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

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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.

The First CZ 75: SN 00001

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I recently had the honor of visiting CZ’s historic flagship factory in Uhersky Brod, in Czechia, the Czech Republic, and got to take the first CZ 75 out of its resting place.

Designed starting in 1969 by the brothers Koucky (Josef and Frantisek) for CZ as a 9mm parabellum chambered pistol made for commercial export, the handgun known as the CZ 75 was finished by early 1975 (hence the designation) with five pre-production samples (serial numbers 00001 through 00005) carefully assembled for testing and evaluation. Some of these T&E samples chalked up over 11,000 rounds in testing with no breaks or serious issues, and the gun soon went into full-scale production with a few minor, mostly cosmetic revisions.

Of those five, CZ 75 expert David Pazdera notes in his book that number 00004 disappeared into history, while 00002, 00003, and 00005 were sold on the commercial market in the early 1980s, leaving just 00001 as the sole remaining sample gun left in CZ’s inventory. They keep it locked inside a display case deep inside a secure vault.

Even with a 50-year-old design, you can easily spot the hallmark geometrical “Golden ratio/Golden section” in length and height used in the CZ 75 to produce an aesthetically pleasing firearm offering a natural point of aim.

CZ 75 Serial Number 00001. Note the slab-sided milled slide, duraluminum grips, and large hammer spur. Also note the very deep scallop to the front of the slide, something that would carry on to the First Model CZ 75s. Other than that, it is easily recognizable to any fan of the 75. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Compare the above to this second-generation 1986-vintage CZ 75 “Pre-B” with all matching serial numbers and zero import marks. (Photo: Chris Eger)

More in my column at Guns.com.