Czechoslovakia - Forgotten Weapons

Nickl Prototype M1916/22 Pistol at James D Julia

March 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 9

Josef Nickl was one of the chief R&D designers at Mauser after the Federle brothers, and one of his pet projects was a rotating barrel military pistol developed from the Steyr-Hahn M1912 pistol. He built […]

Japanese Type 97 Tank Machine Gun

January 26, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

While in Las Vegas last week, I stopped into Battlefield Vegas to check out some interesting machine guns (and join Tim from Military Arms Channel for a video). While there, the owner took the time […]

Vintage Saturday: Why They Make Tripods Like That

January 24, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

Waffen-SS soldier manning a Czech ZB-37 machine gun on its tripod. Note that the articulated tripod legs have been put to good use mounting the gun up on a large rock that offers some cover […]

German Mauser Obrez Pistol

September 12, 2014 Ian McCollum 26

From the collection of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, a reader named James found an example of an Obrez pistol made on a Mauser K98 rifle action. This apparently was made by Czech partisans during World […]

Vintage Saturday: Deadly Beard

June 7, 2014 Ian McCollum 29

Momčilo Đujić, Chetnik commander during WWII – armed with a Yugoslav-contract ZB-30J light machine gun. (photo from Last Stand on Zombie Island)

Vintage Saturday: Borrowing from Neighbors

January 11, 2014 Ian McCollum 32

German soldiers training with a Czech CZ30(t) machine gun, a refined Vickers gun used mostly for air service. Thanks to Beryl for the photo!

Czech vz.61 Photos and Catalog

October 9, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

Thanks to reader Denny, we have some more information on the Czech vz.61 “Skorpion” PDW, including pages from a CZ catalog advertising three different versions of the gun for sale. These three variants are: vz.61 […]

Prototype vz.52 Machine Pistol

July 19, 2013 Ian McCollum 35

In light of our recent video on the HK P9 (and comparison to the Czech vz.52 pistol), I though it would be interesting to take a look at an interesting prototype machine pistol. This was […]

Czech vz54 Sniper (Video)

May 27, 2013 Ian McCollum 15

While Czechoslovakia was a part of the eastern bloc, it did a pretty thorough job of developing its own weapons rather than use standard Russian designs. For example, the vz52 pistol, vz52, 52/57, and 58 […]

Czech CZ-52 Pistol Video

April 29, 2013 Ian McCollum 32

The CZ-52 really isn’t a forgotten weapons yet, but it is a pretty interesting gun mechanically, and well worth taking a look at. About 200,000 of them were made in Czechoslovakia from 1952 to 1954, […]