I think you would wind up with this pistol. Picked this up at a gun show in Dayton last weekend. The Croatian PHP MV-17 pistol. First glance leads one to think a Beretta 92 was left in the dark with a Walther P38 and the two mated and had a child. All steel construction it uses a 15 shot magazine and the locking is done by the Walther wedge locking block method. A long and short barrel version are available. Holsters can be had at extra cost. Spare magazines come with them standard in the current SOG package. Dealer cost is $319. I have seen them as high as $600 in gun shops, but I was out the door with holster for $400 which I thought was fair enough. As a Walther collector I had to have the silly thing.
These were made periodically during the Yugoslavian civil war of the 90s for just a few years. From what I gather quality control could be spotty. The first one I looked at today was beautiful but dropped it's magazine way to easy and releasing the slide would dislodge the magazine as well. The one I got had a blemish on the slide but seemed more mechanically sound. Not too many were made, I was told less than 5000, made before being replaced with the HS pistol which evolved into today's Springfield XD. I will put a few through just to test her out but it's not really going to be a shooter as so few were made and parts will be scarce. Interesting piece of Balkan history though.
http://www.southernohiogun.com/new-arrivals/php-mv-17-pistol-9mm.html#
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg218-e.htm
I took her out back and tested her. I usually use pizza boxes with military pistols for several reasons. The large box tends to be around the same size as the width of a man and folds to stand on its own...plus with two teenagers in the house we seem to generate a helluva lot of pizza boxes. lol
I used Winchester White box 115 gr bullets at 20 yards off hand. Function was fine, as it ought to be with ball ammo. She threw the brass forward to the right, make that about 1 o'clock, not too far forward, so finding the brass was easy. Recoil was nil, the heavy all steel construction absorbs it. Trigger pull is down right nice for a military pistol. Fairly smooth, not too heavy. With the sun in my face and the smallish sights, which are inspired by the pre 1975 Walther P38 sights (but even smaller), I was a bit challenged. This example shoots several inches to the right. I was not impressed with my group at all, even with the challenges put before me, but had this been a bad guy he would be hurting and eventually morgue bound. So I suppose it was good enough for Government work in the Balkans...
These were made periodically during the Yugoslavian civil war of the 90s for just a few years. From what I gather quality control could be spotty. The first one I looked at today was beautiful but dropped it's magazine way to easy and releasing the slide would dislodge the magazine as well. The one I got had a blemish on the slide but seemed more mechanically sound. Not too many were made, I was told less than 5000, made before being replaced with the HS pistol which evolved into today's Springfield XD. I will put a few through just to test her out but it's not really going to be a shooter as so few were made and parts will be scarce. Interesting piece of Balkan history though.
http://www.southernohiogun.com/new-arrivals/php-mv-17-pistol-9mm.html#
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg218-e.htm
I took her out back and tested her. I usually use pizza boxes with military pistols for several reasons. The large box tends to be around the same size as the width of a man and folds to stand on its own...plus with two teenagers in the house we seem to generate a helluva lot of pizza boxes. lol
I used Winchester White box 115 gr bullets at 20 yards off hand. Function was fine, as it ought to be with ball ammo. She threw the brass forward to the right, make that about 1 o'clock, not too far forward, so finding the brass was easy. Recoil was nil, the heavy all steel construction absorbs it. Trigger pull is down right nice for a military pistol. Fairly smooth, not too heavy. With the sun in my face and the smallish sights, which are inspired by the pre 1975 Walther P38 sights (but even smaller), I was a bit challenged. This example shoots several inches to the right. I was not impressed with my group at all, even with the challenges put before me, but had this been a bad guy he would be hurting and eventually morgue bound. So I suppose it was good enough for Government work in the Balkans...
