Yugoslavia - Forgotten Weapons

Zastava’s M90: The Serbian M70 Updated to 5.56mm

September 3, 2021 Ian McCollum 17

Zastava has been making AK rifles in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia) since the 1960s, and today has a number of offerings made for the commercial market. One of the recent ones is the M90 (or more […]

Adventures in Surplus: Yugoslav M48 Mauser

June 6, 2020 Ian McCollum 33

Today is a look at a Yugoslav M48 Mauser. This was the standardized model that Yugoslavia adopted to replace its assortment of repaired and rebuild older Mauser rifles in the aftermath of World War Two. […]

Zastava DMR Showdown: M76 vs M91 at the Range

May 30, 2020 Ian McCollum 18

Time to compare the Zastava over-sized AKs! Today I’m out at the range for a comparison shutoff between a Yugoslav M76 and a Serbian M91, both Kalashnikov-based DMRs made by the Zastava factory. The M76 […]

An AK in 8x57mm: The Yugoslav M76 at the Range

May 23, 2020 Ian McCollum 12

Yesterday we looked at the history and mechanics of this Yugoslav M76; today we are taking it out to the range…

Zastava’s Heavy Hitter: The Yugoslav M76 DMR

May 22, 2020 Ian McCollum 25

In the 1970s, the Yugoslav Army decided that it wanted a semiautomatic marksman’s rifle, something akin to the Romanian PSL or Soviet Dragunov. Not having the technical data package to manufacture the SVD, the Zastava […]

Yugoslav M52 Sniper: East Meets West

March 4, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

In 1947, Yugoslavia received about 4600 Russian M91/30 PU sniper rifles as military aid, which were basically not used, as Yugoslavia had standardized on the 8mm Mauser cartridge. In 1952, however, a new sniper rifle […]

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 […]

Shooting the Yugoslav M49/57 Submachine Gun

May 5, 2018 Ian McCollum 26

The Yugoslav M49/57 submachine gun looks very similar to the Soviet PPSh-41, but it constructed quite differently, and has a much larger recoil spring. The question is, how will it shoot? Will it be fast […]

Yugoslavia’s PPSh Lookalike: The M49/57

May 4, 2018 Ian McCollum 11

Shortly after the end of World War Two, Yugoslavia adopted a submachine gun that looked very much like the Soviet PPSh-41, and was obviously inspired by it. However, the manufacturing methods were completely different, with […]

Shooting the Yugoslav M84 PKM: Arguably the Best GPMG

September 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 33

If I could have any one machine gun (but only one), it would be a PKM – in my experience thus far, this is the best universal machine gun that has been designed. Kalashnikov’s […]