Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and we are back today taking a look
at another Elbonian firearm.
Coincidentally right in time to have new Elbonian hoodies,
which are nice and toasty for the winter.
At any rate, what we have here is an
Elbonian Model 52/57/61 paratrooper carbine.
And you might be wondering: why would Elbonia have a Paratrooper Corps?
Didn't Elbonia not even have an air force?
And that is correct, Elbonia did not have the aerial assets required to drop paratroopers.
But that did not stop them from, in 1960, deciding to equip out a paratroop brigade.
So they set out a request for firearms,
because of course there wasn't any domestic manufacturing to speak of.
And what they ended up choosing was this.
This was presented to them by a somewhat less than reputable international arms dealer
who talked it up as being new manufacture specifically for this Elbonian requirement.
The problem is this was actually Czechoslovakian surplus that no one else really wanted,
because this gun is fundamentally based on the Czech Model vz. 52 rifles,
which are sort of a fantastically bad idea.
In 1952 Czechoslovakia manufactured several guns that were all remarkably sub-par.
It's like all their designers kind of went out and got hammered for a year.
And so the Model 52 stuff came out and then they kind of woke up and regretted it,
and went back and did things that were much better like the vz. 58, which was a fantastic rifle.
Now the vz. 58 here is relevant, because with the adoption of the vz. 58
the older vz. 52 rifles were really no longer necessary, and so this arms dealer was able to
acquire a bunch of vz. 52s from Czechoslovakia for basically next to nothing.
And then those guns were modified to fit the Elbonian military requirements.
So what the Elbonians wanted was something that would have
more firepower than a traditional standard rifle.
This is actually kind of similar to what the Germans did with the FG-42 during World War Two,
where they wanted something that was the weight and size of a rifle
that paratroopers could drop with,
but that could serve as sort of a de-facto ersatz light machine gun.
The Elbonians wanted the same thing.
But they kind of pushed more towards rifle than towards light machine gun, as we see here.
So what they did is they took what was the vz. 52,
(this is actually a 52/57 version),
but they ... got a higher magazine capacity,
and they got what they thought was better hand protection on the front end of the rifle.
So Elbonians have always been suckers for ventilated handguards,
we saw that with their Hakim light machine guns.
And well, this arms dealer recognised that and the same thing came back to bite them again.
This is really what got the gun adopted by the Elbonians.
So what they thought was a brand new rifle was in fact a vz. 52 that had been worked on
and restyled, shall we say, to have a ventilated shroud over the barrel, a cut down stock.
I mean it's got speed holes, it looks pretty darn cool,
it looks a lot more high tech than the original vz. 52s.
And it was set up to take standard AK magazines, which is in fact a real improvement.
Not just box magazines like you might expect, but also drum magazines.
So let me show you this up close, and we can go through the various changes
that were made to it in order to fit the Elbonian requirements.
From a distance this thing is fairly distinctive,
and it looks unusual and high tech, and, well, pretty darn awesome.
It's only when you get up a little closer that, if you know what you're looking at,
you can tell that it was clearly a Czech vz. 52.
Obviously none of the Elbonian military staff recognised it though.
We have a magazine catch on the bottom here
that is exactly the same as on the standard vz. 52 or 57.
However, it's worth pointing out that the stock has been notched up right here,
and that is specifically to allow fitment of drums.
If you have just a standard magazine,
you can see that it doesn't extend wide enough ... for these notches to matter.
So the reason that this is relevant is there are people
who think that these might have originally been Czech police carbines.
And there are a number of reasons that we can tell that that's almost certainly not the case.
And one of them is that Czechoslovakia never used drums.
And so ... there's no reason that they would have modified
a carbine like this to use a drum magazine that wasn't actually in service.
Now I have a regular vz. 52 here,
unfortunately it's one of these awful black bed liner coated ones,
but we can still see the relevant markings on it.
So on the Elbonian gun here you have your serial number.
We have this guy, that is your date of manufacture, 1955.
