Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trashing$2,000 custom guns — and who wouldn’tlike to own one of those beautifully hand-crafted pieces that look so good in a twopage spread? But if you’re like me,toward the end of the article about thatfancy gun, you start to suffer from stickershock. Enter the CZ52. First-aid forsticker shock.

Ugly Can Be GoodUntil recently, CZs were standard

issue for the Czechoslovakian A r m y.However, with the breakup of the countryand the adoption of the CZ82 in 9mm,these older 7.62x25mm service pistolshave shown up on the surplus market.Actually it would be more appropriate tosay they were dumped on the surplus

7 2 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002

market. You can usually buy one of theselittle jewels with a spare magazine, hol-ster and cleaning rod for less than $175.Owning a genuine shooting-iron doesn’tget much cheaper than that these days.

Okay it’s cheap, but what exactly is it?The CZ52 is a short-roller-locked designbuilt at Uhersky Brod in Moldavia. T h i sunique pistol was designed by Jan Kra-tochvil and Presne Strojirentsvi and ifyou can say that three times you’re abetter man than I am. Intended for use bythe Czechoslovakian A r m y, prototypesand test weapons were originally made indouble action and 9x19 configurations.

However, when the pistol was adoptedin May of 1952, the final configurationwas as a single action, chambered for theM48 7.62x25mm cartridge. A f u l l - s i z e

FA S T, CHEAP AND EASY — IS THIS

A PISTOL WE’RE TALKING ABO U T ?DAVID M. FORTIER

CZ52 CZ52 A CUSTO M I Z E D

TO CZECH OUT

The unfortunate reality, for most

of us anyway, is that we prob-

ably won’t be owning too

many $2,000 pistols. It’s not

bad. It’s not good. It just is. Even so,

that doesn’t mean we working stiff s

c a n ’t enjoy a tastefully modified and

unique piece of our own. There are a

lot of well made, yet inexpensive,

handguns out there that, with some

subtle massaging, shine up like a new

p e n n y. Oh yeah, you can do it without

busting the bank as well.

Launching a .223 projectilevia a Sabot, it’s easy to seewhy the .223 Timbs feedsso smoothly.

Launching a .223 projectilevia a Sabot, it’s easy to seewhy the .223 Timbs feedsso smoothly.

service pistol, its roller lock-up is verysimilar to the German MG42 GPMG.From 1952 until production ceased in1954, approximately 200,000 of thesepistols were manufactured.

The pistol itself is 8.25 inches long andtips the scales at 2.1 pounds. Barrel lengthis 4.71" and the beast is fed from 8 roundbox magazines. The weapon’s controls arepretty straight forward, being intended forconscripts and people who might other-wise be inclined to be elsewhere.

On the pistol’s butt is a European-styleheel magazine release which noteveryone likes (including me) and on theright side of the frame is a three positionmanual safety. Pushing the safety all theway up safely drops a cocked hammer.Pushing the safety to the middle position

W W W. A M E R I C A N H A N D G U N N E R . C O M 7 3

Adopted by the Czech Army in 1952, approximately 200,000 of thesepistols were produced before production ceased in 1954.

From left to right: .45 ACP, 9x19, 9x18, .223 Timbs with 55 gr FMJ, .223 Timbswith 55 gr SP, MagSafe Defender, 85 grain FMJ load. Both the .223 Timbs and

MagSafe Defender hotrod this already quick-stepping cartridge.

tridge it fires. The Czechoslovakian M48round is dimensionally identical to theolder Soviet 7.62x25 Type P pistol car-tridge. But the Czech loading blows thedoors off of the old Soviet round. TheSoviet load pushes a .30 caliber 85 grainFMJ slug at a leisurely (?) 1,400 fpswhile the Czech load busts barriers atabout the 1,600 fps mark. Whoa.

This is a substantial increase invelocity in an already fast cartridge.While people will always argue thevirtues of fat bullets at low velocities orsmaller bullets at high velocities, theSoviet 7.62x25 has proven itself incombat. This point was driven homeduring a recent trip I made to Russia.While I was test firing a Bizon 2 subma-chinegun in Izhevsk, the designer men-tioned it was available in 7.62x25 as wellas 9x17, 9x18, and 9x19.

Interested in why it was chambered fora cartridge replaced in Russian service inthe 1950s, he smiled and replied, “Pene-tration!” Da, Komrade. With the 9x18 PMMakarov now being replaced in Russianservice, I found it interesting to learn frommy friend Mikhail Dragunov that the Rus-sians seriously considered returning to the7.62x25. With the wide-spread use of flakjackets and body armor on the modernbattlefield, they came very close to re-adopting this old vest-buster. After all, hits

stopped by a vest don’t count.To the recreational shooter the

7.62x25 has other virtues. Top of the listis the fact surplus 7.62x25 ammunition iscurrently very inexpensive. The surplusloads available are corrosive, Berdanprimed, and drive 85 grain FMJ slugsbetween 1,300 and 1,550 fps. Consider itgood, fun, blasting ammunition. How-ever the cartridge is far from being rele-gated to a surplus-only deal.Sellier&Bellot and Winchester both offerFMJ loads in this caliber.

