If you have a medium-large to large hand, the Pearce grips are great. I have medium hands and they feel just a tad bit too "fat". They also make it a bit harder to conceal than the stock grips.
What I would love for my Bulgarian is nice textured plastic grips similar in size to the stock grips but without the stupid thumbrest or lanyard ring. I think the plastic grips are much better for concealed carry since they are much slimmer and slicker so they don't catch clothing. In the meantime, the Pearce do fine.
With very little effort, you can improve the weight and feel of the double action pull. First, while field stripped, pull the trigger a few times in double action mode and look at how the hammer and sear rub against each other as the hammer retracts. If you polish those surfaces well, polish the side of the trigger bar where it rubs against the frame, then put a small amount of moly paste or grease on those surfaces, it will smooth and lighten the double action pull noticeably. I used a dremel with felt polishing tip and polishing rouge. Mine had a number of machining marks on the hammer surface so I first polished it with a more aggressive grit then progressed to a fine grit. I also polished the feed ramp since it too had some machining marks on it.
To do this, of course, you'll need to disassemble the pistol completely, which is very easily done since it only has 23 parts. AGI has a good video on Makarov gunsmithing which you should be able to buy at most gunshows. Its a big help on taking the gun down and putting it back together again although you could figure it out if you just played around with it.
Since the blue job on the Bulgarians (at least on my two year old one) isn't so hot, I sandblasted the frame and slide with a fine grit sand, then refinished it in Norell's flat black moly-resin. While I was prepping the metal, I used a couple of grits of wet-or-dry sandpaper and oil to smooth out some of the rough spots and sharp edges on the trigger guard. The edges down where the trigger guard pivot pin are used to dig into my finger mercilessly and now its completely comfortable to hold and shoot.
The sharp tip sticking out from the side of the magazine operates the bolt hold-open. Don't mess with it. I read about one guy (not me, I swear!
) who filed his off because he didn't see a reason for it. He found out what it was for quickly and had to buy two new mags.
It looks like a million bucks now. The Maks are inherently accurate due to the fact that the barrel doesn't move during recoil so its a great shooter too.
[This message has been edited by proximo (edited August 10, 2000).]
