Romanian Tokarev or CZ52??

[SeanSw]

Yep, I also shimmed my mainspring by adding 2 small hex nuts to the hammer strut and my misfires disappeared. I've only used Romanian surplus and S&B in my gun and both work perfectly. It's worth mentioning that my pistol shoots very low with 7.62x25 but is extremely accurate with a 9mm barrel installed.

 

[jjohnson]

Okay.. so where are you getting the 9mm parts for tok?

Well.... I'm one of those CZ52 owners, and well, they ARE ugly..... but hey, that 30 tok rounds gets attention at the pistol range

So, now I have to send my C&R to SOG, looks like.... but I gotta ask you boys who have a 9mm switch kit for yours - where do you get the barrel and such? I know Clark, who prowls here often, speaks highly of what hot loads a Tok can take (more than the CZ52) so I'm getting itchy to buy one. It'd be great to have a 9mm barrel so I can have it bored to 9x23.....

Could you guys please post where you're getting the Norinco barrel? Thanks...

 

[wnycollector]

I picked mine up from a seller (bigwoodrunner) on gunbroker.

 

[John E.]

I'd also like to get a 9mm conversion kit - looked on Gunbroker, but didn't see anything.

Any other suggestions?

On Edit:

Looks like I found a supplier site:

http://www.e-gunparts.com/productschem.asp?chrMasterModel=1930z1930

I've seen references to the barrel swap as being a 'drop in' change - it is really that easy?

 

[wnycollector]

marstar.ca has LOTS of tok parts. Also check out gunsamerica.com and auctionarms.com for the parts.

 

[mordechaianiliewicz]

Get the CZ. I personally like it better than a Tokarev, though a Tok is a beast of a gun.

 

[wnycollector]

I've seen references to the barrel swap as being a 'drop in' change - it is really that easy?

John E. YES it really is that easy When you takedown your 7.62 after cleaning drop in the 9mm barrel and bushing! Then load up the 9mm type 54 mags. Just remember that you NEED a link, link pin and bushing...not just the 9mm barrel! These guys seem to have the whole shooting match here http://www.sarcoinc.com/tokp.html

 

[Retro]

In my humble opinion, CZ52 has two fatal flaws, one fixable and the other unfixable. When CZ52 started to show up in the early 2000, a lot of my friends purchased them because they were dirt cheap and looked really sturdy. Plus it fills the void for 7.62 x 25 rounds since Tokarev was getting scarce at the time before the Polish/Romanian Toks showed up. Then people started posting that CZ52 firing-pins were extremely fragile and would fracture after 5 -10 dry-firings. That problem was easily solved by replacing the pin with a US made one. Then posts started to show up depicting fractured CZ52 slides, not when firing Czech submachine 7.62 x 25 but when firing US-made 7.62 x 25 designed for handguns. I have examined my friend's CZ52, and despite the over sturdy construction of the slide, the one area where the delayed recoil mechanism is located at is extremely thin. 7.62 x 25 round contains a lot more powder than the 9mm Para, and if you look at the slides on a P38, which is much thicker than that area on CZ52. The Germans later thickened the slides on their P1 due to infrequent P38 slide fractures. In my opinion, the reason that CZ52 firing pins are so fragile is because their carbon content is too high, which makes it very brittle. I was wondering whether the CZ52 slides are made from the same steel as their firing pins, which augmented by the thin area near the delayed blow-back mechanism is causing a lot more slide fractures. Thus I would only shoot 7.62 x 25 in a Tokarev. I may be paranoid but I like to play it safe.

 

[SeanSw]

I'll also confirm that the 9mm swap is just that easy. It is a no brainer. If you can break the gun down for cleaning then swapping barrels is just a matter of pressing out a single pin and reinstalling the barrel bushing and rollers over the new barrel. These are not precision tasks that require special tools. No other changes required. I had to dry fire one or two hundred times to break the firing pin. Makes me wish I'd kept it on hand for emergencies instead of destroying it!

Perhaps the firing pins are simply over hardened? Even with too much carbon in thy alloy it could still be annealed to a lower hardness. It could be worth trying for someone who has too many original firing pins laying around. I'm not a blacksmith but you could try removing the hardness by heating the tip of a firing pin bright red/dull yellow and allowing it to cool as slowly as possible (covering in sand, allowed to cool in a very hot oven, etc.). The original pins are cast, not forged, if I recall. I don't know how this would affect the annealing process but I imagine all steel is cast at some point in it's life on it's way to forging....

 

[Teapot]

The Tokarev is basically a Browning design. the barrel is mighty strong as is the pistol overall-much stronger than the Czech CZ52 ( the CXzech Army didn't even like it).
Barrel swaps between 7.62x25 and 9mm. Any cartridge with a 9mm diameter can be made to shoot from the Tokarev. Versatile pistols. Did I mention they are strong?