Full Auto Friday: Czech Skorpion edition (VIDEOS)

By Chris Eger

In the late 1950s, the Czech border guards needed a compact sub gun. Besides these guards, the Army needed a personal defense weapon that could be issued to support troops who didn’t need a full-size rifle. The Skorpion was designed to fit this need.

CZ engineer Miroslav Rybar designed a short-barreled select-fire pistol that could still be worn in a side holster. A 4.5-inch long barrel would provide decent accuracy at close quarters (under 50-yards) without adding too much length to the overall weapon. Use of a telescoping bolt similar to the Israeli UZI that fired in a blowback action from a closed bolt position further abbreviated the design.

A beefy pistol grip augmented by a folding wire buttstock provided control surfaces. This stock, with its curved butt, folded neatly over the top of the gun in a motion similar to that of a scorpion’s tail, hence the gun’s popular name. When finished, the design came in at 10.6-inches long with the stock folded. While this was about two inches longer than a Colt 1911, it had a good balance in support-hand-forward grip since the magazine well was mounted near the center of the frame, forward of the trigger guard.

It was chambered

Source: Guns.com