Makarov pistol
The Makarov Pistol, commonly known simply as the PM or Makarov, is a semi-automatic pistol manufactured by the Russian company Kalashnikov Concern. The PM was designed by Nikolay Makarov to replace the TT pistol, becoming the standard service pistol of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Militsiya in 1951. It is chambered in the 9×18mm Makarov round which is unofficially named for the pistol.
The PM has been manufactured continuously by Izhevsk Mechanical Plant and Kalashnikov Concern in Izhevsk since 1949, while licensed copies have been produced outside of Russia. It is one of the most-produced firearms in the world, with over 5,000,000 manufactured, and is the second most-produced pistol after the Glock. It was adopted in some capacity by most Eastern Bloc and Second World states, and remains in active service in the militaries and police of these states and their successor states.
Operational Use
The PM, as the new standard issue sidearm of the Soviet Union, was issued to non-commissioned officers, Militsiya officers, special forces, as well as tank and aircraft crews. It was adopted by most states in the Eastern Bloc and Second World, the exception being states with an established native arms industry such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. It remained in widespread front-line service with Soviet military and police beyond the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.In 2003, the PM was formally replaced by the MR-443 Grach in the Russian Armed Forces, and by the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 2006. However, this replacement has been very slow, with the PM yet to be entirely supplanted in the Russian military and police. As of 2015, the PMM and Grach were the service pistol of the Russian Airborne Troops. In September 2019, Rostec announced its SR-2 Udav pistol went into mass production as the Makarov replacement for the Russian Armed Forces. The Udav fires 9×21mm Gyurza rounds which are claimed to pierce 1.4 mm of titanium or 4 mm of steel at a 100 meters.
Outside of Russia, the PM is still the service pistol of many former Soviet-aligned states, including the Post-Soviet states, though the aging pistol is being gradually phased out. It is used by numerous Third World countries and non-state actors due to its ubiquity and low cost.
Surplus
In the United States, PMs from Soviet and East German military surplus are listed as eligible curio and relic items by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, because the countries of manufacture no longer exist.Development
Shortly after the Second World War, the Soviet Union reactivated its plans for a new service pistol to replace the aging TT-33 semi-automatic pistol and the Nagant M1895 revolver, then used by the Soviet Armed Forces and the Militsiya. The advent of the assault rifle after the war, and the subsequent adoption of the future AK-47 in 1947, relegated the pistol to a light, handy self-defense weapon. The Tokarev was considered unsuited for such a role as it was heavy and bulky for a pistol, lacked a safety, and their magazines were deemed too easy to lose. Also, Soviet soldiers had complained about the Tokarev's reliability, including incidents where the magazine would accidentally release. As a result, in December 1945, two separate contests for a new service pistol were created, respectively for a 7.62mm and 9mm calibre pistol. Special emphasis was placed on safety, user-friendliness, accuracy, weight, and dimensions. It was later judged that the new 9.2×18mm cartridge, designed by Boris Vladimirovich Semin, was the best round suited for the intended role. The lower pressures of the cartridge allowed practical straight-blowback operation, reducing the cost and complexity of the weapon while retaining low recoil and good stopping power.Nikolay Makarov, a recent engineering graduate from the Tula Mechanical Institute, participated in the contest along with several prominent firearms engineers in the Soviet Union. Makarov's design, influenced by the German Walther PP, stood out from the others through its sheer simplicity, excellent reliability, quick disassembly, and robustness after stringent testing. During testing in April 1948, Makarov's pistol experienced 20 times fewer malfunctions than the competing Baryshev and Sevryugin counterparts, and required fewer parts. Therefore, Soviet authorities selected Makarov's design in 1949 for further development and optimization for mass production. Tooling was set up in the Izhevsk plant for production and, after many significant design changes and tweaks, it was formally adopted by the Soviet Armed Forces as the 9mm Pistolet Makarova, or PM, in December 1951.
Design
The PM is heavy for its size by modern US commercial handgun standards, largely because in a blowback pistol, the heavy slide is necessary as it is relied upon to provide inertia to delay opening of the breech until internal pressures have fallen to a safe level.Other, more powerful cartridges have been used in blowback pistol designs, but the Makarov is widely regarded as particularly well balanced in its design elements.
