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Jap Contract VZ24 for Czech Army use

mrfarb

No War Eagles For You!
Staff member
This is one I picked up at the Show of Shows this year, and I love it. I wanted 1 good VZ24 for the collection, this is it! Rifle is in the Japanese contract serial range (P series) but has Czech E3 Lion 38 acceptance, meaning it was used by the Czech army. I think more likely German used as it doesn't have a sight protector- but at the muzzle is wear from a muzzle cover? Not sure, but this gun is better than my photos show.

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B-E-A-U-tiful rifle.

I've been slowly falling more and more in love with Czech rifles.

My P series is pretty early and is said to come from the Pacific (it came with a katana. I've been trying to find a nice C or P prefix with the Czech proofs.
 
Vz24 "p"

Very nice farb! I have a number of these rifles and they are always a good find, especially the Czech Army accepted. This is my earliest one in the 1937 "P" block, #3361 (not CZ Army marked). JH
 

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That's nice! The quality of these pre-war VZ24 rifles is amazing. I really like the rust blue finish on them. If I fall completely in love with early war rifles, it will be the fault of VZ24's, I'm sure of it.
 
Farb, that thing is much nicer than you described it! Pic stickied.
 
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I guess when you've owned more than 70% of total bnz 45 production you need to branch out:thumbsup:

here are some shots of my Army acceted but Japanese used P series....pretty close to yours.
 

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LOL, 70 %of bnz 45's. :moon: So I see yours has a Kanji marked sling- I would think a Czech army proofed one would not have one? Mine had one on it but was admittedly added by the guy selling it, so I took it off. That one is damn close to mine!
 
Oh, sorry, I must have underestimated the bnz 45 tally. Is it 85%? ;-)

There are 2 variations that exist with these. One, with just the P series serial number and NO CZECH date acceptance. The other type is the one that I have. It does have the Czech date acceptance. Simson (as usual) gave me some great background material a couple of years ago when I got mine. Apparently the Japanese acquired rifles two ways. One, they bought them and two they captured them from China. Even though China was fighting Japan the Germans authorized shipments of Czech arms to China because China had Tungsten which was needed by the German war machine. Loads of the rifles sold to China by the Germans came out of captured Czech military stores.

Some object to Japanese used rifles having Czech military acceptance markings. The issue is that many of these have come in from China (with Czech military acceptance) and a crappy $100 import gets an inflated price tag because of implied Japanese provenance. So, if the rifle has the Czech date acceptance you need to look for a few things:

1)Does it match? The imports don’t match.
2)Is it import marked? Or, more importantly if it doesn’t have an import mark.
3)A kanji marked sling or any other sign of Japanese use

I see that yours has some additional pained on markings on the left side of the buttstock, but they don’t look Japanese. Also, yours is on much better condition than mine. The sling on mine is practically falling off. Trust me, it has been on there for a very long time. Mine came out of the closed a few years ago in Connecticut.

 
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Hi Mike,
I did research in my books.
Export from Ceska zbrojovka between World wars:
There are not informations about cooperation before 30th of September 1938( Munich agreement), but immediately after that, Japan starts interest about 40000 pcs VZ 24 from Czech. In January 1939 was signed agreement about that and VZ 24 were sent to Japan. These guns were from store. They were made for Czech Army befor WWII(order in 1936 Year for 55000 pcs from Brno plant for Czech army).
After 15th of March 1939 (Czech ocupation from German troops) the next negotiatons was continuing about next delivery for machineguns VZ 26. On 31 th of March visited factory in Brno Japan ambassador from Berlin. But japan government had problems with payment and bussines was stopped.
Your gun is from delivery from January 1939:biggrin1:
Stana

Congratulation once again my Friend !!!!!!!
Stana
 
Great gun and info guys.
And I thought I was going to quietly move into the vz24's.
 
Interesting thread that is creating more competition for lonely VZ's:biggrin1:

I think the VZ24's are pretty safe. From what I know, these have been in demand for some time and there are a lot of them out there, even some really nice ones.
 
I also fell into the VZ24 trap

Found this un-issued rifle but no issue markings. Never mind the fake sling. It is aged nice but the mainland Japanese arsenal markings are too over the top.
I picked up the ordinance marked China theater tunic about the same time.
Keep this up and I will have to join Banzai…
 

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Nice rifle Farb! I also went Czech at the SOS ,picked up a CZ-27 and a beautiful CZ-75 pre B model. Czechs made/make some nice weapons. Speaking of Czechs, it was nice meeting you Stana .:thumbsup:
 
My opinion of Czech weapons production and QC is that at worst it was the equal of German production. I think the manufacturing of the Vz.24 was, again, at worst the equal of any K98k production.
 
I thought I remember a story were the Germans wanted the mausers with the straight bolts because they were better?


..
 
Firstly Ceska Zbrojovka didnt made these rifles, it was Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka Brno, secondly the P range wasnt destined for Japan, but with high possibility for China, it is believed that already prepared export piece were used for czechoslovak army prior 1938 Munchen agreement. And later in 1938 used for export.
 
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This is one I picked up at the Show of Shows this year, and I love it. I wanted 1 good VZ24 for the collection, this is it! Rifle is in the Japanese contract serial range (P series) but has Czech E3 Lion 38 acceptance, meaning it was used by the Czech army. I think more likely German used as it doesn't have a sight protector- but at the muzzle is wear from a muzzle cover? Not sure, but this gun is better than my photos show.

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Mike.... The "6/21" stenciled on the Vz butt is occasionally found on Arisakas.... and some believed it's associated with the Imperial Japanese Navy. Attached, pics of my IJN sextant with similiar "inventory" numbers...
 

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