Any opinions on a Polish PPS-43c ?

[Prestantia]

Hi everyone.
Am considering the Polish PPS-43c from Centerfire Systems. Have done a lot of reading about them over the net recently but I really value the opinions of you guys around here so thought I'd ask. I know it's not a huge investment and the gun would be just for recreational shooting (and the fun of having a SMG replica) but I don't want something that will be more trouble than it's worth. Any experiences or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

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[Creeper]

We had one for range rental. It was fun to shoot and, to my knowledge, pretty reliable. If you don't look to close at the quality, for the money I think you'd be happy with it.

Cheers,
C

 

[raftman]

Had one, it was a mixed bag. The the plus side, it looked cool, also feeding and ejecting was all very positive. Mechanically, it was unsound, parts were out of spec, causing it to not always cock the weapon after a round went off a couple of times per mag. Sold it off (at a very low price, and with disclosure that I've had reliability issues with it) and the next owner was able to get it running after some headaches.

Thing is, the design on the pistols is quite unlike that of the original Russian SMG's, the pistols are hammer-fired and are of a closed bolt design compared with the original that had a firing pin milled into the bolt and fired from an open bolt (the latter would of course have eliminated the sorts of issues I experienced with PPS-43c pistol).

 

[jordanvraptor]

I was the second owner of Raftman's PPS-43C. Using my incredible skill and brilliant gunsmithing deductive reasoning I was able to get it working...

The disconnector was not fitted correctly. I filed it down and it then would grab the hammer notch and hold the hammer cocked to fire the next round properly.
Before my fix, the hammer would not catch the disconnector and ride forward with the bolt and hit the firing pin. With surplus ammo and hard primers it was usually a misfire and a tap, rack, go drill. With commercial Wolf ammo and softer primers, it was a runaway gun. It would stop if you released the trigger or ran out of ammo but I promptly fixed it as I have no use for defective firearms.
Other than that it worked fine.
Here is a vid of it after I fixed it. It would even feed the Wolf hollow points when my Tokarev pistol would not. In the end, I sold both as even surplus ammo became more expensive than 9mm. By the way, 7.62 x 25 Tokarev ammo fired from the pistol penetrated both front and back panels of a Class IIA vest whereas 9mm ball from my Beretta penetrated only two or three layers of the front panel.

PPS-43C pistol - YouTube

 

[lonegunman]

Borrow one, shoot it, clean it and return it, then you will have satisfied the need. They are that interesting.

 

[Prestantia]

Thanks for the input everyone. I think i'll wait till i can get my hands on one and shoot it before I buy since it's so hit and miss. Appreciate all the feedback!