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CZ Salutes WWII Free Czech RAF Squadrons

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CZ is marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with a salute to the often unsung “Free Czechs” who served with the Allies with a special Spitfire-themed CZ 75.

Occupied by Germany on the eve of the conflict, just months before the shooting started, thousands of Czechs escaped to continue the fight against a common enemy.

Some 2,500 Czechs served in the British RAF during WWII, filling three fighter squadrons (No. 310, 312, and 313), one bomber squadron (No. 311), and one night fighter squadron (No. 68) as well as flying alongside British pilots in other squadrons. They also played a vital role in No. 138 Special Squadron, an outfit that dropped agents and supplies into occupied Europe– including Czechoslovakia.

A Czech Spitfire pilot of No. 313 Squadron
A Czech Spitfire pilot of No. 313 Squadron in conversation with his rigger and fitter at Hornchurch, 8 April 1942. (Photo: Imperial War Museum)

 

These men, exiles far from home, chalked up over 28,000 fighter sorties (at least 16 Czech “aces” flew with the RAF), dropped 2.6 million pounds of bombs on enemy targets, and made a difference from the Battle of Britain to the beaches of Normandy and beyond. Nearly 500 were killed in action.

The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The CZ 75 RAF special edition emulates the famed Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, which was flown by many of the Czech fighter pilots serving with the British during the war. (All photos unless noted: CZ)
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The CZ 75 RAF includes lightening cuts in the slide that recall the exhaust stacks of the Spitfire’s Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, as well as a finish that includes “riveted” body panels. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The grips include a set of Czech aviator’s wings. 

 

The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The serial number sequencing starts with one of the Czech RAF squadrons, in this case, No. 310 Fighter Squadron. Note the British “bullseye” roundel. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
And it is repeated on the front of the slide. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The magazine base has a stylized RAF. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The RAF’s Latin motto, going back to 1918, “Per Ardua ad Astra,” which translates to “Through Adversity to the Stars,” is carried. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
Note the Czech roundel, which is still carried on the country’s military aircraft.
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The CZ 75 RAF is a thing of beauty. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
Besides the pistol itself, its unique case recalls the avionics panel on the Spitfire, while its key is in the shape of the aircraft. Also included are an embroidered squadron badge patch and a hand-painted and signed Spitfire illustration by the well-known Czech painter and illustrator Jaroslav Velc.

 

Price? Availability? Just 56 CZ 75 RAF models will be created and will be offered…soon.

On a side note, as CZ now owns Colt, it would be neat to think that, at some point in the future, there may be a similar line of 1911s that salute famed American military units. Send those emails, folks!

We found out why the Hotchkiss Universal did not have universal appeal

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The manufacturing firm established by American gunsmith Benjamin B. Hotchkiss in France in the 1860s saw nearly a century of success in making everything from revolving cannons (think 47mm Gatling guns) to light machine guns, automobiles, and even tanks. By the late 1940s, however, the firm was barely hanging on and developed at least four new submachine gun models with tubular receivers to court military and police sales.

The weirdest of these was the Model 010, or “Type Universal.”

To make a gun as compact as possible, almost every component of the Universal was designed to fold, collapse, or telescope. The sheet metal buttstock folds completely under the gun. To make the folded weapon as svelte as could be, both the magazine well and the hollow pistol grip pivot forward. The 10.79-inch rifled barrel slides back a few inches into the receiver through a long trunnion to further abbreviate the firearm.

 

Hotchkiss Universal
With all this done and the stock folded, the Universal is only 17.3 inches long. Compared to its contemporaries – the American M3 Grease Gun and the Soviet PPS-43, which were both 23 inches long with their stocks collapsed – the Universal saves a few inches. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Hotchkiss Universal
When the stock unfolds and the barrel is telescoped forward, the sub gun’s overall length is 30.67 inches, the same length as a STEN gun. It weighs 7.5 pounds and loads with a box magazine full of 32 rounds of 9mm. It is selective fire for single shots or a zippy 650 rounds per minute full-auto cyclic rate. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Hotchkiss Universal
However, the gun proved unpopular, and besides some local use in Indochina with French colonial forces and some limited sales overseas (to Venezuela, for example), it faded into history. 
French paratroopers M1 carbines
It seemed French airmobile and parachute troops, a demographic that would seem an ideal user of the folding Hotchkiss, preferred GI surplus .30 caliber M1A1 Carbines, which weighed about 6 pounds and would compact to 25 inches when folded but were much simpler to use. (Photos: French military archives) 

Our Hotchkiss experience at Battlefield Vegas had a learning curve. To be more to the point, it was needlessly complicated and had terrible ergonomics.

