Makarov slide won't come off for disassembly.. Any help?

[squatch00]

Hello my brother just bought me a new (well.. preserved) IJ-70 Makarov and it looks great to me. Upon attempting to disassemble the gun, I realized that the slide will not come off of the barrel. I do understand that there can't be a magazine in the gun, and that the trigger guard needs to be pulled down in order to unlock the slide (pictures below) and that (in theory) you should be able to pull the slide back and up off the base, to then slide it forward along the barrel to completely remove it. But this is not what is happening in my case. I pull the slide all the way back and try to lift it off the base, but it just won't happen. There is absolutely no upward give on the slide when it's all the way back. Believe me, my brother and I have been trying for the past day to get this thing off. Because I don't really have an eye for handguns (this is my first) and problems with them, I was hoping that maybe someone with more experience would be able to maybe see the issue. I'll try to be as detailed as possible with the pictures.

-Both sides of the gun.

-Magazine is definitely out of the gun.

-Slide locked back.

I'll continue posting pictures in the next posts.

 

[squatch00]

-Other side of the gun with slide locked in the rear position.

-Backside of the gun, any issues that anyone can see there maybe?

-Close up of barrel (I don't see any barrel bulging, but I also don't quite know what to look for).

-Other side of the barrel.

 

[squatch00]

-Don't know what to call this but I think you guys will get it haha

-Grip is off and the slide unlocker thing (trigger guard) is down.

-Straight down the barrel, don't know why this would be helpful.. But maybe?

Anyway, thanks for looking and I'll be happy to post more pictures if anyone wants a more specific look at anything. This is kinda my last attempt to figure this thing out before I actually take it to someone who would know better. Thanks again in advance for any time taken to try to help me out!

 

[Robbins290]

Did you pull it all the way back? And was the trigger guard pulled down enough? With my makarov, i hold it in my left hand with the trigger finger under the trigger guard and slide it off with my right. You dont have to take any thing else off first. Slide always comes off first. I will post pics when i dig it out of the safe

 

[Robbins290]

The first step. And the mag can be in

 

[Robbins290]

With everything else on

 

[squatch00]

Huh. Yeah I'll try that method when I get home and hopefully it'll work. I'll let you know once I try it.

 

[Robbins290]

Ok. Let me know. Hope it works for you

 

[squatch00]

Unfortunately, no cigar =( it is not budging at ALL. Pulled the slide back as far as I could with my right hand and lifted up but still there was no give.

and I even tried it with a magazine inside too just because haha

By the way, nice Mak Robbins! What model is that?

 

[rcmodel]

About all that can keep the slide from coming off is that it is not coming back far enough to come off.

About all that can cause that is a bulged barrel from a squib load.

Prop the slide open with something, then shine a light in the breach end and look down the muzzle and see if you can see a bulge in the bore.

Furthering this theory is in a couple of your photos, the slide is staying open without the slide lock being engaged!

If the hole in the slide is getting bound up / wedged tight on a bulged barrel, it might stay open like that by itself.

rc

 

[Hurryin' Hoosier]

I agree with rc. There is a serious bind of some sort or the slide would not be staying back. The most likely cause would be a bulged barrel. (Either that or about five pounds of old Cosmoline!)

By the way, when you begin disassembly of a Mak or a P-64, just stick a coin or a piece of heavy cardboard between the frame and the "nub" on the trigger guard. Makes the process much simpler and avoids scratching the frame.

 

[lincen]

If the recoil spring was installed with the small diameter end toward the muzzle, that can cause the slide to bind up.

 

[Dframe]

One way you can check for bulges is to take several measurements of the outside of the barrel with a calibre or micrometer.

 

[GLOOB]

Hmm, bulged barrel is my guess, as well. They can be hard to see, esp if the bore is fouled. Try cleaning the bore. One pass with a jag, and you sometimes end up with a clean bore and a dirty ring, which is really easy to see. And you can probably feel a bulge when the jag passes through it, too.

My friend bulged the barrel on a Bersa 380 in exactly that spot. It was from a squib. Luckily, that gun continued to work and shoot just fine; in a mak, it would have caused this exact problem.

You aren't going to see anything on the outside of the barrel. The bulged part would be just ahead of the chamber. If you could get the gun apart, you wouldn't need calipers to see it.

 

[Robbins290]

Squatch, its a Bulgarian. Circle 10. It does not have the the deep rich shiny bluing anymore as she sunk a few years ago. And have to be redone. I went with a parkerizing. I want to find a original as a safe queen.

I would hold it back as far and hard as you. And give it a wiggle. My friends Russian makarov was really hard to come off.

 

[F-111 John]

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