How many of you guys carry a Makarov

what sort if defensive ammo do y'all carry in your maks?

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Silver Bear 94gr hollow points or the Buffalo Bore 115gr lead flat nosed non-hollow point. That BB round packs a punch! I do not feel underpowered with either rounds, love the reliability of the Makarov.

I picked up this German Mak a few years ago, dehorned the left grip panel thumbrest and rounded the back strap. I'ts amazing the difference in comfort it made while carrying or just target shooting.
This is a cheapie IWB holster for a Bersa, fits perfect.

Since this photo I have chopped the steel lanyard loop and filed it smooth with the grips for even more comfort.

Although I started buying Makarovs when the East German Makarov was first imported and I have a few of them, I don't carry them because for about the same size and weight I can carry a Kimber Ultra 45ACP.
Besides Crimson Trace doesn't make a laser for the Makarov. All my defense guns are equipped with (good) lasers.


Some of my Maks.

I carry a p64 quite often, it's accurate, reliable, and I'm quite good with it, also that's with hornady xtp

Fatdaddy said:

I picked up this German Mak a few years ago, dehorned the left grip panel thumbrest and rounded the back strap. I'ts amazing the difference in comfort it made while carrying or just target shooting.
This is a cheapie IWB holster for a Bersa, fits perfect.

Since this photo I have chopped the steel lanyard loop and filed it smooth with the grips for even more comfort.

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Get yourself a Don Hume H715 Makarov holster. You'll find it fits even better and fully covers the trigger guard like it should.

http://www.donhume.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=35&zenid=4somii7qsiamvfh9pjq4hck2j1

I carried the Polish P-64 chambered in 9mm Mak for several years. Now it's a dedicated console gun in one of the vehicles. Plenty of power and always reliable. Paid $150 for it from JG Sales.

My opinion is the CZ 82 is the best of the bunch. Best trigger, best sites, best capacity, it is a little heavier but the weight doesn't bother me and I'm not a big guy. I use the Silver Bear HPs, while they aren't as good expanders as Hornadys, they still expand and get better penetration. If you shoot where you should, you will have to be able to penetrate bone and I have no doubt the Silver Bear will accomplish that. My CZ shares time with my S&W 6904.

I had one but like an IDIOT I traded it.

Godsgunman said:

My opinion is the CZ 82 is the best of the bunch. Best trigger, best sites, best capacity, it is a little heavier but the weight doesn't bother me and I'm not a big guy. I use the Silver Bear HPs, while they aren't as good expanders as Hornadys, they still expand and get better penetration. If you shoot where you should, you will have to be able to penetrate bone and I have no doubt the Silver Bear will accomplish that. My CZ shares time with my S&W 6904.

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While the cz-82 isn't really any bigger than a G19... it's still frickin' huge compared to a Makarov, or especially a P64. They're not really in the same class in terms of size. (Note, I own two cz-82's, love the design, and carried one of them daily for a while. no '82 hatred going on here, but a Mak is a LOT easier to conceal. And a P64, honestly, isn't even in the same category when it comes to concealability)

The P64 gives the impression of being a good bit smaller than the Makarov, but they are close to the same size.


With the longer grip the Mak carries a couple more rounds.
The P64 DA trigger pull is terrible. It can be much improved with a 16-18 pound main spring.

Both guns can be improved with a heavier recoil spring.


I have the CZ82 (9x18) and the CZ 83 in 9x18, 380 and 32.
Good guns but for no particular reason I like the Makarov better.

I used to carry my P64 for deep conceal before I got my LCP, now I carry it once or twice a month. It mostly lives in my glove box or dresser drawer. That is when I am not pulling muscles in my trigger finger and punishing my hand silly.

"Good guns but for no particular reason I like the Makarov better."

My reason is that the Makarov is the only version of all the 9x18 pistols that a complete neophyte can gunsmith. If you can change a tire you can fix a Makarov; from spring to barrel changes. Try that with the CZ-82, P-64, or others. You can barely take the grips off a CZ-82 without danger of losing something (although I admit that is one fine pistol and I use it constantly).

I really like my EG Makarov. It's extremely accurate.

I now have 2 Maks and I carry my Bulgarian about once a week. Like my S&W 642, the makarov brings a sense of "it's going to work when I pull the trigger". The 9x18 round is potent and reliable. I shoot lots of hard trash (literally) and the 9x18 breaks stuff as well as most of my 9mms.

Everything about the pistol is nice. The grip, the safety, accuracy, ease of use, and most of all, the reliability. My Bulgarian was unfired when I purchased it. Not a mark on it. The safety lever had obviously never been moved. It's probably the best pistol for the money one can buy.

It's a fairly smooth pistol as well and will come out of a holster super easy. Not really that big for everyday carry.

