photo by the author
Having made sure that our consumers are somewhat “bored” with domestic conversion weapons and this market segment is slowly beginning to enter a phase of stagnation, enterprising arms dealers brought something special to Russia - a “hunting carbine,” which is nothing more than a converted CZ SA Vz.58 assault rifle. Being chambered for our native “Orthodox” cartridge 7.62x39, this interesting model of weapon did not go unnoticed by the Russian shooting community.
For the first time I saw the “Czech AKM”, as the CZ-58 is often called, in a Russian hunting store. Because of the glass of the display case, the carbine made a good, but somewhat ambivalent impression, after which it was forgotten as a phenomenon. Then I came across a discussion of the Czech machine gun and its derivatives on one of the specialized forums on the Internet, after which I watched a recording of a Ukrainian program about a comparison of the Russian AKM and the Czech Vz.58. The Ukrainian government did not yet have any serious problems with its own people, but open dislike for everything Russian was evident even in the test shooting of two weapons for accuracy, carried out standing, hand-held, without a rest, by one shooter. Of course, for “political” reasons, AKM lost. All this action was accompanied by awkward comments, but still aroused interest in the carbine produced in the country of the former Warsaw bloc. And, if last time we talked about the AKM represented by the VPO-133 as a hunting weapon, then why not consider the Vz.58?
General view of the carbine, right view. A loaded SKS clip with 10 rounds is inserted into the receiver
Automatic CZ SA Vz.58 (Czechoslovakia)
History and design features
How for sure Many middle-aged and older readers remember from Soviet history textbooks that in 1955, under the leadership of the USSR, the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO) was created. This happened after Germany joined NATO as a systematic expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the East. Accordingly, the rearmament of the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries immediately began, and a wide exchange of military experience was launched. The USSR also transferred the production technology of the AK to its allies, which, in varying degrees of refinement, was adopted by the armies of the ATS bloc.
The bolt frame is delayed. The bolt cup and the cartridge reflector are clearly visible. Pay attention to the grooves for the clip in the end of the bolt frame
Different ways of powering weapons is a double-edged sword, but in our case it plays into the hands of Russian Vz.58 owners
If you remember some more pages of pre-war world history, then such interesting facts will emerge as the presence of a powerful arms industry in the Czech Republic, which Hitler first of all, and without much difficulty, tried to take over. After the war, the Czechs were able to maintain their weapons base and, having entered the Department of Internal Affairs, in a number of cases chose to develop their own models of small arms. Here it is also appropriate to recall that the Czech army has a self-loading carbine Vz.52 chambered for 7.62x45, which they converted to the Soviet intermediate cartridge 7.62x39 as part of the Union standardization. And already in 1955, Czech designers under the leadership of Jiri Cermak began developing an assault rifle under the code name “Broom” for the same cartridge. In 1958, the new machine gun was tested and adopted by the Czechoslovak Army and is still, in a somewhat modernized form, the main type of personal small arms for soldiers in the armies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The official name of this machine gun is Samopal vzor 58, abbreviated as SA vz.58 (submachine gun).
Three-position translator-fuse. The photo shows the “safety on” position.
Why did the Czechs provide only a “left-handed” option for disconnecting the magazine?
Now about the most exciting part. As we remember, not so long ago they tried to convince us that the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle was nothing more than a copy of the German “sturmak” Stg-44, and in general, we ourselves were not able to invent anything. Nonsense, of course, but, as we understand, in an information war all means are good. And many believed the outright nonsense of the domestic media of the 1990s. The situation is approximately the same with the Vz.58 - outwardly it is very similar to the AKM, the cartridge is the same, therefore they are directly compared with the Russian “Czech” assault rifle. But at the same time, if you look closely at the features of its design, we will see in it the influence of not only the AK, but also the SKS, SVT-40, the Swedish self-loading rifle AG-42B mod. 1942 and even a Walter pistol mod. 1938. We can talk about direct borrowing of layout ideas and individual components from the design of the listed systems. But such a compilation is not considered shameful in the weapons world - why reinvent the wheel once again?
