1945 Brno 22 trainer

M

mauser22

Well-known member
Have acquired a gun I have long sought after which I believe indicates that Zbojovka Brno (Waffenwerke Brunn) had a trainer in development that did not see the light of day until war's end. Rather than duplicate my efforts, here is a link to a thread on Rimfire Central where I posted pictures and my theories on what the gun is. Reasons being, is slightly off topic here, and more Brno .22 collectors there.

Comments or contrary information welcome here and there.

www.rimfirecentral.com

Brno ZKM 454

www.rimfirecentral.com www.rimfirecentral.com
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Very interesting rifle, thank you for sharing. I have always found the progression of post war Czech commercial rifles interesting, that there was a flourish of development immediately following WWII, before being stifled for decades.
 
People had to eat. A factory with upgraded equipment, skilled workers, left over material, NO MARKET for weapons, the world was flooded with surplus weapons, at least very little other than Israel for some time. They wisely turned to developing some of the best sporting rifles available. The ZG47 was the ultimate improvement in Paul Mauser's design, the ZKW465 may have been a proliferation of Mauser design, and the Brno series of small bores was ingenious improvement to the basic Walther/Mauser bolt system to accommodate low scope mounting and durability. Mauser and the German firms off the world stage until the early 50's as far as making sporting rifles for export. It was the perfect storm. They nailed it as far as I am concerned.
 
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Actually I missed to reply to your thread in here. Thank you for sharing this super interesting rifle. Unfortunately I have too little to add to the topic aside than thanking you for educating me on these rifles a lot. Please keep the thread updated in case you succeed to find out more on this extremely unique rifle.

Did you manage to find out more on the provenance, especially which country it came from?

Also, if I understood your thread here and on the rimfire central correctly the rifle is VOID of any proof stamps at all? This - IMHO - would most likely outrule Germany as the place where it came from since it then should have had a CIP valid firing proof stamp. Almost the same to the UK, that is another country where it is unlikely to find weapons without a firing proof.
 
Yes NO firing proofs which to me indicates was a prototype, tool room example only or perhaps one of a few made for testing or as samples for the customer. Pre- May 1945 that customer would have been the SA as they were in charge of all small bore marksman ship within the Third Reich. I thank you for posting up the pictures of the IDF 1950 version on RFC this morning and hope to see more pictures here soon. Note beside the stock and bands variances, the manner in which the factory address line is applied and your serial number 01/50 (1 of 1950). Also your 1950 produced gun ha the shorter load ejection port reflecting the changes to the Model 1 in 1948.
 
The only other thing I can think to add for now, is I reviewed an article I have which was written by the director of Zbrovoka Brno in 1958 which states that the gun was in development before the end of the war. Hence they were able to take the Model one version to market by the end of 1945.

My opinion is that it was cheaper for Israel to send previously purchased post war 98k's ( as in the attached pic) for conversion to FN. These were done using Remington supplied barrels.29857110_2 (1).jpg
 
mauser22 said:
The only other thing I can think to add for now, is I reviewed an article I have which was written by the director of Zbrovoka Brno in 1958 which states that the gun was in development before the end of the war. Hence they were able to take the Model one version to market by the end of 1945.

My opinion is that it was cheaper for Israel to send previously purchased post war 98k's ( as in the attached pic) for conversion to FN. These were done using Remington supplied barrels.View attachment 372198
Click to expand...
 
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