the club I was at this time it's a hut kind of thing with stack of target stands on the side, etc. Deflecting off the ceiling and near the stands and near trash barrels and stuff, there were just a lot of factors, but I found most of the brass.
Click to expand...
When I shot a lot of pistol I riveted hooks to a old storm door screen and hung it from the rafter it kept all my brass in my lane. If it’s a very repeatable action you can use a large net on a bipod to catch brass. It’s just more shit to lug around though
 
mac1911 said:

View: https://youtu.be/R6E_7qGHGgs

Get creative
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool...not sure if it's $130 cool though. I bet you could make something similar for far less money. I sometimes position my rifle cases to catch brass for my M1s pretty effectively. But 30-06 cases are easy to find (usually).

This reminds me it's going to be snowbank season soon, when semi-auto brass retrieval gets...interesting.
 
daekken said:
If anyone has tips on recovering your brass, that would be cool. All my other reloading is either for bolt guns or calibers that are so common, brass is abundant.
Click to expand...
This is what I use for my Tokarev and Coonan (when I had the Coonan). Those guns eject brass like 30+ feet away.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EB5OU06/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And a cheap tripod:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V7AF8E/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
andrew1220 said:
This is what I use for my Tokarev and Coonan (when I had the Coonan). Those guns eject brass like 30+ feet away.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EB5OU06/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And a cheap tripod:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V7AF8E/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Click to expand...
How well does it work?

My Tokarev ejects extremely consistently outdoors, but literally 30 feet at 5 O'clock. I had to fire while watching the ejection port once to figure out where they were landing because I couldn't find them. They were all in a neat pile once I knew where to look. Not sure it would be as easy indoors with the roof. The cases are pretty distinctive for the pistol side though, not a lot to confuse it with other than 357 Sig which I practically never see.

Looks like the Wolff springs are about $8 each...I was reading a good amount of people like the 19 and 21 lb springs but some expressed concerns about it damaging the pistol. 17# is the standard.
 
daekken said:
How well does it work?

My Tokarev ejects extremely consistently outdoors, but literally 30 feet at 5 O'clock. I had to fire while watching the ejection port once to figure out where they were landing because I couldn't find them. They were all in a neat pile once I knew where to look. Not sure it would be as easy indoors with the roof. The cases are pretty distinctive for the pistol side though, not a lot to confuse it with other than 357 Sig which I practically never see.

Looks like the Wolff springs are about $8 each...I was reading a good amount of people like the 19 and 21 lb springs but some expressed concerns about it damaging the pistol. 17# is the standard.
Click to expand...
Works very well once you figure out the correct height and angel of ejection etc. I got frustrated real quick losing 357 mag and x25 tokarev brass so it was well worth the money to me[laugh]
 
mac1911 said:
You need to loose 300 plus cases just to break even.
Click to expand...
Haha I never actually looked at it that way. It's not super expensive and the fact that I don't even have to waste time/effort bending over to pick up brass was worth it to me. If it was like $200+ or something, I'd just deal with loosing brass[laugh]
 
daekken said:
if I can ever find JHP in 9x18. I definitely could use more practice with it though.
I'm still on the fence about reloading 9x18; the cost savings would be great but I don't know if I'm going to shoot it enough to justify it. If the brass were more abundant, perhaps. Buying Starline brass makes reloads equal to the penny versus factory.
Click to expand...

Definitely a reload candidate. I've got plenty of XTP-HP and GDHP for the Mak, but no brass. Actually, I don't even shoot it, but someday, perhaps...
If you can make it down to SE CT in the next few weeks, we can load up some and shoot in the backyard.

As for brass catching, I've hung a tarp adjacent to my shooting position, so brass from my MAS deflects/dampens and falls a few feet ahead of me. I can't afford to lose any of the few boxer-primed cases I have right now.

Say, I don't suppose any of you have seen berdan primers on the shelf (not in MA, please)?
 
Some people are saying the heavier spring makes the brass easier to track down...I'm a bit skeptical going from 17# to 19# would make that big of a difference but I might order a spring just for the experimentation.

If buying brass and loading it works out penny for penny to buying factory, I guess I might as well buy factory and just save whatever brass I can hold onto. The real question I guess is whether to wait until I build up a store of it (just have 75 cases currently) or dive in...but I've added two calibers in 1.5 months and I think I might be better served with 8mm Mauser neck die.

