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Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2026 1:22 am
by bullsi1911
Well… who wouldn’t want to buy a $250 2” Yugo made .357Mag revolver?
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Is it outdated? Are parts impossible to find? Is it somewhere between a K-frame and a python… but with a horrible DA trigger?

YES!

But… why the hell not? I have good CHL guns, and combat guns… I do not have a commie-ish surplus revolver in one of the most American calibers!

It actually shoots pretty well for having ill fitted grips that bite your hand (thinking of 3d printing some grips to make it look weirder). Took it to the range with some other .38 and .357 guns and rann about 150 rounds through it
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First 6 rounds of .357 at 7 yards in DA was not bad:
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Bet you can tell which round was first learning the DA trigger.

Ran it out to 15 yards and tried SA with .38SPL
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Still not bad, considering

Here is 25 yards SA with .38s
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Eh… for a 2” barrel, it’s not bad. But the ill fitted grips were actually starting to cut my hand at this point. Flinching is embarrassing with a steel frame running .38Spl.

To round out the day and make myself feel better, I ended with some .38s in the 686 at 10 yards.
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Much better.

Do you need a Zastava M83 .357? No. Is it an interesting artifact from the end of the Cold War? Yeah. Do I like it? Yep.

Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2026 1:33 am
by Zee
Nice grab.

Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2026 2:23 pm
by Chiro1989
Thanks for answering that question for me Bullsi, I was eyeballing that gun, not a great purchase, not a bad one.

Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2026 8:08 pm
by bullsi1911
I have heard that you can replace the mainspring with a 1911 17lb hammer spring and it will make the DA trigger much better. But the side plate screws are lock-tite’d in and real easy to booger up because of the stupid Star pattern heads.

So, I MAY try doing that at some point

Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2026 10:04 pm
by Justsomedude
I wouldnt be surprised if that weird thing now happens where I never knew something existed, I find out they exist and then all of a sudden I see a bunch of them in a short time span. Pretty cool find.

Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2026 1:47 am
by bullsi1911
Let me help you with that….
https://armsunlimited.com/zastava-m83- ... ch-barrel/

Since I don’t want to goof up those screws any more then the factory did, I just blew about 30 years of dried oil out of the action and re-lubed it with Lucas gun oil. Time to get weird looks from the family and dry fire it about 10,000 times. The DA trigger is already noticeably better.

Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:20 am
by Zorba
Fix for the grips - this also keeps it loud:
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Re: Another dumb surplus purchase

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2026 11:15 am
by Freezer