Glock "+" Floorplates

Glock "+" Floorplates

     I've carried a Glock model 26 on and off since about 1996.  At the time it was the smallest pistol to hold more than just a hand full of rounds.  When I got mine, a co-worker who was a Glock armorer had one as well and traded me one of my flat-bottomed 10 round mags for one of his featuring a Pearce Grip finger extension.  This did not add any rounds to the overall capacity.  It was the waning years of the Clinton era assault on firearms after all, and "manufacturing" a magazine that held more than 10 rounds and was not marked LEO/Military Use Only could land even stalwart young officers such as ourselves in Club Fed ... at least in theory.  What the little pinky hook did was allow a full three-finger grip on the frame.  Also, if one tucked the piece on one's waistband "cavalry-style" (butt-forward) it served as some extra insurance that the piece would not slip down one's trousers.  I know, I know, but back then pretty much everyone in these parts (and, I suspect, many parts) carried off-duty by just stuffing one's weapon into one's waistband.  Not one of us ever shot our butts or privates off, and we never had a weapon fall out while exerting ourselves (or sitting in a restaurant).  I'm not advocating such, I'm just saying how it was back then.

     Fast forward a few years into my tenure as a detective and in a holster trade with one of my partners I wound up with  a 17 round mag from a Glock 17 he used to carry.  That put me on the losing side insofar as cash value, but I was actually quite happy with the acquisition.  It was a "Pre-Ban" mag prior to the sunsetting of that ridiculous law restricting magazine capacity.  Yes, it stuck out of the grip a bit, but on special assignments it gave me a very compact, fast-into-action pistol with 18 rounds on board of our issued 115gr +P+ JHP ammo.  The short barrel also gave much less leverage to a would-be gun-grabber than a longer barreled pistol.  I carried the Glock as backup and occasionally as a primary duty weapon, depending on circumstances.  

     I'm now retired but still carry daily both by virtue of 18 USC 926C and a lifetime permit from my state.  The Glock goes with me sometimes although at least as frequently it's some other weapon sharing space in my waistband or weighing down my pocket.  Whatever my daily carry happens to be, though that "baby" Glock is usually my go-to-in-the-night pistol.  It sits ready-to-hand each night by my bed with the trigger-guard cover in place (so it takes two hands to get into action ... just one more step to help make sure I'm wide awake) with the 17 round mag in place.  Several months ago, I got a X-Grip adapter to use with that 17 round magazine.  It gives the weapon a nice, rounded butt profile which is not only vastly more comfortably in the hand, but helps with concealment by rounding corners on which a shirt or jacket may otherwise catch.  Reportedly shooting the shorter pistol with the longer magazine in place begs for a jam due to finger pressure on the magazine.  After thousands of rounds I've never had that problem.  But with the grip, at least that's one less thing to potentially go wrong.  A couple years back, I made a nice trigger-guard cover out of Kydex which features a 550 cord lanyard.  A pull on the lanyard by either a support hand or having it looped over one's belt yanks the guard off the weapon making it instantly ready.  While in place, it keeps fingers and other items away from the trigger.  A very minimalist holster offered by many manufacturers, it's a vast improvement over our old method of just sticking it in our pants.

     The other day I noticed CDNN (http://www.cdnnsports.com/) had a sale on Glock brand plus magazine floorplates.  Now, this concept of getting extra rounds in by making a deeper floorplate is nothing new.  I knew several officers and a fed or two that used "+2" floorplates on their Glocks back in the late 1990s.  Again, once upon a dark and dreary time (pre-George W. Bush era) that was only legal if your magazine already held more than 10 rounds.  Now in a much more enlightened era (at at least one without an insane national magazine capacity restriction), I figured it was long past time I tried some of these.  I'd heard mixed reviews on the off-brand extra capacity floorplates but have only heard good reviews of the actual Glock brand models.  I've also been made to understand the original springs in the magazines are sufficiently robust so as to handle the additional force of the extra load.  I am hardly a spring expert, however, so keep an eye on your spring, as I'd hope you'd do anyway.  These new generation floorpates are now called simply "+" floorplates, by the way.  It seems some folks possessing Glocks chambered in .40 S&W or .357 SIG (whose magazines take the same floorplate) were distressed to learn that when they put the older extension onto their mags, the "+2" stamp on the bottom was not, in fact, a magical incantation which allowed them to violate the laws of physics.  You get two additional rounds in 9x19mm but with the fatter rounds of .40 S&W or .357 SIG you only get one extra round.  Either way, you get to get a full three-finger grip on the frontstrap for a surprisingly tiny bit of extra bulk. 

     I added one of these floorplates to my 17 round mag.  That way, if I have to grab it in the middle of the night, I have 20 rounds of 9mm Luger (currently Federal's excellent 124 grain +P+ JHP) on board ready to go.  If I can't solve the problem with twenty shots of near .357 snub level rounds, it probably was beyond my ability to solve with anything short of a full squad with long-guns.  This gives me all the same advantages I had when I used this setup for duty:  A small, fast-to-draw pistol with a barrel short enough to make a gun-grab more difficult, and with enough ammo on board (now two additional rounds!) to handle most anything I'm likely to be able to handle with a pistol.     

     The other floorplate I put on the magazine that was formerly the home to that Pearce grip finger rest.  That gives me 13 rounds on board in a very concealable and comfortable package.  In fact, that gives me only one round less than I get with my stock magazines in my old favorite, original duty pistol, my Browning Hi-Power.  My Baby Glock is not as elegant as that fine Belgian pistol.  It lacks the graceful lines and solid, all steel frame.  But my Glock 26 is lighter (polymer frame) and can actually (again, depending on the pants) fit into a pocket for discreet carry.  Sure, it's bulky and thicker than the Hi-Power, but overall it's easier to carry tucked up close to one's tender skin.  Just don't tell my beloved Hi-Power I said any of that, okay?  It's still one of my favorite pistols of all time.

