Field strip the FÉG PA-63 pistol into its major components for cleaning.

How to Field Strip the FÉG PA-63 Pistol

The FÉG PA-63 Pistol

Field stripping is the term for disassembling a gun into its major components or assemblies. You don't completely disassemble it, but you break it down enough that you can clean and lubricate it. As the term suggests, this is something you might do in the field while further disassembly requiring special tools would be done back at the armory or shop. Let see how to field strip the FÉG PA-63 pistol.

The FÉG PA-63 pistol has become popular. It's a clone, of sorts, of the Walther PP/PPK. But where does it come from? And how do you field strip it, breaking it down into its major components for cleaning and maintenance?

Fegyver-és Gépgyártó Részvénvtársaság is the Magyar for Arms and Machine Manufacturing Company. In case you're already lost, Magyar is the language we English speakers call Hungarian. And it's an unusual language, unlike anything else in Europe and pretty much anywhere else in the world. It's thought to have separated from its closest related languages about 3000 years ago somewhere around the Ural Mountains in northwestern Siberia.

Anyway, the company was sometimes called Fegyver-és Gépgyár, which you have to admit is shorter. The company was founded in Budapest in 1891, changed names slightly in the early and mid 1900s, and is now known as FÉGARMY Fegyvergyártó Kft., or the FÉGARMY Arms Factory Ltd.

The PA-63 is one is a series of FÉG clones of Walther PP/PPK clones (the PPK is a smaller version of the PP, with a shorter grip and barrel and reduced magazine capacity). The FÉG PA-63 fires the 9x18mm Makarov round.

The PA-63 is a Hungarian pistol.

The PA-63 design is a compromise of military and police needs, as the pistol has seen service in both fields. It is still in service in Hungarian law enforcement.

FÉG PA-63
history
and details

Let's break this down into its major assemblies.

Wear safety glasses while doing this, as some parts are under strong spring pressure and may release when you aren't expecting it.

Oh, and one more thing, you might want to have some takeout Chinese food or sushi before we start. Anything that comes with wooden chopsticks. You're going to need one in a bit.

Start, of course, with an empty pistol!

Then pull the slide back and lock it open so you can carefully examine the chamber.

 Make absolutely certain that the weapon is unloaded. 

Remove the magazine and set it aside, and gently bring the slide forward.

Lock the pistol open on an empty chamber and magazine.

The official description is that you simply pull the front of the trigger guard down, move the slide fully to the rear, and then lift it off the slide.

I don't find it simple at all. Or at least not easy.

Use a chopstick to help the disassembly.

A wooden chopstick can make the trigger guard manipulation a little less difficult.

FEG PA-63 holster
Amazon B06WRQRM89
Use a chopstick to help the disassembly.

The recoil spring tension makes this difficult. This picture and the following two were staged by disassembling the gun, reassembling it without the recoil spring, and then repeating the disassembly without having to fight the recoil spring tension.

Pull the slide to the rear for removal.

When you get the slide far enough back, it will lift off the frame. Really.

Lift the slide off the frame.

Once the slide is freed, the recoil spring will definitely move it in the correct direction — forward and off the barrel.

Move the slide forward and off the barrel.

The barrel stays on the frame.

The barrel is captive.

You can see the firing pin and its return spring in the slide.

See the firing pin.

The PA-63 is now fully field stripped and ready for cleaning.

The PA-63 is fully field stripped.