So I have been reading a lot of people advising not to carry Tokarev's in condition one (round chambered) because it will go off. Is this specific to a model? They have hammers, I assume a half-cock? And a safety? What's the deal on this? I was thinking of picking one up (I like older, Soviet, Czech, and cold war era handguns), but I want to get the straight and narrow, and know if there is a make/year group/model to avoid.

Bestow upon me the knowledge.

P.S. I don't intend to carry condition three, so if that's what must be done, the Tokarev wont be a CCW.

There are better guns to carry.

First, don't CCW a Tok.

A Tokarov doesn't have a safety, it does have a deep half cock notch.
Some pistols had a safety added to them for import regulations.  These half assed modification may or may not work right.

/thread

I have a Tok (TT33), I love it, I love shooting it, and I wish there were more options out there for the 7.62x25, it's such a darned interesting little round.

But there's no way I'd trust my life to this pistol. If I had the choice between carrying a Tok or just using my Esee 4, the tok would stay in the safe.

The round isn't great for defense use, they're not terrifically reliable, the sights are horrible, and for their size and weight the capacity is hard to justify. Did I mention the reliability? The firing pins break easily. Not something you want happening. You can get a 9mm conversion to help the bullet selection problem, but it doesn't much help the reliability.

"But it's military-"

So what? It's WWII military, and combloc at that. Just because it's military and killed a bunch of Germans when they threw a 100x as many Russians at the fights doesn't make it a good pistol. Especially with the other options out there for carry.



Can also confirm. Have fired with the safety "on." Turns out it wasn't actually on, it just...stopped, before going to the "on" position. Took the thing apart and couldn't find a reason for it to get stuck, hasn't happened since.

A Tokarev is great fun at the range.

But please don't CCW one in 7.62x25, and not in 9mm unless you've ran enough rounds to be certain of it's reliability. Even then, I would have serious doubts about someone's judgement if they chose this for a CCW.

I have been reading that the Zastava M57 chambered in 7.62x25 has relieved many of these traditional problems - is this at all true?

If cheap is the name of the game, get a Makarov or Makarov style variant (p64 etc)

Heck P64's were going for like $199 recently, and the quality and safety is WAY better than a Tok

Better yet Bulgarian Makarovs are usually around $280

too many iffy variables for a Tok, extremely rough machining marks, questionable storage and afterthought import safeties added

Comrade Stalin was breathing down the necks of the 14hr workday underfed workers who made the Tok....

Lots of internet gun experts here (as always). All I can tell you is that I have one imported with the safety and I have carried it and had zero issues. I have way better guns but often change what I carry. Just as the above know it all's have said- bottom line: the guns are tried and true and have put many men in the dirt.

A Zastava or original?

I'll beat the dead horse.

The import safety is garbage.

I'd carry one in condition three. The sights are doodoo though.

Carrying half cooked is possible but often ill-advised. Many people feel the gun still isn't drop safe. I myself feel that I can't properly hold the gun one handed and cock the hammer.

The slide is stupid easy to rack though.

I'm going to agree with this ^  But it wouldn't be a first choice for a daily carry.   I do find times when I open carry it or have it available for SD.  Its my go to choice for wood cutting side arm because I don't care how beat up it gets.  I carry it in condition 3.  If im really out there where traffic is rare and I hear a vehicle approaching ill usually chamber one until I feel like I know whats up.    I roll my own with hollow points at about 450 ftlbs of energy so its going to leave a mark.

I don't even know the difference, mine is stamped 1956

A Zastava is a newly manufactured Tok by Zastava. They have a real safety. It is slide mounted and looks awkward though. Kinda rare stateside

It's a shame.. Toks are a fantastic size.

What grain/bullet/speed?

I would like to load x25 soon.

Using the Hornady 90gr  #31000 and its clocking 1437fps  and I have to post a correction after looking at my notes that load is 413 ft pounds not 450 as previously stated.
That is a developed load using CFE pistol.  I am working on a video for my youtube channel about the process under same user name..almost done.  Its a tricky cartridge to load for and can really give some fits.

This is what I want to know. Is the Zastava safe to Condition 1?

Seems to be some confusion here.   The Russian TT-33 and its variants, Polish, Chinese, Romanian Yugo (zestava made) etc.  Were imported in mass.  They were designed with a half cock safety only.  Import restrictions required that a thumb safety be added before they could be sold in the US.  I think the consensus is that the thumb safeties are cheesy and the half cock safety is not safe if dropped with a round in the chamber (condition one).

The yugo or zestava model in the M57 is a little different.  It has a longer handle and holds 9 rounds instead of 8.  The confusion is that the M57 has been imported and had the safety added so it falls in the with the group above.  Zestava still makes the M57A chambered in 7.62x25 and it has a real factory safety.  I would say if you have this model then it should be as safe as any other to carry in condition 1.

You said yours has 1956 stamped on it so I would guess you have a Romanian because they stamped the date prominently on the slide.  Google  Romanian tokarev and look at the safety location, should be a dead give away.

A little more on the safeties.  If you have an import with an added thumb safety you technically have 2 condition one options

1. Round in the chamber, hammer cocked and thumb safety engaged.  1911 style
2. Round in the chamber, hammer half cocked to the safety detent.  If I was going to carry one in condition 1 this would be my choice.  You have to cock the hammer to fire it... it will not fire in this condition.  The only risk here is if you were to drop it and it hit just right on the external hammer with enough force to knock it out of the detent and smash the hammer into the firing pin it could go off.  This is probably not very likely but theoretically possible.
 
TTF

OP get a Bulgarian Makarov and call it good.

I would carry a 380 long before I carried a 9x18, lots of stuff out there states some of the new 380 rounds put 9x18 to shame. Also you can get a new 380 thats smaller and cheaper even than a Mak.
Back on topic, I dont know if I would carry a Tokarev but thats simply because I dont have any experience with them, if its reliable and you shoot well, carry it. I carried a CZ52 for a while that had the firing pin upgrade and such. Due to the safety and manual of arms though it had to be carried hammer down, so it didnt last long. I like being able to just draw and shoot.
EDIT: as far as the 7.62x25 round goes, I would love to carry it in a modern platform (have though of getting a Zastava M57), the round honestly performs quite well, and at least around here is easy to find.

The new production M57s which have the slide mounted safeties, correct.

The surplus M57s with the frame mounted 1911ish safeties, not correct.