Capybara
Member
My Bulgarian Makarov appears to have a safety issue. When the safety/decocker is engaged, it appears that the gun will still cycle and likely will fire in DA. This gun is a recent acquisition and like any good C&R collector, I check out my old guns for issues or potential problems before shooting them for the first time. I'm definitely not a gunsmith but I have replaced firing pins, ejectors, extractors and just replaced the rollers in my CZ52, I built my AK from a parts kit, have assembled a lot of ARs, nothing too difficult but probably a little more skilled than just field stripping for cleaning.
Is this a problem/repair that you think with my meager skills, I could track down and figure out? Or should I just throw in the towel and take it to a professional? Have you heard of this occurring in Makarovs in particular? What is the most likely culprit for a non working safety mechanism? It works in the sense of it decocks the charged pistol but something is broken if it lets me fire the gun when the safety is engaged, obviously.
Like I know that CZ52s have brittle firing pins, crappy extractors and rollers because in 1953 Soviet-era Czechoslovakia, their metal finishing and hardening procedures were a bit, shall we say, "underdeveloped". So I ordered the Harrington Products replacements and installed them. I don't know a lot about the idiosyncrasies of Makarovs, but lots of ComBloc C&R pistols and older of all types seem to have their operational quirks and issues. It's a nice pistol that I want to safely shoot so I need to figure out a game plan. Any advice, links to Makarov sources, websites, books?
Is this a problem/repair that you think with my meager skills, I could track down and figure out? Or should I just throw in the towel and take it to a professional? Have you heard of this occurring in Makarovs in particular? What is the most likely culprit for a non working safety mechanism? It works in the sense of it decocks the charged pistol but something is broken if it lets me fire the gun when the safety is engaged, obviously.
Like I know that CZ52s have brittle firing pins, crappy extractors and rollers because in 1953 Soviet-era Czechoslovakia, their metal finishing and hardening procedures were a bit, shall we say, "underdeveloped". So I ordered the Harrington Products replacements and installed them. I don't know a lot about the idiosyncrasies of Makarovs, but lots of ComBloc C&R pistols and older of all types seem to have their operational quirks and issues. It's a nice pistol that I want to safely shoot so I need to figure out a game plan. Any advice, links to Makarov sources, websites, books?
