Third Party Press

Czech Vz33 in German Service

B

bill grist

Moderator
Staff member
This is one of the strangest things that I have seen in a long time.. This weapon was purchased from a 30th. Inf. Division Vet...What is strange the serial number on the bolt arm is matching to the weapon yet 'x' out, you can see the serial number 1938 under the Xs, the suffex A is left un 'X', and the four digit SN. put on the bolt upper flat in German style... The weapon is all matched in all respects....I know the sling band is reversed but this is the way it came out of the closet, I later corrected it.. CETN is Czech Police... There was an cleaning rag in the butt trap which later on proved to be a small piece of a German Cammo parachute canopy...BILL
 

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That is interesting Bill. That would seem to be a German style rework or reuse of the bolt. Same thing I would imagine as reworks that use the matching stock and then stamp again the same number. A rework using the same bolt but "matched" German style? Everything looks completely correct, to include the manner of x out and renumbering. Never seen a Vz.33 like that.
 
Bill:

That's a nice rifle. Thanks for posting it here. Are there any other signs of German rework? Stock markings?
 
Hi Guys, I´m new on this forum and sorry for my English. I´m from Czech rep.
From my point of view this rifle wasn´t in regular German service.
In Czech police Service were 23 000 pcs approximately of this Vz.33 rifle. During the occupation 30% of them were allocated to Slovak service. On these rifle, there were cut off emblem of Lion on receiver! Slovak symbol- double cross stayed. Or sometimes all emblem was cut off.
On rest of rifle which stayed i Czech servise there were all rifle without whole eblem. German have cut off lion on all rifles in German Service. And now is very hard to find this rifle with whole emblem.
Congratulation for it!!!!:)
Stana
 
Stana said:
Hi Guys, I´m new on this forum and sorry for my English. I´m from Czech rep.
From my point of view this rifle wasn´t in regular German service.
In Czech police Service were 23 000 pcs approximately of this Vz.33 rifle. During the occupation 30% of them were allocated to Slovak service. On these rifle, there were cut off emblem of Lion on receiver! Slovak symbol- double cross stayed. Or sometimes all emblem was cut off.
On rest of rifle which stayed i Czech servise there were all rifle without whole eblem. German have cut off lion on all rifles in German Service. And now is very hard to find this rifle with whole emblem.
Congratulation for it!!!!:)
Stana
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Stana:

Welcome to the forum!

That is certainly interesting. I’ll be honest I don’t have any reference for vz33’s being modified for German service. My guess is that they would have simply accepted the vz33 into service as is like vz24’s and then modified them as needed. That is why I asked about any other signs of German modification.

For more reference here are some pics of my vz33:
 

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I have a few Vz33s, one of them seems to have been through German hands at some point. The bolt has been blued and renumbered in the German location ( czech # m/m and left untouched) and the follower and floorplate were #'d. No other changes. Pic's were at one time posted on gunboards, think I deleted from my files. JL
 
jlj said:
I have a few Vz33s, one of them seems to have been through German hands at some point. The bolt has been blued and renumbered in the German location ( czech # m/m and left untouched) and the follower and floorplate were #'d. No other changes. Pic's were at one time posted on gunboards, think I deleted from my files. JL
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jlj:

Welcome here. If you can find and post the pics we'd love to see them!
 
Vz33 German rework?

Bought this Vz33 cheap a couple years ago. Blued bolt, #s added to bolt, follower and floorplate. Original m/m # still on rear of handle. JL
 

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jlj said:
Bought this Vz33 cheap a couple years ago. Blued bolt, #s added to bolt, follower and floorplate. Original m/m # still on rear of handle. JL
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Thanks for posting the pics! That is interesting. Are there any other signs of German use? A mark on the pistol grip or even a German proofed barrel?
 
No markings different than my other Vz33s. The only marks in the grip are very small 9, triangle and K. Similar marks are on my others so prob. czech. JL
 
I dont believe the germans removed the lion crests, maybe by reworks, but normally not, same as slovaks dont removed the crest, only on few pieces. I saw here some of the Vz.33 all were with the old crest. best regards,Andy
 
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