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.