Tag Archives: gun history

Did You Know That CZ’s Flagship Factory was Built to Make Machine Guns in the 1930s?

Posted on by One comment

I recently had the honor of visiting CZ’s historic European factory and found its roots ran back almost 90 years and its first product was for the Czech Air Force.

Located in Uhersky Brod, in today’s Czechia, the Czech Republic, CZ’s current factory opened on June 27, 1936. Constructed some 200 miles east of Strakonice, where Ceska Zbrojovka then had its main operations, the move came as part of an initiative to shift firearms production farther away from the tense border with Hitler’s Germany. 

Uhersky Brod, which today is just a few minutes’ drive from the foothills of the Carpathians and the border of Slovakia, in 1936 was well into the interior of Czechoslovakia. It was an old fortress town, a walled city, that dates to at least 1275. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

And it remains a beautiful town today. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Although one that has seen war, occupation, and resistance. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The new facility’s dispersed original layout, built near the town’s railway station, was even intentionally made to mimic residential and light industry buildings (i.e. garages and carpentry shops) from the air, arranged in line with city streets, complete with trees and greenspaces that you would expect in a small mountain town.

You can still get a feel for the old “Mainstreet CZK” layout of the factory when visiting CZ today

Part of the modern factory’s layout these days is a protected gun vault, which holds both CZ’s current production wares and some of their historic guns. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Sharp-eyed gun nerds will immediately spot the Sa vz. 58– the Czech Kalash that isn’t a Kalash– as well as the Sa 26 (vz. 48b/52) sub gun without which the UZI may never have been born, along with the Sa vz. 61 Skorpion machine pistol and the chromed out public duties vz. 52 rifle, but how about the machine gun at the top?

Oh yes. Meet the Letecky kulomet vzor 30, or “Aircraft machine gun Model 30,” chambered in 7.92x57mm (8mm Mauser).

This was the first gun CZ was set up to produce in Uhersky Brod, and it went on to arm just about everything in the 1930s Czech Air Force that had wings in at least three different variants. 

And, ironically, the Germans ended up with it in the end, with the Luftwaffe using them in both secondary ground defense and a light AAA role. 

More in my column at Guns.com.

Visiting the largest (and oldest) after-market trigger maker in the country

Posted on by Leave a comment

If you’ve never tried an aftermarket trigger in your favorite rifle, shotgun, or handgun, you’re missing out on one of the best upgrades you can make to your favorite firearm.

Since Harry Truman was in office, Timney Triggers has been producing easy-to-install, single-stage triggers for shooting enthusiasts. At first, the company focused on bolt action rifles, but it currently offers more than 170 models of triggers for all types of rifles, shotguns, and handguns. The company employs 65 employees in their home in Phoenix, Arizona. Today, Timney is the oldest and largest trigger company in the country.

Timney Triggers has been building the world’s finest triggers since 1946 and they recently opened their doors to me and my crew from Guns.com for a factory tour.

Whispers of a Portland Colt

Posted on by Leave a comment

You often hear, when talking about old firearms, “if only they could talk.” Well, they can’t, but sometimes their hidden history tells a story.

Speaking of which, I recently came across a nice early Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless and did some digging on its background. Turned out, it was made in 1911 and was one of 25 pistols of the same type shipped to Honeyman Hardware in Portland some 111 years ago.

Who is Honeyman and why is that interesting? Find out in my column at Guns.com.

The Most Popular FN Pistol You Never Heard of

Posted on by Leave a comment

To satisfy a military contract for 60,000 modified examples of John Browning’s Model 1910 pistol, stretching that .380 ACP’s standard 3.4-inch barrel an extra inch and bumping up the magazine capacity from 7+1 to 9+1, FN introduced what was initially referred to by some historians as the Model 10/22 (not related to the later Ruger plinker) in 1923.

Later formalized as the Model 1922, or just the M1922, when compared to the preceding M1910, the new pistol had an elongated slide, complete with a small but distinctive barrel lug, over a slightly lengthened frame. The production model went 7-inches long overall and weighed 25.7-ounces.

A forerunner of the later success FN had with the Browning Hi-Power pistol and FAL battle rifle, the M1922 was soon adopted by military and police in dozen countries, and it would continue in active service for over 60 years in this role. Further, the Germans liked it so much that it was their most common handgun in WWII that wasn’t a P-38 or a Luger.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Texas Names the Most Texas Revolver Ever as Offical State Handgun

Posted on by Leave a comment

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last weekend signed a resolution forwarded to his desk by the Texas lawmakers that makes the original 1847 Colt Walker the official handgun of the Lone Star State.

