Soviet arms are famous for their tolerance to take abuse and dirt and keep working. I was at the range on thursday with my pps-43 (sorry guys, semi-automatic only) and got a lesson just how much "dirt" they could take. Somehow instead of ejecting one of the spent cartridges, it managed to "eat" it into the receiver where it bounced around for the rest of the shooting afternoon without causing any apparent problems. I only discovered it when I broke the gun down for cleaning. Having had other guns jam because of a bit too much powder residue in the chamber, I was impressed.
Wow. Did the case end up behind the bolt? Under the bolt? Crushed beside the magazine well? I'm trying to picture finding an 'old' case when cleaning a rifle... would be a :yow moment that's for sure!
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
desantnik Wrote:Amazing and a tribute to the robustness of these weapons. Is ammo expensive?
The ammo should be cheap because strangely, right now, high demand ammo (like .40 cal) is high and the unusual stuff like this is really inexpensive in bulk and right off the boat from Russia.
I shoot slightly more expensive tokarev ammo in my pistols (tt-33, CZ-52) as they are somewhat more finicky. In the pps I shoot yugoslavian surplus from the 50's which comes in boxes of 70 rounds for under $8 a box. 70 rounds conveniently filling either one ppsh drum or 2 pps stick magazines. I have no idea where this casing was hiding, it fell out when I opened up the receiver at it's hinge to clean the bolt and barrel.
One of the "pistols" with folding stock welded closed. One could drill out the small welds in 3 places but pulling out the stock turns it into a "short barrelled rifle" and I neither have the extra $200 to try to get a SBR license for it nor the desire to wear orange for a couple of years. Looping shoulder strap around left arm makes stable enough shooting platform for 50 yards (at least you can tell which target was being aimed at). Or I guess you could try a two hand hold with the nearly 10 pound "pistol". Gets lots of looks at the range but the sort of things I shoot usually do.
Impressive! I've always been fond of the 7.62x25mm cartridge, and occassionally will take out my TT-33 for a day at the range. I prefer to fire the Czech made Sellier & Bellot ammunition, but in my area, the S&B ammo for this caliber is $24.00 per one box of 50 rounds.
