The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

I was lucky enough to score a Bulgarian Military Makarov yesterday at a really good price and it came with 8 1/2 boxes of Brown Bear 115gr HP ammo. I was too busy looking at my new Mak and just assumed that the ammo was the regular 93/94 gr fmj stuff. I had never seen this size available before. I went to the Makarov forum and found out that it is actually made by LVE and they recommend getting a 21 pound recoil spring for your Makarov if your shooting this stuff. I would like to know if it is safe to shoot in my P-64? First thought was I should get a heavier recoil spring for my P-64 but in the back of my mind I remember reading somewhere that the P-64 was built mainly to shooy a 72.73 gr bullet. I don't want to damage my gun so has anyone had any experience shooting bullets this big and what's your opinions?

surfzombie

if its anything over a 95 grn bullet it probably won't feed in the a P-64, it jam up in the mag
save it for your mac

NORM

Is the ammunition 9x18 specific?

gunneyrabbit wrote:Is the ammunition 9x18 specific?

If your asking if it is Brown Bear 9x18mm Makarov 115gr Hollow point? The answer is yes. I thought that was obvious.

I always thought the 72.73 listed is grams not grains. Two different measures. Might have to convert and see if it works out to the American grain. Am I right in thinking of these two measures? Just something I heard or read somewhere. I'm not doing the math so I coud be way off on this topic.

72.73 grams = 1122.39542 grains

115 gr HP ammo is in the vicinity of 9X19, so I would be wary of feeding it into a P-64. The larger Russian Makarov clones probably will take the added punch, but why possibly ruin a perfectly good P-64.

JMO.

Surfzombie, the idiot that said the P-64 was supposed to shoot a 71-ish grain bullet was wrong. That was why I was duped into buying the heavier recoil spring for mine. It does very little for felt recoil. Here's the correct information regarding the bullet.

The bullet weight by the Polish manual is listed as 6 grams. 6 grams = about 93 grains. I don't know who screwed up the math a long time back, but the small booklet by DR Morse is wrong as well as a lot of other places on the net.

http://katowice.szkolapolicji.gov.pl/?p ... =3387&sa=1 < That should take you to where you can view the actual manual. You can use Google translator to do a lot of the work for you. Save the PDF file. Then go to Google translator and upload it and it'll do the best it can at translating. You'll see the specifics on the pistol in the Technical Information.

juniustaylor wrote: The bullet weight by the Polish manual is listed as 6 grams. 6 grams = about 93 grains. I don't know who screwed up the math a long time back, but the small booklet by DR Morse is wrong as well as a lot of other places on the net.

http://katowice.szkolapolicji.gov.pl/?p ... =3387&sa=1 < That should take you to where you can view the actual manual. You can use Google translator to do a lot of the work for you. Save the PDF file. Then go to Google translator and upload it and it'll do the best it can at translating. You'll see the specifics on the pistol in the Technical Information.

Thank you for that informative answer.

Interesting! Thanks for the link!

Does anyone know the grain size of the Norinco 9x18mm Makarov round? My specimen comes in a green cardboard box with the red Norinco symbol and simply says 50 cartridges on it. Headstamp is 71 on top and 93 on the bottom. Probably imported just before the Norinco ban in the mid 90s.

My concern is that it might be greater than 95 gr, and therefore unsafe for certain 9x18mm Mak guns such as the Polish P-64.

I cant give you an answer to your question BUT I have shot 100s of the ammo without a problem and no bad effects other then it is a little"dirty" .

What weapon were you shooting it in?

DaBull, 71 is the headstamp code for Republic of China. 93 should be the year code that it was manufactured. To my knowledge they are just 95'ish grain bullets.

DaBull wrote:What weapon were you shooting it in?

I was using it in my P64s ,my pa 63, my cz82..