    Just to check and see how concealable my pistol was, I used the trigger cover (550 cord looped over my belt, pistol tucked securely inside my waistband) and with the now almost silly looking 19 round magazine and grip adapter in place, hidden by a XXL Aloha shirt (quite popular here on the Gulf Coast  -- vanity insists that I note, although I'm hardly thin, I actually "fit" an XL -- the XXLs hide well though and after a couple of turns through the washer and dryer, I stop looking like I'm wearing some giant fat guy's shirt).  So adorned and so armed, my wife and I went on an errand and then proceeded to find an agreeable restaurant in which to have our late evening supper.  Honestly the weapon was so comfortable even with the larger surface area touching me (longer mag) I pretty much forgot it was there.  Also, we never found it printing under that shirt.  Normally, under a shirt that fit any better, I'd just use the newly modified 12 round magazine but I wanted to see a worst-case scenario.  I'm thinking it'd make a great traveling gun with the 19 round mag in place.  Tonight's adventure showed me that on rest stops, pit stops and dinner stops I could, if needs be, stash it under a loose travelling shirt with the huge mag in place without any problem.

     We never know if trouble will strike or when or where.  We also never know how many rounds we'll end up needing.  I think it's great to have a handy device that with maybe a finger-width of added bulk gives us two additional life-saving rounds (in 9mm, settle for just one and an improved grip if you carry the fatter bullets ... and I recommend in that case an after-market barrel with full case-head support). 

ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL COMMANDER .45

RIA “Commander”

(A Quick Test)

     Confession:  I love 1911s.  I used to not, thought they were “old,” was tired of .45 people shoving big-bore or go home talk down my throat, etc., etc.  Taking my share of lumps for carrying “that silly nine-millimeter” Browning Hi-Power the first several years of my career didn’t endear me to joining the 1911 club.  Oh, I bought a Llama before my sworn-in days, but that only got me derided even worse.  In truth, it was one of the Spanish company's less reliable efforts so the sale of it funded my duty gear needed for the police academy.

     Then, I started shooting .45s.  Truth be told, in my pre-Browning HP days, I got to shoot one 1911.  It was a tricked out competition Colt Commander with which a now sadly deceased friend of mine was getting ready to enter local competitions.  I was new to center fire police-style courses and didn’t shoot it as well as I wanted to but it gave me an idea what I could do with time and practice.  Fast forward about three years and I wound up buying a used .45 Sig-Sauer P220 that I carried until I literally shot it to the point it was so worn that the formerly one-hole-at-25 yards pistol began shooting shotgun-like patterns at half that distance.   An H&K USP .45 solved that problem for a bit until a firing pin malady laid it out of action as well.  Yes, I had both a SIG-Sauer and an H&K go bad on me. This just proves that there is no such thing as perfect.  There may be a curse involved too, as I've had other premium pistols fail as well.  I have shot a lot of handguns over the decades and a whole lot of ammunition, though so some bad luck was bound to happen.
     In any case, the U.S. Army via their 10-33 program (the same on Obama and his cronies vilified for "militarizing the police") loaned my agency a batch of WWII era 1911-A1s. I got my pick of the litter just as my H&K began sputtering and became as reliable as a liberal’s campaign promises.  That 60 year old warhorse shot as good as my H&K and I flat out LOVED it.  I carried it and though we weren’t supposed to modify it, wound up putting a Wilson Combat ambidextrous safety on it.  In a haste to get my office cleaned out upon retirement, I wound up not having time to get my safety back (my former training Lt. told me I can come get it so long as I have the original to put back on … but so MANY boxes to go through to find such a tiny part … so … MANY boxes …).

     And here we are today.  I had to turn in the Army’s pistol when I retired.  I went to a local gun show with money burning a hole in my pocket.  One of my favorite dealers was there.  I like to think I’m one of his favorite customers as I’ve said several times I need to find him first, hand  him a check and come back in an hour to see what he thinks I needed to buy.  Lowest prices and great service.  I don’t know if he wants his name mentioned or not, but his company is Jeff's Shooter's Supply in Adger, Alabama. Jeff's shop includes NFA items, so if you’re around his neck o'the woods it’s worth giving him a call (appointment only).  That’s my unsolicited, free advertisement for the day.

     So, where was I?  Oh, yes, at a gun show looking at one of my favorite dealer's wares. There in his case, as I knew there would be, were several Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) 1911s.  I saw the Commander next to the full sized Gov’t model.  Price for either was $436.  Yep.  You read that right.  Everything I’ve read about RIA indicates they rock and perform at least as well as the much more expensive ones.  Word has it that the prestigious STI uses RIA frames for their fancy expensive pieces.  RIA is located in the Philippines.  That they are made off-shore and come at such a low price compared to the usual $700 up of other company’s pistols turn many folks away from them.  But everyone I know with one (and many whose word I trust on internet forums, sucker that I may be) give it 5 out of 5 stars.

     I chose the Commander sized pistol for its slightly better portability.  This gave me the full size frame but a 4 ¼” barrel and slide.  Thus, it has a wee bit less length to poke out from under the hem of one’s covering garment when carried on the belt, or print around one’s rear pocket in IWB carry (remember, my attempts to be tall were one of my less successful endeavors).  I love the way Commander style pistols balance in my hands so for me at least I got an even better fit than I did with the full size 1911 A-1.