Layout
The general layout and field-strip procedure of the Makarov pistol is similar to that of the PP.However, designer N. Makarov and his team drastically simplified the construction of the pistol, improving reliability and reducing the part count to 27, not including the magazine. This allowed considerable ease of manufacture and servicing.
All of the individual parts of the PM have been optimised for mass production, robustness and interchangeability, partially thanks to captured German tooling, technology, and machinery.
Barrel
The chrome-lined, four-groove, 9.27mm caliber barrel is pressed and pinned to the frame through a precision-machined ring.The 7 kg recoil spring wraps around and is guided by the barrel. The spring-loaded trigger guard is pivoted down and swung to either side on the frame, allowing removal of the slide.
Sights
The front sight is integrally machined into the slide, and a 3–4 mm wide textured strip is engraved on top of the slide in order to prevent aim-disturbing glare. The rear sight is dovetailed into the slide and multiple heights are available to adjust the impact point.Internal parts
The extractor is of an external spring-loaded type, and features a prominent flange preventing loss if a case should rupture.The breech face is deeply recessed in order to aid in extraction and ejection reliability.
The stamped sheet steel slide-lock lever has a tail serving as the ejector.
The one-piece, wraparound bakelite or plastic grip is reinforced with steel inserts and has a detent inside the screw bushing preventing unscrewing during firing.
The sheet-metal mainspring housed inside the grip panel powers the hammer in both the main and rebound stroke, the trigger and the disconnector, while its lower end is the heel and spring of the magazine catch.
The sear spring also serves another function, powering the slide lock lever.
The PM has a free-floating triangular firing pin, with no firing pin spring or firing pin block. This theoretically allows the possibility of accidental firing if the pistol is dropped on its muzzle.
Makarov pistol parts seldom break with normal usage, and are easily serviced using few tools.
Accessories
A wide variety of aftermarket additions and replacements exist for the Makarov pistol, including replacement barrels, custom grips, custom finishes and larger sights with various properties to replace the notoriously small originals.A scope/light mount exists for the Makarov pistol but requires a threaded replacement barrel.
Operation
Blowback design
The PM is a medium-size, straight-blowback-action, all-steel construction, frame-fixed barrel handgun.In blowback designs, the only force holding the slide closed is that of the recoil spring; upon firing, the barrel and slide do not have to unlock, as do locked-breech-design pistols.
Blowback designs are simple and more accurate than designs using a recoiling, tilting, or articulated barrel, but they are limited by the weight of the slide.
The 9×18mm cartridge is an appropriate cartridge in blowback-operated pistols; producing a respectable level of energy from a gun of moderate weight and size.
Trigger mechanism
The PM has a DA/SA trigger mechanism. Engaging the manual safety simultaneously decocks the hammer if cocked, and prevents movement of slide, trigger and hammer. Both carrying with safety engaged, or with safety disengaged and hammer uncocked are considered safe.The DA trigger pull causes the hammer to come to the rear then releases it to go forward, firing a chambered cartridge. Racking the slide, manually cocking the hammer or firing a cartridge all cock the hammer, setting the trigger to single action for the next shot.
The PM is a semi-automatic firearm, therefore its rate of fire depends on how rapidly the shooter squeezes the trigger. Spent cartridge casings are ejected some 5.5–6 meters away to the shooter's right and rear.
After firing the last round, the slide is held back by the slide stop lever/ejector. Magazines can be removed from the gun via the heel release, located on the bottom of the grip.
After loading a fresh magazine, the slide can be released by pressing the lever on the left side of the frame or by racking the slide and releasing it; either action loads a cartridge into the chamber and readies the pistol to fire again.
Safety
The Makarov pistol is notable for the safety elements of its design, with a safety lever that simultaneously decocks and blocks the hammer from contacting the firing pin and returns the weapon to the long-trigger-pull mode of double action when that safety is engaged.When handled properly, the Makarov pistol has excellent security against accidental discharge caused by inadvertent pressure on the trigger, e.g., in carrying the weapon in dense brush or re-holstering it.