[Chris Stephens]

Hi there,

I recieved an email ad for J&G Sales of Prescott, AR. yesterday advertising the FEG PA-63 in 9mmX18 cartirdge and wondered if anyone had any experience with them.

http://catalog.jgsales.com/?itemnumber=25-343

It looks like a nice companion piece for the MAK owners out there and are listed as surplused from the Hungarian Military.

Chris

 

[erich]

I've owned an FEG SMC-380, which was a steel-framed almost PPK-sized similar gun. It worked fine, though the serrated trigger and heavy pull made it somewhat unpleasant. Other than that, I thought the FEG gun was very well designed, incorporating real improvements over the Walthers in both the firing pin and the modified frame/tang.

Board member Gil owned one of the PA-63s, and I've worked on two murder cases involving them. (These aluminum-framed PP-clones were ubiquitous in the '90s.) Gil had some initial problems with his PA-63 (something involving a spring?), but he got them worked out and the gun functioned fine. I recall he was troubled when he started to experience wear on the aluminum portion of the feed ramp after not all that many rounds, and he eventually sold or traded the gun off.

Personally, I've got nothing against the FEGs for being inexpensive blowbacks that work, but I'd probably look into finding one with a steel frame due to the wear issue that Gil experienced - at least if I planned on shooting it a decent amount.

 

[m2carbine]

I've had one for quite a while but don't get around to shooting it much.
They generally sell at the gun shows for around $145.

They aren't bad guns.
Accurate and reliable except mine doesn't like hollow point ammo but it seems that most owners say their's function with it OK.

Due to the grip shape and light weight, your hand receives a pretty good kick from the hotter 9x18 loads.

I wouldn't buy it instead of a Makarov, but like you say, "a nice companion piece for the MAK owners".

 

[Guest]

I have had one for 15 years. It lives on my dresser. It runs great with hardball which is what I use in any CCW gun. Milt Morrison helped me tweak it way back then and it is a sweet little back up gun that I used on the last Job. We had to do a lot of stuff to it, but it all paid off. I would not expect much out of the box unless you get a real good one. Most of them work with hardball ammo. It has a nice smooth trigger face and a nice trigger pull. It is a very safe gun to handle.

 

[gil]

Hey Chris
Erich was pretty accurate with the info about my PA-63
Another thing I didn't like was it really twisted my wrist
in a weird way it actually hurt to shoot it.
If I do it again I will look for something with a steel frame or just get a Makarov.

Gil....

 

[Guest]

I picked up one at the last gun show,changed the springs with a set from wolf. The pa-63 is an accurate and nice shooter after the spring change. I would get another.

 

[Guest]

I had bought one of the imported all black ones a few years ago and didn't care for it. In its defense, it was very accurate when it fired and I liked the way it felt in my hands. The finish was decent. I had all sorts of ejection problems and failure to feed problems. It ran better with some ammo than others, but rather inconsistent. I didn't really care for the way that the ejector was fitted to the frame, seemed cheap. Granted, the gun was under $200. It could have been one out of a million that was poorly produced, but it burned me enough to dump it and not look back. I have a Bulgarian Makarov that was right around the same price, and I feel it should be worth twice as much.