     The pistol came with the usual fat wooden RIA grips.  I don’t know why RIA puts grips on their 1911 lines that are so thick the gun feels more like a double stack than an elegant single stack masterpiece designed by John M. Browning, but they do.  At the same gun show I bought a pair of thin hard rubber Hogue grips for under $20.  They make the piece feel like JMB intended:  Perfect!  It also came with one 8-round, flush fitting magazine.  Well, it has a very slight pinky rest floor plate but if you can live with that (I can) it gives you one extra round, making this a 9-shot pistol when fully loaded.  The magazine looks identical to the two Mec-Gar 8-rounders I had on hand from my previous carry of the beloved and sadly now turned in Remington-Rand.  It comes with a flat, checkered mainspring housing (like the original 1911) and what looks like the short trigger of the 1911-A1.  It looks like the ejection port is lowered a wee bit, too.  All in all, I felt it was quite nice.  I can never decide if I prefer the mainspring housing arched or not.  I’ve not found one to feel or perform better than the other in my hands.  The flat one makes the grip feel a tiny bit smaller in circumference so I see it as a plus.  The trigger is grooved rather (IMHO) aggressively.  I don’t like the way it feels on my finger, but it didn’t affect my shooting one bit.  I grabbed two boxed of PVRI-Partizan 230 grain FMJ, ran home, grabbed some Federal 230 grain Hydra-Shoks (my JHP of choice) and drove to the range.

     Upon arrival I found two police snipers were doing their weekend rifle workout.  One used to work with me and the other is newer to the game and works in the city where I live.  We talked for a bit, and then they told me they were letting their bores cool so I had a few minutes to shoot.  Good manners required I only take a tiny bit of their time, so I ran 25 rounds of the PVRI-Partizan hardball through the piece.  It ran smoothly and shot very well.  I hammered Pepper Poppers with it.  It felt like full power stuff.  Speaking for my perspective, the .45 ACP, especially in the (to me) ergonomically almost perfect 1911 format has more of a push than a shove and I was easily able to land 4 hits on Pepper Poppers before they hit the ground (before they tilted back beyond 45 degrees, actually).  I ran rapid, Hammer The Targets drills seeking to really test the magazines, the ammunition, and the weapon.  All worked fine.

     The 230 grain Federal Hydra-Shok round I’ve found to be reliable in a lot of pistols that otherwise are essentially “ball only.”  For such an aggressively expanding hollow point, it has a very rounded profile.  Anyway, I shot some water jugs (1 gallon plastic jugs) from about 5 yards.  Yes, I got wet.  First water jug blew apart.  The second one flew off the table in only slightly better shape.  The third one was pouring water out of two rather impressive holes.  The forth one was leaking rapidly from a hole next to the third jug.  The fully expanded Hydra-Shok was in the third jug.  It appears it exited the third jug, knocked a hole in the fourth jug, hitting it so hard it blew the twist-off cap off, then bounced back into the third jug.  I’ve heard of bullets going through a body in a front-to-rear shot and stretching the back skin so much that the skin snaps back like a sling-shot, propelling the bullet back into the body.  In any case that’s what happened to our bullet.  Beautiful expansion.  A piece of one of the jacket “petals” was in the first jug and one in the second as well.  A second attempt was made to shoot three remaining jugs.  The first jug blew apart as did the third jug.  The middle jug had nice entry and exit holes, but remained more-or-less in place. I guess either the pressure of the two fore and aft jugs either kept the center one in place, or the bullet began yawing when exiting the second one and smacked the third one harder.  In any case the bullet then went on and was not recovered.  Water understates penetration and overstate expansion a wee bit, speaking very generally.  So, I think I can live with that degree of penetration.  Seems unlikely to exit but likely to get deeply enough that even a really huge, muscles courtesy of Club Fed bad guy can still get his vitals punched through.  The one mammal I ever shot with that round was a medium-large dog.  It was a vicious dog, wild, and had chased (and I believe bitten) neighborhood children.  I shot it once side to side.  There was an exit and it was a pretty impressive exit.  Not fist sized or anything, that’s all in fiction.  It was roughly quarter sized, maybe just a tad smaller.  The round seems to have hit the spine and between the expanded bullet, the bone, and the about half-human-adult torso size, methinks the exit was larger than it would be in a two-legged vicious beast.  A just-to-be-sure coup-de-gras in the back of the neck/base of the skull did not exit (was later found to have done what it needed to do, was fully expanded, and carried the impression of the heavy bones it had encountered and, again, done what was needed.  I didn’t feel good about killing a canine but a wild, vicious dog with a predilection for attacking children is not a pet and there was no safe way in our means to capture it.  Judge away.  Main point is that Hydra-Shoks impressed me then and everything I read about them continues to do so.  Like something else?  That’s fine.  Carry it in good health.  For me, it’s Hydra-Shoks.

     Insofar as accuracy, again I was a bit rushed so I fired at a shoot-n-see target from the 7 yard (21 foot) line (about the max distance in most houses from which you’re likely to have to shoot an intruder and the range within which you are in critical danger if the bad guy has a knife available).  I shot about one round per second so while it wasn’t “hail of lead” it was not careful bulls-eye shooting either.

     With both types of ammo I got most rounds into one big, ragged hole.  A few “flyers” opened both groups up but neither exceeded three inches.  For an out-of-the-box, no frills 1911 with tiny military sights (though on a bright and sunny afternoon) that is excellent. It speaks volumes about the master designer that was John Moses Browning and how he designed a grip angle that is one of the most naturally pointing grips I’ve ever held.  One of the SWAT Snipers had his elementary aged kids with him so the pair, at his request got a quick hands-on-dry-fire handgun safety lesson.  Both paid apt attention as I explained very simply how to see if a weapon was empty, how to hold a pistol and a revolver (I had my EAA Big Bore Bounty Hunter .44 mag with me, too).  They were both excellent students and I left the rest of the rules up to their dear old Dad.  :)

     You can easily customize this weapon.  Don’t like the fat grips?  Toss on something different.  You can go cheap, you can go fancy.  If you don’t like the flat mainspring housing, for a few dollars you can buy an arched one and they are very easy to replace.  Left-handed shooter like me?  Ambidextrous safeties abound, some more “drop-in” than others.  Some require a grip to support them, some require a field expedient modification of the right grip.  Some cost as much as a small backup piece, some are much more reasonable.  Some are so cheap I’d have to really wonder as to their quality. Let’s face it; there are more things available for the 1911 than just about any other pistol.  It’s a fun, and actually very easy gun with which to tinker.
     Once I got home I made myself a rather nice and serviceable IWB Kydex holster.  The weapon is so thin it virtually disappears under a one-size larger T-shirt (didn't try a smaller one) and is just plain invisible with a bulky "fishing" shirt (what we have in lieu of safari shirts here in Coastal Alabama).

