Makarov question

[nearmiss]

I just got an East German Makarov, shot it a couple times, maybe 100 rounds total. I really like the gun and expect it to get a lot of use. I have had two malfunctions with it though, the hammer falls and no bang. Both times I just recocked the hammer, pulled the trigger, and it fired. Does my Mac need new springs or is it the Brown Bear ammo? I was shooting outdoors in the grass, so didn't hunt down any of the empty cases to look at the dents in the primers. What do you think?

 

[Pilot]

Check for dirt in the firing pin channel. The gun breaks down easily and the safety comes out, then you can remove the free floating firing pin. Clean the firing pin and firing pin channel then LIGHTLY lube it. I'd lube the pin only very sparingly, then re-install. Try that first. Maks will shoot anything, so doubt its the ammo.

 

[Remllez]

Agree^^^^^....they can get a little gummy in the firing pin channel but you tube has many takedown/cleaning videos and Gun Scrubber is your friend. Like Pilot said it isn't difficult or expensive to try before you start replacing parts, although Wolff springs are usually a good investment.

 

[nearmiss]

I'll give it a try. 2 out of 100 seemed like a high failure rate even for cheap ammo, and from my experience with other guns the tension on the hammer when manually cocking it seems like it ought to be enough to fire a primer. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[JR47]

Next time, instead of just trying again, look at the round, and see if it has a firing pin imprint similar to the fired case. If it does, it sounds more like the ammo. By all means, clean it before trying to check this, though.

 

[fallout mike]

I've never had a issue shooting brown bear ammo through mine.

 

[North Bender]

The most common cause of miss-fires, and it seems to happen more with East German models, is having the safety slightly engage. Try removing the safety and pulling the small detent spring out a bit to make it more positively engage. That sometimes works, but I think most people have eventually replaced their safety.

Even the smallest un-noticeable nudge on the safety when shooting can block the firing pin.

 

[killertom]

I'll give it a try. 2 out of 100 seemed like a high failure rate even for cheap ammo, and from my experience with other guns the tension on the hammer when manually cocking it seems like it ought to be enough to fire a primer. Thanks for the suggestion.

Comparing the misfired round's primer to a fired one is not really helpful. When a round is fired, the pressure will press the primer against the firing pin somewhat, so the indentation on a fired primer will allways be deeper than on one that didn't go off.

Edited, because I replied to the wrong message. I meant to reply to JR47's suggestion of checking the primers.

 

[nearmiss]

The most common cause of miss-fires, and it seems to happen more with East German models, is having the safety slightly engage. Try removing the safety and pulling the small detent spring out a bit to make it more positively engage. That sometimes works, but I think most people have eventually replaced their safety.

Even the smallest un-noticeable nudge on the safety when shooting can block the firing pin.

I have had this problem on other guns so checking the safety was my first reaction to the misfire. Not the problem in this case though, the position of the safety on the Mac seems to work well for me.

 

[Nicky Santoro]

OP,
Consider also that someone may have cut down the hammer spring to improve the trigger pull and been a bit too enthusiastic.

 

[harmon rabb]

OP,
Consider also that someone may have cut down the hammer spring to improve the trigger pull and been a bit too enthusiastic.

A possibility, but people generally don't muck with Makarov triggers because they're decent as is. This would be much more likely if the pistol in question was a p-64 or pa-63.

 

[M2 Carbine]

I have had two malfunctions with it though, the hammer falls and no bang. Both times I just recocked the hammer, pulled the trigger, and it fired.

Were both miss-fires on the first shot or after the first round. In other words did you fire a round or more, then the gun miss-fired?

Check the thumb safety. See if it will move from the OFF position fairly easy.

Here's what happens.
You fire the gun.
Randomly the thumb safety will move off Safe.
You will never notice this unless you are looking for it.
So you pull the trigger again and it doesn't fire.
The hammer hits the safety and knocks it back to the Safe position, so when you pull the trigger again the gun will fire normally.

Unless you look at the safety after every shot you will see nothing wrong.

The fix is to remove the safety and bend out the spring a little or get a new safety.

The first time I experienced this was with a EG Mak.

Personally I never use the Mak's thumb safety.