Upgrade your CZAK P64 to fire 8 shots

If you are reading this you probably already know the Polish CZAK (aka P64) pistol is a well made knock-off (aka unlicensed clone) of the excellent Walther PPK pistol used as a service pistol by the Polish military during the Cold War era. They were made at the arsenal in FB Radom and as with many of the Radom firearms the quality is quite high.

FB Radom and Poland deny that it is a knock off pistol but really aside from the caliber and the strength of various springs being changed to accommodate the more powerful 9mm Makarov round it is hard to find much difference between the two. Indeed some owners of both report there is some small parts interchangeability, so draw your own conclusion.

There is no question that the 9mm Makarov (aka 9mmx18mm) cartridge has more potential as a self defense round than the .380acp (aka 9mm kurz, or 9mmx17mm). That extra millimeter of length allows more gun powder to be used to push a bullet of the same weight at a higher velocity. E=MV The .380acp was the most powerful cartridge the Walther PPK was chambered for. However it was available with a 7 round magazine in caliber .380acp. For unknown reasons when FB Radom made their variant in 9mm Makarov they reduced that magazine capacity to 6 rounds. This is probably the greatest failing of the P64 as a defensive pistol.

[There are other shortcomings such as horrible sights and over stiff double action trigger pulls, but there are fixes and solutions for those as my blog in the Modern Guns Forum on this website shows.]

Owners of P64 pistols have experimented with modifications to .380 Bersa magazines and alternative magazine bottoms in an effort to increase the magazine capacity of a P64. None of the previous efforts resulted in anything great. That has changed.

A way has been found to modify the magazines of a Polish P-83 Wanad (also produced by FB Radom) service pistol (still in service use today) to work in a CZAK P64 pistol. This modification will give the P64 an 8(!) shot magazine capacity. Add 1 in the chamber (with the safety on of course) and suddenly your P64 holds 9 shots with only a small increase in overall envelope dimension.

Details of the modification and how to do it, which essentially consist of punching out a new magazine catch in the magazine body and polishing the magazine follower are shown in the video below. Enjoy and let us know how you like it.