New guy w/a question on Tokarevs

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I've just joined the forum and this is my first post, but I'm a veteran of other forums. I've recently become very fond of the Tokarev pistol- I had a Norinco 9mm Tokarev for a while back when I knew much less about firemarms, but I stupidly sold it (D'oh!) to finance a wheelgun purchase.

Now, years later, I'm hot to get myself a Tokarev in the original caliber. Where's a good place to get one online? I saw the ones advertised on SOG but lots of people seem to be advising Tokarev seekers to stay away from that place. Anybody else have experience with places that have Tokarevs for sale? Any idea of the prices?

[JA]

I ordered one from SOG last fall. It was the cheapest one they had with one mag. The magazine catch was broken and my dealer called SOG and they sent him a new part the next week no charge.
It has some holster wear and marks from the take down lever and it's retainer but is in real good shape other wise. Put 400rds through it so far it has been 100% reliable.
Thursday a friend,his son and I didn't have any problems with it shooting bowling pins at 50 yards.
I noticed that SOG only has the two lower grades of the 4 grades of tokarev pistols they had at one time on their website left. So the hand picked charge might be worth paying for now that they are down to the bottom of the barrel.

[dazysnow]

I have a Norinco M213 9mm. It is unfired and while not in the box, I still have it, too. Someone told me if you fire these much they start to fly apart. Is this the general sentiment or have I been misinformed?:confused:

[JA]

You have been misinformed about the quality of the Chinese pistols.
I own 3 of the "213" 9mm pistols. A Model 213,TOK-213,and a Model 213A. Also had a Chinese Tokarev model TU-90 9mm till a friend wouldn't quit begging me to sell it to him.
All my pistols have had atleast a couple hundred to a 1000+ rounds through them without any problems.
I hear this all the time from people that have never owned a Chinese pistol say "It is a cheap piece of crap made by slave labor. It will blow up and kill you"
But after shooting one and seeing how low the price on them is they change thier opinions of them.

[Clark]

I once ordered two Chinese Tokarevs.
One had the safety active in the rear position, the other in the forward position. I took the safeties off and looked at them. Where not showing, they were almost entirely made by free hand grinding. This looked so cheap to me that I sold them.

I got some CZ52's and thought they were made better. Then I overloaded them a little and they blew up.

5 years after my first Tokarevs, I got some more Chinese Tokarevs and tested them with overloads. I was really very impressed with everything BUT the safeties.

Evidently the safeties were added for import into the USA.

I now remove the safeties and use the hammer in half cock as the safety.