Thus The Czechs created a truly original design in many respects, we must pay tribute - it was done very carefully. Sometimes you can read on the Internet that the Vz.58 is made better than the AK and AKM, but let this remain on the conscience of the storytellers.
Optimistic 800 meters on the sector sight of a Czech machine gun. However, as on early Soviet AKs
Sight block and removal of the forend after pressing out the cross pin with your finger
Purpose The development of this Czech machine gun was to create a lightweight and compact model of individual small arms, capable of accurately shooting further than submachine guns, up to 400 m inclusive. It was originally planned that the weight of the machine gun would be no more than 2.7 kg, with a total length of 850 mm. The weapon had to be quite reliable (the permissible percentage of delays is within 0.3%. Here I note that for our AK this value was no more than 0.2%, but in reality our machine gun is much more reliable), have completely interchangeable parts and provide accuracy single fire no more than 10 cm at 100 m when shooting prone from a rest, with an aiming range of about 800 m.
As a result official sources report that the weight of the serial machine gun increased to 3.1 kg, the total length was 845 mm, and the effective firing range was prudently limited to 400 m. Structurally, the SA vz.58 machine gun is a gas exhaust system with a short stroke of a heavy gas piston, which has its own return spring . The barrel is locked by a swinging combat cylinder similar to the Walter R-38 pistol. The bolt moves forward, the cartridge is fed into the chamber and the barrel is locked by the force of the return spring. The trigger is striker-type and has a fairly simple design. The hammer has its own mainspring. The fuse, also known as the fire switch, has 3 classic positions. Sights are represented by a sector sight and a front sight adjustable vertically and horizontally in a ring-shaped front sight, suspiciously similar to the front sight of the German MP-38/40.
The receiver of the weapon from the inside. Clearly visible: trigger, reflector, lugs, barrel stump, transverse pin for fastening the receiver cover (as on SKS)
Let's get to know each other better
conclusions
In hand The Czech carbine seems like a toy. Relatively low weight (as with almost all CZ hunting carbines, the real weight of the Vz.58 turned out to be 200 grams more than the promised 3.1 kg, despite the aluminum magazine), compactness, short butt, gray and already beginning to peel paint on metal like ours “hammer”, shortening the handle of holding the weapon... I must say, all this does not contribute to delight. Praises about some extraordinary quality of production of the Vz.58 after even a superficial acquaintance with it remain empty emotions - yes, a normally made weapon, no worse and no better than the same AKM. The receiver of the “Czech” is milled, disassembly is not difficult, but the “Kalash” is disassembled and assembled easier and faster. When the gas piston is removed, a huge “cap” of the identification pin welded into the barrel becomes visible under the fore-end cover.
Spare parts for Vz.58 You won’t find it in Russia during the day, the price is more than 40 thousand rubles. As a technically interesting historical piece, it will fit into a collection, but nothing more. I have not yet heard that anyone here is seriously concerned about purchasing a Czech carbine as the main weapon in the “Kalashmata” or “doomsday weapon” niche, as various examples of conversion and not so small rifles are now called in the “tactical” crowd.
The receiver cover, the return spring, the mainspring and the firing pin mounted on it, on which the bolt itself is located.
Operation of the locking rocker latch
Shutter assembly assembly. The cut on the shutter mirror is clearly visible (the target is the forensic mark on the firing pin). There is a spot on the end of the frame from the impact of the gas piston pusher.
Shutter with locking cylinder
All stories the superiority of the Vz.58 over the AKM in single-fire accuracy is outright nonsense, if only because Soviet military acceptance standards were quite high, and the same cartridge, in principle, is not capable of giving very different results from weapons, even of different designs, with taking into account normal trunks. This is confirmed by the almost identical accuracy of the Czech CZ-527 bolt-action rifles and AKM assault rifles chambered for 7.62x39. The advantage of the Vz.58 over the AKM when conducting automatic fire is also questionable, taking into account the lower mass of the Czech machine gun, despite the separation of the bolt block from the piston.
