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This i s the Czech au toloadingr i f l e , a mass ive-appearing weaponwe ighing jus t about ten pounds.I t looks as b i.g as the BAR whenyou f i r s t examine i t , but it weighsscarcely more than the M1 ,. Rifle .I t s barrel length (23") an d overa l l length (45") compare veryfavorably with t h ~ s e of the M1.Yet--dif f icul t as was th e M1 tomanufacture-- the ZH 29 tops i t inth i s respect ; i t must have required about three t i m ~ s as many manu-facturing processes an d steps!

The ZH 29 i s a gas-operatedr i f l e of radica l design. Chamberedfor the 7.92mm service car tr idge,i t was intended as a service r i -f le for some country-- just whatcountry is an interest ing question.The ZH 29 was tes ted in th is coun-try against the M1 and the Johnson, according to reports , an d theCzech demonstrators wouldn' t l e tanyone come near i t ! Johnson an d

Haven ( in Automatic Weapons of theWorld) indicate that th e ZH 29 wasused by the I ta l ians in Ethiopiaand la ter in Europe. Rememberingsome of the ungodly machines whichthe I ta l ians dreamed up as l ightmachine guns , one hardly finds i tsurpr ising that they greeted th i sremarkable mechanism with openarms.

The Czechs--who now r iva l theDanes in the f ield of expor t ingarms designs--also seem to havesent the ZH 29 to the Far East ,for examples have turned up inToky9. I t is not cer ta inly knownwhether th is gun was sent to theJapanese for tes t ing cr whetherit was sent t o the Chinese an dcaptured l a t e r by the Japs.

The Germans, of course, didnot i gnore the ZH 29 . The extracto r of th e Kar 43 i s very s imilarto tha t of th e ZH 29 , an d the f i r -in g mechanism (sear, hammer, etc . )of the STU 44 i s a very close copyof the Czech weapon's. I t is proe

a b l e t h a t the en t i re r i f le wasc o ~ s i d e r e d as a service weapon bythe Germans and--equally probable

Czech ZB 29 Automatic Rifle

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- - tha t i t was set aside by themas being too complicated and d if f icul t to manufacture. The Ger-mans did not rec ogni ze the "im-perat ive necessi ty" of making aservice r i f le as c o ~ p l i c a t e d andas hard as possible to manufacture,and they made i t a point to layaside a proven design, for whichmanufacturing fac i l i t i es were a l -ready available, only when a new-er , superior ~ d mo re easi ly manu-factured design was ready and inproduction. Nor did they e v e ~ thenwholly discontinue the older design .The MP 40 supplanted the ear l ie r

P 38 ( tvhich, in turn, has super-seded such ear l ie r weapons as theErma, the Steyr-S olothurn and thevarious Bergmanns); yet theseear l ie r guns, instead of beinggiven the t i t l e "limited standard" and then being junked assoon as poss ib le , were kept ingeneral is sue, espec i a l ly amongthe Ordnungspolizei. Similarly,the s e r s of '98 pat tern (vari ously modified) were kept in service even af ter Kar 43's and G 41'swere is sued in quanti ty .(one com-

pany alone supplied almost 90,000G 41's and nearly 130,000 Kar 43 's) .So, since the ZH 29 was nei thermore manufacturable nor in produc -t ion , i t was out.

The ZH 29 is part icular lyin te res t ing for several reasons.In the f i r s t place, the barre l isse t a t a sl ight angle to the re -ceiver - -sideways! The barre l i senclosed in three separate jackets , the rear one of wood, themiddle one of cast alurrinum . Thefront jacket of s tee l , includingthe bayonet lug, f r ont sight andgas cylinder, is held on by athreaded ring; i t , in tu rn , holdson the other jackets . In terest ingly, the barre l runs a t an anglethrough these jackets, h i c h arealigned with the rec e iver. TheCzechs, in designing th i s r i f l e ,seemed determined t o make i t as

i n g e n i o ~ s and origina l as possible .In addit ion to the features a l -ready mentioned, they also design ed the hammer so that i t would holdback the bol t when the magazinewas emptied, thus eliminating various bol t catches . They designed

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the entire r i f l e so that i t couldpe f ie ld-str ipped by removingonly two spring-locked pins. Theyfurnished ten- arld twenty-roundmagazines with the gun, and theowner of the specimen I have ex

~ i n e d (Mr. Albert Kutner, 20 Matcoon St . ; Springfield, Mass.) s ta testhat he has seen magazines of evensreater capacity.

For a l l thei r 1ngenuity, how-ever, the Czech designers wereunsuccessful in having th is r i f l ewidely used. The t rend in armsdesign was running against beaut i-ful ly made--and th is r i f l e is a-be1au t i fu l piece of machinery andof the gunmaker's art--weapons,arms whose design involvs extensiveand slow machining. The dr i f twas toward arms employing a maximum of pressed metal parts , andthere were only three of these inthe ZH 29: the magazine, magazinef loor plate , and the but tp la te .The entire r i f l e was designed tobe a superb piece of machinery,which it i s . I t was not contrivedto be a mass-production war wea-

i t had to go. I t ' s interest ingto note that the Czechs themselvesapparently fe l t the same way, sincethey continued to use the "Brnontduser". (

