Hi, I'm Ian. Thanks for tuning in to another video episode of Forgotten Weapons. Today
we're out here shooting another really interesting unique gun that you'll really never see anywhere in the U.S.
This is a Czech ZK420S.
This was a design that was developed late in World War Two in Czechoslovakia and
prototyped by 1945 or `46.
The idea was to make this a commercial service rifle for anyone who was interested in it.
About a hundred and fifty of these were made, and they were sent around to all sorts of various nations for testing and trials.
As far as they went as far as Israel,
Britain saw them. This particular one was made for testing in Norway.
Unfortunately nobody actually decided to buy them, but not because they weren't a real good rifle. These were
really quite modern quite good in every way. You can see they look much like an M14 might.
The problem was by the time these were being marketed everyone was really interested in intermediate caliber rounds.
But at the end of World War Two
most of the experimentation and weapons development going on by military forces were
with things like the Germans Sturmgewehr. Everyone thought that was a pretty slick concept.
And there wasn't much market left for a full power, This is chambered in eight millimeter Mauser a full power
long semi-Auto Service rifle.
So let's come in take a little closer. Look at some of the elements we have here.
So like many of the really nice Czech guns this has a lot of very intricate machining on it.
You can see all the work that went into the receiver here.
This makes for a very expensive gun unfortunately.
The ZK 420 has a rotary bolt,
Very reminiscent of the M1 Garand or the AK that would come later;
This was not an inspiration for the AK. This and that were developed simultaneously.
Locks open on an empty mag. By the time this was developed that was pretty universally decided to be a good idea.
And you can also see the stripper clip guide here.
As with a lot of other rifles of the era including the M14 this was intended be reloaded by stripper clip.
It's a 10 round magazine, proprietary, these weren't used on any other guns.
Nose in rock back.
The safety catch here again reminiscent of the M1,
Forward is fire back is safe.
So another item of interest at least to me on this gun the rear sight was actually an aperture.
It wasn't the the standard rear knotch.
They put an aperture site right at the back end of the receiver which should make this a very accurate rifle in practical terms.
You've got a nice long sight radius,
and a nice little aperture sight.
This is a very comfortable gun to throw to the shoulder. I'm looking forward to putting some rounds through it,
I think it'll be a real nice shooter.
Recoil is actually really pleasant on this. It's a full power eight millimeter round, but it's not that bad to shoot.
The sight picture is really nice this would have been an excellent rifle, if anyone had actually been looking for something like this in
1948 1949.
Every once in a while. We have a problem with ejection on this.
It's hard to say exactly why,
Unfortunately with a rifle like this there are so few of them out there that
you can't exactly go pick up three or four more and see if they also have any issues.
One thing we noticed I think you'd notice if you're actually shooting this in the field,
There are two little rivets on top of the handguard to hold it in place those suckers get really hot.
You wouldn't expect that in the middle of the wood handguard, but you have to be careful.
Yeah there is another one.
I personally really like this rifle. I think this would be an awesome
equivalent or replacement for something like an M14. It shoulders nicely, it shoots nicely, sites are great.
I'd love to see what this could do in a real long range on a paper target.
We're just not set up for something like that out here right now.