Bulgarian Makarov 9x18 Pistol

Hey guys, welcome back. So today I'm out here shooting my 9x18 caliber Makarov. The Makarov was adopted by the Soviet Union in 1951 and it was designed by a gentleman by the name of Nikolai Makarov. The Makarov has served in the military, in the Russian military I should say, throughout the Soviet era and into the modern era, although it has been replaced by a more modern 9mm pistol. It still resides in the armories of many police forces and Russian military units. Let's take a look at this interesting Cold War era pistol. Shooting the Makarov is pleasant. The 9x18 cartridge doesn't have much recoil. The 1.7 pound all steel constructed pistol really works to absorb the recoil of a caliber or a pistol cartridge that really isn't much more powerful than a .380. I've heard people describe the recoil of the Makarov being sharp or brisk, but I just don't feel it. I find the recoil to be very pleasant and the gun to be pretty darn accurate. It's a really nice, pleasant handgun to shoot. Now, the sights aren't the best sights in the world. As you can see, just standard military sights on this Bulgarian Makarov. This is a Bulgarian copy. Now, the Russians did import some of these handguns and continue to, I think, in small lots occasionally, but some Russian Makarovs have made it into the country. Both military configuration and commercial configuration have adjustable sights. This is a military Makarov that was manufactured sometime in 1990. The Makarov was adopted in 1951 to replace the Torkarev. Here's the Makarov and here's the Torkarev that it replaced. You can see that the mag is slightly smaller than the Torkarev. The Soviets were looking for a handgun that was moderately sized and fired a medium power cartridge, and that's where the 9x18 cartridge comes in that I have here. The 9x18 cartridge is very similar to the US .380 ACP that we fire quite a bit here in the United States, but it's slightly bigger in diameter and just a little bit more powerful, not much. That also gave Nikolai Makarov the ability to design the pistol around the blowback action. It doesn't have a locking mechanism like you would find in a Browning Hi-Power in 1911 or just about any other modern military service pistol. It's just a straight blowback design. You'll notice the barrel doesn't drop. It just unlocks by the weight of the slide and the recoil spring. There's nothing else locking the barrel to the slide. It has several features that you'll find on other pistols of the era, most notably the Walther series of pistols, like the PP. Walther was working on his pistol in the late 1920s, early 1930s, and many of the design elements in the Walther pistol found their way into the Makarov. You'll notice it has a double action trigger, it has a hammer drop safety, and its method of disassembly is pretty much the same. You just pull down the trigger guard to disassemble the pistol, and we'll talk a little bit more about that here in a few minutes. The Makarov uses an eight-shot magazine, which I have here. It's unique in that it's open on both sides. You'll notice right here on the side of the magazine there's a little protrusion, and that's how it locks the slide open on the last shot fired. You'll notice that that's cut all the way down to the bottom of the magazine. The Makarov also has a heel release mechanism, so to change the magazine you have to rotate that lever there, and the magazine comes out. It doesn't have the standard thumb release that many Americans have become used to. It also has a slide release here, so on the last shot the pistol will lock open. You can drop the magazine out, replace it, and hit that slide release and charge the weapon. The hammer drop safety works completely opposite of the Walther system and what you may be used to. Fire is down, you'll see the red dot there, and safe and hammer drop is up. The Makarov is surprisingly popular in the United States. Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union and communism in the 1990s, these pistols started to arrive on our shores and gathered a pretty quick following. A lot of people carry these as defensive pistols. The pistol's small, it's only about 6.3 inches in length, and it fits nicely in a front pocket. I mean, it's a big handgun, don't get me wrong. It's not the same size as a Ruger LCP or a Kar P380, but it is a small handgun, and there are actually a decent number of holster options available for this handgun. I know Phobos and even Don Hume make holsters for these handguns, along with several others. Let's take a look at how you field strip the Makarov. First of all, you want to make sure the weapon's clear. You drop the magazine out with the heel release, and you'll want to pull the slide to the rear and check the chamber to make sure that it's empty. Now, one of the things that's different about the Mak than other handguns is that when it's in the safe position, you can't pull the trigger. You'll notice it's trying to draw the slide to the rear with the safety in place. You can't pull the trigger, nor can you pull the slide open, until you put the weapon in the fire position. Once you do that, you can open the slide. So you'll make sure that it's in the fire position, you'll check to make sure that the chamber is empty, and then you can disassemble the pistol. To disassemble the pistol, all you have to do is pull the trigger guard up and lift it to one side or the other on the receiver so it rests on the receiver and stays open. You can see what I'm talking about there. See how it's just slightly off to one side? Now all you have to do is pull the slide to the rear, lift it up, and let it go forward, and the handgun comes apart into two pieces. The recoil spring rides over the barrel. Again, it's a straight blowback action, so there's nothing moving. The barrel is mounted to the receiver of the handgun or to the frame. Pull that spring off, and that's it. You've field stripped the Makarov. Reassembling the pistol, you just do the reverse. Put the spring back in place, put the nose of the barrel into the slide, put it back together, and the weapon's ready to fire. Very, very simple. That target off in the distance is about 50 yards away. Let's see how the Mak does. Not too shabby for a little tiny pistol like this Makarov in the 9x18 cartridge. Using those sights, which are marginal at best, the trigger pull on this gun is surprisingly crisp and light, which lends itself to pretty decent accuracy along with that fixed barrel. The guns are kind of known for accuracy. I've always been a fan of Soviet-era weapons and Russian firearms. That's probably because I grew up during the Cold War, and I served in the military during the Cold War. I've always been a fan of our enemy's weapons, and I'm happy that the Russians are no longer really our enemies. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, weapons like this have started to come into our country as surplus firearms, and I'm glad that they are. Now, this is a Bulgarian Makarov. Someday I hope to get my hands on a Russian-made handgun, but these Bulgarian guns are really nice. Now, the Bulgarians made them, the Chinese made them, the East Germans made them, and so did the Russians. All of those firearms are available on the surplus market. The Bulgarian Maks like this one just started coming into the country again just recently, and they flooded the market with them. That supply has kind of petered off, but the handguns are still available for a good price. You can find them for around $200 to $250 if you shop around in your local gun shops, or if you shop online like Guns America. I did buy this handgun for my friends over at Bly Sports, which is my local dealer. The handguns are also able to shoot defensive ammunition, like this Hornady 95-grain XTP ammo. So if you want to carry one of these handguns for self-defense, you can do that. Surplus ammunition is available, keeping the cost of ownership and shooting down, but domestic manufacturers like Winchester also manufacture standard 95-grain ball ammo for the handgun. The quality of these handguns is exceptional, and that includes the Russian guns, the Bulgarians, the Chinese, and the East Germans. They all make a nice handgun. Some are more collectible than others, but I'm not an expert, so I can't really give you guys advice on that, but the Bulgarians are great shooters, and I'm proud to own this handgun. If you guys have any questions about this handgun, you can ask those questions on our Facebook page. You can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com forward slash military arms. As always, everybody, thanks for watching. Thanks for those subs, and we will talk to you guys soon.