mu 55 and rink grips

[hectorp]

I live in Mexico and shoot free pistol with a Hammerli 150 with a Morini Grip. I am shooting scores of 520 to 535 with this pistol. Here in Mexico it is very difficult or impossible to buy a new free pistol. I have read that the Free Pistols more used at this time are to TOZ and the Morini 84.

But I can get and Mu 55 or MC55 thats the same pistol. I have read that French Pistol shooter Duvalin used that model to win and Olimpic Medal.

I just notice that rink grips make the grips for this model. Does anyone has any experience with this pistol.

Thanks

[Ted]

I have a Toz -35M and A MU-55. I like them both. The MU-55 is a better gun overall. It has a very good balance and is lighter than the Toz-35. If you can get a MU-55, buy it and enjoy it! It is a sought after gun here in the USA.

[K38]

For what it's worth, Darius (Doc) Young thinks it is a better pistol than the TOZ-35

Dwight

(This was mentioned on the BullseyeL list)

[Tony C.]

I bought my first free pistol, a MU-55 with Rink grip a few months ago, having put about 250 rds thru it so far, here's some of my impressions.

The pistol is a second hand one, the previous owner have taken good care of it, comes with 3 front sight posts and 3 rear sight blades, the front are tapper post, the rear are 2 u notch and 1 square notch, they are a tad on the small side for my middle age eyes, there are also some spare parts .

Once in a great while the pistol will fail to extract a fired case, the chamber seems to be quite tight, some ammo works better than other, Lapua and Federal 711 works well.

There are no barrel weight, in my rather inexperience hand the pistol feel too light at the front, having a hard time to held a steady aim, I added a set of home made barrel weight on to it, seems to help, need to experiment with placement of weight.

Trigger is excellent and can be set to dry fire without cocking the action.

The Rink grip fit my medium size hand very well.

All in all, its a well made pistol. Before I come across this pistol I also have my mind set on a TOZ35, but the MU-55 shows up with a price I can't say no to, however I'm not sure its better than the Hammerli 150 you got right now. Hope this help.

[BenHHH]

Hello
I'm a french (Paris) shooter.
I just own a Vostok MU55-1 (MC55).
I know that only 1000 have been produced.
I started to identify all the MU55 of the world.
If you still have a MU-55, I would like to know what is the serial number of yours?
Of course, I will never give this number to nobody else.
If you don't want, just give me the 2 first numbers, it is the year of its production.
The N° of mine is 81 0780. So, my MU55 was produced in 1981.
I imagine to create a web site to talk about this marvelous gun.
At this time I identify around 25 MC55. Still lots to do ...
Thanks for your help
Best regards
BenHHH

[Tycho]

Spare parts for the MU55 are as good as impossible to find, much rarer than for the TOZ.

[renzo]

I shot my best personal score (543) with a MC-55-1, and for years kept an average of over 534. It's a beautiful, accurate, well balanced and finely manufactured but very demanding pistol.

If easier to shoot 7's or worse with it when other pistols (vg, the TOZ-35) will land an 8 when failing to execute correctly.

Controls are the easier I've seen, trigger location variable in distance and angle, trigger weight and sear engagement are two different settings (one screw and one sliding piece) that work independently, so minute changes are easier to achieve than with others.

Rink grips are practically perfection whe it comes to non-tailored factory stuff. I had in my TOZ-35 and my Hammerli 208, and the difference with Morinis was noticeable.

You'll be very satisfied with the pistol, provided you train seriously, they are unforgiving with the casual shooter. By the way, FP is not for casual shooters if they are going to have fun..........................

Be sure to get a perfect fit to your hand. Regarding barrel weights, I bought many years ago one that was expressly designed for MC's, consisting in a round piece of steel with a half-moon shaped cut that allowed to slip on the barrel from the muzzle, and with a prisoner allen screw in the bottom to keep it firmly against the barrel, as muzzle lightness is usually a complain with the model.

If you google "Melentiev" you'll probably find an image of him with his record 1980 target in the background. If you compare closely the pistol proportions, yopu'll find (as I did) that the barrel of HIS GUN is approximately two inches shorter than the standard. Obviously, even him had his trouble with the long sight radius and the slender barrel.

Remember the back sight id distance adjustable.

The best of lucks for you

[FredB]

If you google "Melentiev" you'll probably find an image of him with his record 1980 target in the background. If you compare closely the pistol proportions, yopu'll find (as I did) that the barrel of HIS GUN is approximately two inches shorter than the standard. Obviously, even him had his trouble with the long sight radius and the slender barrel.

If you look more closely at that picture, you'll see that he is not holding a MTs 55-1. The curved cocking levers in front of the trigger guard are not there. What he shot the record with was a MTs 55 (no dash), the original version of the gun, with an underneath cocking lever, and presumably a very different balance. So I wouldn't draw any conclusions about the balance of the MTs 55-1 (or MTs 55-1M) from that picture.

