/

I have no knowledge of this guy that you speak of making the first czech mauser, however I do know that the czechs purchased all the tooling and many parts to make mausers after WWI from the germans as germany wasn't allowed to make any more weapons. Most of the 98/22 mausers have many parts with imperial german markings on them, and where made on the same equipment as the gew 98's germany's mauser during WWI. Most of these 98/22's went to turkey, the VZ 24 was a further refinement of the 98/22

/

ALF,

I may be able to help you a bit with that, as I have several of the model 98/22 Czech long rifles, identical to the German GEW 98b, originally used by the Czech army and later surplused out to Turkey. I have several of the earlier manufactured ones, with 'A' and 'B' serial prefixes, and a three line arched 'Zbrojovka CS ST' crest -- some were accepted into the Czech military, with E-lion 23 (1923) acceptance stamps. I also have a later model 98/22, 'E' series, with the later 3 straight line crest as appeared on early VZ-24 rifles, and no Czech army acceptance. This rifle was made in 1929 or so, directly for Turkey under contract. It is quite interesting that ALL of the rifles, even the later one, have some parts that are marked with German frakturs, indicating they were part of the early war reparation of GEW parts. These parts are mainly things like upper and lower bands, that are unique to the 98/22 and were redesigned for the VZ-23, 24, and later rifles. They must have gotten quite a pile of parts.

The 98/22 model was made in increments of 10,000, with the first batch having no serial number prefix, and later ones running A-E as far as I know. I have never seen an E series rifle with a Czech acceptance stamp. The first 10,000 apparently even had Lange Vizier sights like the original GEW; I don't have one, although I would love to pick one up. I have never heard of one of these without the Czech receiver markings on top of the front ring, so presumably the Czechs scrubbed them, or they were never marked by the Gemans - although I recall hearing somewhere about a rifle with three German crown acceptance marks on the right side of the front ring. That would suggest that at least some of the receivers were made by the Germans.

Like I said, I have several of the 98/22s, and some later VZ-24s (latest known date of manufacture is 1938), so I can compare whatever you want.

Todd

/

I have a question maybe you guys can help me with, a friend of mine has a Colombian Mauser marked Fabrica Checoslovaca De Armas S.A. Brno with a nice Colombian Crest that I am hopeing to talk him out of .... he took the rifle on trade and doesn't even know what caliber it is.... looks like a 7X57 to me....
After reading this thread I'm trying to figure out where it fits in the picture... Vz-24 maybe?? ( not marked as such) CSJ

befus,
Thank you very much, sounds just like it, except for the bolt..... non-matching and straight ( does have the circle Z )I think I going to buy it anyway....
I went to a gun show couple months ago to buy Olson's Mauser Bolt Rifles...... there's always three or four tables of books cheaper than you can order them...... came back with a nice VZ-24...... still no book. CSJ

VZ 12/33 Carbine (short rifle) made under contract for Columbia during the 1930's by CZ. Sight ears, pistol grip, quick detach swivel, no grasping grooves, bent bolt, no recess for bolt in stock, 7x57 Mauser. Desirable collectable rifle.