In addition, MagSafe offers a blister-ingly-hot frangible load for self-defense.Their “Defender” load consists of a 52grain projectile filled with birdshotdriven at a claimed velocity of 2,120 fps.I would expect this to be extremelyeffective on a target. Let me know if youever find out.

Even FasterWhile working on this article, I came

across a cartridge called the .223 Timbs.This round consists of a 7.62x25 caseloaded with a sabot and a .223 diameterprojectile. The load was conceived byJoseph Timbs as a simple way to drive asmall diameter projecti le at highvelocity from a conventional handgun.Joseph shared his idea with Pete Car-dona, of Quality Cartridge, who did the

74 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002

places the weapon on safe and all the waydown is fire. Since this is a single action,if the hammer is decocked via the safety,it must be thumbcocked in order to fire.While the slide locks back on the last shotthere is no external slide release. Theslide must be manually retracted andreleased like a Walther PP series. All inall it’s a basic 1950’s vintage servicepistol. Think anything Russian from thesame era and you’ll get the idea.

A Tiny TornadoWhat most will find appealing about

this Model A Ford of pistols is the car-

While not the easiest safety toaccess in the world, a simple

downward push places theweapon on Fire.

In place of the rear sight Richard mounted a Novak. In addition he stippledthe backstrap for a secure hold.

In place of the rear sight Richard mounted a Novak. In addition he stippledthe backstrap for a secure hold.

74 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002

places the weapon on safe and all the waydown is fire. Since this is a single action,if the hammer is decocked via the safety,it must be thumbcocked in order to fire.While the slide locks back on the last shotthere is no external slide release. Theslide must be manually retracted andreleased like a Walther PP series. All inall it’s a basic 1950’s vintage servicepistol. Think anything Russian from thesame era and you’ll get the idea.

A Tiny TornadoWhat most will find appealing about

this Model A Ford of pistols is the car-

While not the easiest safety toaccess in the world, a simple

downward push places theweapon on Fire.

In place of the rear sight Richard mounted a Novak. In addition he stippledthe backstrap for a secure hold.

In place of the rear sight Richard mounted a Novak. In addition he stippledthe backstrap for a secure hold.

actual work of developing it. A shorttime later I got wind of the project and,interested in the possibilities, contactedPete. Still in the developmental process,Pete was kind enough to bring me intothe loop and to provide quantities ofammunition for testing.

The goal of Joseph and Pete was todrive a .223 projectile at very highvelocity from a handgun. As a simpleway of testing their ideas they decided todo it via a sabot from a 7.62x25 case.However, during the early stages ofdevelopment Pete ran into the problemof a lack of case capacity due to thesabot intruding quite deeply into thecase. This of course had a detrimentaleffect on velocity.

In order for the pistol to cycle and forthe projectile to be going fast enough tostabilize, they had to attain a certainvelocity level. He played with a lot ofpowder combinations trying to get theload to reach this level. His objectivewas for the loads to run reliably througha bone-stock CZ52 using the factoryrecoil spring.

The rounds themselves are quiteimpressive looking. A small bottle-

ACCURACY ANDVELOCITY CHARTLoad Velocity Accuracy

1963 Chinese 85 gr. FMJ 1,532 3.3"

Sellier&Bellot 85 gr. FMJ 1,535 4.2"

Winchester 85 gr. FMJ 1,541 4.5"

MagSafe 52 gr. Defender 2,234 4.0"

.223 Timbs 55 gr. SP 1,852 2.84"

Velocities recorded 12 feet from the muzzle with an Oehler 35P atan ambient temperature of 40 degrees F. Groups are an average of

four, five shot groups fired off of sandbags at 25 yards.

WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM 75

necked case mated to a gray sabot anddiminutive projectile. Anyone who hasbeen interested in the possibilities pre-sented by the 5.7 FN round, .224 BOZ,7.82x24 Leitner-Wise or the like willsmile at the Timbs. The idea is a simpleone. A small, reliably feeding bottle-necked cartridge that drives a .223 pro-jectile at high velocity and has littlerecoil is very appealing. With some pre-production .223 Timbs test ammo inhand I was about to find out if the ideaactually had any merit.

The Gun SOG International Inc. is just one of

many companies currently offeringthese pistols at very attractiveprices. However, I was lookingfor a little more than just an“as-issued” pistol to enjoy.Let's face it, most older mili-tary pistols don’t have the bestsights or triggers in the world.The problem was findingsomeone who not only didgood work but actuallyknew his way around aCZ52. I found who

I was looking for in Richard Parker. Rich is a down to earth guy who loves

both shooting and working on firearms. Agunsmith and Class “A” Toolmaker, hehas specialized in ComBloc weapons forsome 20 years. I originally got to knowRich while researching dedicated Sovietsniper loads for the SVD Dragunov.Knowing the quality of work he wascapable of doing, I discussed my ideas ofcustomizing a CZ52 with him.