And "AYM" is the factory code where it was produced [Stroknice, Slovakia].
And you can see that those are the markings that you would have on a regular vz. 52.
Different serial number obviously, this is a 1956 production.
"she" by the way is the other [Uherský Brod].
There were two factories that made vz. 52s, "AYM" was one, "she" was the other.
Now this Elbonian version is chambered in 7.62x39,
the original vz. 52s were in 7.62x45.
And they would be used for about 5 years before Czechoslovakia adopted the standard Soviet cartridge,
and ... made a new version of its 52 using that Soviet cartridge, and that would be the 52/57.
Now there are two ways that we know that the Elbonian gun here is not a 52/57.
And you can see ... the lack of them both here.
So the original Czech guns in 7.62x39 have a ... cross pin holding the barrel in place here,
and they are actually marked 52/57.
And you can see both of those features here on this original Czech 52/57.
So it's got the marking on the side, and it's got that pin holding the barrel in place.
That said, we can tell that this originated as a 52 stock
because you can see that all of the features match up.
So we have the reinforcing bolt here.
And what look like odd divots on the front of the Elbonian stock
... they have purposes on the original Czech guns.
So this right there is in fact the beginning of the handguard groove, this was cut off right there.
And then that little notch is for the spring-loaded buttons right here
that allow you to take off the handguard on the original guns.
Now, how do we know that these aren't actually Czech military conversions?
Well, there are a couple of things that really clue it in.
One of them is the front sight.
This appears to be the exact same front sight that is used on an original 52 or 52/57,
but it doesn't have a protective hood.
On the original Czech guns you still have this relatively narrow,
and kind of tall and spindly, front sight,
but it's protected by this sheet metal hood.
On the Elbonian version here there's no accommodation for that hood.
And no legit military would put a front sight like this out there,
it's just way too prone to damage.
In fact you can see that this one has already been hit by something
and bent off to the side, and that would be a serious problem for military use.
The sling swivel being mounted right out at the front of the barrel shroud is also kind of a giveaway,
because that's a really bad place for a sling swivel.
It ought to be at least a couple of inches back,
lest the sling find itself pulled up in front of the muzzle and gets shot off.
If we look at the stock,
the original Czech guns had a little spring-loaded system here
so that the butt plate could be removed.
And there was actually sort of a second butt plate underneath
that had storage for a cleaning kit.
The spring and its associated hardware
has been just filled in with wood putty, or something, up here.
And ... what's supposed to be the removable butt plate
is now fixed in place with a couple of Phillips head screws.
And lastly, the stock here is held on by a socket hex, or Allen screw.
And that would not have been done historically by the Czechs,
that's definitely something that came from a rogue arms dealer.
All that being said, the way this goes together is actually kind of cool.
So there is a threaded washer basically here in the front of the barrel shroud.
And I can ...
unscrew that.
There we go.
That comes out.
And then there's just one other screw holding all of the main elements together,
and that's this socket head screw here.
So if I take this out, I don't even have to remove it all the way from the stock,
the stock pivots off.
And you can see that ... they have taken just a regular hex nut
and welded it to this barrel shroud. (In fact there's little bits of metal coming off it.)
And that's what this screw locks into.
When you take this off there's actually a hook on the back of the stock, right here.
This is not totally unlike an M1 carbine.
That hooks into the back of the receiver to lock the two parts together,
which allows you to have just one main assembly screw.
So that's pretty cool, and that comes from the original Czech design.
Then the only thing holding this barrel shroud on is actually this screw into the stock.
So there is nothing that holds the barrel shroud onto the action,
and so I can take it clear off.
... Now if we compare the Elbonian paratrooper version to the original Czech 52,
you can see that the paratroopers have also had the barrel cut down by about 3 or 4 inches.
This has been cut down to the point that it is like 16.25 inches, which is very convenient.
That is just above the US legal minimum preventing this from being a short-barrelled rifle.
However, the gas system has been left completely unchanged.
So I can pull the handguard off and you can see the gas system there on the 52,
and it's exactly the same.