I got my second one about a month ago. 300 rounds through it already and it shoots precisely like the first one. Both have nice triggers as well. New, used...I can't tell the difference.

m2steven said:

I now have 2 Maks and I carry my Bulgarian about once a week. Like my S&W 642, the makarov brings a sense of "it's going to work when I pull the trigger". The 9x18 round is potent and reliable. I shoot lots of hard trash (literally) and the 9x18 breaks stuff as well as most of my 9mms.

Everything about the pistol is nice. The grip, the safety, accuracy, ease of use, and most of all, the reliability. My Bulgarian was unfired when I purchased it. Not a mark on it. The safety lever had obviously never been moved. It's probably the best pistol for the money one can buy.

It's a fairly smooth pistol as well and will come out of a holster super easy. Not really that big for everyday carry.

I got my second one about a month ago. 300 rounds through it already and it shoots precisely like the first one. Both have nice triggers as well. New, used...I can't tell the difference.

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I had an experience highlighting the reliability of the Mak when I took a new (to me) bulgarian and a new (literally) CM9 to the range together. I hadn't even bothered to clean the bulgy first, and I had brought a pile of mags I had bought off the internet for cheap and hadn't tested either. With cheap steel cased crap, the Mak was 100% the entire outing, didn't even think of malfunctioning. The CM9, not so much, turned out to be finicky with ammo, and had some issues with failing to lock the slide when the mag was done.

In fact, I own 5 maks and none have ever malfunctioned. Good design.

The PM is very good and uber-reliable pistol even with goofy JHPs like Winchester PDX ones. I look at those sorta like hobos Glocks.

HarmonRabb: I have shot almost nothing but steel ammo through my Maks and it seems to me that much of it is loaded a more consistently than the generic Winchester or other common stuff available at Walmart and Academy. I buy a lot of TulAmmo at Walmart, mostly for the Maks, but I recently bought a box of 9mm and 45acp and it really nice stuff. Every round feels exactly like any other.

I've had better luck with Kahr than you apparently. All my Kahrs work to perfection, but they feel like they will stop cycling any second. Mine don't, but I don't shoot a lot of hollow point through them.

The first time I took down a Mak - I thought "hey - it's a Bersa Thunder 380!".

More like the Bersa is a Makarov clone.

If you need good defensive ammo for a Makarov, as I mentioned before, Hornady has Critical Defense hollowpoints in 9x18. Beware, though, that while an actual Makarov will eat these all day (and anything else, for that matter), these will NOT feed in a P-64. At all. The round doesn't go under the extractor, leaving the slide out of battery. This results in a VERY nasty situation. The gun won't fire, and racking the slide again results in a double feed since the extractor can't pull out the chambered round. You have to drop the magazine (and will have to pull / pry it out with a great deal of force if you accidentally double fed it) and then clear the gun by pulling the slide back to allow the round to fall out.

Hornady also has XTP ammo. I have not tested this yet. Buffalo Bore and Corbon also offer 9x18 loads. All of these are available from http://www.ammunitiontogo.com.

I've carried a Bulgarian makarov and a p64. Both are great shooters.

I occasionally carry a 9mm mak, but not a Makarov, a P64 Radom, much more pocketable. The Mak's grip is just too long to be a decent pocket gun. I've put the springs in it and a set of Marschal grips. I like it a lot. It's very accurate and reliable. I carry JHP Silver Bear, probably not the best, but it's so friggin' accurate and shootable, I can put 'em where it counts.

I inherited an IJ-17s (I can't remember model # right now) from my dad. it is the Russian model, .380, stainless with adjustable sights. It doesn't shoot as nice as my Sig of course, but it's not too bad and it is a little easier to conceal so I've been carrying it IWB at 1:00. It might become the nightstand gun after I get the P238 I've been lusting after, but it's not a bad gun.

I coulda bought a .380 Mak a few years back for $265. It was a commercial mak, Russian, and had the adjustable sights I didn't care for too much. I'd rather keep it 9x18, anyway, cheaper ammo and I don't have to chase brass with it.

I had a Baikal, from Russia I believe. Sold it years ago, had a terrible double action trigger, but the single action was crisp and very nice to shoot. One of those I wish I hadn't sold. Got it from Sports Authority for about 175.00.

I inherited an IJ-17s (I can't remember model # right now) from my dad. it is the Russian model, .380, stainless with adjustable sights.

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That gun isn't stainless. It has a satin nickel finish, and is a B-West imported commercial, Russian Makarov. I have one. Mine has an excellent trigger, a bit better than my Bulgies, and pretty close to my East German.

While not a Makarov, I carry my P-64 in my car (in a safe) as my "left the house without my gun" gun. Awsomely accurate, but it tears up the top of my shooting hand thumb knuckle at the range.