Makarov serial #'s

R

railroader

New member
I have a russian hi-cap makarov that was imported by B-West in 1994. The bluing on the slide was great but the frame looked pretty crummy, kind of a dull black. The serial #'s were laser etched on top of the finish on both slide and the frame, not stamped. I decided to refinish the gun.I sanded the frame with very fine sandpaper and then had the whole gun bead blasted. The serial numbers completely disappered from the frame and almost from the slide. I refinshed the gun with Brownell's Teflon Moly black finish. It came out good. You could barely see the numbers on the slide if you held it in the light right. I had a gunsmith put the numbers back. He got 1 letter wrong and had to restamp over it also had the # 3 backwards. It definetly does't look factory. Can I get in trouble for this? Why are they allowed to import guns without the numbers stamped properly? Are there other Mak's out there with same problem?

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You do have a potential problem. In this litigious society anything is ground for a court case. Can’t the gunsmith give you anything in the way of proof that he made a mistake and tried to correct it? Give BATF a call and ask them what you can do.

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So many pistols, so little money.
 
The Mak should also have a deep stamped American S/N on the frame above the left grip. From what I've been told, the laser etched numbers are fine in Europe, but the BATF likes to see actual displacement of metal. The KBI Russian I have has the deep numbers as well as the two sets of European numbers.

BTW, if you buy extra mags for your hi-cap, don't buy aftermarket mags. Karl at makarov.com has original mags for it. The aftermarket mags are junk. Even with the factory mags you may have to do a fluff and buff on the lips.

[This message has been edited by houndawg (edited March 15, 2000).]
 
My Mak is a surplus EGerman and has a cheesy vibro pencil serial number on the slide, frame, and a few other parts. It has no serial number stamps anywhere.
 
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