It shot OK, but, after spending some time with it, we could easily tell why the Universal did not have a universal appeal.

More, including the transformation and shooting footage, in my column at Guns.com. 

Getting some range time with the Owen

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While in town for SHOT Show earlier this year, we had a chance to swing by and visit our old friends at Battlefield Vegas. They gratefully allowed us a chance to tour their vault and pick a few guns to profile and shoot.

 

Battlefield Vegas
Choices, choices…(Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Battlefield Vegas
You know us, we like the rare ones. 
Then we saw this baby, sandwiched between a Rattler and a UZI-SD. 
This beautiful Mk. 1 Owen may look a little funky because it is a little funky, but we just had to check it out. 
Keep in mind these were built for an all-up per-unit cost of about $30, so the furniture isn’t nice on this simple “toob” gun. In many respects, it was a forerunner of such simple modern SMGs as the Sterling and Beretta PMX. Note the charging handle is to the rear of the gun and comes super close to the face while reciprocating. 
Top fed with a 33-round 9mm magazine, it has a very peculiar feel to it.
The ejection port is on the bottom. 
One of the more curious aspects of the Owen is that the front sight post is off-center, canted to the right, as the top sight line is ruined by the magazine. 

More on how the range went, along with some background on the gun, in my column at Guns.com.

Shooting Britain’s Last Mag-Fed LMG

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In the early 1980s – just after the Falklands War – the British government moved to ditch the combat-proven inch-pattern semi-auto-only FN FAL (dubbed the L1A1) and the 7.62 NATO-chambered Bren gun (L4A1) with a new and radically different platform, the SA80 family.

Adopted in 1985 was a bull-pupped Enfield select-fire rifle in 5.56 NATO that accepted standard 30-round magazines. Fielded with the 4x fixed-power SUSAT (Sight Unit Small Arms, Trilux) optic, this new series of guns was designated the L85 rifle – with a 20-inch barrel – to replace the L1A1.

Whereas 350,000 SA80 pattern firearms of all types were made, the lion share were L85A1s, most later updated to L85A2 standard by HK, and finally to L85A3– the current standard. Besides the standard rifles, there was a comparative handful (2,500) of shortened L22A1/A2 Carbines for use by aircrew and the like produced. Training aids in the form of the L103A2 Drill Purpose, L98 Cadet Rifle, and L402A1 0.22 Small Bore Rifle were also made.

One of the more eclectic variants is the comparatively rare (22,000 made) L86 Light Support Weapon. Designed to replace the 7.62 Bren L4A1 in squad service, it had a longer 24-inch barrel, a rear grip, and a folding bipod.

The SUSAT-equipped L86 LSW (top) and the L85 rifle, are compared. Note the longer barrel with a shorter handguard and outrigger support, the rear grip, and the folding bipod on the LSW. (Graphic: MoD)

Among other features are a folding butt strap that flips up to assist with stability. (Graphic: MoD)

Now withdrawn from British service and replaced by a proper squad automatic weapon, the belt-fed FN Minimi, we recently were able to go hands-on with a retired (but still functional) L86 at BFV earlier this year.

The L86 is a beefy weapon, hitting the scales at 16 pounds with the SUSAT installed and a 30-round magazine inserted. However, it is still “light” compared to the L4A1 Bren it replaced, which hit the scales at 19 pounds, unloaded. Plus, the L86 is only a little over 35 inches long, or about the length of a Mini-14!

The L86 is probably one of the oddest Enfields ever produced.

The chunky L9A1 SUSAT, which was cutting-edge when introduced in the early 1980s, has since been phased out by the Trijicon ACOG and the Elcan Specter in British service. Note the fixed iron backup sights located atop the sight body. The SUSAT uses an illuminated inverted aiming point that looks something like the Washington Monument.

More after the jump in my column at Guns.com. 

Classic Walther Burp Gun Spotted in the Wild

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The Portuguese Navy’s Marine Corps has deployed a 170-strong reinforced company (about a quarter of the service’s strength) to the Baltics. Dubbed the Força de Fuzileiros Lituânia (FFZ LTU) it is on a roughly three-month mission under the auspices of NATO and is the largest deployment of the Corpo de Fuzileiros since Portugal evacuated its African colonies more than 50 years ago. Notably, it includes two UAV elements.

