Variants VZ-58 Assault Rifle and VZ-58Pi Assault Rifle

The earliest production examples of the VZ-58 Assault Rifle used wooden stocks, pistol grips, and fore-ends, and were chambered for the 7.62mm Czech round. Under Soviet pressure, the chambering was quickly changed to 7.62mm Kalashnikov, and a short time later, the VZ-58 Assault Rifle switched to stocks, pistol grips, and fore-ends made using a hard plastic shell filled with wood fiber, which lightened the VZ-58 Assault Rifle considerably. There were three standard military versions of the VZ-58: the VZ-58P, with a fixed stock, the VZ-58V Assault Rifle, with a folding tubular steel stock (with an ergonomic buttplate), and the VZ-58Pi Assault Rifle, equipped with a long dovetail bracket on the left side of the receiver to allow the use of any Russian, Chinese, or former Warsaw Pact-type night vision scope. The VZ-58Pi Assault Rifle is also equipped with a light bipod and a large conical flash suppressor (so that the shooter and his night vision scope are not blinded by the muzzle flash).

VZ-58 Assault Rifle

The VZ-58 Assault Rifle was the standard Czech and Slovakian assault rifle for nearly a half a century, but was in 2000 starting to be replaced by the CZ-2000 Assault Rifle. (The replacement of the VZ-58 has been agonizingly slow however, and most Czech and Slovakian troops still use the VZ-58 as of 2006.) It is no longer being manufactured by Ceska Zbrojovka, but limited production is still being done by Caliber Prague. These newer versions of the VZ-58 Assault Rifle generally are updated with synthetic furniture, sight mounts for use with equipment from all over the world, mounts under the fore-end for laser aiming modules or tactical lights, or even MIL-STD- 1913 rails.

VZ-58P Assault Rifle

In addition, several companies in Europe and the US are building or selling semiautomatic versions of the VZ-58. The VZ-58 Assault Rifle can be found in nearly every corner of the globe, from Vietnam to Cuba, in addition to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It should be noted that the magazines of the VZ-58 and the AK series are not interchangeable. The magazine wells and the method of fitting the magazines in place are very different. In addition, VZ-58 magazines are made from light alloy, while AK magazines are steel.

VZ-58 Assault Rifle With RGLM

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, CZ opened a branch in the US, called CZ-USA. One of the items they produce at CZ-USA is the VZ-58 Military Sporter, a civilian version of the VZ-58 designed for sale in the US, complying with US laws. For the most part, the VZ-58 Military Sporter is identical to the VZ-58P, but the barrel has been extended to 16 inches. The receiver is milled instead
of stamped and the metalwork is better finished than the standard VZ-58P. Other than being deliberately designed to be extremely difficult to convert to automatic fire, the mechanism is identical to that of the standard VZ-58 series.

weapon from the AK. Though it too is gas-operated, the operating system is very different, and apart from the magazines, almost no VZ-58 parts are interchangeable with AK parts. In addition, the VZ-58 is a more robust design than the AK-47, and at the time of its introduction, was about 10 years ahead of its AK-47 counterpart. (Unfortunately, it is also much more mechanically complex than the AK.)