Some folks may recall that I acquired a barrel in 7.62x25, for a 1911, and have kicked around the idea of running the Tokarev round in the grandest American pistol. The stumbling block has always been the OAL length, which is a good .100" longer than a typical .38 Super with ball ammo. The Chinese allegedly reworked the inside of captured 1911's, to fit longer magazines. I have one of the magazines, but it won't fit inside any of my pistols. I'm sure as hell not whittling on the inside of any 1911 frames
After some tinkering, I realized the 7.62x25 rounds I have will fit singly loaded into a .38 Super mag. In addition, by carefully loading, one can squeeze three or so into the same mag.
I went ahead and fitted the Chicom barrel to my Colt Enhanced .38 Super. My other Super is a Springfield, and it is set up for a ramped barrel. The Chinese barrel fitted up reasonably well to the Colt, except for the fact that the barrel was a wide hood model, and the late Colt is a narrow style. After the necessary file work and other fitting, I found the Colt will feed the rounds out of a Metalform .38 Super Magazine. The Colt Magazine has a slightly longer release point, and hangs up the metric bottleneck case. This Colt has never, ever jammed with a .38 Super load, so I really can't be too disappointed
The factory Super extractor appeared to have the correct tension for the 7.62x25 cases, however the OAL of the rounds is too long to eject a loaded round. One must dump the magazine, then push the back of the case out from under the extractor, letting it fall down the mag well.
Tomorrow I'm adding some rubber grips to it, in place of the nice bocote grips, finding some better safety glasses, and going shooting. Results and pics to follow.
(edited to fix a typo)
After some tinkering, I realized the 7.62x25 rounds I have will fit singly loaded into a .38 Super mag. In addition, by carefully loading, one can squeeze three or so into the same mag.
I went ahead and fitted the Chicom barrel to my Colt Enhanced .38 Super. My other Super is a Springfield, and it is set up for a ramped barrel. The Chinese barrel fitted up reasonably well to the Colt, except for the fact that the barrel was a wide hood model, and the late Colt is a narrow style. After the necessary file work and other fitting, I found the Colt will feed the rounds out of a Metalform .38 Super Magazine. The Colt Magazine has a slightly longer release point, and hangs up the metric bottleneck case. This Colt has never, ever jammed with a .38 Super load, so I really can't be too disappointed
The factory Super extractor appeared to have the correct tension for the 7.62x25 cases, however the OAL of the rounds is too long to eject a loaded round. One must dump the magazine, then push the back of the case out from under the extractor, letting it fall down the mag well.
Tomorrow I'm adding some rubber grips to it, in place of the nice bocote grips, finding some better safety glasses, and going shooting. Results and pics to follow.
(edited to fix a typo)