Karl Sokol Hi Power Build

**Tokarev** · 10-26-19, 20:04

I am attending a Gabe White class today and tomorrow. Per his sound advice, the class is not a good venue to try out a new pistol. Not having had the chance to run the Sokol gun previously I decided to use my Shadow Systems MR918.

With that said, I did pull the Hi Power out for the last two drills of the day. Drill One was a figure 8 movement drill. We moved around two barrels in a figure 8 pattern and shot partially obstructed targets when we had a clear shot. The other drill was a man-on-man movement drill based on the Metro Drill by Scott Reitz.

Total was about 50 rounds fired. The gun ran perfectly with one exception and shot well. I did have a failure to eject caused by a split case. Shooting inexpensive aluminum cased stuff.

I enjoyed the very brief time with the Sokol gun today and will likely run a few more drills with it tomorrow.

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**Tokarev** · 10-28-19, 06:11

Class is over and done with. Here are a few final thoughts on the Sokol gun:

I used the MR918 again yesterday and then switched guns at lunch; running the Sokol Hi Power the rest of the day. This included the movement drills, Gabe's 4 body 2 head Bill Drill and the barricade/cover stuff.

The gun continued to split the occasional aluminum case and then fail to eject. Sometimes this meant a stove pipe. In some cases it meant a "double feed." I didn't keep a hard count but I'd say I had five or six of these total. My guess is the chamber might be slightly oversized and aluminum probably doesn't stretch like brass. I had no such occurrences with the other pistol.

The gold bead front sight works pretty well in direct sunlight. Not as good as a fiber optic or a Trijicon HD but good enough to get the job done.

Sokol's thumb safety mod works well and snaps off distinctly. I had no issue with getting the safety off on the draw.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this pistol. It might not be someone's first choice for USPSA but it should work well for most anything else. It looks good, feels good in the hand, and shoots well. I had no real problem switching back and forth between guns and would probably guess I shoot them both about the same. Maybe that means both equally poor I don't know...

In case anyone asks, I received a light pin from Gabe.

My 4 and 2 Bill Drill target for score. Both runs with the .25 second modification for using concealment were about 2.75 seconds.

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**gaijin** · 10-28-19, 06:28

A "real deal" P-35; all the stuff you need for a serious carry gun.
I do like the safety, looks similar to how Ted Yost modifies the OEM on his builds.

I also think that Wes Dahl/Privateer produces some excellent holsters. His hand boning and attention to detail has been superior on all of the rigs/belts I've received from him.

Add; feed that thing some decent ammo. It sounds like you may have an overly generous chamber (from the split aluminum cases), I'll wager you'll have zero recurrence of this with brass case ammo.

**SmokeJumper** · 10-28-19, 07:52

Clean nice shooter, perfect carry gun.

**1986s4** · 10-28-19, 08:29

Definitely sounds like a over large chamber. For kicks I've reloaded some aluminum cases, they usually split after that. I mistakenly picked up some brass used for 9mm major once. Even after resizing they wouldn't feed into the chamber.

**Tokarev** · 10-28-19, 08:32

Originally Posted by 1986s4

Definitely sounds like a over large chamber. For kicks I've reloaded some aluminum cases, they usually split after that. I mistakenly picked up some brass used for 9mm major once. Even after resizing they wouldn't feed into the chamber.

If the gun isn't 100% with aluminum stuff it isn't a deal breaker for me.

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**1986s4** · 10-28-19, 08:41

Agreed, aluminum cases are such a small percentage of total cases out there it isn't something to worry about. Curious, how does it run with steel ?

**Tokarev** · 10-28-19, 11:57

Originally Posted by 1986s4

Agreed, aluminum cases are such a small percentage of total cases out there it isn't something to worry about. Curious, how does it run with steel ?

Haven't tried steel.

Ideally it should run with everything. If and when it becomes a problem I'll get a new barrel.

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