CZAK/Z. M. LUCZNIK P-64 9x18 9mm Makarov Pistol Tabletop Review - Episode

[@g54b95]

I have a Radom circle 11 P-64. These are fantastic pistols. The bluing is amazing. They come pre-melted from the factory. The biggest gripe I had with mine were the 2 piece plastic grips. My example had a pronounced ridge along the backstrap where they came together that felt terrible in my hand. Ebay to the rescue! For about $80, I picked up a beautiful set of CNCd French Walnut grips. The seam is so tight on the backstrap you almost can't detect it. The spring upgrades were already done on my example before I purchased it, so the grips were really all it needed. The heel magazine release is what it is - as a collector, at least half of my pistols feature this, so it's a non-issue for me and just something you need to practice with if you're unfamiliar. D4 just had a sale on Hornady Critical Defense 9X18 Makarov ($17.99 / 25 rounds), so I am going to carry it here and there again with that better ammo. "The 9x18 Makarov pistol you carry is better than the one you left at home."

[@mickmacstabletopreviews8466]

Good solution for those P-64 grips. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment and share. If you haven't already, I hope you'll check out my other "Mick Mac" Tabletop Review videos on KZbin. I liked your "Makarov pistol you carry" quote!!!

[@frankbrowning328]

They're cool little PPK ish pistols. A friend of mine has one and for the price he paid it was well worth the money. The one thing nobody cares for is the terrible double action trigger pull. The DA trigger can be tuned to less poundage and still be reliable, but care must be taken to assure proper ignition. The second issue is present on most little pistols of the time and that is the tiny sites. They're usable but difficult for most of us to use. 3rd is the 9mm MAK which isn't as commonly available as the 380 ACP.

[@mickmacstabletopreviews8466]

Indeed, which is why I addressed those issues during this review. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment and share. If you haven't already, I hope you'll check out my other "Mick Mac" Tabletop Review videos on KZbin.

[@svbarryduckworth628]

In my opinion the P64 is an evolution on the PPK design with a few features modified or mildly changed but not significantly re-designed. The Soviets -stole- took the Walther design from a defeated Germany after WW2 (and even -stole- took the entire Walther factory) and copied their mass production machining methods and then improved on them in small ways with their improved PPK pistols. The Russians completely redesigned the Walther PPK for their Makarov PM while the Poles only slightly modified and lightly improved on it -keeping much closer to the original Walther design. On the P64 the trigger disconnector addition is a clever improvement on the safety by totally disconnecting the trigger when the safety is on while allowing the chamber to be loaded on safety. But it does complicate the operation of the trigger slightly compared to the original Walther trigger bar design. The CZAK designers also beefed up the extractor hugely, making it easily 3 times as wide compared to the thin flat extractor plate design by Walther. They also modified the loaded chamber indicator and beefed it up as well as moved its location a little and how it is milled from the breech face back to the back of the slide above the hammer. If you look deep into a fully stripped P64 slide through the extractor opening you can see how the milling of the firing pin channel, the LCI rod/spring assembly channel, and the extractor cutout all tend to merge into one sloppy gallery at one point. Every example I have seen has some pretty atrocious machining hidden inside here in contrast to the beautiful finish on the outside. Welcome to the Soviet Union...but unlike the USSR the P64 actually works very well despite ugly parts inside under the smooth skin. The first time I saw this I thought I had a defective or damaged slide it looks so bad in there (especially under magnification) but that is just how these things are milled. On the breech face itself the Polish designers added a couple of horns at the bottom which help support the bottom of the chamber around the case at the rim. These horns are a weak spot on these pistols and I have personally had them break and have had similar reports from others too. On this note I highly recommend people upgrade the recoil spring if they reduce the hammer spring because the HEAVY stock 24lb hammer spring is doing double duty to help in the recoil management and slow the slide. I feel that if you are using as low as a 17lb hammer spring from the stock 24lb spring that the stock 18lb recoil spring should be upgraded to the 22lb spring instead of just the 20lb. Not changing and upping it at all is a huge mistake. With hotter loads and a light hammer spring the slide is slamming pretty hard against the takedown pin at the end of the trigger guard when there isn't enough spring power with the combination of these two springs. Finally I strongly recommend anyone who is taking the time to change springs remove the hammer from the frame (not a hard job) and dig out all of the gunk that is in the sear shelves where the sear engages the hammer. This gunk will keep the sear from fully engaging with a lighter hammer spring and can contribute to a hair trigger. There is no need to file or polish this surface but to simply scrape the goop out with a wood toothpick or homemade scraper made from a popsicle stick. If you look at these shelves under magnification you will see what I mean. I've done this to at least 4 different P64 hammers from different years (both types, rounded and pointed spur) and they all had significant hard varnishy buildup of what looked liked baked-on cosmoline that covered and blocked a significant portion of this sear engagement area. This gunk is also present inside the hammer pivot hole and this is significantly adding to the friction . causing the overall heavy trigger pull and stacking. The gunk is baked on and glazed from decades of diause in a Polish armory and then adding shooting heat by anyone who has fired theirs. To make matters worse the machining inside this pivot hole is awful as well giving the glazed gunk something to hang onto. It needs to really be dug out physically and this hole polished to really bring out the performance of the trigger. This alone is as important as changing the hammer spring. The pivot of the trigger itself further up in the frame has a similar problem as well as the hole that the trigger bar engages into. The trigger spring also engages with the frame onto a really poorly machined surface that further contributes to poor trigger feel. It all adds up. All these pivots snd pins need to be cleaned of the baked on cosmoline and polished to a mirror finish to achieve a really phenomenal double-action trigger. Changing the hammer spring alone only gets you to about 25% of what this trigger can be if all the things are done. One last thing to improve is the hammer spring bar. The hammer spring action wears grooves into this bar as it moves over it when it is compressed and this contributes to a poor feel and stacking. This bar is supposed to be square so that the corners only engage the spring for minimal contact and friction. Maintain the square profile when working the grooves out. This part needs to be polished to a mirror surface and treated with a moly lubricant or have the surface impregnated with a tungsten disulfide dry lubricant treatment. I am going to experiment with having this and a few other parts of the trigger mechanism coated in Titanium Nitride for reduced friction and better wear properties. I have one trigger that I had gold-plated and that really helped the pivot points but I fear it isn't a long-term solution as the gold wears off inside the pivot holes. Titanium Nitride is probably a more permanent way to reduce friction in the long run.

[@mickmacstabletopreviews8466]

Wow! That's a lot of information. I try to limit my reviews to under 24 minutes while hitting all the basic bases, so there are points I leave out. I think you did a nice job of adding a lot of good detail. Greatly appreciated! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment and share. If you haven't already, I hope you'll check out my other "Mick Mac" Tabletop Review videos on KZbin.