Also, haven't seen any Berdan primers, but I haven't bought any reloading supplies in a store in about 15 months. That may change as I probably could do with some primers and maybe a different pistol powder if I do decide to pursue Makarov reloading now. The vendor I usually use online doesn't have any Berdan primers from what I can se.
 
daekken said:
Some people are saying the heavier spring makes the brass easier to track down...I'm a bit skeptical going from 17# to 19# would make that big of a difference but I might order a spring just for the experimentation.

If buying brass and loading it works out penny for penny to buying factory, I guess I might as well buy factory and just save whatever brass I can hold onto. The real question I guess is whether to wait until I build up a store of it (just have 75 cases currently) or dive in...but I've added two calibers in 1.5 months and I think I might be better served with 8mm Mauser neck die.

Also, haven't seen any Berdan primers, but I haven't bought any reloading supplies in a store in about 15 months. That may change as I probably could do with some primers and maybe a different pistol powder if I do decide to pursue Makarov reloading now. The vendor I usually use online doesn't have any Berdan primers from what I can se.
Click to expand...
I seen PPU brass for .18 cents shipped. Loaded PPU .31 shipped?
As my time gets less these days if I’m not saving .30 per round I will tend to buy loaded ammo especially in cals I don’t shoot more than 1k rounds a year with. I tool up to load everything I own but only actually load for about 1/2
 
I cut 9x19 down to 9x18. I don't shoot my Polish P64 often, brass cost me nothing this way, so when I can't find most of it, no big loss. I tried dying the brass with ink, that did not work, just flaked off when firing. I used a marker, but unless i was crawling on the floor, I still could not see the marks when mixed with 9mm.
 
mac1911 said:
I seen PPU brass for .18 cents shipped. Loaded PPU .31 shipped?
As my time gets less these days if I’m not saving .30 per round I will tend to buy loaded ammo especially in cals I don’t shoot more than 1k rounds a year with. I tool up to load everything I own but only actually load for about 1/2
Click to expand...
Targetsports has loaded PPU 9x18 at 29.5 cents shipped. I see you can get Starline for about 14.5 cents per piece shipped if you buy 1000...that would put the savings per round over factory at about 5 cents on a first loading then back up to 18 cents for each subsequent loading. But, that's $150 in brass plus about $65+ on projectiles for a caliber I don't plan to shoot a lot of, it's a good chunk of change. Not sure whether to look at it as "I should be set for a long time" or "I could use those funds on something more practical."

I stopped reloading .223 as I'd lose money on it with the current prices, but I still have components for it for whenever a price hike or shortage occurs. I can load seven calibers but only do six really (.223 hiatus), although at 5 cents per round savings 9mm has been more for USPSA experimentation and the expectation I might get a progressive press with a tax refund or something.

Out of Battery Firearms said:
I cut 9x19 down to 9x18. I don't shoot my Polish P64 often, brass cost me nothing this way, so when I can't find most of it, no big loss. I tried dying the brass with ink, that did not work, just flaked off when firing. I used a marker, but unless i was crawling on the floor, I still could not see the marks when mixed with 9mm.
Click to expand...
I've heard of people doing this, but I also heard it was a lot of effort and a few people said that unless you're able to collect it reliably it's a waste of time. Obviously 9mm brass is very abundant.
 
daekken said:
I've heard of people doing this, but I also heard it was a lot of effort and a few people said that unless you're able to collect it reliably it's a waste of time. Obviously 9mm brass is very abundant.
Click to expand...

It does take some time, I was hoping to recover more of the brass. Since marking it failed, I would not disagree about the waste of time. If I was shooting by myself on the range, then collecting would be effective. So it all depends.
 
Out of Battery Firearms said:
It does take some time, I was hoping to recover more of the brass. Since marking it failed, I would not disagree about the waste of time. If I was shooting by myself on the range, then collecting would be effective. So it all depends.
Click to expand...
I was lucky last time that I was the only one on the pistol half of the range and it had been recently swept, so I recovered about 75% of my cases. Perhaps in the short term I'll just keep buying factory and saving whatever brass I can find. I think at about 200 rounds I'd cover the cost of the dies.
 
