CODE – 01-125-949

NAME – Makarov PM

NAME (NATIVE) – 56-A-125, 9mm Makarova Pistolet [Makarov’s Pistol]

TYPE – Semiautomatic pistol

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – Soviet Union

DATE OF MANUFACTURE – 1949

CALIBER – 9x18mm (9mm Makarov)

OVERALL LENGTH – 16.1 cm (6.34 in)

BARREL LENGTH – 9.35 cm (3.68 in)

RIFLING (TYPE & TWIST) – 4-Groove, Right hand twist, 1 turn in 26 cm (1 turn in 10.24 in)

BULLET DIAMETER – 9.25 mm (0.364 in)

BULLET WEIGHT – 6.07 g (93.7 grains)

MUZZLE VELOCITY – 315 m/s (1034 fps)

MUZZLE ENERGY – 302 j (222 ft/lb)

WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 0.684 kg (1 lb 8.1 oz)

WEIGHT (LOADED) – 0.810 kg (1 lb 12.6 oz)

SIGHTS – Open, iron, non-adjustable, Front sight – Post, Rear sight – U-notch

EFFECTIVE RANGE – 30 m (33 yards)

OPERATION – Blowback, double-action

TYPE OF FIRE – Semiautomatic

RATE OF FIRE – 30 rpm

FEED DEVICE – 8 round removable box magazine single column

FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 0.046 kg (1.62 oz)

FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (LOADED) – 0.126 kg (4.4 oz)

BASIC AMMUNITION LOAD – Two – 8 round magazines (16 rounds)

LOAD WEIGHT – 0.252 kg (8.9 oz)

MANUFACTURER – Ishmash, Izhhevsk Mechanical Plant, Izhevsk, Russia

STATUS – In use

SERVICE – Soviet military, Warsaw Pact and 47 other countries including East Germany, Bulgaria, Cuba, China (Type 59), and Vietnam (K59)

     Designed by Nikolai Federovich Makarov, the pistol that bears his name was one of the first post-World War II handgun designs of the Soviet Union. This weapon was to be a new domestic model to replace the Tokarev Model 33 (TT33) as a smaller, more compact, sidearm for general issue. As well as the new handgun, a new cartridge, the 9x18mm, was also designed and intended for a new family of handguns. The Makarov PM was accepted and adopted as the new standard Soviet sidearm in 1951. The weapon itself is a relatively simple blowback pistol, the design of which closely follows the Walther PP series of weapons the Soviets encountered during WWII. One interesting addition to the design was the movement of the magazine release from the side of the pistol grip behind the trigger, to the base of the pistol grip, behind the magazine. This movement of the magazine release was stipulated in the general requirements for the new handgun as it was not uncommon for soldiers in the field to accidentally hit the magazine release on the Tokarev, resulting in a lost magazine. The design was adopted in part because of its extreme simplicity, the weapon only consisting of 27 parts, not including the magazine. This small number of parts helps ease the manufacture of the weapon.