Soviet TT-33 "Tokarev"

**Tango Sierra** · 16-02-2020, 10:36

Hello everyone, long time between drinks since my last post. I've been away / busy.

Continuing in my acquisition of firearms used / supplied during the S.A. Border War and the Rhodesian War, next on my list is the above mentioned pistol. I'd like to know from veterans who served in those conflicts, or people otherwise in the know:

* How often they turned up in caches / taken off dead combatants
* Who in the enemy forces carried them typically - e.g. a LMG operator's sidearm, junior officer sidearm
* Compared to the Makarov - were they still comparatively widely issued?

I've not held one so have zero experience with them - given that they've been widely used I'm assuming that they're reliable pistols?

Cheers.

**mikecollinge** · 16-02-2020, 10:41

I have one as part of my collection. It is a lump of metal. Think of a Lada car :). Typical Soviet mindset. Cool as part of a collection, but that is as far as it goes. That round is devastating though

**Tango Sierra** · 16-02-2020, 10:58

Cheers Mike, yes they certainly appear quite simple / almost crude.

**Peter Wells** · 16-02-2020, 13:34

I have one in my collection - WW2 dated - with an interesting background. It was carried by a South Africa POW who escaped from a Itie camp. He met up with Tito's forces in Yugo and served with them for the rest of the war. He was issued with this gun and brought it back to SA thereafter.
Not pretty and with disgusting trigger but a nice collectable.

**Tango Sierra** · 17-02-2020, 06:15

Originally Posted by Peter Wells

I have one in my collection - WW2 dated - with an interesting background. It was carried by a South Africa POW who escaped from a Itie camp. He met up with Tito's forces in Yugo and served with them for the rest of the war. He was issued with this gun and brought it back to SA thereafter.
Not pretty and with disgusting trigger but a nice collectable.

Pretty good story to go with it. The one I'm looking at is from 1945.

**Peter Wells** · 17-02-2020, 08:17

Nice TS. Mine is a 1941 specimen.

**Tango Sierra** · 17-02-2020, 08:27

Once the TT's acquired then the next thing on the list as far as pistols is concerned, is a Makarov. Friend of mine's recently come into a DDR manufactured one which I'm slightly envious of. I'm very curious as to how frequently these (Toks / Maks) were recovered in Angola / Mozambique / Rhodesia.

**AngusK** · 17-02-2020, 08:28

Awesome pistol

**Peter Wells** · 17-02-2020, 12:04

Many Toks were recovered from caches during Ops Protea in 1981. All that I have seen were pre-1946, ie. WW2 and earlier. It's not generally known but Moscow made an agreement to supply the MPLA with small arms - so Moscow emptied their arsenals of all WW2 captured and obsolete USSR small arms incl. Moisin Nagants (91/30, M38 and M44), Mg34, K98, etc. LARGE quantities were captured during Ops Savanna. All the K98s went to Musgrave who built the actions into the Musgrave K98 hunting rifles.
I have a 1978 dated Russian Makarov set (gun, holster and spare mag) that was carried on Ops by a 32Bn recce mate after he took it from someone who had no further use of it.