     So, in conclusion, $436 bought me an utterly reliable, accurate, very comfortable 1911 “Commander” like I’ve always wanted.  If you are in the market for a 1911 (I mean, you are an American, right?  Just kidding, but … yeah … ) and you don’t want to (or can’t) spend a mortgage payment on some tricked out beastie that you’d be afraid to let out of the safe lest you scratch it, look at these RIA guns.  They have a lot of styles and configurations.  I have my eye on a couple other ones, to tell the truth … ^_^

     Since first buying this pistol I have added an after market ambidextrous thumb safety.  I found a manufacturer who machines precision parts and sells them via Ebay.  The cost was low and the quality high.  It installs simply and uses an extended and slotted sear pin (very easy to install as well) to hold the right-side safety on. Thousands of manipulations later and it's showing no signs of wear and still feels about as positive as it was when I first installed it.

     I've been buffing some of the notoriously sharp edges as well, particularly those around the underside of the minuscule beaver tail of the grip safety.  Yes, RIA could have done that prior to shipping but then it'd be a $600 pistol.  Of everyone who has handled it, I'm the only one who has complained about the sharpness of that grip safety (of course, I'm the one carrying it, so... ).  

     I've put quite a few more rounds through this pistol and it has not hiccuped once. Whether shooting ball or Hydra-Shoks it just keeps on running.  I bought a 7-round mag for the Ruger 1911 that of course works fine in it.  I bought two more budget "Mil-Spec" 7-rounders as well.  They needed a bit of work (but then they cost about a buck per round so I didn't expect perfection).  Mainly the followers were overly long and had a tendency to move forward with the last round, effectively locking them in the weapon. Great way to not lose a magazine in combat, but a pretty darn bad way to keep a pistol running. A bit of patience and some skill with a Dremel and all's now well.  Those are mostly range mags, anyway.  The carry magazines I have all work great.

     I have several plans for further light customization of this so far utterly reliable and accurate pistol (oh, scoring telling hits on Pepper poppers from 25 yards and further is boringly easy), but nothing that will adversely affect its reliability or (hopefully) looks.  It's a heavy beast but recoil is easy and in a decent holster it carries quite well.  This was one of my two retirement presents to myself.  The other is a hand-forged, clay tempered katana.  I can't conceal a sword and the .45 gives me a wee bit more reach.  Both are simple yet elegant weapons which, though arguably from by-gone eras and of dated design, still serve a knowledgeable user quite well. Again, the pistol is a bit easier to carry about.  Not a bad way to celebrate 25+ years of public service, eh? 

Romanian TTC Tokarev

Romanian TTC “Tokarev”

and

 the 7.62x25mm cartridge

Romanian TTC pistol

     I have long held an affinity for weapons from the areas known in my childhood as being “Behind the Iron Curtain.”  I think a lot of similarly aged firearm enthusiasts feel much the same.  These are weapons we only saw in encyclopedias or glimpsed on some spy noir film, or, if we were very lucky, saw in a well apportioned collection.

     Among the weapons that have held my interest since my early teens were the Tokarev design pistols.  Whilst perusing an encyclopedia of firearms in my high school library (yes, yes, a book about guns in a high school library:  those were simpler times and it was in my senior year that the principal finally asked that the guys not have rifles and shotguns visible in their truck gun racks during school hours) … where was I?  Oh, yeah, perusing a book on guns with a friend in the school library we ran across the Tokarev and its odd-ball cartridge the 7.62x25mm.  Being aspiring ballistics experts (aspiring being the key word for we were, looking back now, amusingly ignorant) we knew that the .308 round is 7.62x51mm.  Therefore, we reasoned with a case just about half the length but with the same diameter bullet, this cartridge would be right a half the power of the vaunted .308 round.  The author of that book did not say that exactly, but he opined that a round could likely remove a man’s head.

     Let me step in here and say this:  We were wrong, the otherwise seemingly well informed author of the book was wrong, and our at best amateurish ballistic figures were way off.  It’s still a heck of a round, but it’s far both in power and in history from being a “cut down three-oh-eight.”  To call it so brings unfair and unrealistic expectations for a pistol cartridge as well as slighting the work of the round’s designer.

     So, fast forward a bit, the Iron Curtain fell and is now only a mumble in a few paragraphs of some history text books.  Guns 50 years old or more are now fall under the BATFE’s “Curio and Relic” designation, as do service weapons from countries that no longer exist.  This means that anyone who has passed the rather painless background check and paid their $30 for three years license fee to get an FLL-03 (a “C&R” license) can have such firearms shipped to their front door.  As a proud C&R licensee with a penchant for old guns, I’m always searching for the next piece for my very eclectic collection.  One day I managed to find a fine to like new condition Romanian version of the Tokarev, the TTC, complete with its brown leather flap holster and two magazines.  If memory serves, shipping and all I laid out a few dollars one side or the other of two bills.  The 7.62x25mm ammo it eats was at the time the cheapest center fire ammo one could buy.  I bought quite a bit of it and shot quite a bit of it.  Truth be told, I already had a Czech Vz 52 pistol in that caliber so I had a few boxes stockpiled. 

     First let’s discuss the round.  As its name indicates the bullet is .30 caliber and fits into a case 25 millimeters in length.  The case is bottle-necked and has a case head and rim virtually identical to the 9x19 Luger/Parabellum/x19mm.  The nominal round is an 85 grain full metal jacketed (FMJ) round.  Velocity for this round varies a bit.  The round was developed in Russia in 1930 as a new service cartridge for handguns and submachine guns.  It is virtually identical to the 7.63x25 (“.30 Mauser”) cartridge fired by the C96 “Broomhandle” Mauser pistol. Figures abound from a low of around 1,300 fps or less to a high of well over 1,700 fps.  Given how many nations made this stuff, and how old some of it is understandable there will be some variations.   

