Yugo tokarev

Zastava

My Tokarev has a slide mounted Hammer Block Safety that also locks the firing pin. 9mm, 9 round mag. Made by Zastava [Yugo] imported by American Arms. Daily carried with 10 rounds since late 80's. Only work done since set up was to compress the slide after 20K rounds to fix loose rail fit, and a loose rear sight. Yes MOST toks have sub standard safeties, but not all.

Oh, yeah, and there is the M88 by Zastava, imported by EAA, about 250
or if you can find it the Tokegypt, great gun with all the trimmings, also in 9mm, but I believe that you can convert it back without too much difficulty, and the Norinco 213, which is also convertible, unless it's the small frame, they made a few.

Shadow 7D: Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try to diagnosis it this week and I'll report back. I'd like to avoid sending it back for an exchange if possible but I guess if I can't get it going right that's an option.

I am having the same trigger pull problem with mine. It felt fine at first, and now I literally can't pull it hard enough to fire the gun. Going to take it down this weekend and give it a look. I am guessing that the sear is misground, or too soft, or both maybe?

Today I took mine apart to see if I could figure anything out. I removed the left grip and removed the import safety. I used a little strip of leather over the rear of the firing pin to allow the hammer to drop onto...hopefully that's a bit less traumatic than dry-firing. With the safety out, it didn't seem to make much of a measureable difference in trigger pull but on the plus side the pull seemed slightly better tonight and I had no failures to get the hammer to drop like I did shooting it the first time.

It's probably something in the hammer group. With the hammer group removed, the trigger is nice and smooth against the trigger return spring.

I attempted to measure the pull when I had everything back together using an old fishing scale (that actually did calibrate well when testing with a 5lb weight I had laying around.

The pull seemed to be a consistent 10lbs. Obviously pretty heavy for a single action.

Any thoughts?

Any one else with a Yugo Tokarev measure their trigger pull?

Ok, time to take the hammer group a part, did you manually push the sear with you finger and see how it felt.

So do you mean go ahead and cock the hammer back with the hammer group out of the gun and then try and hold it steady and push the bottom of the sear rearward to try and get the hammer to drop?

If I do take the hammer group apart, what am I looking for besides something obviously messed up or binding?

I really do appreciate the help...thanks for taking the time to post.

on mine the hammer group alone is 2.5 lbs and installed it is 4 lbs

My fish scales at 8#

http://www.alpharubicon.com/leo/tokarev213.htm
http://www.marstar.ca/images/Tokarev2.gif

And just because I like Box-O-Truth
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu59_3.htm

It really shouldn't bind, and if its in the hammer group you should be able to feel it out working the hammer and sear before you take the group all the way apart.

Thanks for the links Shadow 7D.

A range report: This weekend I took it out and a buddy and I went through about 5 mags worth of rounds without any problems. The trigger pull still seems a bit stiff to me (measured 10lbs on my fish scale) but every pull of the trigger resulted in a round being fired. I didn't take apart the hammer group yet...but I'm going to do that the next time I get around to it.

I do have a question on cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo out of these guns. Is all the corrosive salts from the primer contained in the barrel after shooting? It would seem that nothing would really come out of the back of primer onto the bolt face, etc.

It's really easy to remove the barrel and clean with hot soapy water to dissolve away the salts...a bit tricker to try to clean the bolt face, firing pin, etc.

Is a wipe down of the bolt face and inside of the slide with a water soaked cloth sufficient or does it really need to be rinsed away?

So far afer two shooting outings the gun shows no sign of rust or corrosion...I just want to be safe. That red/orange primer sealer does get everywhere and is a bit of a pain to clean out of the nooks and crannys.

Thanks for all those replying.

I run the barrel and slide under the hot water tap in the deep sink for at least 30 seconds each using a pliers to keep for getting burned. Shake and the heat will dry them pretty quick.

What Stoney posted is about the same thing I do. I have a brush (nylon) that I run through the bore halfway through the process, but just about identical other than that.
I clean as usual with BreakFree or Hoppes when it comes to the breech face, interior of the slide, etc. The bore is going to be by far the most affected by unremoved corrosive salts as this Tokarev variant hasn't a chrome-lined bore.

I haven't had any problems yet and don't think that I will.

@ Dentite

My Yugo Tok also has your trigger symptoms. Sometimes it works fine; sometimes it won't budge no matter how hard I pull. Usually, it goes bad when it is hot...after firing a mag or two. Also, I can tell when it goes bad...the reset feels off and then when I try to pull, the trigger feels like the mag safety is engaged (i.e., like how the trigger feels when the mag is out). At first, this made me think the mag was moving around in the grip, but then I looked at the safety.

I could see the trigger group had removed some of the bluing on a small area on the right side of the safety; there should be no rub there as that is the part of the safety that is out of the way and allows the trigger group to move freely. This told me that part of the safety was touching the trigger group when the safety was disengaged. I then checked the position of the safety and it appeared the installation holes were not drilled perpendicularly through the frame. More specifically, the right side hole was drilled slightly forward of the left side hole. So, this poor installation was causing the safety to touch the trigger group even when the safety was disengaged. I confirmed this all by firing the gun with safety installed until the trigger failed, then quickly removing the safety from the pistol (the trigger worked fine for multiple mags), and then reinstalling the safety until the trigger soon failed again.

