doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Brno ZP sidelocks

It is the guard that is gold colored. Here are pics of my 2 12 gauges. The straight grip ejector gun is from 1971 and the non ejector pistol grip gun is from 1963. Both guns are also at just under 7 pounds. The ejector guns screws all have the star shape type engraving while the screws on the gun from 1963 are all plain. Other than showing some use of the past 50 years, the fit/finish on both of these guns is very good with no gaps anywhere between the locks and the stock or between the action and stock.

Thanks Guns; never seen that before. Must be a Czech thing...Geo

At first I thought "why", then why not?

It's a first for me, too. Thanks for posting the pics.

SRH

I wonder if someone did a grip-ectomy on the stock and electroplated the trigger guard on that gun?...Geo

Yup. That is what I was thinking as well...

It appears its not as fitted into the stock as the other trigger guard is into its respective stock. Guns, did you buy that from a dealer NIB or used?

I bought the gun privately. I just did a close comparison between the 2 guns. Under magnification of the straight grip, I can see no indication where new checkering was cut and blended into the existing checkering. The diamonds start at the top and go into a continual smooth uninterrupted flow to the bottom. The checkering pattern is also not the same design as the pistol grip gun. The checkering on the straight grip starts further ahead of the safety button and flows further back from where the pistol grip checkering starts its downward curve. To have altered the existing checkering they would have had to sand away and remove the checkering and border. The width of the wrist measures the same on both guns kind of indicating no sanding was done. But I will never say never. Even if the checkering/stock is original, there is nothing to say that some previous owner didn't have the trigger guard electroplated.

Well...

Maybe this wasn't the best decision (it seems these guns are not too highly thought of on this forum), but I just purchased another one of these in 16 gauge. English stock, fairly nice wood, excellent checkering, ejectors, 27.5" tubes, and just a bit heavy at 6.6 lbs. I do not yet have it in hand, but I can post pictures of the gun once I receive it, if anyone is interested.

I bought both of my Brno guns at a local gun show for $600 for the pair. I couldn't shoot the 12 but liked the 16. I sold both to a member here for $800.

He passed the 12 along but had the stock re-done on the 16 and has posted pics of it here. He had the cheekpiece removed and I think converted the stock to english. It looks good.

Maybe he'll re-post the pics in this thread...Geo

Americans are not very familiar with the Brno ZP49 series shotguns but hunters in Canada are as they were imported to Canada during the cold war and not to USA.

Ron Vella in Canada is very familiar with this quality machine made shotgun and has made several double rifles using the actions. One of his most famous double rifle made from a ZP49 is in .450 #2 Nitro Express. With this double rifle he has killed much game in Africa and elsewhere, including long shots at around 200 yards.

The Brno ZP49 series of side lock back action shotguns are a credit to the great skill and knowledge of the Czech gunmakers as nowhere else in the world has any other manufacturer taken the classic English design concept and engineered a process to build a "machine made" replica of same (even with chopper lump barrels), at a very low price. The guns were made with electric arc furnace steel of what seems to me to be of such high quality that allowed the barrels to be built almost as thin as a handmade English shotgun. The shotguns made in the 1950's are exceptional good, but beginning in the 1970s design changes for cost reduction eliminated some of the exceptional features of the early shotguns such as the removable striker discs. Remember that these shotguns were designed and made for the European market and the stocks are shaped to that goal.

The actions of the ZP49 have a feature (in 1950's and 1960s guns) that is now a technique used by Holland & Holland in their double rifles for added strength. The feature is a "straight draw and forward rear lump (what we call the circle) that is shaped accordingly and is fitted to very close tolerances. This design allows the contacting of the draw and rear lump surface upon the firing of the cartridge thereby causing both the hinge pin and the draw of absorb shock. Of course many will say that Purdey and others used the classic circle design and fitted it to do the same, which they did. But Brno took thier concept and cleverly designed it from circle to straight angle (about 87.5 degrees from the action flats) where it could be done with machines (milling machines) and then with a few file strokes during assembly fitted. Brno also designed and made the action slot with a extra strong cross piece to support their draw/circle concept. The hinge pin is removable with typical English design of threads and a screw slot, and is 8mm in diameter. The actions were surface hardened as well as the lock plates. The action locking bolt is about 40% thicker than what one sees in a English shotgun and will tolerate much abuse.

In the ejector guns the Southgate ejector system is used, but with only 1 spring of clever design. Both the ejector kickers and the action cocking levers are built for strength and are much more robust than what other gunmakers would build for a gun for the common hunter and sportsman. The fore-end iron therefore for the ejector guns is about 6-7 ounces more heavy than the extractor guns. The ejector system is hardened properly and made to be trouble free due its robustness.

Brno has always been known and still is known for quality guns, rifle and pistols. The ZP49 guns deserve respect as here as they have elsewhere in the world.

Recently I was able to purchase a 1959 made model that was unused. I was amazed at the internal polish of the barrel bores--equal to what I have seen from best London gunmakers. How could Brno do that with a gun that sold for maybe less than US$50.00 during that time frame?

Think of the ZP49 guns as being an "Empire model" (i.e. Greener) as they would tolerate great abuse and failure of their owners to lubricate and maintain them as they should, but still keep on "ticking".

Interesting insight Bushveld...thank you