Tok round, one unfired and the expanded core recovered from water jugs

     Stories abound, whispered in dark corners of internet forums about special “submachine gun” ammo with pressures so high they’ll blow a Tokarev apart.  Do a few net searches and you’ll turn up scads of stories of somebody’s brother’s friends, mysterious uncle’s ex-girlfriend’s former boss’s third cousin twice removed who disregarded these dire warnings and at best lost a hand.  Of course, it’s the internet (hey, kind of like this blog entry), so it must be true, right?  No one ever seems to have any firsthand knowledge however.  Now, I cannot personally inspect and pressure test every single round of Tok ammo that comes to these shores (oh, I’d LOVE to try … more range time for me!) so I won’t say these are all lies and stories.  But I will say that my experiences with quite a variety of Tok ammo is that these ‘net stories are like so many other rumors, just that.  Something I did notice, however, was that some ammo, in lieu of a firm crimp, merely has four little indents on the case neck to hold the little bullet in place.  If someone has indeed had a pressure issue with this ammo, I put forth the theory that mayhap a round, perhaps in a magazine, perhaps under recoil, or maybe a round that was cycled in and out of the chamber a few times experienced “set back” of the bullet into the case.  This could cause an extreme pressure spike and might explain a piece going "ka-boom" rather than just "bang."  I’ll leave all that for the experts.

     The round is a penetrator.  I’ve had one penetrate more than double the wood (pine) that a Blazer .44 magnum 240 grain JHP did, and get lost as it went then through a full trash can and on into the berm.  Very high velocity with a small, light, FMJ bullet equals penetration.  Stories abound of them going through bullet resistant vests, but I think that’s mostly the older Level IIA vests (less protection than a Level II and way less than the new generation of Level IIIA vests).  I do not have a soft body armor panel to sacrifice (all my panels are in use), so let’s call this just a wild guess on my part.  Rule #1 of any bullet proof vest is that it is not, in fact, bullet proof but merely bullet reistant.

     The round is also quite accurate.  Both my Vz 52 and my TTC “Tokarev” are capable of making good hits at 50 yards and beyond, assuming halfway decent ammo is used.  Wolf makes a JHP in their “gold” line.  While their 85 grain FMJ round is advertised at a healthy 1,722 fps, their 85 grain JHP supposedly moves along at a slightly more sedate 1,592 fps.  Why the 130 fps advertised difference?  I don’t know.  Maybe it helps the JHP not open too fast so it can still get in deeply.  Given how it performed in my water test, I’d like it to maybe expand a wee bit faster, hold together a little better, and not penetrate quite as well.  But, hey, it does, in fact work and I now get to shoot a pistol and cartridge that were virtually unavailable to the younger me, so who am I to complain?

     Now, as to the pistol itself, mine is a thing of beauty.  It came with a black finish that appears to be some type of hard enamel.  It soon chipped a tiny bit around the ejection port after several rounds were fired.  No wonder, really.  Those empties SLAM against that spot on their way to land some thirty yards or so away.  Good thing most of my shooting is with old Com-Block surplus which is Berdan primed, steel cased, and thus not worth the effort for me to reload.  Other than that, the finish has held up remarkably well. 

     The grip meets the lower frame at an odd (from a Western standpoint) almost 90 degree angle. Some people don’t like this, and some claim it causes them to point high.  I didn’t think I’d like it, but it points very well in my hand.  The grip is also quite manageable even for medium to small hands.  I have XL hands and it fits my mitts well too.  It just has that “right” girth, which is amazing when you drop the 8 round magazine and see how freaking huge that bullet box is.  The mag is similar to a 1911 mag in thickness, but front-to-back it’s simply enormous to hold a stack of those bottle-necked cartridges.  Looking at the grip further, you’ll realize it was designed to be rock-solid but to add no unnecessary fore-to-aft girth.  To the knowledgeably inquisitive used to, say, 1911s and in fact most service pistols, that will lead one to wonder where the heck the mainspring housing is.  Simply put, the mainspring is not, unlike most service pistols, running along the backstrap of the grip.  Nope, it resides, rather, inside the hammer.  Yep, and a brilliant bit of engineering that was.  The hammer, sear, and their whole little subgroup can be lifted out of the frame as one piece.  This makes cleaning and oiling a breeze.  Presumably it would make a busy armorer’s job much easier and faster too.  “Mainspring broken, Comrade?  No problem!  Stand by thirty seconds and there you go.”

     You’ll notice there is a safety lever on the left side of the frame of the TTC just behind the trigger.  You can manipulate it fairly easily with the right thumb (depending on the dimensions of your digits, or the left index finger if you shoot left-handed like yours truly.  That’s all well and good but it’s probably best (OPINION HERE – PROBABLY BEST TO IGNORE ME COMPLETELY) if one just sets this little switch to “off” and pretend it’s not there at all.  See, it was added on by the importer so that the pistol could make enough points under our ponderous Gun Control Act of 1968 wherein our Congressional Nannies were wringing their hands about how some pistols were just either too dangerous or too easy for criminals to use and laid about all sorts of restrictions on importations.  Bye-bye Walther PPK (until they started making them here), bye-bye Walther TPH (Interarms made ‘em for a bit here … best to just ignore them and bemoan no real, reliable German versions to be had for less than the price of a used motorbike). 