The way this works by the way, it is an annular sort of gas piston.
The gas block is actually right there, and ... the piston wraps around the outside of the barrel.
So when you fire the piston goes back just that far,
which pushes this back - this sleeve right here,
which pushes the bolt carrier back, which unlocks it and cycles it to the rear.
I'll do a full video on the 52 and the 57 getting into all of their mechanical elements later on.
For now, we can just stick to the fact that this is mechanically unchanged.
There were a few updates that had to be done in the magazine well area, however,
in order to have these guns actually fit AK-style magazines.
So if you compare the original Czech magazine here to an AK magazine,
the Czech gun actually doesn't have a lug on the front of the magazine at all.
It has a notch where the AK has a lug.
So that's why this had to be rather crudely added
to give a place for the front catch of the AK [magazine] to hold in place.
And then the magazine release lever had to be ... cut down in here
in order to fit the different geometry of the rear lug on the AK magazine.
And then, of course, the whole thing was painted black.
One last thing that I want to point out is
part of the reason the Elbonians got snookered here by their historic love of barrel shrouds
is that while the barrel shroud looks cool
and you could say that, yes, it may improve cooling on the barrel,
the problem is the gas system on this gun is entirely exposed on the outside of the barrel.
And that's part of the reason that the original Czech guns had full-length handguards
to enclose all of this and prevent dirt, or crud, or anything else from getting into it.
By going to the cool speed hole ventilated barrel shroud,
what the Elbonian version does is open all this up to get dirty again.
And that's something that obviously the Elbonian military command was foolish enough to not catch.
Now in terms of production: it's not clear to me exactly how many of these were made.
Obviously Elbonia never did actually finish outfitting its paratroop brigade.
I suspect that they got the first batch of these guns, put them into troop trials,
and realised that there were some problems.
Because I've seen 5 or 6 of these, and they've all been in the United States,
and they are different here and there.
So, for example, most of the ones I've seen actually have oval
ventilating holes in the barrel shrouds, not round ones like this.
So I suspect they all ended up here.
There are still, as I said, people who suspect that these may have been Czech police carbines.
I think that may have been a rumour spread by the arms dealer
trying to sell them to Elbonia perhaps, trying to convince them that there was some
good military provenance, and that someone else had purchased these things,
and so Elbonia shouldn't worry about all those little details.
Anyway, unlike with the Hakim light machine gun
this one appears to be in good functional order,
so we are going to go ahead and take it out to the range and see how it does.
Alright, let's see how this thing actually functions, if it actually functions.
It should take standard AK mags, and it does.
Actually I'm cheating a little bit, because I already did a little bit of practice shooting with this
to see what would work, and what wouldn't.
And ... well, it won't take every AK mag.
Some of them won't physically lock in because
the tolerances between the mag and the mag well are a bit off.
And some mags, in fact I had several mags,
including one of my drums, present the cartridge too low.
So it will push a round forward into the back of the barrel, and it won't feed it.
This magazine, however, appears to work quite well, so.
(Most of the time.)
[ Light strike on the primer. ]
Mostly runs.
I was about to say it'll lock open when it's empty,
but sometimes it'll lock open when it's not empty.
This is exactly what I was referring to when I said that some of the magazines
... they don't feed up quite enough.
That seems to be the main functional limitation with this thing.
Yeah, that one just doesn't want to go in.
However, what is kind of cool is that this is not a magazine with hold open tab on the follower,
and yet ...
(there we go)
it does lock open when it's empty, just like the vz. 52 would.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video, these are always a lot of fun for me to do.
And hopefully they're fun for you to watch as well.
If you think Elbonia is pretty darn cool, you might consider checking out our Elbonia apparel.
In addition to the original t-shirts, we now also have hoodies for winter.
So there's a link to the merch shop in the description text below
where you can check out that and everything else that we have.
Thanks for watching.
[ Just to be clear, Elbonia is not a real country ... but it's a fun way to show you this unique rifle! ]