HOW IT IS MADE – PART TWO
In part one we were describing how a frame and a slide of a Cz pistol are made. It is interesting to know that cz also produces all the small parts in the gun as well as the magazines.
For shadow 2 though, cz has a cooperation with the italian magazines producer meggar.
BARRELS
A fire arms needs a barrel to fire a bullet. All CZ barrels are hammer forged.
First, barrels drilled.
Than, using a special dorn inserted in the barrel PICTURE, the barrels are hammered.
The movement must be extremely precise and free of vibrations , so the base of the machine is burried 6 meters under ground! The Forging results into 30 to 40 percent longer barrels.
Barrels of the pistols are done in one piece, including the chambering. it was very interesting to be able to follow the various stages a pistol barrel goes through.
You feel like a child in the sweets store in the cz factory: you cannot on which piece of hardware to put your fingers on!
STOCKS and HANDGUARDS
A rifle also needs a stock and a hanguard. Everything is made inhouse at CZ. Take for instance the handguard of the brand new bren 2 assault rifle. It is made out of a aircraft aluminum billet.
The astonishing difference in weight between the billet and the end product shows how much material is scrapped in the process.
SURFACE TREATMENT
All the metal parts of a gun are treated in various stages and processes to become resistant to corrosion and to wear. These processes are quite complex and reach from hardening by overpressure of up to 8 bars to hard chroming and other complex chemical processes.
These processes are depending on the type of component: a slide needs different treatment than a magazine or a flash hider.
ONLY THE ONE THAT EVOLVES SURVIVES
Cz understands this perfectly. The factory is in a constant change: new generation of people work in the factory. You can see that: from the cnc machines to the people in the marketing department, the average age is quite young.
CZ listens to feed-back from customers: feed back on the P07 pistol lead to p09. Staying on the edge is costly: CZ has invested around 10 mio Eur in technology in the last three years. 2 mio eur went only in the new shadow 2 project.
Feed back from czech military, mexico drug combat, indonezian navy and other military and law enforcement agencies lead to Bren 2.
There are several novelties brought by Bren 2mas compared to bren 1. We have highlighted only the most important ones:
1. It weights 500 g less. This has been achieved both by material reduction and manufacturing processes.
2. The charging handlenis no longer reciprocating, thus it does not move during the shot
3. Adjustable gas piston. This allows shooting the rifle in various conditions.
4. Rate of fire 850 per minute
5. Life expectancy barrel 20k. This is quite high
6. Bren 2 uses stanag magazines
The evolution to Bren 2 took 3 years. The rilfe has passed acceptance trials of the czech army. Bren 2 currently participates in the tender organized by thebPakistan armed forces (1 mio rifles for several years – technology transfer including production). When developing the rifle cz had an eye on the future as well: the rifle is modular and can accomodate 7.62×51 as well. The result is astonishing: a military rifle with match rifle capabilities.
TO BE CONTINUED – STAY TUNED IN THE NEXT ISSUE WE WILL REPORT ABOUT HOW BREN 2 SHOOTS