Czechoslovakia - Forgotten Weapons

GPMG Firing Comparison: PKM vs UK vz.59

May 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 43

Since I had the opportunity to do some shooting with both a Yugoslav PKM and a Czech vz.59 general-purpose machine gun, I thought it would be interesting to compare them side by side. Which is […]

Polish and German Police Silenced CZ-27 Pistols

April 25, 2018 Ian McCollum 19

Today we are looking at two suppressed CZ-27 pistols, one Polish and one German. The Polish one was issued by the Ministry of Public Security, an agency which only existed from 1945 until 1954. It […]

UK vz.59 Czech Universal Machine Gun: Shooting

March 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 31

Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Czech UK vz.59 universal machine gun – so today we are taking it out to the range for some shooting! The UK 59 is […]

UK vz.59 Czech Universal Machine Gun: History and Mechanics

March 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 30

In 1952, Czechoslovakia adopted a whole new family of small arms, including the vz.52 pistol, vz.52 rifle, and vz.52 light machine gun. The rifle and LMG were both chambered in the Czech 7.62x45mm cartridge, […]

CZ38 – The Czech Ugly Ducking

February 4, 2018 Ian McCollum 42

The CZ vz.38 pistol was developed by the CZ factory as a replacement for Czechoslovakia’s vz.24 pistols. It was formally accepted by the Czech Army in June of 1938, and 41,000 were ordered from the […]

The Jet Li Maneuver: Beretta Disassembly at Gunpoint

January 23, 2018 Ian McCollum 48

In Lethal Wespon IV, Jet Li’s character is caught at gunpoint by Mel Gibson’s character…until he turns the tables by stripping the slide right off Gibson’s Beretta 92FS. I wonder how feasible that really is? […]

Italian Trials Czech ZK-391 Semiauto Rifle

December 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 31

The ZK-391 is one in a series of Czech developmental semiautomatic rifles designed by Josef Koucký. It was developed initially in 1939 (hence the “39” in the designation), and was tested by the Italian military […]

Czech vz61 Skorpion: History and Mechanics

November 4, 2017 Ian McCollum 53

The Czech vz.61 Skorpion is a rather unusual sort of firearm; a machine pistol designed from scratch instead of being converted from an existing handgun design, and chambered for the seemingly out of place .32ACP […]

Shooting the ZB-26: A Jewel of an Interwar Light Machine Gun

October 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

Today we have a chance to do some shooting with a ZB-26, a German-occupation 8mm light machine gun made at Brno in Czechoslovakia. The ZB-26 does not get nearly as much attention as LMGs made […]

ZB26: The Best of the Light Machine Guns

October 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 38

The ZB-26 stands as one of the best magazine-fed light machine guns developed during the 1920s and 30s – it was a very popular gun for small military forces and many countries which did not […]