Automatic CZ SA Vz.58 - Samopal vzor 58 (Czech Republic / Czechoslovakia)

Automatic CZ SA Vz.58 - Samopal vzor 58 (Czech Republic / Czechoslovakia)

After the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, standardization of weapons systems, including ammunition, began within the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact. Most satellite countries of the USSR at that time acted simply, adopting Soviet-designed weapons - machine guns (and later AKM) in a more or less modified form. However, Czechoslovakia, which historically had a very strong and developed arms industry, preferred to create its own weapons under a common cartridge. First, after standardizing the Soviet 7.62x39 cartridge, the Czechs modified their VZ-52 self-loading carbines of 7.62x45 mm caliber for the Soviet cartridge, and at the beginning of 1956 they began developing a full-fledged machine gun for the same standard cartridge as part of a project codenamed “KOŠTĚ” that is, "broom". The chief designer of the new machine gun was Jiří Čermák, who worked at the state-owned arms factory in the city of Uherský Brod - Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod (CZ-UB). Just two years later, in 1958, the new model SA vz.58 was already adopted by the Czechoslovak Army, and after the collapse of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in mid-1993, it formed the basis of the small arms system of the armies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it served until recently.

automatic Samopal vzor 58 - SA vz.58P

Samopal vzor 58 assault rifle - SA vz.58V with folding stock

Plans to replace this already outdated model with newer 5.56mm NATO systems have not yet been fully implemented, mainly due to financial reasons. In the Czech Republic, the SA Vz.58 assault rifle is gradually being replaced by the new CZ Bren II assault rifle chambered for 5.56mm NATO. The official designation of the machine gun is Samopal vzor 58, or briefly SA vz.58, that is, a submachine gun (the Czechs do not make a distinction in the name between a submachine gun and an assault rifle) of the 1958 model. The Samopal vzor 58 assault rifle, like almost all Czech weapons, was distinguished by high quality manufacturing and external finishing, as well as an original design - despite its external resemblance to the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the SA vz.58 had a fundamentally different and completely original design.

During the 60-80s of the twentieth century, SA Vz.58 assault rifles were widely exported to Third World countries, mainly to Africa and the Middle East. After the combat version was removed from service, a significant number of surviving machine guns were converted to semi-automatic firing only and sold on the civilian markets of many countries, including Canada and the United States. Currently, the Czech company Czech Small Arms (CSA) is producing new self-loading carbines from scratch based on the design of the SA Vz.58 assault rifle, both in its “native” caliber 7.62x39 and in the very popular caliber 223 Remington in the world .

self-loading carbine CSA Vz.58 chambered for 7.62×39

self-loading carbine CSA Vz.58 chambered for 223 Rem

Technical description.

SA Vz.58 machine diagram

The SA vz.58 assault rifle is built on the basis of gas-operated automatics with a short stroke of the gas piston located above the barrel. The gas piston has its own return spring. The barrel is locked using a separate combat cylinder mounted on the bolt in its lower part and swinging up and down under the influence of shaped cutouts on the bolt frame. Locking is carried out through the cutouts in the receiver by lowering the locking cylinder down. After the shot, the bolt frame receives a short impulse from the gas piston and begins to move back. After a free stroke of approximately 22 millimeters, shaped cutouts in the bolt frame lift the front part of the locking cylinder, disengaging it from the receiver and releasing the bolt. After this, the entire bolt group, under the influence of inertial forces and residual gas pressure in the barrel, moves back, removing and throwing out the spent cartridge case and on the way back feeding a new cartridge into the barrel, and at the end of the movement, locking the barrel by lowering the front part of the combat cylinder down. Thus, the shutter itself moves strictly linearly. The return spring is located in the receiver behind the bolt carrier. The bolt cocking handle is rigidly fixed to the bolt frame on the right.

The trigger mechanism is also of an original design, striker-fired. A massive drummer of tubular design protrudes from the rear of the bolt body, and behind it there is a coiled mainspring, its rear end resting against the rear wall of the receiver. There is a tooth on the bottom of the firing pin that engages with the sear when the firing pin is cocked. The trigger itself is of a simple design and has a minimum of moving parts. The safety switch is a fire mode switch located on the receiver on the right, above the pistol grip, and has three positions - “safe”, “single shots”, “automatic fire”. The design of the machine gun provides an automatic bolt stop, which intercepts the bolt group in the rear position when the cartridges in the magazine are used up. The shutter stop switch is located in front of the trigger guard, next to the magazine release. Original army magazines for the vz.58 assault rifle are not compatible with magazines for the Kalashnikov assault rifles. The presence of a slide stop and the design of the machine's receiver cover allow, if necessary, to replenish the magazine from clips without disconnecting it from the weapon.

loading the magazine from the clip with the bolt open

The fittings on early samples are made of wood, while on later ones they are made of plastic filled with wood shavings. The basic version of the machine gun, SA vz.58P, has a fixed stock, while the SA vz.58V variant has a side-folding metal stock. The SA vz.58Pi variant differs from the SA vz.58P by the presence on the left wall of the receiver of a mount for night (infrared) sights and a massive conical flash suppressor.