I note that in any case, even with similar accuracy of domestic models of conversion weapons chambered for mod. 1943 and Vz.58, the latter has a serious trump card - relatively low mass. So it is - the Czech machine gun remains the record holder among weapons chambered for intermediate cartridges of 7.62 and 5.45 (5.56) mm calibers, while having a classic layout. The aluminum magazine for the AKM in the Soviet army was quickly recognized as unsuitable for combat use, but the Czechs still left a lightweight magazine for their machine gun. The hunting version of the Vz.58 in Russia comes with one such magazine for 30 rounds, this is also a problem. It is possible to adapt an AKM magazine to a Czech magazine if desired, but this is a rather non-trivial task.
Under the removed fore-end cover with the piston removed, a huge “slap” of the welded pin is visible - another crimson mark
Gas piston in rearmost position
Still in the press and in conversations between experts and “experts” you can hear an opinion about the obsolescence of the SKS due to its limited loading. Let me remind you that Simonov began developing the SKS before the war. Nevertheless, Czech designers considered it necessary to provide the Vz.58 with the ability to load from a clip (in fairness, I note that the first prototype of the future SVD also provided for this possibility). To do this, a bolt stop was introduced into the design of the machine gun, and the corresponding grooves (clip receiver) were cut into the front end of the bolt frame. The presence of a delay for weapons with a detachable magazine requires changes to the design of the magazine. Surely the reader remembers the special rib on the back wall of the SVD magazine - the Czechs had to take this wrong path, except perhaps by making a rib for the shutter stop switch offset to the side. On the one hand, it is this feature that plays into the hands of modern Russian Vz.58 owners - in principle, it’s not a problem to find clips for SKS here and they cost from 50 rubles.
Receiver cover The carbine is short, covering only the very edge of the rear part of the bolt - like on the SVT-40, SKS or Medved carbine. The reason for this, as mentioned above, is the reserve clip loading of the “Czech”. The descent of the Vz.58 is relatively good, but tight and uninformative. The ergonomics are generally worse than those of the AKM, while the operation of the fuse is better and more convenient. The barrel is chrome plated. The sights are almost identical to the SKS or AKM, nothing new. DTK is quite sophisticated in appearance, but also nothing unusual. Cleaning the carbine is made easier by the absence of a gas tube. The bolt block consists of 4 main parts, while the bolt and the swinging locking cylinder are quite small. Inside and outside, the receiver is milled and the quality of processing is at the level of SKS or AK of early releases (like everything else). The magazine is easily attached to the carbine, but to unlock it you can only use your left hand - this dictates the location of the magazine release lever. I don’t know what the Czechs were guided by when making such a constructive decision, but this is unacceptable for military weapons. The butt, handle, fore-end and fore-end pad are made of a mixture of polymer with some kind of sawdust.
Overall, Vz.58 can be recommended as an interesting and quite comfortable weapon for shooting games. The absence of a side rail for mounting optics sharply narrows its capabilities, but the authenticity valued by many is preserved (the “tide” for a bayonet is also preserved). The price, taking into account its foreign origin and the current rampant increase in the cost of all “imports,” does not seem so high, although it differs from the cost of the civilian version of the AKM by about 3 times. Our “native” caliber for Czech exotics also looks very tempting (by the way, the cost of Czech 7.62x39 cartridges in February 2015 was 90 rubles apiece, while ours in the country cost 8-15 rubles). But there is still no excitement for Vz.58. Whether the crisis is the reason for this or whether our fellow citizens have somehow begun to look more calmly at the abundance in hunting stores - it’s hard to say. In any case, not only the primary, but also the secondary market is oversaturated, so Russian hunters and shooters are in no hurry to close pink licenses.
"Samopal" in section. Czech educational poster. As a child, we called homemade muzzle-loading fires “self-propelled fires.”
After the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) in 1955, with the leading role of the USSR, within the framework of the participating countries, standardization of weapons and ammunition systems began.
Most satellite countries of the USSR acted very simply and adopted the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle (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.
Sa vz. 58P
with installed underbarrel grenade launcher
At the beginning of 1956, at the Czechoslovak state arms company Ceská Zbrojovka in the city of Uherský Brod, under the leadership of chief designer Jiří Čermák, within the framework of a project codenamed “KOŠTĚ” (“broom”), the development of an assault rifle for a standardized ATS cartridge began caliber 7.62x39 mm.
