M57

Zastava M57

Based off the Russian TT-33 Tokarev designed by  Fedor Tokarev and influenced by John Brownings 1911.

Used in Yugoslavia as a service issued pistol. It uses the 7.62x25 cartridge, based on the German 7.62x25 Mauser cartridge. A necked pistol round.

The key difference from Russian versions is the 9 round magazine, the Yugo was built to accept rather than standard soviet 8 capacity.

Supposedly the safety was installed entourage to America by a third party rather than the Zastava plant. 

My pistol is very surplus-y and needed adjusting on the sights and the safety switch.

Ballester Molina & Leather Holster from Argentina

I picked up a vintage gun holster from seller bopayarg on Ebay not long ago, he runs the eBay store Argentina Vintage Collectables. 

http://stores.ebay.com/Argentina-Vintage-Collectibles?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

This article is dedicated to said holster.

This model was built for the 1911 or the Ballester Molina, from Argentina. And it's pretty unique.

Ballester Molina

Since I haven't seem any of the country's milsurp before I was a little surprised at the green leather.

But it seems fitting to think of a South American country using green web gear. 

Argentina has a mix of mountains, farmland with cattle prairie and jungle, so it seems like a win-win for the environment and resources of the time; this kit is pretty old, possibly from the WW2 era or earlier.

Further searches revealed green leather slings for their Mauser rifles and ammo pouches to match. Brown leather seems more rare actually.

This holster was manufactured with a dual magazine pouch above the pistol, but I have seen stand alone double mag pouches as well as separate pistol holsters, also in green leather, for sale online.

Because of the top/bottom setup, the pistol hangs a bit lower on the hip-almost on the side of the leg. This is a similar a similar setup to the modern Bianchi web belt drop down extender for the M9/1911 holster.

There is even two small d rings on the back of the pistol holster to accommodate a leather strap that would secure the holster to your leg, though my example did not come with said leather strap.

All in all I am happy with this unique kit and the price was very reasonable. I haven't attempted to clean up the leather at all in these photos, and it goes with my weathered 1911 nicely.

Shipping did take a while, but that isn't too bad considering this hobby, the wait builds up and imagination, once the item is in the collectors hands that feeling of interest in the unknown is appeased and its time to move on to the next vintage surplus collectible...

More great stuff from bopayarg here:

http://shop.mobileweb.ebay.com/searchresults?cmd=SREF&pg=7&back=1&kw=seller:bopayarg&fads=All&sort=PricePlusShippingHighest&sellerId=bopayarg

Me

Battle gear

Yugoslavian leather suspenders and belt.

The JNA were the armed forces of (Jugoslavian Army) Yugoslavia.

Old school uniforms were the best.

Leather accessories for the troops all had lots of class...this was a different force, before the break up/genocide, but instead a cold war frenemy --equipped by the US as a secret Allie.

Seen here equipped with ammo pouches designed to hold 8mm Mauser ammo (7.92X57mm) on 5 round metal stripper clips.

This is where the confusion between stripper clips and magazines came from.
Stripper clips hold stacks of bullets by the extraction groove in automatic cartridges.

Note the oldschool bayonet and JNA day pack-- very sweet.

The second leather set, also yugo gear, is set up for the M59/66 SKS.

The pouches also hold ammo in stripper clips, three clips of 10 rounds of 7.62X39 mm (Russia's answer to the intermediate cartridge).

The pistol holster is for the M57 Tokarev pistol chambered in 7.62X25 mm. It has a pocket for a spare magazine.

Note there isn't a bayonet on this belt kit because the yugo SKS has a built in bayo that folds out from a groove in the stock on a pivoting hinge under the barrel and front sight.

Lastly, a US Vietnam web belt with harness and a bianchi pistol holster (fits M-9 and M1911) and two double spare magazine pouches (1vietnam era the other is older perhaps ww2). The bayo belonged to my grandfather Jim, it's a Vietnam era M-16 bayonet, though Jim was a WW2 vet himself...he also collected and shot for sport.

3 more belts are in progress or imagined. Hopefully I'll have them and will share someday.

Not sure what this holster goes with, the .32 M70 pistol was too large. :| ??