CZ 52

CZ 52

CZ 52 remained one of the most popular Western bloc sidearms for law enforcement and military alike for a very long time. These days occasionally you do find a few CZ-52 as surplus pistols in gun stores. The 7.62 x 25 Tokarev round does pack a punch and also contributes to an entertaining muzzle flash.

The CZ 52 utilizes a fairly uncommon short recoil operating system in which two vertical rollers are used to lock the barrel and slide together, via a cam block. This is similar to the system used in the German MG 42 machine gun, which itself hearkens back to a Polish patent of the 1930s. This arrangement results in an unusually strong lockup which, conventional wisdom holds, allowed the Czechs to load ammunition for it to higher pressure levels (and therefore, higher velocity and energy) than compatible ammunition manufactured in other Warsaw Pact countries. This oft recited "fact" is, however, debatable. The bottom of the CZ 52 chamber measures 0.058", whereas the supposedly weaker TT33 Tokarev pistol measures 0.125" at the bottom of the chamber.