And in 1958, a new automatic machine was created under the designation Sa vz. 58 (Samopal vzor 58) was adopted by the Czechoslovak Army, which, after the collapse of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in mid-1993, formed the basis of the small arms system of the armies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Automatic Sa vz. 58 was distinguished by high quality workmanship and external finishing, as well as an original design. Despite the external resemblance to the Soviet AK, the Czech assault rifle had a fundamentally different and completely original design. Even the magazine of the Model 58 assault rifle was completely different, although it looked similar to the magazine of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Sa vz. 58 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.
Sa vz. 58
incomplete disassembly
The trigger mechanism is striker-fired, also of an original design. 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 - fire mode translator - is located on the receiver on the right, above the pistol grip, and has three positions - “safe”, “single shots”, “automatic fire”.
The body and bolt parts, like some other parts, are made of steel of a special alloy, and the bolt cover is pressed from sheet steel. The bolt, gas rods and the inner surface of the barrel are chrome-plated. The external surfaces of all parts are phosphated and coated with a special hot-drying varnish, which provides reliable protection against corrosion.
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.
The weapon is fed with ammunition from a magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds.
The butt, fore-end and pistol grip on early models of the weapon are made of wood, and on later ones - from plastic filled with wood shavings.
Automatic machines Sa vz. 58 are equipped with a carrying belt and a bayonet.
In addition, some machine guns can be equipped with a mounted bipod, as well as an under-barrel grenade launcher.
Automatic CZ Sa vz. 58 was produced in three versions:
Sa vz. 58P – basic version with a fixed stock.
Sa vz. 58Pi – variant Sa vz. 58 with a mount for night (infrared) sights and a massive conical flash suppressor located on the left wall of the receiver.
Sa vz. 58W – variant Sa vz. 58 with a metal butt folding sideways and to the right.
- Weapons » Assault rifles / Assault rifles » Czech Republic
- Mercenary 7572 2
Vz.58V variant with folding stock
After the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, standardization of weapons systems, including ammunition, began within the framework of the participating countries of the Warsaw Pact. Most of the satellite countries at that time acted simply, adopting Soviet-designed weapons - machine guns (and later) 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 7.62?39 cartridge, the Czechs modified their VZ-52 self-loading carbines of 7.62?45 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 “KO ?T?, that is, “broom”. The chief designer of the new machine gun was Jiří Cermak (Ji?? ?erm?k), who worked at a state-owned arms factory in the city of Uhersky Brod. Just two years later, in 1958, the new model 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 serves to this day. Plans to replace this already outdated model with newer 5.56 mm NATO systems have not yet been fully implemented, mainly due to financial reasons. The official designation of this 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 new machine gun, 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.
Technical description
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 - fire mode translator - is located on the receiver on the right, above the pistol grip, and has three positions - “safe”, “single shots”, “automatic fire”.
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 - AK (and later AKM) assault rifles 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 self-loading 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 a new one chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge. 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 (C.S.A.) 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 
Technical description.
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.
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.
O 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
Shop: 30 rounds
Rate of fire: 800 rounds per minute
Effective firing range: about 400 meters
The countries participating in the Warsaw Pact created in 1955 put into service the Soviet 7.62-mm cartridge of the 1943 model (7.62x39). Almost all of them accepted Soviet weapons chambered for this cartridge, in particular AK assault rifles, and later AKM. The exception was Czechoslovakia, which wished to create an assault rifle of its own design under a common cartridge.
Development began in 1956 at the state arms factory in the city of Uhersky Brod under the leadership of designer Jiri Cermak. The machine gun received the name SA vz.58. The work was completed in record time - in 1958 the machine gun was put into service. After the collapse of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, both states left the SA vz.58 assault rifle in service with their armies.
Several modifications of the machine are known:
- SA vz.58Р - main with a permanent butt,
- SA vz.58V - with a folding bolt box rotating to the right side, a shoulder rest,
- SA vz.58Pi, characterized by the presence on the left side of the bolt box of a device for mounting an optical (night) sight.
In addition, an automatic rifle equipped with a flash suppressor and a Picatinny rail mounted on the top of the bolt box cover has been developed for special forces of the Czech Republic. This rail is designed for mounting various types of sights, in particular a Czech-made red dot sight.
