The vz.50 pistol was a compact .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) double action pocket pistol used by police forces. It was given a face lift and redesigned the vz.70, and there were plans at one point to further modernize it. The new design would have been the vz.80, but only a few prototypes were made – one of which we are looking at today from the CZ reference library. The would-be vz.80 has a barrel about 1cm shorter than the vz.50/70, and a revised mechanism for removing the slide. And other than a few cosmetic changes to parts like the safety, that’s it…
Light MGs
Last Gasp of the ZB26: Czech vz 52/57 LMG
Czechoslovakia adopted the 7.62x45mm cartridge after World War Two, introducing both a vz.52 rifle and vz.52 light machine gun using the round. It was about 200 fps faster than the Soviet standard 7.62x39mm. It was […]
Conversion
Project PRAK: Converting the CZ50 Pistol to 9x18mm Makarov
In 1966, CZ undertook Project PRAK (“Slingshot”) to investigate the possibility of converting the CZ50 pocket pistol to 9x18mm Makarov. The PM Makarov was adopted in the 1950s and used throughout the eastern bloc, but […]
Semiauto Rifles
Holek Automat at James D Julia
The Holek Automat was a semiautomatic sporting rifle designed by Emmanuel Holek. Emmanuel was also the designer of the ZH-29 rifle, and brother of Vaclav and Franticek Holek, who developed the ZB-26 and ZB-53 machine guns. […]
The vertically moving disassembly lock is to a degree like that of the vz 52 pistol. Although, because the vz 52 is recoil operated, slide and barrel come off as a single unit after a short forward (not backward) movement. The hard thing is to lift the vz 52 barrel out of the slide against the powerful recoil spring.
I am glad the (at the time unique) automatic firing pin safety introduced with the vz 50 was kept.
Serial Number 3250…. as in 32ACP-vz50.
Not too enigmatic. I don’t think a lot of thought went into it since it was a manually done serial number in the first place.
“(…)32ACP(…)”
Wait. Czechoslovakia in 1970s used metric system, CZ 50 has marking 7⁶⁵ as can been seen in 1st photo from top http://modernfirearms.net/en/handguns/handguns-en/czech-republic-semi-automatic-pistols/cz-50-cz-70-eng/ Why they would use U.S. designation of said cartridge for their internal use, rather than 7,65 mm?
improving the takedown button is a great start, now the real trick would be relocating the mag release.
Interesting! @escape road, Do you know why they ultimately didn’t move forward with its production?