Pistole vz. 24

The Pistole vz. 24, or Pistol Model 24, was the standard pistol of the Czechoslovak Army between the two world wars. It was an improved version of the vz. 22, which had been licensed from Mauser. František Myška and his colleagues at Česká zbrojovka simplified the design to suit the machine tools at the CZ factory, and the Permanent Test Commission approved the pistol in 1924. The first 200 were delivered for acceptance testing in August 1925. It was chambered for the .380 ACP cartridge and kept a rotating barrel to lock the breech, which made it more complicated than a low-power cartridge required, and testers noted extraction difficulties and sensitivity to dirt. About 172,000 to 180,000 were built from 1925 to 1938. Several hundred were exported to Lithuania, Poland bought 1,700, and Slovakia and Germany seized large numbers in 1939, the Germans calling theirs the Pistole 24(t). The simplified vz. 27 and vz. 38 followed it.