I really like the cartridge. Accurate, powerful and devastating on target. No wonder the West German border guards and those escaping from the East German Communists feared the PPSh when running to freedom from behind what Churchill accurately called the "Iron Curtain".

Think about it.

I retested the 85 grain Hornady XTP and got pretty much the same results. 1720 fps which is about 200 fps beyond what this bullet is designed for, but the velocity is impressive none the less. That comes out to 558 ft\lbs of muzzle energy. You'd be hard pressed to match that with a 327 Fed Mag.

it is both a "manstopper" and a hunter. It is truly amazing what a light bullet can do when driven to these velocities!

Captain O

Could you imagine how this cartridge would perform in a M1 Carbine format? I have always wondered how it would work with the piece coupled with a 20 inch barrel.
A 30 round magazine would put the hurts on small to medium sized game.

Coyotes beware! 

The round isn't too bad from a long barrel. No more than a light .30 Carbine, though. OK for small to medium varmint, or targets. Adapters for the Mosin-Nagant are available (Midway, Shooter's Guide), and fun.

Quote from: sqlbullet on December 17 2015 08:08:42 AM MST
Picking a nit I know, but they would be building them from parts.  The FFL rule that once a machine gun always a machine gun prevents converting full-auto back to semi-auto.  Companies will buy demilled parts kits that have the receiver cut into three section, and put the parts on new receivers.

I have one of their Finnish Suomi subguns that's been converted to semiautomatic. Heavy as all get out, but accurate. I wanted one of their PPSh kits but couldn't buy one at the time. Perhaps someday I still will.

Incidentally, how well will the loads you documented shoot in the Zasava M57? I have been longing to shoot some of the 86 grain hollowpoints loaded to military levels. Are there any companies loading the cartridge this way? Objective: varminting.

Reeds ammo loads their 7.62x25 as hot or hotter than I have using the same bullets and others. They're the Underwood of the 7.62x25 world.
http://shop.reedsammo.com/762x25_c14.htm
My M57 is a new production Zastava it shot low and left from the factory. Low I can live with but left bothered me so I took a brass punch and drifted the rear site just a tad and now it shoots where I want it to. I could of of filed down the front site and still may, but it only shoots 2-3 inches low at 10 yards so I left it alone for now.

Sounds good to me! I may have to look to reeds for hunting and SD loads for the 7.62 X 25 cartridge. Browning designed a great handgun, Tokarev adapted the design to accomodate a marvelous cartridge. The .30 Tokarev cartridge has a couple of competitors (.30 Carbine .327 Federal Magnum). Does the .327 Fed Mag outclass it?

327 Federal Magnum vs 7.62x25 is like comparing the 10mm to the 357 Magnum. They're so close it comes down to platform more than anything. The 327 has the edge in case capacity (19 grain to 16.8 grains h2O) and has a maximum pressure of 45,000 psi compared to the Tokarev's 36,000 psi.  So the 327 magnum will probably beat the Tokarev if you stay withing recommended pressure limits. On the other hand the 327 is rimmed revolver cartridge and it's going to lose 50 - 150 fps due to the cylinder gap so it should be pretty close. Then again I've read that 327 brass has a tendecy to split at those pressures while the Tokarev probaly won't.  They're both excellent cartridges imho.

I'm sure that properly supported cases would likely prevent case splitting. Support is critical at these pressures. I deeply appreciate my M57 and anticipate using it (and some Reed's Ammunition, if/when I can afford it) for varminting and personal defense. John Moses Browning and Feodor Tokarev did an excellent job with the "basic" M1903 platform. Another piece of JMB's genius revisited.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I was looking for .30 and .32 caliber bullets and came across these Lehigh Defense 32 caliber 50 grain Cavitor  bullets.
http://www.lehighdefense.com/pages/xtreme-cavitator

I bought a box of 50 and I'm gonna load them up for my Tokarev. I should be able to get 2000 fps easily. I wonder how far they would penetrate in ballistic gel at that speed. At 850 fps they go through 13 inches of ballistic gel according to lehigh, but with the much higher velocity from the Tokarev penetration should be less right?

Quote from: wadcutter on March 26 2016 02:31:57 PM MDT
I was looking for .30 and .32 caliber bullets and came across these Lehigh Defense 32 caliber 50 grain Cavitor  bullets.
http://www.lehighdefense.com/pages/xtreme-cavitator

I bought a box of 50 and I'm gonna load them up for my Tokarev. I should be able to get 2000 fps easily. I wonder how far they would penetrate in ballistic gel at that speed. At 850 fps they go through 13 inches of ballistic gel according to lehigh, but with the much higher velocity from the Tokarev penetration should be less right?

I wouldn't think so. That effect is usually limited to HP or fragmenting bullets. This bullet is a solid, non-expanding, non-deforming design. I suspect, at 2000 FPS, you won't have enough gel to actually know how far it will penetrate. Likely 30"+. If the "cavitation" design is effective at that velocity, it could easily be double that.

Is that the weirdest looking pistol bullet you've ever seen? I'm gonna run these over the chronograph tomorrow and then I'm gonna move on to a different cartridge. My Tokarev fetish is finally subsiding. I've tried just about every bullet and powder combination and I just love the round. I wish there were more guns chambered for it. I'd like to do the 9x25 Dillon thing next. It's a Tokarev on steroids, but the dies are so expensive. 

9x25D dies are expensive, but you don't need them, necessarily. I've loaded thousands of 9x25, 100% from brass I sized from 10mm Auto. If you already load 10mm, you have 1/2 of what you need to load 9x25. Full length size the brass, as you would with 10mm. Then, use a .357 Sig die to either form or resize 9x25 brass, similar to what you'd do for any bottleneck rifle case (progressive, with lube). Setting the shoulder depth is critical, but not complicated if you are an accomplished handloader. I use a lapped 7/8" washer sized exactly at the shoulder depth difference between .357 Sig and 9x25D, so it's only a matter of using the washer for 9x25 when switching from .357S. The process is the same as with .357S, being careful to NOT crimp while seating (the shoulder will collapse). Bullets with a cannelure work best, if you can find them. 115 gr. 9mm XTP's have a cannelure. I'm in the process of trying a bushing with the .357S Lee FCD for 9x25 crimping, which should vastly improve the end product.