Sights include a front sight in a ring-shaped front sight and an open rear sight with a V-shaped slot, adjustable for firing range. SA vz.58 assault rifles are equipped with a carrying belt and a bayonet.

special thanks to Miroslav Novák from the Czech Republic for information about SA vz.58

Caliber

: 7.62x39mm
Length
: 845 mm (635 mm with stock folded)
Barrel length
: 390 mm
Weight
: 3.1 kg with empty magazine, 3.6 kg with full magazine
Magazine
: 30 rounds
Rate of fire
: 800 rounds per minute
Effective firing range
: about 400 meters

Options

• Sa vz.58P
  (
  Pěchotní
  - “infantry”) - a combined arms version with a permanent stock[3];
• Sa vz.58V
  (
  Výsadkový
  - “landing”) - a variant with a metal butt folding to the right [3];
• Sa vz.58Pi
  - variant with a massive conical flash suppressor and mount for the NSP-2 night sight[3].
• Sa vz.58 with Picatinny rail
  - for special forces[4]
• CZ 858 Tactical
  - semi-automatic carbine

Users

Slovak Army engineer, armed with vz. 58 V, ensures the safety of other members of his team as they handle 23 mm anti-aircraft rounds for destruction near Diwaniyah, Iraq, 2006.

• Afghanistan [5]
• Angola [6]
• Biafra [7]
• Czechoslovakia: Inherited by successor states.
• Cyprus [5]
• Cuba [5]
• Eritrea [5]
• Slovakia [5] Standard rifle.
• Ethiopia [5]
• Guatemala [6]
• Guinea [5]
• India [6]
• Iraq [6]
• Libya [5]
• Mozambique [5]
• Czech Republic: Standard rifle. [ 5 ] ​[ ] ​[ ]​ Replaced by CZ-805 BREN. [ 10 ]
• Dominican Republic
• Somalia [5]
• Tanzania [5]
• Vietnam [11]

Notes

1. ↑ 12345
   [www.army.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=5080 Page vz.58 on the Czech Army website] (Czech)
2. [world.guns.ru/assault/as33-r.htm Description of CZ Sa vz. 58 on the website world.guns.ru]
3. ↑ 12345678
   Vz.58 // “War Machine”, vol. 2, issue 21. 1984. page 413
4. “Soldier of Fortune” magazine, No. 4 (163), 2008

Second reason

The Schwarzpanzer 58 is an excellent trainer for the German ST Leopard 1, which is currently participating in the February “Into Battle” campaign. This is a good opportunity to combine crew upgrades with silver farming. Moreover, now Leopard is in demand in many clans, especially on the eve of the “Dawn of Industry” event on the Global Map.

History of creation[edit]

Weapon development began in 1956. The head of the project was engineer Jiri Cermak from Brno, who worked in the design office. The USSR at that time began to advocate the adoption of a single standard for small arms for all ATS countries, as a result of which a prototype machine gun called “Koště” (Czech. Broom)

) was created for the Soviet intermediate cartridge 7.62 × 39 mm M43, and not for the Czechoslovak cartridge 7.62 × 45 mm vz. 52, used in the Vz. 52 and the light machine gun of the same name. In 1958, a new model called Sa vz. 58 was put into service: over 25 years, more than 920 thousand copies were produced, which were in service with Czechoslovakia, Cuba, and a number of countries in Asia and Africa.

Vz. 58 was produced in three main variants: vz. 58 P ( Pěchotni

, “Infantry”) with a fixed butt made of plastic, repainted in wood (older models used purely wooden butts);
vz. 58 V (Czech: Výsadkový
, "Airborne") with a right-folding metal stock and vz.
58 Pi (Czech: Pěchotní s infračerveným zaměřovačem
, “Infantry with infrared sight”), which provided for the installation of a dovetail mount to the left of the magazine receiver and the NSP-2 night sight, and also had a folding bipod and a conical flash hider.

In the 1990s, the ČZ 2000 assault rifle was developed chambered for 5.56 × 45 mm NATO, which was supposed to replace the Sa vz. 58, but due to a lack of financial resources from the Czech Ministry of Defense, it was never put into service. The ČZW-556 assault rifle and the ČZW-762 light machine gun were also developed, operating on the principle of a semi-free bolt with lever braking, which had higher accuracy. In 2011, the Czech Republic adopted the CZ 805 assault rifle manufactured by BREN as a replacement for the Sa vz. 58, and currently Slovakia is also considering the option of switching from Sa vz. 58 on CZ 805. Automatic Sa vz. 58, however, are stored in warehouses of the armed forces of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Links

• Sniper rifles	CZ 700 • Falcon
  Submachine guns	ZB-47 • Sa vz. 23 • Škorpion vz. 61 • Cz Scorpion EVO 3 A1
  Slot machines	CZ SA Vz.58 • CZ 805 • ČZ 2000
  Machine guns	ZB vz. 52 • UK vz. 59

First reason

In patch 1.5.1, they added the branch of German medium tanks Leopard 1 and, at the same time, improved the performance characteristics of the premium tank Panzer 58 Mutz, which is specifically designed for upgrading the crew of this branch. If before he was completely sad, now he began to play more cheerfully:

• improved accuracy;
• increased one-time damage;
• increased visibility;
• increased the speed of projectiles;
• added some strength points.

These changes allow him to effectively play the role of a sniper as a support tank from the 2nd line. Armor penetration with a basic 212 mm armor-piercing projectile is quite suitable for farming (the most advanced premium ST Progetto 46 has exactly the same). In case of “important negotiations” there are 259 mm sub-calibers. Please note its high flight speed, which, combined with its accuracy, will allow you to effectively hit targets at long range:

Now pay attention to the high-explosive projectile: not only does it fly fast, but it also has an armor penetration of 90 mm! Not even all “tens” can boast of this. This means that it will be able to penetrate 100% of the same “Borscht” and any other cardboard equipment with full damage of 330 units.

Operating countries[edit]

• Czechoslovakia
  - was in service with the Czechoslovak People's Army until 1993. Czech Republic - the main machine gun of the Czech Armed Forces, but is gradually being replaced by the CZ 805.
• Slovakia is the main weapon of the Slovak Armed Forces.