Externally, the SA vz.58P assault rifle has some similarities with the domestic AK, but its internal structure is completely different. It is felt that its developers set a goal to obtain a weapon that was easier to manufacture and, therefore, cheaper.
According to the principle of automation, SA vz.58 is a gas-type weapon with gas exhaust through a side hole in the barrel bore and with rigid locking of the barrel bore. Locking is carried out by a latch swinging in a vertical plane, located in the bolt and similar in outline to the locking latch of the Walter P-38 pistol. The latch is rotated in the direction of locking and unlocking by the bolt stem as it moves relative to the bolt. When approaching the extreme forward position, the bevel of the stem, acting on the latch, turns it. In this case, the locking tooth of the latch fits into the cutout of the milled bolt box, ensuring locking. Unlocking is performed at the initial section of the stem rollback. The stem carries a right-handed reloading handle.
The gas exhaust engine consists of a gas chamber pressed onto the barrel, a gas piston made together with a rod, and a spring that returns the piston to its original position after its short (about 20 mm) stroke in the recoil direction. On the left side of the gas chamber there is a boss with a hole into which a ring-swivel for the shoulder strap is inserted. The second swivel is located in the cutout of the butt on its left side.
The mechanism for breaking the cartridge primer is striker-fired. The firing pin, which has a sear protrusion, moves in the central bore of the bolt. The mainspring and return spring with their guide rods are located in a detachable assembly consisting of a butt plate and a bolt box cover that can be removed during disassembly. The ends of the guide rods are fixed in the butt plate.
The trigger mechanism of the machine gun allows for single fire and burst fire, as well as putting the weapon on safety. The switch/safety is located on the right side of the bolt box above the fire control handle.
The butt, fire control handle, forend and barrel guard on the first samples were made of wood, but later they began to be made of dark brown injection molded plastic filled with sawdust.
Sights consist of a sector sight with settings for a firing range of up to 800 m every 100 m and an adjustable front sight. The front sight is located on a stand attached to the muzzle of the barrel. The stand in the upper part has side shields that protect the front sight from impacts, and in the lower part there are grooves for attaching a knife bayonet.
The cartridges are fed from a detachable sector magazine with 30 rounds. The magazine body is made of stamped aluminum sheet.
SA vz.58 assault rifles were used by Vietnamese troops when they entered Cambodia in 1958, then during the civil war in Lebanon, as well as in Zaire, Zimbabwe and Uganda.
Structurally, the SA vz.58 assault rifle is simpler than the domestic AK-47, and therefore cheaper to produce. But when firing bursts from unstable positions (standing and kneeling), it is even more ineffective than the AK-47 due to its higher rate of fire, which is approximately 200 rounds per minute higher than that of the AK-47. The reliability of the SA vz.58 assault rifle in difficult conditions is also questionable. For example, the rod with the gas piston is separated from the bolt stem, which significantly reduces the efficiency of the automation mechanism. The prototype of the AK assault rifle - AK-1, developed in Kovrov in the design group of A. Zaitsev and failed during testing at the Shchurovsky test site, also had a separated gas piston and stem.
Having adopted the Soviet cartridge of the 1943 model, the designers of the SA vz.58 assault rifle for some reason did not borrow the used 30-round magazine of the AK assault rifle, but created their own with an aluminum body and not interchangeable with the Soviet one. Based on the experience of Soviet weapons testers, the operational strength of such a casing is low. It is noteworthy that Erich Walter, a serious competitor of Schmeisser in the development of the first German machine guns, did not hesitate to borrow Schmeisser’s previously used 30-round magazine.
Main characteristics
- Caliber, mm........................................................ 7.62
- Initial bullet speed, m/s...................700
- Chuck type...................................................7, 62x39 arr. 1943
- Weight with magazine without cartridges, kg...........3.1
- Machine length, mm...................................845
- Barrel length, mm...................................390
- Rate of fire, rds/min...................800-850
- Magazine capacity, cartridges...................................30
Soldier of Fortune No. 4 2008
- Articles » Machine guns / Assault rifles
- Mercenary 5355 0
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