Tokarev vs 1911

1911, while the 7.62x25 bullet is fast it just doesnt have the knockout punch of a .45, plus from what I know you can reload .45ACP cheaper too.

Tok ammo is also becoming harder to come by when it comes to commercial stuff. Im sure some on here load for it but that is beyond what I can do. I'm nervous cracking into my .357SIG reloads.
 
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Depends a lot on what I'm choosing it for...

I have a Ruger SR1911 and a Yugo M57. The way the safety is on the Tokarev, it mimics the 1911 very closely.

I bought the Ruger to have a 1911 in my collection. I like it a lot, but it isn't my go to gun.

I bought the Yugo right after the Sandy Hook shooting, along with a Nagant revolver and a spam can of ammo for each. Shortly thereafter, Nagant prices went up... then they disappeared. I thought the same was going to happen with the Tokarev, as I felt people were going to go crazy with all guns... which I was right to an extent. But the underlying reason for the Tokarev... because I wanted it in my collection.

I could use both for self defense... but the Ruger would likely be used before my Tokarev (I don't stock any other ammo than surplus or target loads). But to be honest, I have other guns I'd rather use.

Being an American, I'll say the 1911 is better in my eyes. But again, role can change which one I'd pick.
 
What's the purpose of the gun? Home defense, carry option, history, or just for fun? Modern 1911 or old GI model? The old school sights aren't great on either gun, but newer 1911 dovetails are much better than the original Tokarevs. I assume we're talking low end 1911...AO, RIA are in the $450 ballpark. Remington's around $500, ruger is at $650, and so on. Tokarevs can be had starting around $250.

All sorts of upgrades (and repairs) available for 1911, Tokarevs...not so much.

Tok ammo can be harder to find, many more loads for 45ACP.

The Tok is fun to shoot though, light recoil and nice fireballs from the 1600 ft/s (+) loads.

The answer is, of course, both! But If if you had to choose 1, I'd go 1911 first.
 
goodzilla said:
What's the purpose of the gun? Home defense, carry option, history, or just for fun? Modern 1911 or old GI model? The old school sights aren't great on either gun, but newer 1911 dovetails are much better than the original Tokarevs. I assume we're talking low end 1911...AO, RIA are in the $450 ballpark. Remington's around $500, ruger is at $650, and so on. Tokarevs can be had starting around $250.

All sorts of upgrades (and repairs) available for 1911, Tokarevs...not so much.

Tok ammo can be harder to find, many more loads for 45ACP.

The Tok is fun to shoot though, light recoil and nice fireballs from the 1600 ft/s (+) loads.

The answer is, of course, both! But If if you had to choose 1, I'd go 1911 first.
Click to expand...

Not Carry - way too big.

But yes, I'm into interesting, collectible guns, that are inexpensive. But they must function - if the SHTF they need to be more than paperweights.
 
A large lot of 1911 are supposed to be released from US Military Warehouses. But condition is reputed to be from good to poor, and prices high.

So I'm not looking forward to those.
 
I,love all,my toks.
My yugo is great.
For me if it's about price of the gun I will take my 180$ tok over a cheap entry 1911.
If your looking for collecting ......try to find a non import marked Russian TT33

Ammo is,not all that hard to find. Surplus is a tough to find. It's also jump,in price to factory new prices.
PPU makes 762x25 as do a few others. I do advise you set up for reloading. I use cheap lee dies and inexpensive bullets.
 
EddieCoyle said:
Where do you plan to get your ammo?
Click to expand...

Commercial ammo is readily available online for about $15-$16 a box shipped. But corrosive surplus ammo is pretty much non-existant at this point unless you want to pay insane prices.
 
goodzilla said:
What's the purpose of the gun? Home defense, carry option, history, or just for fun? Modern 1911 or old GI model? The old school sights aren't great on either gun, but newer 1911 dovetails are much better than the original Tokarevs. I assume we're talking low end 1911...AO, RIA are in the $450 ballpark. Remington's around $500, ruger is at $650, and so on. Tokarevs can be had starting around $250.

All sorts of upgrades (and repairs) available for 1911, Tokarevs...not so much.

Tok ammo can be harder to find, many more loads for 45ACP.

The Tok is fun to shoot though, light recoil and nice fireballs from the 1600 ft/s (+) loads.

The answer is, of course, both! But If if you had to choose 1, I'd go 1911 first.
Click to expand...

Yeah it depends on what the purpose will be. I bought my Romanian Tokarev because they're cheap guns, shoot nice fireballs, and are just neat old guns to have in your collection. I sold off the corrosive ammo I had because I'm lazy and didn't want to clean the gun right after I shot it. So now I reload 7.62x25 with 90 gr XTP bullets and 86 gr JSP bullets over Power Pistol and they shoot VERY accurately. No problem shooting 2-3" groups at ~45 feet which is good enough for me, especially for a $250 gun with crude sights. I will say that it took a lot of tinkering to get a good load and had to buy various dies to expand and crimp the cases correctly. Definitely not an easy "pistol" caliber to reload since it's more like a bottleneck rifle caliber.
 
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But I'd recommend both as others have said. There is such a huge difference in price, condition, quality, ammo availability, accessories, sights etc between a 1911 and a tokarev.
 
mac1911 said:
I,love all,my toks.
My yugo is great.
For me if it's about price of the gun I will take my 180$ tok over a cheap entry 1911.
Click to expand...

