Could a Makarov be converted to DAO?

[KLR]

Yes- I know just about everyone is asking themselves "why" would anyone want to do such a thing? Bear with me. I had a Chinese Mak at one time (never should have sold it) and liked it. Over the years I have come to really like DAO in my handguns. I became a much better shooter when I started using DAO autoloaders.

Now, could a gunsmith do it safely? My concern is: the gun has a safety/decocking lever. If the hammer is dropped without the use of the safety i.e. because the hammer was modified for DAO, would it fire again and or go full auto? Not knowing much about the internals, I don't know if it has a trigger safety or not.

I am thinking of getting one of the Bulgarians, converting it to DAO, getting a trigger job, and a better set of sights.

 

[Tecolote]

Do a search at the Makarov Forum. Someone converted a Mak to DAO and posted instructions.

You're better off buying something that was designed to be DAO from the start.

 

[KLR]

It looks like when the Makarov forum migrated they lost some of their older posts. There was a reference to the conversion. The person who had it done had an unintentional discharge upon loading. He said that there was a problem with the sear (not sure if it was due to the conversion or not). You could be right about sticking with guns made that way (or have factory provisions for conversion).

This is the post I found:

Kreel--One can convert a mak to DAO. I did, and it worked nicely for a while, then killed the s**t out of an electric plug in my kitchen when the overly abused sear let go upon loading. The 100 year old one inch yellow pine wallboard combined with a really thick box housing the receptacle stopped a Hornady 9x18 jhp. If Gary's mak is DAO, a new sear and hammer are a necessity. Over a year ago there was a big thread on converting to DAO. I was persuaded and did the conversion. NEVER again. That said, the Glock is DAO and is of course designed to be DAO, but I haven't been able to like the feel of the trigger. I much prefer the "stacking" of a nicely tuned mak trigger, and my wife's EG is nearly as soft as a typical Glock. About the comparison between the 9x18 and the .45, I have had both, and that's 'way too emotional an issue for me to get into. . . CB

 

[Bill Hook]

The Mak is pretty simple and it can be abused a little by firing with the slide off with no ill effects I noticed. Take a look at the lockwork. It would seem that removing the ledge off the hammer would be the way to go about it, and not the sear, as all you want is for the hammer to never catch the sear.

Probably worth asking the Makarovniks to be sure. I really don't see the point, but that's just me.

 

[denfoote]

Yeah, it can be done. But, you have to ask yourself why???
As a DA/SA pistol, it works just fine!! The modifications may end up costing you more than you paid for the gun in the first place. It is not a project I would want to attempt by myself, if for liability reasons alone!!

 

[lazhuward]

You could just grind off the full-cock notch on the hammer to make the Makarov DAO. I think that's what CB (who may have been called "Critical Bass" on the old forum) did.

The problem with that is that the sear is going to continually slam into the safety notch on the hammer with a lot of force. (The safety notch is kind of like a half-cock notch, but farther down on the hammer.) When you fire the gun, the sear doesn't hit the safety notch, but it will decock to that position if the full-cock notch isn't there.

Both the safety notch and the sear weren't designed to take that kind of abuse, and one of them (probably the sear the first) will eventually break or be severely compromised in some way. If that happens, there's nothing to stop the gun from firing after the hammer is pushed back. (Maks in the US don't have a firing pin block or lock.)

When you use the decocker on the Mak, I believe that the thumb safety (not the safety notch) is what stops the forward movement of the hammer, so the sear doesn't see any wear.

Personally, I would be extremely wary of trying to make a Makarov DAO in this manner.

 

[KLR]

Lazhuward - I think you just cinched it for me. I didn't think that the gun had anything that blocked the firing pin unless the trigger was pulled. Sounds like a dangerous waste of time. Thanks!

My absolute favorite gun is my DAO Sig 228 with the short trigger. Realistically, I don't think I would every carry the Mak, so there really isn't a good reason for the conversion other than it would be an interesting project. I would never have tried it on my own, by the way.

 

[anapex]

Why not just bob the hammer instead of screwing around with the sear?

 

[KLR]

I am not sure if bobbing the hammer would be a good idea. You could end up with not enough mass striking the firing pin to set off the primer. I might consider one of the commander style hammers.