Since then, I have been slowly filing the rubbed area on the safety every time the trigger fails at the range. One day, I think I will have removed enough material that the trigger works fine with the safety installed. If not, I'll just remove the safety permanently.

Stoney, Snowdog:

Thanks for all the info.

DaBull: Thanks for the info. I did remove the safety and reassembled the gun and did some testing with a strip of thick leather blocking the rear of the firing pin to prevent wear and tear from dry firing, and I couldn't feel much difference in the trigger pull with or without the safety in. I don't recall seeing wear marks on the "bar" portion of the safety inside the frame but I will look closer and maybe try to remove it once it gets "hot" to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Snowdog said:

If I'm not mistaken, both Yugo surplus and Wolf Gold are made by the same folks (prvi partizan, a reputable manufacturer).

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Wolf is Russian if I recall correctly....

Yugo surplus is made by prvi partizan, that I know for sure, their name is on the 3 crate of Yugo surplus ammo.

harmon rabb said:

Man, that's disappointing. I wish there was a Tokarev I could carry (I refuse to carry without one in the pipe).

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I carry my Yugo Tokarev "cocked and locked" just like a Colt .45 officers ACP.Never had an issue or anything even close. I'd call it just as safe as the Colt. Now, I'd not do this with any other Tokarev... just the Yugo.

Trigger pull wise, 7ish pounds. Many military pistols have heavy pulls, built that way, kinda as a built in safety, you have to PULL it...

I have yugo CZ52 and one problem I have with it is every once in a while it will chamber a round not quite all the way and it is a pain in the ass to get the slide to set so the gun will fire. It also seems dangerous when this happens. Has anyone else had a similar problem with theirs??

PupSter, Wolf is indeed Russian but they farm out much of their manufacturing.

PPU is stamped on the casehead of the Wolf Gold 7.62x25 FMJ that I have currently. I believe it's made in Serbia by the same folks who made our Yugoslavian surplus some 30 years ago.

It's entirely possible the "Gold" line has been moved in-house to Wolf's Tula facility since my ammunition was manufactured, however.

Nope, not with my Yugo Tokarev or my CZ52. Did have it with an SKS tho, brushed the chamber really well, it had built up carbon from God knows how long. worked well after that.

That said, I'd give it a good cleaning and if it still did it, check or have checked the head space.

Snowdog said:

PupSter, Wolf is indeed Russian but they farm out much of their manufacturing.

PPU is stamped on the casehead of the Wolf Gold 7.62x25 FMJ that I have currently. I believe it's made in Serbia by the same folks who made our Yugoslavian surplus some 30 years ago.

It's entirely possible the "Gold" line has been moved in-house to Wolf's Tula facility since my ammunition was manufactured, however.

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Ahh ok, I was really sure that Wolf was Tula, I didn't know that they sub-contracted stuff out. I will have to look at the head stamps and see. My SKS's are ok with Wolf but love the Yugo sup stuff, more accurate by a long shot.

Yeah, well don't be surprised if you check your american 'metric' rounds and see "PPU" on the head stamp...

Some people have been reporting that shavings from the aftermarket safety have ended up in the hammer packs, so taking it apart, or boiling (removing the cosmoline) and blowing it out might help if it's shavings.

This is about the M57 TOKAREV, MOOKIE, might want to start a new thread, completely different gun, or use the search function.

mookiie said:

I have yugo CZ52 and one problem I have with it is every once in a while it will chamber a round not quite all the way and it is a pain in the ass to get the slide to set so the gun will fire. It also seems dangerous when this happens. Has anyone else had a similar problem with theirs??

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Mookie?? a Yugo Tokarev? or a CZ52 which is Czechoslovakian.. same round, very similar, and can be made to interchange magazine... BUT otherwise totally differant pistols.

"I am fairly certain most com-bloc guns are/were made from recycled tractor frames.
Not necessarily a bad thing, just rest assured they aren't made from the best or the finest steels."

Fairly certain on the basis of precisely what? Got any data, or are you just relying on cold-war era prejudice? I have had TWO Colt 1911 A1 safeties snap in two due to improper heat treatment. Saw the same thing happen at the range to a Smith Model 19...three chambers blown apart, together with the improperly heat-treated topstrap. Luckily no one was hurt by the 38 Special-turned-fragmentation-grenade.

Let's see...aren't shooters concerned about low serial number Springfield 1903's with their notoriously brittle receivers? What were our countrymen using, recycled Model T's? Let's stick to facts, here, gentlemen. I've never heard of a Tok or an AK or a Mosin Nagant going kaboom. And certainly none of mine have. I can't say the same of some American made guns that I have seen and/or owned.

I've never heard of a Tok or an AK or a Mosin Nagant going kaboom. And certainly none of mine have.

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This. If anything, the comm block stuff is stronger and more reliable than their american counterparts.