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I have to say i am a bit befuddled at this old military rifle found when cleaning out a relatives house. I at first thought it was an SKS but then reconsidered as i thought it resembled an FN product
last photo shows what looks to be a spring and some sort of gas ring just rattling around loose on the barrel where a handguard probably existed at one time -- guess ing until that is put back into some kind of order, its a single shot -- also no magazine
Anyway, thought it was pretty cool and am now interested in restoring it to proper operation
There were two different calibers. 7.62x39 and 7.62x45. Should be marked somewhere. Otherwise, checking the bore dia won't do much good. I'd try dropping a x39 in the chamber and see how it fits. The magazine makes it easy too identify the two, but since it's missing, that's not much help.
jb
jasonB " Another Dirty Yankee"
" Tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"
Jason beat me to it. I believe a number of these ended up in Cuba. 7.62 X 45. The Czechs stubbornly refused to play follow the leader in the Soviet era and designed most of their own stuff.
Bill in Oregon wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 11:56 am
The Czechs stubbornly refused to play follow the leader in the Soviet era and designed most of their own stuff.
Which, IIRC, was tolerated by the Soviets because most of it was very good.
I already have the rifle at my local gunsmith's giving it the once over as it seems like a project worth following up on if prices on Gunbroker for good condition originals are any indication. It needs an operating rod, a magazine and a handguard -- oh - and ammo too
But should be able to get the thing up and running for a modest outlay of cash -- 7.62x45 ammo being the most expensive part of this project (its not marked anywhere that i can see)
Didnt realize how relatively simple the rifle was - i likely could have just slid the op. rod (a round tube, open lengthwise so it fits over the top of the barrel and engages the rest of the gas components ) on myself , i found after watching a few YouTube videos (after i had already left it at the 'smith -- but having it cleaned up and given a greenlight for safe operation is worth a little peace of mind to me
Still holding out hope it may be a later variant chambered in 7.62x39, but i cant be that lucky -- and the ammo issue is likely why it was sitting abandoned and in disarray for years. There are chamber adapters for these rifles but i was thinking the money and effort spent on this could be better utilized just going towards a couple hundred rounds of the proper ammo . Interesting in a way that nobody ever took up the mantle of making civilian loadings of this cartridge but by all accounts, the Czech' stopped making the ammo when they stopped making the gun in 1957 and it only had a 5 year run before being replaced by the VZ 58 --- I guess similar to the SKS essentially being outmoded by the AK in 2 years, however the SKS obviously lived on (and on and on and on)
