Tokarev Addendum: the Chinese Type 54 Pistol

It's been a while since I wrote about the TT-33 pistol. Back then, I had Romanian and Yugoslavian pistols, and opined on the merits of each. Some time ago, I sold the Yugo. I rarely sell guns, especially mil-surps, but as I mentioned in my post, the gun just didn't shoot as well for me as my Romanian TTC, and as a result I rarely shot it. Though the Golden Age of Mil-Surps is over, I still keep an eye out for interesting guns that hit the scene from time to time. Over the last few years, one gun that has been showing up regularly is the Chinese Type 54, China's take on Fedor Tokarev's TT-33. I was interested, as Chinese guns of any kind are a relative rarity in the United States nowadays. President Clinton banned the importation of Chinese-made firearms in 1993 because he hates the 2nd Amendment and doesn't want Americans to have access to inexpensive firearms. Well, supposedly it was about the Tiananmen Square crackdown, but if you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. 

 It's a nice bridge but the neighborhood is a little rough.

There have been some imports of Chinese firearms since the ban, via a "loophole" which allows importation as long as the guns don't come directly from China. The fairly recent arrival of battle-worn Type 56 SKS rifles is a prominent example. Speculation is that these guns were imported from Albania. How did Albania get them? Supposedly the guns were either purchased by the Albanian government at some point during the Cold War, or were given as military aid to Albania by China. I am not knowledgeable on the subject, but military aid seems more likely given that 1) Albania produced their own unique variant of the SKS, and 2) none of the Chinese guns bear any Albanian markings. The same goes for the Type 54 pistol. There's not much to say about the design that I haven't already, suffice that China adopted Fedor Tokarev's pistol in 1954 and has produced millions of them since, both for their own military uses and for export. The gun itself seems a straight copy of the TT-33, but has the slide serrations of the TTC. So, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Type 54 is a copy of the TTC. 

You be the judge. Left is the Type 54; right the TTC. Note the ugly safety on the TTC and the steel barrel in the white vs. the blued barrel of the Type 54

One thing that particularly interested me about the Type 54s that were being imported was the 1968 Gun Control Act mandated safety mechanism that came with them. Unlike the Romanian and Polish Toks that have a hole drilled into the frame to install a trigger block safety, these Type 54s had a different solution. The triggers have a slot milled into them, into which a GLOCK type safety shoe is installed. This means that the pistol can easily be restored to its original configuration simply by replacing the trigger. On top of that, prices for the Type 54 have been around $350, and import marks have been discrete on many examples I've seen. Palmetto State Armory had a "Daily Deal" on Type 54 pistols recently, and as it was bonus time at work I couldn't say no any longer. I snapped one up like a Nile crocodile grabs a careless wildebeest. 

"Hello, I've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty".  

PSA advertised these pistols as being in "very good" condition and having a 9 lb, 4 oz trigger pull. I was not excited about that trigger but took a chance that it would be lighter than that, especially if I replaced the modified trigger with an original. I don't have a trigger pull scale, I'd estimate my gun's trigger pull is closer to 7 lbs. And let's talk about my gun. Overall: I like it. One unique characteristic of the Type 54 is that it has a chrome-lined barrel. This is a desirable feature for any gun and is especially useful for military firearms. Not only does chrome-lining protect against rust and pitting from the elements and corrosively primed ammunition, but it extends barrel life and makes cleaning easier. Accordingly, the barrel on my pistol is excellent and shone like a mirror. There are Chinese characters on top of the slide that translate to "Type 54 Pistol", and the import mark is very faint and is on the bottom of the frame on what some would call the "dust cover". This is preferable to some of the "billboard" import marks that were prevalent on mil-surp pistol slides over the years (I'm looking at you, CAI and PW Arms....why???). As we've established, this pistol wasn't imported from China, but wherever it came from it was refinished prior to getting to the US. The top of my slide shows some minor surface imperfections indicative of old corrosion under the bluing, and the gun doesn't have a consistent polish. It reminds one of the Russian "dip" blue that P.38 collectors talk about. Don't get me wrong: it's not poorly done, and when the gun is properly oiled (as all guns should be), it looks pretty nice. Just know that you aren't getting an original, as-issued pistol. But you knew that, of course, because of that trigger safety, a "feature" that I wanted to remove before heading to the range.