The MTs 55 seems to be quite rare these days; I've only heard of one in the US. And BTW, there are at least 2 and maybe 3 different hammer configurations in the MTs 55-1, making replacement of this vulnerable part potentially difficult - don't ask me how I know.

FredB

[renzo]

Fred:

You're right about the Mts-55 with under the grip latch, but if you look to the accompanying photographs, you'll see that the barrel proportions and front sight ramp and post shapes are similar in both variants, and then very different than in Melentiev's, thus my (perphaps adventurous) conclusion.

The info I took was from a fellow (much older than me) FP shooter that visited the U.S.S.R. in 1980 for some sort of International Match I can't remember, probably a pre-Olympic event, and who brought with himself what was later to become MY MC-55-1.

[FredB]

Renzo,

Thanks for posting those pictures - I'd never seen a clear picture of the Mts 55 before. I wonder where the set trigger cocking lever is? I agree with you that Melentiev's barrel does not exactly match either standard model. The length is tricky to figure out, but the positioning of the front sight holder is definitely different.

Also looking at the familiar picture of Melentiev alongside the 2 pictures you posted another question comes to mind. If you look at the top front of the trigger guard in the Melentiev picture, it is contoured like the MTs 55-1 and not like the the MTs 55. Yet the MTs 55-1 cocking levers are clearly not there.

Maybe he really shot the record with a hybrid or a one-off special version, and not either of the standard models? How disappointing for us MTs 55-1 owners - we can no longer claim to be shooting the world record gun ;>)

Best regards,
FredB

[renzo]

Fred:

I remember in those 1980 days when the news broke about the extraordinary and still unmatched score by Melentiev. I was hardly in the rank of the match shooters in my country then, but knew a whole bunch of them and can recall the amount of gossip going around about the "special" and "misterious" pistol used for that feat.

I heard that no one was allowed to get near it, or examine it (I suppose UIT officials did before the match) and all that chit-chat was probably because the awesome weight of the mere number. 581!!! ZOWIE!!! and not only the score: if you look at the compared targets from Moscow's OR-WR, and the previous WR held by Minder with 577, you are even more amazed, because the shots are so closer to the ten ring and well grouped that makes you think that it could possibly reach 585-586; Minder's was all he could get. And remember, he was using a MC-55-1 with triggerguard cocking lever, see attached photograph.

By the way, you can still feel you're using the most legendary (and winnigest until the advent of the Morini CM-84) free pistol, as it was used also by Skanaker to win gold in Munich '72.

Believe me, I still miss my MC, though I know that with my current level of training I'd be hating her every match, she's so temperamental!! But when you saw the sights in the ten, it was right there. She was the only free pistol that gave me the sense of security as to move the sights even after a "10", if it was not where I'd seen it........... Times gone!!!

Well, forgive my emotive ramblings. Did I tell you that I loved that gun?

[conradin]

But I can get and Mu 55 or MC55 thats the same pistol. I have read that French Pistol shooter Duvalin (sic) used that model to win and Olimpic Medal.
Thanks

He did not, but he did win the 98 world championship with it. To my belief, he no longer uses it and I think he has joined the Morini crowd. The recent picture that I have of him seen him using a Morini.

He is the last world class shooter to use the MTs55. This means Toz-35 is now the oldest pistol used in free pistol competition in world class competition.

On a side note, I saw a junior in the European championship using a Bühag Zentrum 2, and several juniors using MTs55. I did not see any Isch-1. They have to be "hand me down". I think only a handful of juniors use Morini, mostly the Swiss.

This means the Bühag is the oldest pistol (first one made in 1935) used in a junior championship which world record can be set. Although it really makes no difference as they are all clones of the old Büchel Tell one way or another with individual improvement, whether it is Hämmerli or Toz-35 (which has the best improvement).

I wonder why all the juniors were given hand me downs, consider on the world level it is either Toz-35 or Morini. If some of these national federations plan to train the senior team using the Morini, may as well get the juniors started early by purchasing a few more Morini; or stick with the Toz-35 and buy a bunch of them including spare parts; just retire the MTs55 and of course, the Bühag please.

I love my Bühag, it is pretty accurate, but it is not in the same class as a Morini. There is a 57 years of age difference in manufacturing and design! When the Toz-35 was first made available for export, the entire East Germany team collectively dumped their own Zentrum 2, and all used Toz-35. East Germany tried to sell their Bühag, but there were no takers except a few made it to Switzerland. The East German over-estimated the market and priced the Zentrum 2 way above its market value. Nobody is going to buy them if they can get their hands on a Hämmerli, or later, a Toz-35. That pistol never made it to the USA, so it is not surprising that it never made it to the Olympic exemption list.

