In what year did the BRNO dispense with the integral rear peepsight? Compared to a M98, how safe is the ZKK bolt shroud when it comes to protecting the shooter from gas from a pierced primer,case failure etc ? In what year did the production of the ZKK cease ?

Good questions, all three. I hope some authoritative collector responds.

My GUESS and that's all it is, is that the pop-up peep in the rear bridge disappeared in either 1972 or '73. At least they disappeared in the Canadian gun stores where I used to buy my ZKKs.

In the U.S. I don't recall them ever being commonly available at all, EXCEPT for the ZKK602 (the .375 H&H length action). Seems the U.S. didn't realize that not all "communist" countries were voluntarily communist...so it punished them all with trade restrictions as to what they could sell in the U.S.

(Just like we are still doing to the Cubans. Castro would have been out of power long ago if we had maintained strong trade ties with Cuba, because he would have had no nearby powerful external enemy to use as a scape-goat and as a justification for his suppression of freedom, and would not have been the sole arbiter of the sources of trade goods and essential supplies.)

Anyway, I saw NO new ZKKs with or without the pop-up peep in any Canadian gun stores from 1976 on......doesn't mean there were absolutely none, but if there were, I sure didn't spot them and I was looking for them.