Why do people call the Tokarev pistol the Russian 1911?
It’s obvious when looking at the two that the Tokarev design borrowed a lot from John Moses Browning’s 1911. The 1911 came out around two decades before the Tokarev, and like any good designer, the engineers behind the Tokarev looked to what was currently working and started there.
Not only does the Tokarev pistol look similar to the 1911, it also borrows a lot from the FN 1903.
One huge difference between the Tokarev and the 1911 is the cartridge each shoots:
The 1911 uses the .45 Automatic cartridge, which slings a large, heavy bullet relatively slowly, while the Tokarev uses the , a small caliber bullet going extremely fast, especially for the time period (1930s - 1940s primarily).
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Lee Mason, Mason Leather