ZB 47

The Holek brothers' 1947 Brno submachine gun with a 72-round magazine hidden in the stock, told from the Prague Military History Institute's trial record and Zbrojovka Brno's own manual: the 1946–48 competition it lost, the three forms and the experimental straight-walled cartridge, the 62 made, and how its bolt-driven ratchet wheel swings each round up into the chamber.

Firearms

ZB 47 · Deep Dive

ZB 47

Rejected as too complicated and too heavy, the ZB 47 in Soviet 7.62 mm outshot the 9 mm gun that beat it in bursts at 300 metres.

The Holek brothers' 1947 Brno submachine gun with a 72-round magazine hidden in the stock, told from the Prague Military History Institute's trial record and Zbrojovka Brno's own manual: the 1946–48 competition it lost, the three forms and the experimental straight-walled cartridge, the 62 made, and how its bolt-driven ratchet wheel swings each round up into the chamber.

Photo: ZB 47, infantry version, right side by Vojenský historický ústav Praha (VHU)

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    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 The Competition, 1946–1948: Holek's Stock-Magazine Gun Against Strakonice How the Holek brothers' ZB 46 became the ZB 47, how it fared in the largest submachine-gun competition the Czechoslovak army ever held, and why the army chose the ČZ 447, the future vz. 48 and Sa 23, instead
    2. Vol 2 The Guns: ZB 46, ZB 47 and the Paratrooper Version, the Cylindrical Cartridge, How Many Were Made, and Where They Are Telling the three forms apart, every published dimension with its source, the experimental straight-walled 9 mm round, the 7.62 mm trial guns, the production figures that do not agree, the surviving examples, and why no American can own one
    3. Vol 3 How It Works: The Ratchet-Wheel Feed and the Magazine in the Stock The ZB 47 as Zbrojovka Brno's 1947 manual describes it: six groups and twenty-four parts, a blowback bolt that never pushes a cartridge, a two-row ratchet wheel that swings each round up out of a magazine lying along the stock, the three-position takedown latch, the safeties, field stripping, upkeep, and what failed in trials