“Dave, let me send you a pistol andyou can decide what you’d like done toyours,” was all he said. A few days later abox arrived with a tastefully customizedCZ52 in it. Nothing fancy reared its head,

just well thought out modifica-tions designed to improve the

shootability of the pistol.Handsome is as handsomedoes.

In place of the orig-inal military sightswere a Novak rear anddovetailed front thatlooked as if they wereContinued on page 99

Accuracy of the test pistol was surprisingly good as this 25yard group shot with inexpensive surplus ball attests.

WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM 99

factory original. I noticed a custom-builtextended slide release to speed reloads.For a positive hold, the front strap was hi-cut and both the front and backstrapnicely stippled. The feed ramp was pol-ished and a simple action job was doneand a stop added to the trigger to elimi-nate over-travel.

To spruce the pistol up a bit, a set ofHogue checkered hardwood grips wereadded. In keeping with the pistol’s inex-pensive nature it was finished in asimple yet functional matte black Teflon.The result was a pistol substantiallymore pleasing to the eye and mucheasier to shoot.

To see just what the CZ52 was capableof I trundled it out to my range fortesting. I was interested in evaluating itfor both intrinsic and practical accuracy,reliability, handling, controllability andmuzzle flash/blast signature.

To test for intrinsic accuracy, it wasshot off sandbags at 25 yards. Four con-secutive five shot groups were fired andrecorded. Loads used during testing con-sisted of some 1963 vintage Chinese sur-plus 85 grain FMJ’s, Sellier&Bellot’s 85grain FMJ and Winchester’s newly intro-duced 85 grain FMJ. In addition I alsotried MagSafe’s 52 grain Defender fran-gible load. Lastly, I included a pre-pro-duction .223 Timbs load utilizing a 55grain SP. This, I felt, would give a goodcross section of loads from cheap surplusto pricey specialty loads.

Great Balls O’ FireTouching a round off I quickly became

aware this pistol had punch. All the ballloads averaged over 1,500 fps and that’sstepping-out in anyone’s book. Theseloads all exhibited noticeable muzzleflash and blast and could have seared thesteaks for dinner had I brought themalong. Maybe next time.

Switching to the MagSafes onlyincreased the crescendo. But there was areason — they averaged a blistering2,234 fps. One actually clocked 2,299fps, which is chasing 7.62x39 territory.This was a little too much of a good thingthough and the pressure was high enoughto blow the primer out and rupture thecase around the neck. Switching to the.223 Timbs, velocity (along with pres-sures) dropped back to more sensiblelevels. This load averaged 1,852 fps witha high of 1,945 fps.

Accuracy from this relatively stockpistol varied from service-grade to prettygood depending upon the load. Of thethree ball loads tested, the cheap Chi-nese surplus actually shot the best aver-aging 3.3" at 25 yards. MagSafe’sDefender load averaged a respectable 4"— but the surprise came when shooting

CUSTOM CZ52Continued from page 75

100 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002

the .223 Timbs. This load actually aver-aged 2.84" groups at 25 yards. Best ofall, they shot to the same point of impactas the ball loads.

This pistol was never meant to be firedfrom the bench, so we moved to somerapid offhand work. Here I used the CZ52in a number of drills engaging multipletargets from two yards out to a squinty-eyed 100. This is where I got to reallyknow this Czech pistol. During these drillsI greatly appreciated the vastly improvedsights and the addition of a slide release.

The front sight was the perfect widthfor rapidly engaging silhouettes and nes-tled nicely in the Novak rear. I also cameto appreciate the stippling. This pistol hassome noticeable jump with ball ammuni-tion and recoil with the .223 Timbs loadwas noticeably more controllable,allowing for much faster follow-up shots.The trigger was fairly light and brokecrisply aiding quick and accurate shooting.Hits all the way out to 100 yards werefairly easy to make. Reliability throughouttesting was flawless and the all-importantfun factor was extremely high.

All Is Not SugarNegatives? Well the pistol design is by

no means perfect. In the hand the gripshape feels somewhat like a Walther P-38,which is not a good thing in my book. TheCZ naturally pointed very low because ofthat. The heel mag release got a “no” vote,but that’s just my own opinion. Also, on acouple of occasions, my thumb knockedthe safety off “Fire” under recoil. Thisbrought shooting to a sudden halt until thesafety was again disengaged. However Ireadily admit this could be labeled asshooter error. As much as I hate to admit it.

While $150 to $175 doesn’t generallyfetch much today, it will get you a CZ52.A unique design that’s inexpensive toshoot, a CZ52 can provide an awful lot offun without busting the bank. Plus, if youso choose, you can even have one cus-tomized to suit your individual desires.While maybe not as glamorous as atricked-out M1911, the Parker-modifiedCZ52 proved eminently reliable andaccurate. Plus, it provided loads ofshooting fun while looking good. And weall know that looking good whileshooting is at least as importantas having fun, eh?

For more information, contact ParkerArms and Toolworks (Fine GunsmithingOn CZ52’s And Other Weapons) at (215)541-1099; Quality Cartridge (.223 TimbsAmmunition) at (301) 373-3719.

One actuallyclocked 2,299 fps,which is chasing

7.62x39 territory.

*