Pistole vz. 24

About the Pistole vz. 24

The Pistole vz. 24 was the standard sidearm of the Czechoslovak Army during the interwar period. Chambered in 9mm Browning Short (.380 ACP), it is a short-recoil, locked-breech semi-automatic pistol that uses a rotating barrel to lock the breech, an unusually robust action for so modest a cartridge, inherited from designer Josef Nickl's earlier vz. 22. It has an external hammer, a single-action trigger, a magazine safety, and an eight-round detachable box magazine.

The vz. 24 wears a rotating-barrel, locked-breech action normally reserved for far more powerful cartridges, even though its low-pressure 9mm Browning Short round is mild enough for a simple blowback pistol; the over-engineering was a legacy of the Mauser-derived vz. 22 that preceded it.

Pistole vz. 24 specifications

Developed from the Mauser-licensed vz. 22, the vz. 24 refined Josef Nickl's rotating-barrel locking system. After the 1939 occupation of the Czech lands, remaining stocks were pressed into German service as the Pistole 24(t).