The safety "shoe" is held in with two pins and is there to keep you safe, because safety.

I've written many times about my appreciation for combloc weapons, for three main reasons: they're effective, they're simple, and they're reliable. One nice thing about acquiring a Type 54 was getting to learn more about the engineering behind the TT-33. Of course, one of the first things I did was to Google "how to remove Tokarev trigger". I was expecting this to be rather involved, so I was floored when I saw the videos. As it turns out, the trigger return spring on a TT-33 is a leaf spring that hooks into a slot inside the magazine well. The trigger "snaps" into this spring and is easily removed by depressing the spring (that is, pulling the trigger), and then pulling the trigger "bars" back and down out of the frame through the magazine well. It takes about 5 seconds. The simplicity is beautiful. As I previously mentioned, the hammer assembly is a unitized group and pulls right out, so all there is in the frame is a trigger, a leaf spring, and a magazine catch assembly. Fedor Tokarev was a genius. 

Fedor Tokarev, in color. His designs, thousand-yard stare, and mustache are legendary.

There was one small hiccup in removing the modified trigger: at first, it wouldn't come out. I fiddled and I faddled, I pulled up, down, back, and forward. I mumbled a few choice words, considered a Dremel, and then walked away for a few minutes. After some thought, I determined that the add-on safety shoe was the culprit, so I grabbed a hammer and roll pin punch and quickly removed the shoe, and the trigger came right out. It only took a few seconds once I figured out the problem, but it was annoying and reinforced my hatred of add-on safeties. It's almost like if you mess with a near-perfect design, you only make it worse. 

May the ghost of Mikhail Kalashnikov haunt these people forever.

I happened to have a spare TTC trigger on hand in the trusty spare parts bin, and in seconds it was installed. It fit perfectly, despite being manufactured a world away and decades before my Type 54. I will say I have some admiration for how the original trigger was modified. The cut into the trigger, and the safety shoe took a bit of planning and engineering. It may be an ugly modification driven solely by bad legislation, but it was well thought out and executed: it's reversible, and even if you don't remove it, it's less visually objectionable than the safeties on the Romanian and Polish guns. 

The altered trigger, post-mortem. You can see the trigger bars. The magazine goes through them.

As a historical piece, I wanted to know when my particular pistol was made. It's hard to say with Chinese guns. Some early Tokarevs had dates stamped on them, in Arabic numerals. Mine does not. It does have a serial number, and behind that a "66" indicating it was produced at State Factory 66. So how old is it? Well, the "common wisdom" is that if you take the model number, subtract 1 from it, and then add the first two digits of the serial number, you get the year of manufacture. That would mean my gun was made in 1981 (54-1+28=81). I don't know how correct this "common wisdom" is, but as the Chinese either don't know or won't say, I'm going with it.

So, how does it shoot? Just as you'd expect from a service pistol. The trigger is indeed a bit heavier than I'd like, but after 50 rounds or so it seemed to wear in. Perhaps it was me getting used to the pull, but I also think refinished parts were being broken in and smoothed out from use. At 10 yards, it shot about 2" high, and I shot a little bit left at first as I got used to the gun. The rear sight has a "5" stamped onto it, which I speculate means it's regulated for a 50 meter zero, which is about 25 meters farther than I'd prefer to shoot at things with a handgun.

A decent group on a knock-off NRA B-29 silhouette target. The B-29 is a 50 foot target, here shot at about 30 feet.

