M54 Tokarev

[ffuries]

Picked this up this morning at a gunshow, about 2 hours away, that my son-in-law and I went to.

Little confused on it though as I can't quite figure out the year manufactured. There is no arsenal marking or date marking on it, plus the trigger doesn't have the two visible pins in it, I'm assuming for the Glock style safety. The frame and slide SN match, haven't disassembled it yet to checked for other SNed parts. Came with the typical blue corduroy lined holster. No frame installed (Hammer) safety on it, so it's in a military configuration and is stamped M54 on the top of the slide in Chinese.

Some sights believe these may be imported from Albania. Different sites have different ways to date these, hence my confusion on its date of birth. It's RGuns import marked, but it's a bit faint which is nice.

Several sites says take 54 and add the first 2 digits of the SN 32 and you get 86 for the year made. Did they make military ones in 86? Found on another site a SN list and one close to mine that is actually dated has a 1956 date. Found on third site where they used a different formula that made me see cross-eyed.

Anyways here's the preliminary photos of it.

[ffuries]

Correction that should read....Several sites says take 53 not 54 and add the first 2 digits of the SN 32 and you get 85 not 86 for the year made.

[SA1911a1]

Outstanding. My Chinese has the ugly hole in the side where I removed the worthless safety. Went to Ft. Walton, Mike? Did you see my PPK at the Outdoors Shop display? He offered it to me on Thursday for $450.00 OTD and I still passed.

[ffuries]

Outstanding. My Chinese has the ugly hole in the side where I removed the worthless safety. Went to Ft. Walton, Mike? Did you see my PPK at the Outdoors Shop display? He offered it to me on Thursday for $450.00 OTD and I still passed.

PPK, Nope, must've missed that. Yeap went to the Ft. Walton show, it was a last minute decision. Almost came home with an East German Makarov too, it was in the $700.00 range. Need to price them and didn't have my phone with me, to look it up.

It would've looked great with my East German Border Guard uniform (Grenztruppen der DDR) display.

[Junk Yard Dog]

You passed on the DDR? Too bad, likely only fired once or twice at back of head.

[ffuries]

You passed on the DDR? Too bad, likely only fired once or twice at back of head.

I know I'm regretting not picking it up when I was there.......Lesson learned, "If you see it, get it, or you'll whine about it later".

[ffuries]

Mystery deepens.....With the use of a bright flashlight you can see ghosting of some original markings.

I can make out 30??9 in front of the new SN and a ghosting of a 2 next to the 2 in 3295848 followed by what looks like 53 further to the left of the new serial number. So the Chinese scrubbed these at some point, during refurbishment, applied new SNs and sent them somewhere. To whom and where is the mystery right now.

Need to come up with a mount of sorts to hold everything in place. Hard as hell holding the flashlight and camera (Cell phone cam) at the same time and trying to find the perfect angle and not move when taking the picture.

[SA1911a1]

I see it as 30109, but as you indicated, the two middle characters are vague.

Mike, I have secured 9MM barrels for my Romanian and my Chinese pistols. The magazines will load either round effectively and it is like having two guns for the price of one and a tad. ;) It is far cheaper to shoot the 9mm so I save the hot stuff most of the time. I would hunt around for the 9mm barrel, getting the link with it is a good thing, but the original bushing, link and pin work as well. When I got the 9mm barrels they were around seventy-five bucks, but the price of poker may have gone up. Edit: I just looked and eBay has a pile of them, I saw one for $99.00 plus shipping.

[ffuries]

I see it as 30109, but as you indicated, the two middle characters are vague.

Mike, I have secured 9MM barrels for my Romanian and my Chinese pistols. The magazines will load either round effectively and it is like having two guns for the price of one and a tad. ;) It is far cheaper to shoot the 9mm so I save the hot stuff most of the time. I would hunt around for the 9mm barrel, getting the link with it is a good thing, but the original bushing, link and pin work as well. When I got the 9mm barrels they were around seventy-five bucks, but the price of poker may have gone up. Edit: I just looked and eBay has a pile of them, I saw one for $99.00 plus shipping.

I have to check on the 9mm barrels, would make it cheaper to shoot. So the 9mm loads in the magazines with no issues and feeds no issues? That is cool......

[Rongo]

Very Nice!

[SA1911a1]

Mike, I found another one for you. In a shop in Bainbridge, Ga. A really clean Astra 400 for $575.00. I am glad it was in Georgia or I would have probably bought it.

[ffuries]

Mike, I found another one for you. In a shop in Bainbridge, Ga. A really clean Astra 400 for $575.00. I am glad it was in Georgia or I would have probably bought it.

You could've picked it up for me, and saved me the hassle of getting it back to Florida.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The Astra 400 is a nice piece, I know someone who has a supply of the 9mm Largo ammo for it

[Big Coulee]

I picked up a very clean Astra 400 a few years ago that came with a 25 round box of 9mm Largo ammo. I've never fired any of the ammo because I'm afraid it is corrosive. I have several pieces of .38 Super brass that I reload to 9mm Largo specs. and it works just fine in the 400. I really like the Astra 400 pistol but the recoil spring and the hammer spring are so stiff that I leave the action in the cocked position (no ammo in the pistol of course.) The pistol fits well in a canvas Webley holster where it sleeps when not in use.

[Tula44]

That's a cool find, congratulations!

[ffuries]

That's a cool find, congratulations!

After staring at it for some time, I've come to the conclusion the slide SN is original. The frame SN was changed to match the slide. The current SN puts it as being made in 1956.

The old SN on the frame is an ignima, as I can't quite decide on what format it is to date it. As it doesn't seem to match up completely with any examples I've found.

So for now I just call it a 1956 made Chinese Type 54 Tokarev. With an unknown dated donor frame. They sure in hell didn't make this one an easy one to decipher that is for sure. Plus why the hell they matched the frame to the slide versus slide to the frame is beyond me.