I have a Hämmerli 100, and I don't see any much major improvement in accuracy and other things compare with the Zentrum 2. The fact that the Hämmerlii (M33-100,101-103,104-107) were first made in 1933 and was a non factor in the world championships between 1931-39 and the 1936 Olympic, show that the only reason why it won everything in the late 40s, 50s and early 60s was simply because Switzerland was not involved in the war. The Zentrum 2 is the only pistol that can match Ullman's Anschütz Record 210. It won the 1939 world championship and the 1936 Olympics Silver medal, Ullman's pistol won the rest.

The fact that Ullman was still beating the Hämmerli 100 as late as 1952 (ok, we have a case of it is the man, not the pistol), shows that the Bühag can be just as effective. Unfortunately at the time, the Hämmerli Match (33, 100, 101-103, 104-107) is the only widely available free pistol until the arrival of Toz-35 in 1962. Plus the anti-firearm manufacturing law in post war Germany. Mts55 was not meant for export initially so very few non Soviet shooters got to have one until the 1970s. The universal choice for the west was the Hämmerli, the universal choice for the state sponsored program of the USSR was fist the Isch-1 then the MTs55, while the universal choice for the Soviet satellite states were Toz-35.

[FredB]

Renzo,

Thanks for the additional pictures and information - very interesting! I'm sorry you don't have your MTs 55-1 anymore - it's always good to have an old friend around ;>)

I found another picture of Melentiev on Igor's blog, that perhaps shows the barrel to frame proportions a little better. It's on http://toz35.blogspot.com/search/label/free%20pistol about 1/4 of the way down the long page. From that picture, the barrel length looks about the same as the standard gun. Just thought you might want more data for your theory about it.

Best regards,
FredB

[renzo]

Fred:

You're right, in that rare caption (I've never seen it before) it seems that he only modified the ramp and post attachments a little back from the muzzle, but somehow it doesn't seem the SAME outfit that is in the photo with the target in the background, maybe it was taken at other moment.

If you look carefully the caption of him shooting the pistol, he has long sideburns, in the other photo (the one with the record) he hasn't any.

Even more, it looks (maybe I'm mistaken) that in the act of shooting not only the barrel seems standard lenght, but also the rear sight is in the full backwards position. as you and I can recall, in this setting the rear sight lies almost on the back of the hand above the wood "ceiling" of the grip.

In the record photo, it would seem that the rear sight is in the forward position, resting practically over the knuckle of the index finger.

Obviously, we are discussing about the sex of the angels, as probably the only way to know for sure would be to talk to him in person about this. I tried to find him while making a long travel in Russia years ago to no avail, I'd given an arm for having a photo together!!!!

Warm greetings from Argentina

Renzo

[FredB]

Renzo,

Thanks for posting the picture (I didn't know how).

I think I finally get it:
Cut the barrel, cut the sideburns, set a world record.

At last the secret is out for all to imitate.

Many thanks ;>)
FredB

[conradin]

Renzo

Can you xerox or scan the brochure that goes with your MTs55 that states that Toz35 was not the winning pistol and that all MTs55 won everything. My main research problem is Vladmir Stolypin, I don't know if he used a Toz or not when he won the 68 championship, there is a radical chance of stance that he used. Another person that I was not sure if he used Mts55 or Toz is Gregori Zapolski, I entered it as Mts55 based on a previous post of yours,but until you send me the scan of the brochure we don't know for sure.

The Free Pistol book that everyone uses is not 100% accurate. For example, it listed the Olympic winning pistol is possibly a Tell, but Tell was not made until 1910 and not started to compete until 1911. Hence the only logical candidate is the Sauveur HS-6, the same pistol that has been used by Van Asbroeck forever.

For the record I was the one who entered the "weapon" list in the Wikipedia. Not everything is 100%, but I try. So your MTs55 brochure will be an important proof, and also a proof that Toz-35 was initially made as a cheap, mass production pistol for local clubs and export.

[renzo]

Conradin:

Finally I found it!! It wasn't that I was ignoring your PM, I was searching!!

Well, I scanned the cover of the brochure, the page where it lists the accolades of each pistol (and other guns of their manufacture) and the page expressely dedicated to the MC-55-1. You'll see they rank it as "top class pistol".

Obviously, the brochure was printed BEFORE the summer of 1980, as it contains no reference to Melentiev's feat, which they woulnd't be able to ignore and even less disregard in their publicity!!!

Hope this is what you were looking for.

[ruig]

Moscow 1984
Friendship Games
Melentiev - 578



Moscow 1980

[ruig]

Olympic Champion 1968 Grigory Kosykh

1st June 1976








1st Aug. 1968
Look at the barrel.


Training (1969)

[Tycho]

Excellent research, thank you all!