30 had a separate „back strap" or rear frame edge which was replaced by an integral grip frame edge. This also reduced cost as it permits lathe production. 30 was improved, the barrel-locking lugs being replaced with an integral circumferential band, which provided more strength. Cartridges are guided into the chamber in a very positive manner not dependent on the lips of the magazine, which in this instance are quite flat. The magazine holds 8 cartridges and is unique in construction in that it can be taken apart for repairs. The grip safety and mechanical safety on the side were eliminated, the only safety being a half cock safety.
Some were made to add strength where it was needed, and others were made for purposes of simplification and economy. Obviously these are qualities most desirable in a military weapon.īasically the pistol is a Colt (or Browning), but with many changes and simplifications. Its most outstanding features are its ruggedness, its certainty of action, and its simplicity of construction, which not only make it easy to assemble and disassemble but, most importantly, makes it cheap to produce in quantity. It does not have the beautiful, precise machining and the excellent finishes of the Swiss Neuhausen or the German Walther pistols. The Tokarev pistol was built for practical service rather than for looks, which is not to say that it is clumsy or unwieldy in appearance. It is of course not to their discredit that they took the best features of existing automatics and added to them features and simplifications of their own. Army Model 1911 pistol was of course known in Russia, and it is likely that the developments taking place in France (by Petter at Cholet) and at Neuhausen in Switzerland were also known. The pistol was given the official nomenclature Tokarev 30, from the year of its production. Tokarev, who had been an officer in the Russian army in World War I and later was employed in the Tula arsenal. The Tokarev pistol was developed in the 1920's by F.
1, was instituted and this continued until about 1935 when a twoletter prefix numbering system was adopted and used until the Tokarev pistol superseded the revolver. When it was resumed in 1921 a new numbering series, starting with No.
The Belgian numbering series was continued through 1917, when manufacture was interrupted. The last Belgian contract expired some time in 1898 or 1899 and manufacture of the Nagant began at Tula in 1900. Nagant or the Belgian Pieper of the same caliber. Until the development of the Tokarev automatic pistol, the side arm used in Russia was the revolver, either the 7.62 mm.