     Back on that safety, issue, see, the original Tokarev design had no safety lever.  You want safe gun?  You not load gun.  Actually it does have a safety of sorts.  It’s what we Westerners are prone to call a “half cock” even though the hammer actually only moves back a fraction of an inch to engage it.  Once “half-cocked” the whole piece is locked up.  The slide will not even move.  The firing pin, take careful note, is not, in fact locked at any time so in theory, much like a pre-Series 70 Colt 1911, a drop at just the right angle from just the right height on a hard surface (especially muzzle down) could make an otherwise well behaved pistol go bang and in a very dangerous, uncontrolled manner.  I’ve heard some online pundits opine that a drop directly in the hammer could shear the safety notch and we get a bang again.  Anything is possible.  These are not new guns, even when, like mine, they look like they just rolled off the factory floor.  They are an old design from back when men were men and the risk of an unintentional bullet hole somewhere was far less than the very real possibility of being shot by an enemy ransacking your country.  Also, from what I hear, there was not quite the level of insane litigation against firearm manufacturers back behind the Iron Curtain as we see now here in our land of the free and easily offended.  In the limited testing I’ve done with mine, it seems at least as safe to carry loaded as the Remington-Rand 1911 .45 I carried as a duty piece for a few years at work or a pre-Series 70 Colt version thereof.  Again, though, these are old guns made in a locale not afraid of lawyers so your mileage may vary and YOU, rather than I will be responsible for what happens with YOUR gun.  I’m just some cat who likes to blog about guns; I cannot be responsible for your actions.

     So, yeah, carrying the Tok means either empty chamber or half-cocked.  That add-on safety thing?  It only blocks the trigger, not the sear so IMHO it is not to be trusted like one would trust most safeties now days.  I’ve carried mine in a variety of multi-fit IWB holsters.  The pistol is so thin that despite its rather considerable overall size, you can almost literally forget you are sharing your waistband with a hunk of Soviet steel.  I simply don’t normally “do” empty chamber carry for too many things can go wrong at that grave moment when you need a weapon and find yourself either fumble fingered or having  only one non-busy hand.  The hammer, though it smacks those hard primers with authority is very easy to cock.  I have no problems drawing the pistol and as my left thumb rolls over to post on the right side of the grip, it just moves the hammer smoothly back to full cock.  There is no de-cock feature so as with any other weapon minus a de-cocker, lowering the hammer on a loaded chamber is not to be done with a cavalier attitude.  Always, always, always keep a finger between the hammer and firing pin and ease the hammer down slowly.  With practice this can be done quite easily and quickly, just always remember safety is #1.

     The sights are big and for me easily seen.  No, it’s not a high-cap gun but I have a hard time thinking of an encounter outside of war where 9 quick rounds of 85 grain JHPs at nearly 1,600 fps won’t at least move events into your favor.  The pistol is very easy to control as well.  Oh, it barks and belches flame and sounds like an artillery piece.  It also seems to hit pretty darn hard too.  But it doesn’t kick all that much, mostly because it’s tossing out a .30 caliber, 85 grain slug, depending on velocity to do the damage rather than mass and cross section.  Hey, it works for other rounds, right?

     On a recent rage trip I shot some water jugs.  I used common one-gallon plastic “milk” jugs (tea jugs, actually as my wife has a fondness for a particular brand).  My first shot went through the first three jugs fairly straight but took an angle exiting the fourth, then exited the fifth, not to be found.  I set ‘em up again and found my bullet in the fifth jug.  The jacket was in the third jug, stuck almost completely through the back side of the jug.  The core had expanded pretty well and I found it on the far side of the fifth jug.  Water-wise, that’s about six inches per jug so that’s around 30” give or take of water penetration.  My understanding is that water can understate penetration and overstate expansion.  I’ve seen on-line gel tests that were much better with a bit less penetration and far more expansion.  But neither water nor gels are human beings.  Oh, yeah, those first two jugs EXPLODED.  Water went everywhere.  For those favoring hydrostatic shock over all else, there is definitely some HS shock with these rounds.  By that I mean it exploded the water jugs. This is not a rifle round and though quite fast for a handgun round, it doesn't hit that magic velocity of 2200 fps or so where (we hope) velocity stretches muscle past it's elasticity.  It hits hard and you'll get wet 15 or 20 feet back from sealed water jugs, though! :)  I didn’t get my best accuracy (about 2/5” by 3” group from 50 feet) but I didn’t shoot nearly as well with any of the handguns I shot that day as I normally do and I’ve shot this pistol much better on other outings so it was just me.

Water Jugs ready for test

1st jug hit with JHP 7.62x25mm

     Now, is this the do-all-end-all cartridge?  Nope.  Is it a good cartridge?  It can be, depending upon what you want.  I’d hate to cut it loose in a thickly populated locale but then, the same can be said about pretty much any other duty caliber.  Full Metal Jacket is definitely a round that’s going to go through a lot of things though, so I really cannot recommend it for urban defense.  Back-country, though, it might give that extra bone-breaking, deep penetrating hit one needs on a tough critter determined to do you harm.  If money is a big issue, you can get a TTC pistol and a couple mags for well under $300 in most locals, grab a box or two of JHPs (when you can find them) and you have an easy to handle, accurate, very powerful weapon that can certainly serve you in a defensive role.  There are other options, of course that are arguably better, but everyone’s need and taste is very different.  You could do a lot worse, just make sure it’s safe to carry however you plan on carrying it.

  It is a VERY LOUD round with an impressive amount of muzzle flash.  If nothing else, it’ll get you some attention on a firing range, especially in the evening or (if allowed) indoors.  And, though it’s a round known for penetrating ability, I’ve never had it do any damage to falling plates or “Pepper poppers” rated for handguns.  So, it’s a piece of history and a very fun, potentially serviceable handgun.  Ammo is not as cheap or as plentiful as it once was, but it’s out there and not too bad (most I ever paid for surplus was $40 for 80 rounds and I think that was a bit inflated over the local market).  

