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		      The ChiCom Tokarev & You
			   April 01, 2023
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	  +++ Note: This article is still being updated +++

   Despite their many shortcomings, I have had a lifetime fondness
for the TT-33 and its variants.  Most specifically, the ChiCom
variants made by Norinco and sold more cheaply than the various
Soviet models.  While the 9x19mm model 213 export version with
factory safety is a neat little budget pistol, most of my love lies
with the 7.62x25mm Type 54.  So allow me to write a bit about each
and convince you to maybe get one even though you really shouldn't.


 *** Type 54 - 7.62x25mm ***

   Does launching a 30-caliber bullet weighing about the same as a
380 ACP hollowpoint out of a handgun at 1,300 to 1,500 feet per
second with the thunderous crack of a failed political ideology of
immeasurable human suffering sound like a good time?  Of course it
does.  And the Norinco Type 54 does this almost as well as the once
notably more expensive European Tokarevs.  Sure, the chinesium steel
is even softer than the questionable Yugoslav, Hungarian, and
Russians sourced from their own scrap drives but the 54s still tend
to run.  The things that peen and roll burrs tend not to be too
important.  And the slide locks varying between intermittently
functional to outright vestigial matters little when quick reloads of
hard-to-source spare magazines aren't a realistic likelihood, anyway.
Especially after you mark and test every mag. you do find to
segregate the ones that feed properly ALL the time.

   These were never purchased and used as barbeque guns or prideful
additions to carefully curated collections so let's get to the good
points.  The triggers average to perfectly decent out of the box and
break in to nice-ish with some use and plenty of dryfire.  That
combined with the fine but visible sights, good balance, slim frame
to fit people of various sizes (like slants, broads, and children),
moderate recoil, and surprisingly mechanically accurate barrels add
up to cheap fun.  If all one does is bounce coffee cans around a
fifty-yard dirt berm with tiny bottleneck cartridges booming with the
ferocity of magnums, the Type 54 earns its keep as an Entertainment
Value.

   Just remember to ignore or remove the godawful and usually
mechanically unsafe safety if you are an Amerimutt subject to the
tyranny of the FedGov's onerous import regulations.  Then fabricobble
a plug of epoxy or suchlike to patch the jagged chunk of grip cut out
to clear the abortion of a regulatory compliance device.


 *** Model 213 - 9x19mm ***

   Are your you too much of an office drone twigboy faggot to handle
a real cartridge?  Worry not!  The Europellet popping model 213 may
be an option for you.

   Sure, the magazines may be harder to find and chambering utterly
boring but it will probably shoot well.  Being honest, the
purpose-designed safety and more slender grips may make it more
comfortable for many.  Just don't glue a garbage belt clip to the
slide like the previous owner of mine.

   As a cheap 9mm for plinking and handling such homestead matters as
rousting a fox from the henhouse, it's fine.  You could and should do
better but a semi-disposable 9mm service pistol does have a certain
allure.

   For those wanting more from the Model 213, it can be converted to
7.62x25mm.  Source a 7.62 barrel, a barrel bushing for the 7.62 guns
as the barrel diameter differs, recoil spring and end bits, and the
proper 7.62x25mm magazines.  While the gune is stripped to swap
barrel, bushing, and spring - pop the grips off.  The spacer in the
bagazine well is held in place with one pin.  Drift the pin out and
remove the spacer.  The gun will usually function fine as a 7.62
shooter upon reassembly.


 =====
 kimek
 [gopher://sdf.org/1/users/kimek]