Makarov collector for over 10 years here.
First, your sights. It may be you’re just getting used to firing a Mak compared to whatever pistols you’ve acquired muscle memory with. Every Mak I’ve owned has fired true if I’m doing my part. It should be fairly obvious if your rear sight needs adjusting.
I sent the slide on one of my East Germans off to Novak’s to have them install a set of nice big 3-white dot sights and they make a world of difference for carry gun purposes. I don’t really carry the Mak anymore but that EG was my summer carry gun for about 8 years. If I’m shooting for precision I still prefer the original tiny factory sights on the Mak but for quick acquisition Combat-type shooting the Novak’s are awesome.

Reloading and spring weight: I started saving brass and loading 9x18 two years ago but I don’t shoot that caliber nearly as much as when I carried the EG often. I have cut down x19 brass to make x18 but it is very time consuming and not really worth it IMO but I have a pretty good amount of x18 brass stocked up. Most of it unfired Starline. My load is with 95gr FMJ and Titegroup, and is fairly tame compared to factory power. I don’t recall which spring weights I switched all my Maks to but I can go look at old Wolff orders and find out. My brass lands about 10 feet off my right shoulder consistently with my loads. More like 25 feet with factory stuff.
I sold off a bunch of my Maks over the years and now have only the EG with Novak’s sights and a mint Bulgy. Also a P64 and P83 but those are not Makarovs, just same caliber.
I’ll find a pic of my EG. It’s somewhere in my phone.
 
45collector said:
Makarov collector for over 10 years here.
First, your sights. It may be you’re just getting used to firing a Mak compared to whatever pistols you’ve acquired muscle memory with. Every Mak I’ve owned has fired true if I’m doing my part. It should be fairly obvious if your rear sight needs adjusting.
I sent the slide on one of my East Germans off to Novak’s to have them install a set of nice big 3-white dot sights and they make a world of difference for carry gun purposes. I don’t really carry the Mak anymore but that EG was my summer carry gun for about 8 years. If I’m shooting for precision I still prefer the original tiny factory sights on the Mak but for quick acquisition Combat-type shooting the Novak’s are awesome.

Reloading and spring weight: I started saving brass and loading 9x18 two years ago but I don’t shoot that caliber nearly as much as when I carried the EG often. I have cut down x19 brass to make x18 but it is very time consuming and not really worth it IMO but I have a pretty good amount of x18 brass stocked up. Most of it unfired Starline. My load is with 95gr FMJ and Titegroup, and is fairly tame compared to factory power. I don’t recall which spring weights I switched all my Maks to but I can go look at old Wolff orders and find out. My brass lands about 10 feet off my right shoulder consistently with my loads. More like 25 feet with factory stuff.
I sold off a bunch of my Maks over the years and now have only the EG with Novak’s sights and a mint Bulgy. Also a P64 and P83 but those are not Makarovs, just same caliber.
I’ll find a pic of my EG. It’s somewhere in my phone.
Click to expand...
Nice. Yesterday afternoon I ordered the 21# spring to try. Between video reviews and forum posts people indicated it slightly reduced recoil and brass travel. For $10, I'll give it a try. Since I only have 100 rounds down with mine, it's entirely possible the accuracy was on my part. I've got around 60 more factory rounds to try out once the spring arrives.
 
Picking up a set of Makarov dies used from another forum member here.
With my calculations if I can recover 75% of the brass I have already, I'll only be out $5 -- and that's on a first loading; if I keep losing at a rate of 25%, after five reloads I'll already be ahead $36.

I have an Amazon gift card on hand, tempted to pick up the Lee trimmer to convert 9x19 to 9x18, just to have it. I think it's like $6.
 
mac1911 said:
So any plans with the sights.
Click to expand...
Planning to leave them as-is for now. I want to be sure it's not me, so I want to run some more rounds through after the new spring is installed. The one downside to shooting my Shadow 2 as much as I have been is that you get used to virtually no recoil and the big sight radius, etc. I don't want to muck with the sights based on c. 100 rounds, only about half of which were on a target (vs. plates/water jugs).
 
21# recoil spring felt like a noticeable reduction in recoil, could be a placebo effect.
Brass proximity improvement negligible. Range too crowded to run out paper but seemed to hit plates fine.
Makarov bullets arrived today. 95gr seem very wee.
I have everything I need to do up some test rounds this weekend.
 

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