As I've mentioned, I handload for every cartridge I shoot. The 7.62x25mm cartridge isn't difficult to reload, but does pose a couple of challenges for the novice. As the cases are bottle-necked, they must be lubricated for sizing, and special attention must be given to proper neck tension to avoid bullet setback due to the short neck and variations with brass. Then there is the expense and availability of projectiles, and the lack of load data. Sierra makes a very nice .308, 85gr bullet that works perfectly in the cartridge, but they run ~$35 per 100, and that's when you can find them. I've found some more economical alternatives. Berry's Bullets makes a 110gr plated bullet intended for use in the M1 Carbine, for about 14 cents per bullet. I've found it works well in the Tokarev and Vz.52, heavy for caliber as it is. I also cast my own bullets for the cartridge, primarily with the Lee 311-100-2R bullet. With my alloy, these cast out around 104 grains. I size to .309 using a Lee push-through sizing die, and then powder coat and size again. My bullets shoot great, with no leading, in all of my firearms chambered for the 7.62x25mm. As for load data, there's bits and pieces, but nothing current from any powder manufacturers. The Hornady reloading manual has some loads with their .309 90gr XTP bullet. I don't recommend this bullet as it doesn't chamber well in my guns at the recommended OAL in the Hornady manual (the bullet ogive doesn't agree with short chambers), nor do I think much of some of their powder choices (Alliant H2400 and Winchester 296 are too slow for the cartridge and produce too much flash IMO). Sierra also has some load data for the 7.62x25mm, tailored for the 85 gr bullet I mention above. I've used Alliant Power Pistol with excellent results with their bullet.

Some of my reloads. Lee 311-100-2R, sized to .309, powder coated in Smurf blue. 

I've pretty much settled on Accurate No 5 for my reloads. Years ago, Accurate powder released load data for the 7.62x25mm, in multiple bullet weights and styles.  As it turned out, the initial load data they came up with was over-pressure, so they pulled the data. They then released some revised data, which was supposedly re-tested and declared to be safe. That data is no longer available from Accurate (which is now owned by Hodgdon), but I have a copy of it that I use with Accurate No. 5 with good results for both my cast bullets and the Berry's. Again, these are heavy for caliber bullets so you aren't getting the 1,450 fps velocity you would from an 85-86 gr bullet. I don't load at the absolute top end either, but the 110gr Berry's is chronographing at 1,200 fps, and the 104 gr cast bullets are around 1,300 fps. I don't feel much of difference between these loads and a "factory" load, but it's been a long time since I've fired surplus or factory ammo for this cartridge. I'll just say that it feels like a Tokarev when you shoot it. I reload using a set of Redding 7.63 Mauser dies, which work perfectly for the cartridge. I started with the Lee 7.62x25mm dies, which are much cheaper, but I had neck tension problems with some brass and noticeable bullet runout with their seating die. I now use only the Lee seating die to apply a taper crimp to the cartridge in a separate operation on my Lee Six Pack press. Some folks recommend the Lee Factory Crimp Die for this cartridge. I found that it caused more problems than it solved, so I sold it. Your mileage may vary.

Valuable but "obsolete" reloading data. I use the 100gr SPR "Plinker" data for my cast loads.

Let's talk accessories, which are a little spartan here. The pistol came with one magazine, a cleaning rod (no holster, alas), and most notably two oil-soaked, folded sheets of paper which serve as the instruction manual. The cover sheet for the instructions proudly proclaims in large print "MADE IN CHINA" (of the finest Chinesium, no doubt!) and features a picture of the pistol *without* the crappy trigger safety. The text was clearly translated from some foreign language into "Engrish", resulting in an amusing read. A few gems: "Don't take part in shooting sport while being drunk or after taking any anaesthetics" and "Never climb trees, do hurdle race or leap over other obstacles with a loaded pistol". This is rather disappointing, as I regularly get hammered, swing through the jungle like Tarzan, and run the 100 meter hurdles with my pistols, but oh well. The manual also calls out that the "Modle 54 serial semi-automatic pistols are specially designed for used in Sport Shooting..." which I am pretty sure was the farthest thing from Mr. Tokarev's mind when he designed it. All that said, I'm quite pleased with this purchase, and I have a renewed respect for the pistol's engineering. The Type 54 is a faithful example of Fedor Tokarev's design, and at under four hundred bones it's a great addition to a mil-surp collection. Get one while you can.

They have no idea of the power of my griping. None whatsoever.