#BRNO

Ceska Zbrojovka Group (CZG) is probably more known to our readers as just “CZ“. At least that is a lot easier for most of us to pronounce.

It is rare event that we here at TFB are given the opportunity to handle and shoot unique luxury firearms. As a regular reader of our news articles and reviews, I can understand how someone can get tired of all the polymer pistols, AR15 rifles and vanilla new product announcements. Today I present you with something a little different. The FK BRNO Field Pistol chambered in 7.5 FK is a one-of-a-kind weapon developed in part to engage targets at ranges normally reserved for carbines and rifles while retaining enough energy to drop medium sized game. As with everything in life, there is a balance between performance and functionality – I’ll do my best to give you an unfiltered look at the capabilities of this uncommon handgun and its ammunition.

After World War II, the UK sought to modernize its small arms, many of which were based on designs originating from before the First World War. For its medium machine gun, the British were still using the reliable but increasingly obsolete Vickers water cooled gun in .303 caliber. With the adoption of the 7.62 NATO by the UK, trials were held to select a new air-cooled general purpose machine gun, which resulted in the adoption of the excellent Belgian MAG. In these trials, however, was tested a belt-fed variant of the magazine-fed Bren gun, called the X11E4. This gun is the subject of an article over at The Armourer’s Bench, as well as an accompanying TAB video, embedded below:

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these Modern PDW Calibers installments, but we’re back, and today we’re looking at a very new round on the market, one that is currently making some pretty big waves in the pistol world. I am talking of course about the 7.5x27mm FK Brno, designed for the CZ-75-derived FK Field Pistol from the company that shares its name. A high velocity .30 cal pistol round is not a new idea, having predecessors in the .300 JAWS, 7.62×25 Tokarev, and others, but what makes the 7.5 FK so interesting is just how powerful it is: A 103 grain monolithic bullet is advertised as leaving the 6″ Field Pistol barrel at an incredible 2,000 ft/s! This means that, if the company’s performance claims are true, the FK Field Pistol is ballistically the equal of the old WWII-era M1 Carbine!

Well, it’s no secret that I am a sucker for early selfloading rifles. The sheer number of ideas that were being explored in the early decades when these rifles were undergoing military trials creates a fascinating body of work for us gun nerds in the modern day to study. One area that doesn’t get enough attention is the developments of gun designers in Central Europe before World War II. We previously posted on the ZH-29, one of the most important milestones in the story of the military selfloading rifle, but today we’ll take a look at a video released by Forgotten Weapons on another rifle designed by the same talented designer, Emmanuel Holek. That rifle is the CZ Model S:

This year CZ-USA will be importing the CZ BRNO BO 801 over/under 12 gauge shotgun this year.