I bought one of these for the wife and ended up using it more than she even saw it. was a great little gun, accurate and conceals great!!

I liked my Makarov because of its accuracy. The disadvantage: needs to be cleaned constantly, or it jams.

You can find many different versions of this ranging is different prices. It is a good pistol and the weight is just right for an ankle holster.

A very good off duty gun, easy to hide in ankel holster.

Bought mine right after E.Germany collapsed and they were selling for less than $100.00, German Makarovs appear to be manufacture to typical German precision, quality, very fine gun, lots of cheap ammo. Highly recomended

I bought an E. German becasue the rumor was it was the best of the Makarov. Numerous fail to fires. Apparently the firing pin is free floating (no spring) tried a differnt firing pin no change. Safety goes in opposite direction as other slide mounted safeties. Heavy DA trigger.

A cool shooter gun, but id never trust my life to it.

Okay, my Mak is actually a Bulgarian-made specimen, not an East German, but what the hell. I also used to own a genuine-Russian-made Mak, which was my vey first CCW piece (with my Flortida CCW, long before I became a civvy cop).

Very robust and reliable, and quite peppy for a straight-blowback "pocket pistol" caliber--only drawback is that the recoil actually stings harder than a .compact 45 ACP. Very comfortable for discreet carry. Also delightfully simple to field-strip, maintain, and re-assemble, thanks to the fixed barrel. Last but not least, surprisingly accurate and shootable, in spite of the tiny sights and loose "mil-spec" tolerances.

Last but not least, there's the historical significance, being the standard-issue Russian military and police pistol since 1951; (insert Russian accent here) "KGB-tested and approved, spasiba, tovarish!" :-)

I bought mine many moons ago when the East German models were selling for just over $100. Ammo was cheap also, but the copper washed steel which could not be reloaded. (Did lots of reloading back then.) Accuracy is very good, and comparing ballistics to 38Spl +P it is very close with a quality hollowpoint. Hornady made a good load for a while, but haven't used it other than plinking in recent years. Trigger has creep in DA, but smooth in SA. Finish is mirror smooth but jet black. Am used to seeing deep blue that appears to flow when metal polished this fine.

This was the most accurate firearm I have ever owned. Even with the fixed sights. Very rough construction, but it was a trooper and you could beat them to death and still keep shooting. Easy to conceal, nice fit in the hand, and vertually no recoil. Finding an armorer to work on them is a problem.