Zastava Arms Revolver?

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ArchAngelCD

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I never heard of Zastava Arms before I saw their .357 Magnum revolver in the Cabela's sale circular that came in the mail today. I looked them up on the net and they are a 160 year old Serbian arms company.

The question is, does anyone know if their revolvers are worth $299? (4" Blue .357 Magnum) Anyone here actually heard of them and seen one of their revolvers?
 
I did about a week ago in a Cabela's store in Thornton, CO, too many folks at the gun counter to get a look-see/hands on deal. Definitely not a Smith !
 
That is the same factory that made the M48 rifles, rebuilt thousands of other rifles, made the Remington 798, and produced the Yugo car. (OK, so they would like to forget the car!)

They also made the Yugoslav AK-47, Tokarev, etc.

Yes, they do know about making guns.

Jim
 
I have a Zastava Tokarev pistol that is a pretty solid piece of machinery. A friend has a Zastava .22 rifle that works well too. I can't speak for the model you're looking at, but it's definitely not a fly-by-night company.
 
I have the Zastava EZ9, which is close to a clone of a Sig 226. It is an awesome pistol and seems to be on par with Sig quality with the exception of its finish. FN helped Zastava get on their feet when they started up, and they make some quality guns but are not real well known in the US.
 
I saw them in Thornton too, they didn't look beat up. Suspect they are police trade guns.
 
Zastava made the guns that were sold as Interarms Mark X Mausers back when the country they were in was called Yugoslavia. They can make really good rifles.

I saw the revolvers in the Cabela's in Louisville last week. These were new guns and the price was $399. DA triggers were horrible. For the price I would find a used Ruger Security Six instead.
 
Wonder why Cabelas has three different stock numbers and they list the guns with /92, /93 and /95 prefixes? I can't see an explanation on the website.

Did I mention tha the double action trigger was horrible?
 
I checked my mail yesterday and one of the things in it was a sales flyer from Cabelas.

It showed the Zastava revolver as "NEW", then several lines below that it states "Pre-Owned". Well if that isn't clear enough. :D
Looked over FN .357 'Barracuda' and passed on it despite favorable price because I'm no good at fabricating spare parts. I would follow this advise on this one too.
 
If they are "pre-owned" they might have been made when the country was still Yugoslavia, so "Made in Yugoslavia" might be correct.

Jim
 
i believe the gun has been in several model changes. i believe the 299.99 m83 is "discontinued" by company
 
Dan's Sporting Goods has them in NIB condition and I was curious enough to order one... Should arrive at my FFL next week. Have had good luck with other Zastava firearms so I figured I'd give their revolver a go.
 
Dan's Sporting Goods has them in NIB condition and I was curious enough to order one... Should arrive at my FFL next week. Have had good luck with other Zastava firearms so I figured I'd give their revolver a go.
Never gotten a gun from Dan's I wasn't impressed with so I would have no reservation about getting one of these from him if I was in the market for a revolver. When a new shipment of surplus weapons comes in he tends to have the pick-of-the-litter.
 
Dan's Sporting Goods has them in NIB condition and I was curious enough to order one... Should arrive at my FFL next week. Have had good luck with other Zastava firearms so I figured I'd give their revolver a go.
I sure would like to see some pics when you get it. :)
I would also be interested is seeing what one looks like and hearing from you on how well you like it or not. That will really answer my original question alright! lol
 
Zastava makes really good stuff as folks have noted. Their real problem is the fact nobody big here seems to keep them in their line-up. Remington screwed EAA over importation and brought in Russian and Zastava goods (the Remington 978 was a Zastava rifle while the Spartan was Russian). Evidently when Remington dropped the Serbs and Russians, EAA didn't resume importation (snake bit, I guess). Whereas HS Precision is relatively new, and several of their products were just plain weird like their PHP, they exploded because of the HS 2000 being picked up by Springfield.

Heck, had Remington decided to get into the handgun market a bit sooner, they could have brought in the Zastava revolvers, the CZ-99 (EZ-9), and others in addition to the 1911 they are making.

But Ruger won't bring in a S&W copy, neither will S&W nor Taurus or Colt (though Colt is known for European collaboration). As it stands, these will likely be solid, dependable revolvers because Zastava makes good firearms that will be largely unknowns. Of course, that can keep the price down and $300 for a solid, dependable .357 is good no matter how you slice it (even if the grips are press-checkered).
 
Same factory that makes the M57 Tokarev.
I have an M57, that's 48 years old. I love it.
The problem is getting repair parts.

I would suspect that'd be true even for modern guns.

(but if I had an extra $300 layin around I would've been all over that Cabela's deal.)
 
I agree with ash, zastava makes pretty good value stuff, but their lack of stable importer keeps my away from them now. I got burned on a charles daly mini-mauser (I buggered a screw and couldn't get a replacement)
 
Kind of an old thread but I wanted to add my 2 cents. Picked this up from Cabela's last month. They sell them as "pre-owned" but both that I looked at looked unfired.

Trigger was kind of rough at first and quite heavy and the action seemed stiff. Once I got it home I took it apart, it was dry as a bone inside and the finish on the interior parts was pretty rough.

A good lube helped quite a bit and after a couple hundred dry fires and 100 rounds fired things have smoothed up noticeably. The trigger is nothing to write home about but it's not bad really. Accuracy seems good.

I bought it for an inexpensive nightstand gun so I could keep my Colt and Smith revolvers in the safe and I think it will serve that role just fine.

017_zpsbf526ee4.jpg
 
Looks good! Thanks for posting. How about a mini-review when you get a chance? I would like to hear more and see more pics. Not much first hand info out there on these revolvers so it would likely benefit anyone considering grabbing one.
Thanks!
 
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