A hulking 4.5-pound 44-caliber revolver, the Walker was so-named after famed Texas Ranger Capt. Samuel Walker and only about 1,100 of the handguns were manufactured by Eli Whitney for Colt. Some 1,000 were promptly sent to Texas– two for each Ranger– and 100 leftovers for the commercial market. The gun was a collaboration between Walker and Colt, based on the latter’s earlier .36-caliber Paterson design, a five-shot revolver that weighed only half of what the Model 1847 would.

Samuel Colt (American, Hartford, Connecticut 1814–1862) Colt Walker Percussion Revolver, serial no. 1017, 1847 American, Whitneyville, Connecticut, Steel, brass, walnut; L. 15 1/2 in. (39.37 cm); L. of barrel, 9 in. (22.86 cm); Cal., .44 in. (11 mm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of John E. Parsons, 1958 (58.171.1) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/24844

More in my column at Guns.com.

The Best Concealed Carry Piece of 1903 Still Looks Good Today

Posted on by One comment

Compact, slim, accurate, and simple. All mantras for the most modern concealed carry pieces today. They all apply to a design introduced 118 years ago as well – the Colt M1903.

While well-engineered semi-auto pistols abound today, the same statement simply wasn’t true in the early 20th Century. Most early autoloaders were downright funky (see the Bergmann 1896), had bad ergonomics (Borchardt C93), were overly complex (C96 Broomhandle, which are notoriously hard to disassemble), and proved to be evolutionary dead-ends (the Luger – not a lot of toggle actions in production these days). 

Enter the gun guru of Ogden, Utah, Mr. John Browning, who largely hit it out of the park with his freshman semi-auto handgun, the FN M1900 of 1896, the first pistol with a slide – let that sink in. A simple blowback single-stack chambered in .32ACP – which he also invented – he followed that up in 1897 with his short-recoil operated Colt Model 1900, a larger gun whose action was recycled into the Colt M1902, which we have talked about before, then scaled down to make the Colt M1903. 

And with a “carry melt,” easy maintenance, and outstanding ergonomics, the new gun is surprisingly modern when compared to today’s offerings.

Boom, sweetheart. 

More on the Pocket Hammerless in my column at Guns.com.

Pardon me, is that a Wiener Waffenfabrik in Your Pocket?

Posted on by Leave a comment

Before there was the Walther PP, Sauer 38, or Mauser HSc, an obscure Bohemian Czech gun designer by the name of Alois Tomiska– Tom to his friends, or so goes the story– crafted a curious little vest pocket .25 ACP that was, importantly, double action, a first for the time.

Meet the Wiener Waffenfabrik Little Tom.

Brass magazine that is inserted through the top? Czech!

More in my column at Guns.com.

It’s Not Steampunk, It’s Savage

Posted on by One comment

A rifle that hit the market the same year the Wright Brothers first took to the air, the Savage Model of 1903 had a lot going for it and is highly collectible.

Rather than a basic bolt-action or a lever gun, the 1903 was pump-action, something that was still pretty novel at the time. As such, it was an answer to the Colt Lightning and Winchester Model 1890, pump-action takedown carbines that had been introduced just a decade prior. However, one-upping Colt and Winchester, which both utilized underbarrel tube-style magazines, Savage’s new gun had a detachable 7-shot box magazine. 

Takedown rimfire rifles and carbines were especially appealing in the 1900s as they made for easy transport on bicycles, which were much more widespread than automobiles, and for easy storage in traveling shooting gallery operations.

More in my column at Guns.com.

SIG, via West Germany and Utah

Posted on by Leave a comment

Meet the hottest new semi-auto of 1977, the Browning Double Action, available in a 9+1 .38 Super or 9mm and, for those who are fans of only shooting once, a 7+1 .45ACP.

The resemblance with the early Sig Sauer P220 is striking. Hey…

More in my column at Guns.com.

Never before, well, not until 1983 anyway

Posted on by Leave a comment

While John Browning’s everlasting M1911 design had long been made in various blued and nickel coatings, up until the early 1980s it had not been cranked out in a production stainless steel model. That’s where the company formed by airline executive Ken Lau and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Russell Randall, seized the opportunity.

The Randall Firearms Company started off making stainless .45ACP magazines, which sold exceptionally well, then began firearm production in Sun Valley, California and by June 1983 they started marketing, what gun writer Len Davis described that year in American Handgunner, the first “full-size, all-stainless steel .45 ACP autoloader.”

In production for less than two years, the California-made Randall M1911 hails from the Reagan-era and is a solid collectible. And, yes, this one is named in honor of The Big Cigar.

More in my column at Guns.com