First Date with my P64

[BikerNut]

I've had it for about a month and was finally able to take it to the range and try it out.

It handled really well and had an excellent trigger. It shot exactly to point-of-aim when I was able to acquire that tiny, short front sight. I was shooting at 25 ft. on 7" and 8" targets that I printed out on my laser printer. I was able to keep them all in the black, but next time I'll print the targets in red or orange and make them smaller, like 3-4". Lining up a black rear sight and a small black front sight on the middle of a large black target was a bit tricky.

Shot 50 rounds and had two stovepipes that prevented the next round from chambering. I kind of expected that an Eastern Bloc gun designed as a counterpart to the Western Bloc PPK would exhibit similar traits. Just the same, it still outperforms my PPK/S in both function and ballistics (though the PPK/S still wins the beauty contest).

Brass ejected up and forwards, which unfortunately landed in the shooting lane where I could not pick it up (for reloading). So I stepped back about 4 feet to keep the ejected brass inside my shooting cubicle.

I brought one box of 9mm Luger for my S&W M&P to try out its new trigger and sear and was satisfied after burning up 50 rounds.

I brought one box of 9mm Makarov to try out the P64... and wished I had brought two boxes.

I'm going back to the range next week to try out my new Walther TPH (cute little thing) and I'm going to bring the P64 with me. I really enjoyed shooting it.

[Curly1]

Nice report, let us know how the TPH does.

[Ketchman]

Bikernut,
glad your range trip turned out good. However, a little concerned about the number of stovepipes you had. I have 600+ rounds through mine and have had no stovepipes and from what I have read here FTE's are not common at all and indicate a problem. Have your cleaned and lubed your P-64? Maybe a spring issue with the extractor? And any thoughts from anybody else on why 2 FTE's in 50 rounds from any of the Brotherhood? These guns have a reputation of always working. And weren't you gonna do a sight mod kinda like mine at one time? What happened with that?

[Ketchman]

Sorry, should checked my PM's before that last bit, that was someone else.

[BikerNut]

Sorry, should checked my PM's before that last bit, that was someone else.

Good idea nevertheless. I took a #000 brush and some flat white paint and painted a line on the front sight of my P.38 and it improved the sight picture a lot, so I'll do the same with the P-64.

As far as the FTE's, it may be because the brass from the PPU ammo I was shooting was severely bulged on one side next to the rim where the case head is unsupported. That may have caused a few of the cases to stick during ejection. I posted a question about this in the Reloading section.

My next date with the P-64 will be with a batch of handloads I made with a conservative, mild powder charge. It will either eliminate the "Glocking" of the brass... or it will be too mild to reliably cycle the action. Now that I think about it, I should do a ladder test to find the powder weight that hits the sweet spot.

I thoroughly cleaned it when I got it and gave it a lube job, but didn't replace any springs. I need to do some work on the safety plunger, so maybe I'll put some fresh Wolff springs in it at the same time.

[BikerNut]

Took my P64 back to the range this morning, this time with Silver Bear ammo. It fed and fired and ejected perfectly from the first round to the last, and was highly accurate.

Glad that I bought 500 rounds.

Brought along my new PPK/S and it shot perfectly until the ejector broke.

Brought my new little TPH, too. Had a few problems with feeding because the mag design doesn't present the rounds at an angle that lets them climb it's really steep feed ramp. It also shoots high and left.

The P64 really shines!

[Ketchman]

Bikernut,

I figured getting away from the PPU ammo would fix things up. Glad it did.