The Portuguese Marines are also sort of old-school, in many ways being stuck in the 1960s-70s when it comes to small arms, still using HK G3 battle rifles, and Walther MP subguns. They only recently retired the P-1 (P-38) pistol in favor of the Glock 17.

Everyone knows the Walther brand, and for good reason. The company makes great guns that are often extremely innovative. The PP/PPK, P-38, P-99, PPQ, PDP, the OSP, and Olympia – the list goes on. However, Walther only made one production submachine gun: the Maschinenpistole, or MP.

Designed in the late 1950s and entering production around 1963, the MP is a blowback action 9mm select-fire SMG with a tubular receiver that fires from an open bolt. It beat the much better-known Heckler & Koch MP5 to production by a few years and was made in two different variations: the MP Lang (Long), or MPL, and the MP Kurz (Short), or MPK.

The difference in size between the two was negligible. The more full-sized MPL ran a 10.2-inch barrel for an overall length of 29.4 inches with the side-folding wire stock extended, whereas the MPK went about 3.5 inches shorter with a 6.8-inch barrel.

Seen at Walther’s in-house museum in Ulm last year…

Although well-made, the MP never really caught on. Its only European customer, besides some German police units as the MP4 (they made several on-camera appearances during the Munich Olympics in 1972), was the Portuguese Navy as seen above

Overseas, it was bought by a few third-world users and the U.S. Army, picked for use by the elite Delta Force commandos in the 1970s and the secretive Detachment A “stay behind” Special Forces unit in West Berlin.

Whereas the MP5 is a bit of a race car that needs special tools for in-depth maintenance, the MP is made simply of metal stampings. For instance, the barrel on the Walther can be swapped out by a user in the field with no tools. Plus, its 550-round cyclic rate, slower than that of the HK, was closer to that used by the M3 Grease Gun and earlier MP38/40, allowing a more familiar learning curve to those already used to those platforms. Little wonder it was adopted by the early U.S. Tier 1 counter-terror operators when Delta Force was first stood up. (Photos: U.S. Army, National Archives, Springfield Armory National Historic Site)

We recently got to shoot one earlier this year and can see why Delta dug it. 

Behold, the MPK

It is ambi and is set up kind of funny. The safety (Sicher=safe) is to the rear of the grip, full-auto (Dauerfeuer= continuous fire) straight down, and semi-auto (Einzelfeuer=single fire ) with the switch rotated forward toward the magazine well. The HK MP5 has a similar S/E/F marked switch for Sicher-Einzelfeuer-Feuerstoss

Smith Can Still Deliver a Nice N-frame

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It seems like everything revolver-related from S&W these days is stainless and huge. Further, they always seem to forget they have all these great old designs in the vault that would totally go bonkers on a re-release. For instance, if they were to reboot the Registered Magnum— and do it right– or take the original small frame Boyko Chief’s Special (which I recently got to handle) and deliver a short run of similar snubbies, I think they would sell every single one on allocation.

Speaking of special runs, they just released this batch of 250 specially engraved N-Frame .357 to salute the 200th Anniversary of the Texas Rangers.

I have to say, they are beautiful, with Goncalo Alves grips, a deep-blued steel frame, and a fluted cylinder, although a bit garish when it comes to the inlays but hey, it does fit the aesthetic of a Texas BBQ Gun– which may be what they were trying to go for. 

The bad news is, it is $3K.

Still, knowing the following that the Rangers and anything Texas has, these will not be gathering dust on the shelves.

Czech out this interesting ‘real-steel multi-cal blaster pistol

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With a “Blade Runner”/”RoboCop” futuristic aesthetic, the FK Brno PSD pistol can move seamlessly across four calibers, including the very compelling 7.5 FK.

The PSD has a slender polymer grip frame and keeps the same layout as the Field Pistol. While its price tag – MSRP of $1,650 – isn’t cheap, it is still only a fraction of the cost of the Field Pistol and even comes in a good bit less than a new Deagle. It is not that much more expensive than some polymer-framed practical/tactical guns like the $1,500 FN 509 LS Edge (which wasn’t really that nice of a gun in my opinion.)

Roughly the same size as an M1911, it has better ergonomics with a slim grip that feels more like a compact 9mm, and, due to a 5-ounce frontend compensator counterweight and a slide that is beefier at its end than its nose, is supremely balanced and light recoiling.

Plus, there is the fact that it shoots 7.5FK, 10mm Auto, .40 S&W, and 9mm, all with the same gun, promising 100-yard accuracy.

More in my column at Guns.com.