I'd much prefer a 1911, but I'm pretty sure a $180 1911 that is both safe to fire and can still hit the broad side of a barn is not in my future.
 
CaseHardened said:
I'd much prefer a 1911, but I'm pretty sure a $180 1911 that is both safe to fire and can still hit the broad side of a barn is not in my future.
Click to expand...

I think comparing a 1911 to a Tokarev is apples to oranges. They are similar but not identical of course. 1911's aren't all that much money. If you just want a basic 1911 not some rare collectible, rock island and remington seem to make very budget friendly 1911's right around $500ish?

Both are great guns to own but I'd say if you're on a tight budget at the moment, grab a tokarev as they're a fraction of the cost of a 1911 and are lots of fun to shoot.
View attachment 155190
 
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800px-Yugo_Tokarev_M57.jpg

980781_01_wtd_romanian_ttc_tokarev__640.jpg


The Yugo holds 9+1 as opposed to the Romanian 8+1.

I understand the Romanian Safety is added due to US Law. Is the Yugo Safety also an addition ?

To my eyes the Safety on the Yugo is not as ugly.
 
I have 3 TOK's and bought them before all the crap happened. paid less than 200 a piece and bought spam cans of surplus ammo for about .10 a round if i remember correctly. Those spam cans are close to 450 last time I saw them.
The Tok's are fun to shoot and have some cool features like inserting a full mag releases the slide. the shoot pretty well but the sights really kinda suck if you have old eyes like me. I checked areound and sight replacement seems to be a custom project. i ended up not doing it. i wasnt going to put $200-300 bucks in custom machine work into a $200 gun
 
CaseHardened said:
800px-Yugo_Tokarev_M57.jpg

980781_01_wtd_romanian_ttc_tokarev__640.jpg


The Yugo holds 9+1 as opposed to the Romanian 8+1.

I understand the Romanian Safety is added due to US Law. Is the Yugo Safety also an addition ?

To my eyes the Safety on the Yugo is not as ugly.
Click to expand...
The older Yugos have add-on safetys. They are not as ugly as some of the other add-on safetys, but they are still not a terribly effective safety. The new manufacture yugos with slide mounted safetys have a better designed safety that actually works well (blocks firing pin, etc).

Other than the new yugo tokarevs, I would say the biggest advantage of a 1911 over a tokarev is that the tokarev can only be carried safely with an empty chamber. Some people have a problem with that.

If you are going to get a tokarev, look for one of the 9mm ones if you are worried about ammunition costs. Very fun gun. Can still be had for ~$200. I just took the safety off of mine since it is pretty useless. Still don't have a 1911, because like you, cost was a concern.
 
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CaseHardened said:
800px-Yugo_Tokarev_M57.jpg

980781_01_wtd_romanian_ttc_tokarev__640.jpg


The Yugo holds 9+1 as opposed to the Romanian 8+1.

I understand the Romanian Safety is added due to US Law. Is the Yugo Safety also an addition ?

To my eyes the Safety on the Yugo is not as ugly.
Click to expand...

Yeah the safety on my romanian tokarev is pretty ugly I'll admit[laugh] But for what I paid and the fun I have with it at the range, it doesn't bother me. I'm not a collector, I'm a shooter.
 
Depends on what for, like said before.
I find the Tok more fun, and would probably be more comfortable carrying, but would only feel safe in condition 3, so that's a no go for me.
My 1911 is probably the least favorite gun in my collection . Of the two though, it is the most practical.

Range fun = Tok. Real world utility = 1911.
 
EvilDragon said:
For what? With a 9mm conversion a cheap Tok could be a carry piece, if you have the Yugo-style safety.
Click to expand...

If you have the older m57, the safety is significantly better than the worthless Romanian/Russian/Chinese addon, but it still leaves the firing pin alone, so it is not drop safe in condition 1. Some people are not comfortable with carrying a non-drop safe gun - you may be.

of course, the original 1911 was exactly the same in this regard, but most (all?) modern 1911 are drop safe.
 
browncoat said:
I dunno if that is a fair comparison. The tokarev and 1911 have a lot of design similarities. Maybe if he were comparing the tokarev with a modern sig/cz?
Click to expand...

I do agree it is a fair comparison. It's all about going into DEBT.

Some people do drive clunkers they can buy with one paycheck.

Others pay and pay.

I could never afford a decent old 911. But a new Auto-Ordnance, maybe. At triple the cost of the Tok.

And Tokarev admitted he borrowed features from the 1911, so in a sense, the Tok is Browning's bastard child.
 
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CaseHardened said:
I do agree it is a fair comparison. It's all about going into DEBT.

Some people do drive clunkers they can buy with one paycheck.

Others pay and pay.

I could never afford a decent old 911. But a new Auto-Ordnance, maybe. At triple the cost of the Tok.
Click to expand...
I guess in that regard. I don't see the 1911 as being as much better feature wise as the new car in the comparison.
 
At this point I'm leaning towards the time when a new shipment of Yugo's arrive in the States. Right now only Romanians seem to be available.

Nothing wrong with the Romanians, but I get a sense the Yugos may be in slightly better condition.

And I'd like to see an Auto-Ordnance 1911 first hand. I like the old-school look, and modern 1911 clones that depart dramatically from the WWII "look" do not appeal to me.

I think Four Seasons had them a year or so ago for $500.
 
The Remington R1 seems like a good mix of old and new. Upgraded sights on the R1... Remington offers $75 off coupons from time to time and you may be able to get it at $500 or even cheaper with the coupon.
 

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