The Firearm Blog

CZ have introduced a new 9mm submachine gun called the Skorpion EVO III. Contrary to what the name suggests, it shares no heritage with the classic CZ Škorpion vz. 61 subgun.

CZ’s 2009 military weapon line up.

Since the 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, the Slovakian arms industry has gone into decline and is now only a shadow of its former self. The fact that the Czech arms industry is doing well seems to be a source of irritation to the Slovak government.

The Skorpion EVO appears to be a cosmetic update to the Laugo LG 205 submachine gun that was designed by a Slovakian firm sometime in the last decade. They must have been unsuccessful in generating interest in the product and appear to have sold the design to CZ.

From the excellent site Small Arms Illustrated.

I know very little about the gun other than it is chambered in 9mm Luger / Parabellum, made of lightweight polymer and has all the picatinny rails you could want.

CZ are marketing it as a PDW (Personal Defense Weapon), although I cannot see any feature that distinguish it from any other 9mm submachine gun. You can see in the top image that they have given it the same stock and pistol grip as the new CZ S 805 rifle, which their marketing department are using as a selling point.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this gun. At one point the designer (I have no idea who designed it, despite an hour and half of research) had it on display with a thumbhole stock and carbine length barrel. Personally I think it would have a great 9mm civilian carbine.

CZ-USA is once again importing the Skorpion pistol. What I found really interesting is that the press releases mentions that the gun is features in video games. I have not seen this before. I think most companies want to distance themselves from violent video games.

From the press release (emphasis mine):

Although it was developed for use with security forces, the Skorpion was adopted by the Czechoslovakian Army in 1961 as a sidearm for vehicle drivers, armored vehicle personnel and special forces. In addition to being featured in many of today’s popular video games, the VZ 61 Skorpion is currently in service with numerous military units, and police agencies around the globe.

The pistol comes with all the accessories you will ever need: 1×10 round mag, 2×20 round mags, cleaning kit, pouch, and an instruction manual on a CD. The MSRP will be $814.
Specs:

Caliber .32 ACP
Overall length 10.4”
Barrel length 4.52”
Height 6.5”
Width 1.68”
Weight 2.58lbs

The difference between this and the “real” Skorpion is that this lacks full auto (obviously) and the wire stock.

UPDATE:

Game screenshots showing the Skorpion:

Golden Eye

Call of Duty 4

Photos of the Skorpion submachine gun were posted at MP.net. I thought I would post some of them here.

It is interesting to see the short 10 round magazine being used in the field. I had always assumed they were only used by police when using the Skorpion as a “pistol”. 10 rounds of .32 ACP or 9mm does not seem like much these days when ultra compact .32 ACP pistols like the Kel-Tec P-32 hold 7+1.

Click to expand the photos.

Naughty trigger finger