**** UPDATE ****
     Recently I pulled the bullet out of some Yugo FMJ service rounds and chambered the primed, empty brass.  I then put the weapon on half-cock and whack the heck out of the muzzle with a plastic mallet.  Yes, I was gritting my teeth, but any damage was limited to the plastic face of the mallet so all was well.  I also repeated the experiment with the hammer cocked as some knowledgeable folks have opined that if the slide is free to move when/if the weapon should be dropped upon its muzzle, this will take it out of battery and not let the inertia from the impact move the firing pin hard enough and far enough to fire the chambered round.  In any case all I got was a slight mark on the primer.  Calling it an indentation is akin to calling a mole hill a mountain.  The primer did not fire even after being rechambered and the muzzle submitted to more whacks with the plastic mallet.  Just to be clear, I believe my impact with the mallet was considerably harder than the weapon would have received from being dropped from about belt high onto concrete or some other hard surface.  I've seen rougher wartime pistols with a lot of wear-and-tear on their internals (like a wartime PPK that had seen much better days) that when accidentally dropped by their owner lefe much more serious marks on the primers of their chambered rounds and yet did not suffer a discharge.  Now, does that mean the Tok is "drop safe?"  Well, no, obviously not.  Mine did not go "bang" but what if I'd dropped it while up a ladder?  What if I had some newer commercial ammo that may have softer primers?  What if aliens ... wait ... sorry, different argument.  The point I want to make is that it SEEMS to be about as safe as any other service pistol of the era (and maybe even a few modern pistols to boot).  There was only the scratch on the primer but it was a mark.  An overly long, out of spec firing pin, or a drop from a higher point, a soft primer, planetary misalignments ... who knows what all could affect these things?  My test didn't really prove anything other than a significant impact to MY pistol with THAT ammo did not produce a loud noise.  For ME my Romanian TTC is a valid carry choice for some situations.  Your needs are likely as different as the next persons and your mileage will almost certainly vary. Just as always, be careful and know your weapon and ammunition.

Walther PPK/s .22

     My affection for Walther firearms is well known.  I've carried three different PPK pistols in my time as a police officer, through all my ranks and job positions.  I did some of my best talking to convince a then not-gun-friendly (and not very me friendly) administrator to issue me a PPK/s that the department had in inventory.  I also owned a Walther P22 (.22LR) that is a delight to shoot and even had it in the car with me occasionally in addition to my regulation armament as a “just in case” piece. 

     I say “had” the P22 because when my wife and I were dating she proved eager to learn how to shoot and proved to be a very good student.  My P22 at some point became her P22 (much as my Ruger 10-22 became her Ruger 10-22 once she shot it).  Oh, it’s still in my house, within reach from my side of the bed, in fact, but just ask her and she’ll make it quite clear that while it’s OUR cars, OUR house, OUR money, it’s HER gun.  ;)

     My wife proved to also be as big a James Bond fan as I am (insofar as the movies go; I haven’t convinced her to read the original Ian Fleming books just yet).  Come to find, she was enamored with the PPK (which I think is one of the most elegant pistols ever made and still frequently find myself carrying either of my personal ones in spite of other “better” pistols in my armory).  However, one severe automobile accident left her with her very dominant right arm being held together by a plate and screws.  Given her already size extra tiny hands, a .380 anything was not in the cards for her (she’s the toughest person I know but two shot with a Beretta .380 and her arm was out of commission for the whole day).  The two PPK examples I have now are .32s and are right on the cusp of manageable for her.  But she doesn’t want to borrow one of my guns, she wants HER gun, and is far more comfortable with a .22 or .25 which, by the way, she shoots well enough to put the rounds where they need to go.

     Well, there we were, at the annual weekend-before-our-Valentine’s Day/Wedding Anniversary gun show.  This is where she usually tells me to go buy a gun for myself from her to me with the admonishment “I don’t buy cheap crap.”  Yes, she loves guns, is a great shot, is a big James Bond (movie) fan, loves Walthers, and sends me to buy guns as her gifts to me.  No you can’t have her and though, yes, she has a sister, they are quite different.

     Where was I?  Oh, yeah, gun show -   We eventually found ourselves drawn like moths to a flame to the table of the dealer  from whom I usually wind up making a purchase more gun shows than not.  In fact, I have told him we should just save time by me just handing him a signed check when I walk in the door and him just handing me what he thinks I’ll want and letting me know how much it cost me.  I pointed out to my wife a brand new Walther PPK/s .22 in a display case.  This is one of the new ones that have just been out for a year or so.  I’ve read mixed reviews on it.  The worst labeled it as essentially a pellet gun that aspired to being an actual pistol.  The best essentially said it worked and the commenter was keeping his.

     Wife fell head over heels right there.  She asked me to give it the once-over before she held it.  It was placed in my hand and it felt rock-solid.  It felt for all the world like my blued steel 1967 sample and did not, in any way, feel like a beefed up pellet gun.  I was actually surprised at how well put together it appeared to be.  I passed it to her and she all but drooled on the display case.  If she were a guy she would have drooled.  Hell, I think I did drool!  She agreed the blued (actually black kinda Parkerized type coating) model was better looking than the chrome version.  She asked the lady at the case to please hold it and stationed me to guard her and the piece from the crowd whilst she ran back to the car to get her ID which she’d accidentally left behind.  When she returned, she filled out the paperwork, passed over our debit card, and, cradling her new baby with our checking account about four bills lighter, made one more circuit of the show with me before we left.

     By the time we ate a late lunch time had gotten away from us so it was the next day (Sunday – blue laws be darned to heck) that we got to go to the shooting range.  By then, of course, I’d had time to give the piece a good going over. My initial impression stayed in place.  It was solid and sturdy.  The barrel is like the one on the P22 in that the actual barrel is a liner that goes inside a tube which surrounds it and gives it the girth to look “normal.”  The barrel sleeve has an end cap near the muzzle that threads on and has notches for a spanner.  This, I imagine, will take the threaded adapter to fit a suppressor that the P22 uses.  We’ve discussed this a few times and now that she has the PPKs I think a can might be in our future.

     It weighs less than my ’67 .32 PPK, but still has heft.  I’ve seen the original .22 models of the PP and PPK where the slide is milled down presumably to reduce the weight.  The new PPKs .22 has a standard-looking slide. To me this looks much better (“elegant,” I call it), though I’d love to have one of those originals which thus far has escaped my collection.

