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".
