VZ50

[Boomer53]

I recently obtained a CZ50 and have a question.  The slide is marked Ceska Zbrojovka Nar Podnik Strakonice. The front of the grip frame is marked NB 50.  To the right of the proof mark on the slide is the number 80. I read somewhere that the number by the proof mark was the year it was put in service and the NB 50 is the year of manufacture.  So, was this pistol in storage for 30 years? Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks!

[octanejunkie]

See here
 http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=3066

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[Boomer53]

Thanks, but I could not get the link to open.

[skucera]

I'm not familiar with markings on CZ50's, but for CZ52's in the Czechoslovak Army the years other than the year of manufacture were often stamped when the pistol was refreshed at the arsenal.  Since CZ50's were more often police pistols or border guard pistols, the police may have had an arsenal rebuilding system too, but it just speculation on my part.  However, the CZ52's that underwent arsenal refurbishment have "VOZ" and the year of refurbishment stamped somewhere on the frame.  Some heavily used pistols were refurbished several times. I don't know if your CZ50 has a mark like that, so you could look for it, but I just spent a little while looking at a few dozen high resolution photos of CZ50's on the internet and I don't see any marks like that on any of them.

Scott

[Palmetto Marsh]

I would recommend finding the book 'Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia' by James D Brown where he spends about 20 pages going over the markings  in detail and production figures by serial number on the CZ50/70. There are several stores/web sites that sells the book

[octanejunkie]

I picked up the 'Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia' book from Amazon, it's great!

The NB 50 stamp is a local police acceptance mark meaning the pistol was made for issue to a local government agency.

The Surplusrifle site was offline with DNS issues about a week or so ago. Seems to be slow to rise from the grave.

[Czechoslovakgunstories]

I would just maybe add that NB50 - 52 was only stamped on the first batch coming from Strakonice factory before the production was moved to Uhersky Brod (the current CZ factory). Anyway these are the best quality CZ50s with awesome production quality. Later versions may be little rought sometimes or (that applies to CZ 70s especially) the quality of the material may not be a true match to the good old CZ 50s from between 1950-1953.