A bundle of Czech iron.

Muir

Well-Known Member
I took delivery of six Brno No1 .22 rifles from the 1950's today. Well, not quite entire rifles: mostly barreled actions. Two of them have very good bores, one is the same but counterbored, and the last three have bad barrels with pitting and bulges. Two of these guns with the bad barrels will become 5mm Remington Magnum rifles; heavy barreled varminters. The others will await future projects.

I picked out one rifle for myself as a .22. It's a 1948 rifle that has the odd transverse dovetailed front sight; unlike the later slide-in-and-lock sight blade. The barrel looked good so I put the works in an old Brno stock, put on a rear sight, and took it to the range. With iron sights it clustered various kinds of ammo: cheap, expensive, domestic or imported all with enviable accuracy.

So here is this rifle, sixty-fours years old and still shooting like a charm. How many rounds do you think this old gun has had through it? It's mind boggling; and it certainly makes fretting over the bore condition of a 2nd hand .22 of recent manufacture seem silly. These old Brno's were certainly made to last.~Muir
 
I had the same experience with an old Gewehrfabrik Soemmerda 1920's 8x57. Looked pants but shot brilliant.

Always fancied a BRNO ZG47, nearly managed to get my hands on one in Hungary.

Sound like you've got a few projects to keep you busy ;)

John
 
I wopndered how long it would be before you just happened to mention them :D.

John
 
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