Russian PSM in 5.45x18

[missingsomething]

Does anyone have any info, manuals, cases, for the little Russian guy?

I may have a line on a pistol.. So trying to find some stuff.... Would love to find someone who reloads for it....

Thanks,
Craig

[Peter Wells]

Craig, I had one of the commercial version a few years ago - the one with the plastic, rather than metal, grips (which is why I sold it!). It came with some ammo but at the time I was looking towards the day I would have to reload for it.

I was eyeing the .25ACP case (would be slightly short but ok), a custom necking/sizer die and swaged .223 ball bullets. That's as far as I got.

Have fun anyway.

[missingsomething]

OK, so I am an idiot....

I did get the pistol.....

I also went into my library and found an original Russian manual that I had.... I also lucked out and got an issue holster and spare magazine with it. I do however seem to be missing a cleaning rod....so if anyone has seen one....

Here you go... for your viewing pleasure.




Serial number is distorted... thats not the finish








The 5.45x18 round is left... 9mm Para is Right.

[Richard Fisher]

Is the size of that round just to annoy people a lot? It's tiny!

[missingsomething]

Yep.. I guess that this can sum it up better:

The PSM pistol was designed during early ninety seventies at the request of the all-powerful KGB (State Security comitee of Soviet Union), which required a concealed carry weapon for their plainclothes operatives who were operating “in country”. Original papers, approved by the Government, requested a “flat-sized pistol, not thicker than a standard matchbox (17mm)”. There were no specifications for caliber, and it is not known why TSNII TochMash dared to develop an entirely new round when other rounds were already available and had previously been manufactured in the USSR, such as the 6.35x16SR and 7.65x17SR Brownings. The only real (although of doubtful value) advantage of the new 5.45x18 MPTs round (official designation 7N7) is its deeper penetration, especially against soft body armor at short range. The stopping power of this round is so miserable that some police operatives officially refused to carry this pistol in harm’s way, asking for the venerable Makarov PM instead. The PSM itself was quite conventional weapon, but of very thin and flat profile. It was tested against only one other competitor, the BV-025, which was more or less a scaled down Makarov PM copy, chambered for the same 5.45x18 ammunition. The Government officially approved the PSM for service in 1972, and from the mid-seventies it was issued mostly to top-ranking officials of the military, law enforcement agencies and the Communist party, as a self-defence weapon (or suicide special, as it turned out during turbulent first half of the nineties).

[Richard Fisher]

Interesting. The profile shot you posted makes more sense now. I can see how it would be beneficially but I think I'd be one to refuse it if offered and something else was available.