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FIGURE 1: The ZH 29. Note thatthe operating sl ide covers ther ight side and the top of the bolt .The receiver (see FIG. 4) is ent i re ly open on the r ight side. Also note the var ious barxel jackets , especially the offset ~ a scylinder in the muzzle jacket.The magazine latch i s of the typeused in the Kar 43 and the Tokarev,also in the ZB and Bren. I t ~ a s ,however, one notable feature: thefront end of the magazine is n o ~ -J;Dally . i. sil,pported by a fixed ledge,but in the ZH 29 both front andrear of the magazine are held byspring-loaded la tches. To removethe magazine, only the rear la tchneed be released. This makes i tunnecessary to inser t the maga-

z i n e ~ with the front end t i ppedup ( ~ s in the Kar 43 and Tokarev)since the magazine may be pusheds t ra ight in , when both latches willengage i t . In the lowest sketch

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FIGURE 2: This shows the ZH 29part ia l ly f ie ld-s t r ipped, alsothe machining and inscr ip t ionson the l e f t side of the receiver .Note how the removal of one pinpermits access t o pract ical ly a l lof the mechanism. Incidental ly,the bol t and sl ide may be removedwhen the parts are in th is posit ion. The sc rew (he ad vis ib le ) ,jus t below the axis pin of the rearsight , holds a replaceable lock-ing shoulder or key. (See FIG. 4)

FIGURE 3: The bolt , locked andunlocked. This view, from underneath, shows (upper) how the rearend of the bolt i s offse t to thel e f t when the operating handle i sful ly forward. As the operatinghandle moves to the rear ( lower),i t moves the re ar end of the

,

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'

FIGURE 4: The works. In th isview, the lock housing has beenremoved from the receiver , and thes l ide and bol t have been la id out.Note, in the receiver , the locking key (arrow, shaded) and note,too, the fact that removal of thelock housing leaves open a l l ofthe r ight side of the receiver .The bol t and s l ide have been turn-ed over bet ter to i l lus t ra te thelocking system. The locking shoul-

der on the l e f t side of the bol twhich abuts the locking key isindicated by an arrow. Oppositei t may be seen the locking cam,a lug which f i t s into a corres-pending cam s lot in the s l ide .!he s l ide i s extensively milledout to reduce weight, ~ s are the

r e c ~ i v e r and lock housing (seeFIGS. 6 & 7). Note the top plateof the sl ide which extends overthe top of the bolt and closes the

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FIGURE 5: I t ' s bent! See howthe barrel , stripped of i t s var i -ous jackets , i s se t in the receiver just a l i t t l e off the beam.The gun was designed th is way,apparently to simplify the matte r of l ining up the s l ide , gascylinder and receiver . This i san original idea, but i t s vi r tues ,i f any, are well hidden. Abovethe b a r ~ e l and receiver are ( l e f tto r ight ) the jacket cap, thefront jacket with bayonet lug andsae c1linder, the cast aluminum

j a ~ k e t ~ t h cooling f ins and frontsling swivel, and ~ h e rear jacket ,made of wood f i t ted around a thin

-...

metal tube. Only the front jack-et l ines up with the barrel ; themiddle and rear jackets l ine upwith the receiver . The fronts ight , which i s also part of thefront jacket , i s offse t to ther igh t. Note that , to conform tothe angle of the bar re l and to theloca t i on of the front s ight , therear s ight i s se t paral le l to thebar re l - - therefore somewhat askewon the receiver . Incidenta l ly ,the combination tool which accompanies the gun makes removal ofthe cap a simple matter; in fact ,the ent i re gun may be disassembled--and rea ssembled--using only th istool . No, not the barre l!

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FIGURE 6: How the "bol -catch"works. The Czechs, by making thehammer do the work of a catch haveeliminated several par ts from thegun. When xhe hammer is held bythe front sear hook, the t r iggerent i re ly released, the nose of thehammer r i ses high enough to engag.ea semi-circular cut in the bottomof the bol t (shaded), holding i tto the rear . Therefore, when youhave f i red the l a s t shot , the maga-

z i n ~ follower r i ses and b l o c k ~ thebolt , and you natural ly releasethe t r igge.r to change magazinee,thereby allowing the hammer tocatch the bol t . After insert ing

a new magazine, you simply pul l

the t r igger and the bol t slams shut .Puiling the t r igger causes i t s reararm to r.otate upward, l i f t ing thet a i l of the sear. This rocks thefront arm of the sear ~ o r w a r d anddown, which pul ls the hammer down.jus t enough to free the bol t ~ dthen releases 1 t. As the bol tmoves forward, a nub on the rearend of the feed r ib pushes thehammer down unt i l it's caught bythe sear dog (corresponds to therear sear hook). Note . how onemousetrap spring serves as hammerspring, sear spring, sear dog . spriDBand t r igger spring. Bless my soul!Tbe safety, incidental ly , i s a rotary bol t which blocks the f rontarm of the t r igger when on".

" "'

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- - -FIGURE 7: What makes i t "perk".The recoi l spring, mounted in agroove in the bottom r ight of thelock housing, extends down intoa tube in the stock. The springplunger i s normally prevented fromflying out by the hammer pln. Anose on the bottom or the rear endof tne s l ide (see FIG. 4) contactsthe plunger, compressing the recoil spring during recoi l .

CJ--====-

cc ==:::::::?;:::> .,

FIGURE 8: The bol t . From top t obottom: bottom view of the bol t ,the f i r ing pin, top r ight view ofthe bol t , the extractor. spring and-extractor , a close-up of the busi-ness end of the f i r ing pin . Thisf i r ing pin is a peculiar gadget,being shaped ra ther l ike a chiselwith a r ounded end. The smallerdimension of the nose i s roughlyequal to normal f i r ing pin diameter, but the larger dimensioni s twice normal. An interest ingidea--hanged i f I can f igure out

(