     Manual of arms and disassembly is the same as for the center-fire relatives.  After making sure the weapon is empty (no mag, empty chamber), pull down on the front of the trigger guard and when it clears the underside of the frame push it slightly to one side so it’ll rest on the frame but not return to its previous point (a wee bit of sideways pressure from a finger will keep it there for the rest of this procedure).  Pull the slide all the way back and lift up the rear.  When you see/feel it tilt up, run the slide forward off the frame.  The recoil spring goes around the barrel.  In theory, one end of the spring is slightly belled out (hard to see in my example).  That end goes toward the muzzle.  Reassembly is reverse.  Sometimes it takes a bit of jiggling to get the barrel back through the bushing hole in the front of the slide.  This can be eased by some careful and slow positioning of the barrel to the hole.  Once the slide is back on, let the front of the trigger guard go back home and work the slide a few times to ensure it’s all properly in place.

     To load, insert a full mag, point somewhere safe, pull back the slide and let it go forward entirely under its own power.  Do not “ride the slide” forward … with any pistol that I can think of.  Leave that in the movies.  The hammer will be cocked.  Rotating the safety lever (left side of slide) down will lock the firing pin and drop the hammer.  Keep the muzzle pointed somewhere safe while doing this.  Personally, I like to apply the safety while slowing the hammer’s decent with a thumb just to keep from abusing the mechanism.  The first shot may be fired Double Action (DA) by simply aiming and pulling the trigger.  The slide will cock the hammer when it goes back and all subsequent shots (until you again apply the safety) are fired Single Action (SA).  You can also cock the hammer to get around the quite heavy initial DA pull.  This is such a familiar trait to anyone used to the PP series of Walthers that I call any pistol with a very heavy DA pull followed by light and smooth SA pull “Walther-esque.”  If you have strong hands, you’ll get the first round off DA no problem.  If you have very small, or weak, or arthritic hands, you might need to just plan on cocking the hammer. 

     There are two schools of thought on carrying a PP series of any caliber.  One is that since the only way the firing pin is locked is to have the safety on, “Safety-On” is the only way to go and the other guys are unsafe idiots.  The other school is of the opinion that since the weapon has a hammer block in the frame that prevents the hammer from touching the firing pin until the trigger is pulled, “Safety-Off” carry is fine and preferable if you understand that danger happens in an instant and you’re likely to fumble or forget levers.  “Safety-Off” folks tend to think of the other side as Nervous Nannies that should stick to ranges and not give themselves ulcers by actually carrying a loaded gun.  It’s like Alabama vs. Auburn or Cubs vs. Cardinals or North vs. South.  Understand your piece as well as the guy who built it, know your world, and make up your own mind.  Leftys like me don’t really get a choice.

     At the range, Milady loaded up the 10 round mag like a champ.  It is very similar to the P22’s mag and comes with a Walther-esque finger rest at the bottom.  The finger rest lets a ham-handed lad like me get three fingers on the grip.  The magazine is not interchangeable with the P22’s, unfortunately.  That would have been a nice extra from Walther, as would have been including the little tab on the side of the mag to pull down the follower to aid in loading.  The P22 had that feature, the PPKs does not.

     With wife’s new pistol in hand and her blessing to put the first mag through it (isn’t she GREAT?), I walked up to the 7 yard line, racked in the first round and fired at a Shoot-n-See® bullseye target.  I shot a nice, if slightly left of center group.  For the first rounds through the piece, my “new gun jitters,” and, I don’t know, planetary alignments or whatever, I was impressed.  No, it’s not a target pistol.  But minute-of-heart, or minute-of-eye-socket-and-nose from 21 feet ain’t half bad. 

     The accuracy did not decrease with about 250 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags® and Herself’s groups often involved three or four rounds from a magazine tearing a single, ragged hole from 7 yards.  Given time and perhaps some experimentation with different ammo, I can see someone being able to tighten the groups up impressively.  But, .22 ammo is scarce in our AO and most of what we have are the afore-mentioned Mini-Mags® because they work in all of our other .22LR firearms.  They proved to work quit well in the Walther PPKs as well.  Your experience may vary, but when someone can only pick one type, I usually recommend Mini-Mags® for a start.  In a short barreled .22 pistol, I don’t worry about hollow-points unless that’s just all there is available because it is highly doubtful they will get up enough velocity to expand and with tiny bullets, penetration is your friend.  Our load out was, in fact, hollow points and they fed just fine. 

     Before we called it a day, I shot it side-by-side with my afore-mentioned blued .32 PPK.  Accuracy was on par (excellent) and though the .32 PPK can hardly be said to kick hard, the .22LR PPKs seemed to barely move in my hand.  Oh, and FWIW, it is at least as accurate as the P22, at least in my hands or Herself’s.  Neither of us had any issue with the infamous “Walther-bite” where a too-high grip (or thick hands) get the web cut by the slide.  I think the pistol’s almost utter lack of muzzle flip contributed to that bit of Heaven.

     At around four hundred bucks it is not a cheap pistol.  It is, however, a fun pistol and one that pretty much anyone can shoot comfortably (except for the strain of finding enough .22 LR ammo to make a worthy outing to the range – hopefully this will change soon when supply catches up with demand).  If you want cheap, there are tons of little zinc alloy wonders out there.  If you want a piece that you can be proud of, handle like a real gun and not a delicate flower that might crack in a couple hundred rounds, and even rely on for self-defense (limits of cartridge, blah-blah, higher misfires with rimfire rounds, blah-blah), I think it’ll be darn hard to beat this new Walther .22 PPKs.  One thing’s for sure:  I think I “won” this year’s Anniversary/Valentine gift giving competition.  Anyone who doesn’t think these occasions are competitions hasn't been married very long. ;)

--- Go Shooting and Take a Newbie!