New $200 Pistol?

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Cheesewhiz

Hunter
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
2,114
Location
Chicago, IL
I recently purchased a pistol on Gunbroker. I really didn't want it all that much and placed a low ball bid that ended up winning. So now I have a new pistol, it's based on a Tokarev pistol but is chopped and channeled and is in 9mm as opposed to 7.62x25mm. Made in Serbia (don't care for Serbia at all) but was twice removed as I bought it from a gunshop that bought it from the original owner. It's new, never been fired and looks to be barely fondled, still has the packing grease all over the internals. It's a M88A made by Zastava Arms and it is quite interesting.



This is a pic of it next to one of my CZ P-01's for a size comparison. The P-01 was what they use to call a compact gun (same size as a Glock 19), the categories have gotten skewed with the newer mini's and tiny guns out there.

It's a very thin gun, single stack 9+1 rounds but weighs a bit as it is a all steel framed gun. Pretty close in size to a Glock 43 9mm. Has a decently thought out safety, the trigger is service pistol quality but it being based on a Tokarev means that it is a Browning 1903 in many ways, so the trigger could be lightened easily. It has the Tokarev basket firing group that pulls out easily for cleaning, something that I don't know why other gun makers haven't followed.

Going to shoot it tomorrow and see how I like it, for $200 what's not to like?
 

Mike J

Hunter
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Aug 5, 2007
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GA
I believe I have read about these before. I got the impression that they are decent.
 

Mike J

Hunter
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So how did it do Cheesewhiz? There is a certain allure to an inexpensive firearm that works well.
 

Cheesewhiz

Hunter
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
2,114
Location
Chicago, IL
DixieBoy said:
Wasn't that pistol embarrassed, sitting there next to your beautiful CZ? - DixieBoy
It probably was really embarrassed when it was sitting next to a CZ SP-01 Custom and a SP-01 Shadow for sure.

Mike J said:
So how did it do Cheesewhiz? There is a certain allure to an inexpensive firearm that works well.
Well, i kinda screwed that up in several ways. I have been away from home quite a bit lately and felt it best to shoot some of my other pistols first just to warm up. After shooting some really nice pistols and putting the M88A in my hands was a mistake. Those other guns are perfect and are an extension of me, it's like driving finely tuned race cars that you know well and then hopping into a Yugo. So I did it no favors at all.

First, a fear I had came true. I have Creature from the Black Lagoon hands with a bit of web between my fingers, it is even more so between my thumb and pointer. I thought I might suffer some hammer bite. Boy, did I, after 10 rounds and a fair amount of blood, I went to a golf glove that I use when firing my .41AE pistol that has a good amount of recoil and a spur trigger with a short beavertail. So with glove on hand and ready to go, I proceeded to put a little over 300 rounds thru this little Serbian blood letter.

I fired five different types of my 9mm reloads (mostly target but also some Hornady 115gr XTP bullets set up to be defensive ammo clones), a white box of Federal RTP 115gr and a box of Federal Champion Aluminum 115gr and half a box of Hornady Critical Defense 115gr. All worked flawlessly but the Aluminum, that gun did not like that stuff, wouldn't strip it from the magazine about every four or five rounds, weird because that was basically the only thing, not a lack of slide movement or anything just did not want to pick and push it to the chamber.
The recoil seemed pretty stout, a lot stronger than my Kahr which is smaller and much lighter.
The trigger was bad for sure and very uncomfortable because it is thin and rounded and tended to slap back fairly hard.
I got all shots on paper (8 1/2 X 11) at 30 feet but the sights are off a fair amount, mostly shooting low, so I ended up pointing well above my 2" dot and had no real reference point. So none of the many targets looked like anything you would write home about.
The gun was very reliable with a bunch of ammo but not the aluminum stuff, if I were to ever entertain using this gun as any sort of defense use, it would have to have a good amount of the chosen ammo run thru it.

I could say that it would be a decent vehicle pistol, even though it's small, it's a bit weighty, so no way would it be a concealed carry gun for me. Somebody with smaller hands would probably have a far better time shooting this thing than me but I doubt they would ever love it. If I get rid of it, I'll get close to what I paid for it, so no loss there. I'll take it out again a few times and see if I can warm to it, just happy it wasn't a $400 pistol.
 

Buckeye!

Blackhawk
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Messages
716
Location
TN
I ordered a M88A a few years back ...I liked it .. as you say heavy and small .. But its a service type pistol ,It carried well , carried it while doing chores and such..

I ended up trading it for a well worn Glenfield 30-30 ...
 

NixieTube

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 14, 2009
Messages
988
Location
Massachusetts
I would say that for $200 new all it has to do is go "bang" and not send bullets in the wrong general direction ;).
 

CLAYPOOL

Single-Sixer
Joined
Nov 2, 2010
Messages
388
Location
Southern Illinois
Some of the surplus 7.62 x 25's were loaded as sub gun ammo. be careful with that caliber. The nice thing about the CZ - 52's were with a separate barrel and the same clips you could have a 9 MM on the cheap. Naturally i didn't but any of those bulk cheap barrels. They even for a short time sold them extended and/or threaded..
 
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