Just arrived & awaiting for me in the CR, a not very common new toy in my little CSSR issued weapons collection. Few people know about those Vz. 52/57 here in the UK, so I thought I'd share it here with you guys .
The Vz52 was designed in 1952 as the 1st issued Czechoslovakia semi-auto rifle chambered in an intermediate 7,62x45. In 1957 the CCCP imposed the 7,62x39 to its Warsaw Pact allies. The Vz.52/57 was born.
The following year, the Vz.58 was adopted, meaning the Vz.52/57 was never really used on large scale by the army but was mainly distributed to the Lidové Milice (Armed unit of the KSC, the Czech Communist Party). I shot them before. Beside being interesting as a Czech historical gun, they are quite compact, well balanced, well made & finished and accurate enought for what they were designed. They are very much the equivalent of the SKS, even with an attached foldable bayo but IMO the original Vz.52 is in a superior league, except for the cleaning.
Most rifles were eventually "donnated" to friendly socialist countries and found their way to exotic places like Vietnam, Somalia, Cuba or Nicaragua. Having said that it has been retained as a ceremonial rifle by the Hradni Straz, the Czech equivalent of the Presidential Guard that you can see if you visit the Prague Castle.
They were designed to be fed via stripper clips and therefore issued with only 2 mags. BTW , I managed to get hold of some pouches & wouldnt mind some extra mags if you have any . https://www.full-bore.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=30898
and for those "capitalist straight-pullers" bored with my old commie guns, that is what the "Lidové Milice" used to looks like. Well sort of... at least the bloke in grey on the right
...... Interesting that the bolt tilts forward to lock on these whereas most tilting block rifles like the SKS have the bolt tilt to the rear to lock it.