The Vz. 52 rifle is a favorite of mine; it hits all the right notes for being “weird”: It shoots a weird caliber – 7.62x45 (nope, that’s not a typo!), uses a weird operating mechanism (a forward-tilting bolt), and has a great big integral side-folding bayonet that looks a bit like a Roman gladius. So when I saw this conversion of a Vz. 52 on GunLab, I had a mixed reaction:

On the one hand, they’ve gotten rid of two of the things that makes the Vz. 52 so wonderfully weird to me… On the other, though, they’ve made the gun look fascinatingly historically plausible. The rear half of the Vz. 52 – it turns out – pretty closely mimics that  of a PPSh or Suomi, and the addition of a barrel shroud highly reminiscent of those guns really brings this out. But still, the receiver is different enough looking that you can tell it’s not either of those from a distance, and the insertion of a clearly intermediate-caliber “goat’s horn” curved magazine makes it… Well, even though it’s something that wasn’t (in the historical sense; it’s a modern modification most likely), it looks like it could have been, and that’s cool!

According to Chuck* of GunLab, in the comments:

I am working on the parts and will know a cost soon.

I can’t help but think a Vz. 52 converted in this way would be a pretty good seller!

*who never saw a weird or obscure gun of which he didn’t want to make a copy.