Carbines For Home Defense Part 2 of 4:

CZ-VZ 58 Tactical Sporter


OK, I know what you are thinking: “Last week an AR, this week an AK-47”. I understand why you would think that, but you would be wrong. Although it fires the same ammo as the AK-47 it is not the same. It was actually patterned after a WWII German design.
When the Russia decided that Czechoslovakia should become a part of the Soviet Union the Czech’s begrudgingly went along but kept their own production of weapons and ammunition. When the Soviet’s demanded that the Warsaw Pact members standardize ammunition the Czech’s had no choice but to agree but still wanted to manufacture their own firearms. Anyone who has ever handled a CZ 75 or P-01 pistol, bolt action rifle, or shotgun, knows that they take a back seat to no one in terms of small arms manufacture.


Rather than re-creating the wheel, let me give you the history and specifications right from CZ’s website:


“The Sa vz. 58 was developed by Ing. Jiri Cermak in 1956 and 1957, adopted by the Czechoslovakian army in 1958. and was produced by Ceska Zbrojovka in Uhersky Brod, Czechoslovakia until 1983. Approximately one million Sa vz. 58 rifles were produced during it's 20 year production run. As of 2007, it is still the standard issue service rifle in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.


The new Tactical and Military Sporter models are manufactured by combining original Sa vz. 58 components with a new semi-auto only milled receiver, a new trigger mechanism and new fire control parts.
While the appearance of the VZ 58 looks similar to the AK-47, it was inspired by the German StG 44 and initial development was actually based on the 7.92 x 33. Mechanically, the VZ 58 is completely different from the AK-47, and no parts including magazines are interchangeable.


Differences between the VZ 58 Sporter and the AK-47

• The VZ 58 has a milled receiver, the AK-47 is stamped.
  
• Even with the milled receiver it is almost one pound lighter than a stamped AK-47.
  
• The bolt of the VZ 58 stays open after the last round in the magazine has been fired.
  
• The VZ 58 has a more natural point of aim and is faster handling.
  
• The safety is more ergonomic making a faster first shot possible with the VZ 58.


• The ejection port is HUGE. There is no chance of an empty case getting stuck in the action of the VZ 58.
  
• The VZ 58 gas piston can be removed or exchanged without tools.
  
• The alloy magazine of the VZ 58 is half the weight of the steel AK-47 magazine. (.42 lb. vs. .84 lb.)
  
• VZ 58 is easier to field strip.
  
• The VZ 58 is striker fired unlike the hammer fired AK-47. This reduces the number of parts and possible points of failure.
  

Specifications:

Caliber: 7.62x39mmAction: Gas operated, tilting breach block

Overall length: 913 mm / 35.94''

Barrel length: 410 mm / 16.14''

Weight: with empty magazine 3.32 kg / 7.32 lbs

Magazine capacity: 30 rounds

Sights: 100 to 800 meter adjustable rear, hooded front

Stock: Zytel Stock (Tactical Sporter)”

I have seen several gun magazine write-ups on the VZ 58 and most of them say that the rifle is better made, more ergonomic, more reliable, and more accurate than the AK-47. I put that out there for reference but I am not necessarily confirming that statement because ergonomics can be a matter of personal preference and the quality of the AK-47 can differ depending upon who made it. The AK-47 is probably the most prolifically manufactured battle rifle in the world being manufactured in dozens of countries and countless factories both large production factories and small one-man shops in the northern tribal areas of Pakistan. I will go on record and say that the VZ-58 is a very well made rifle and the workmanship, fit and finish are better than any of the AK-47s I have ever handled. I shoot the VZ-58 perhaps the best of any of the carbines that will be examined in this series.



The VZ is another very fun carbine to shoot. All shots fired in the review were at a range of 75 feet with Wolf 7.62X39mm hollow point ammo.
This first target was shot during sight-in and it is odd that the smaller the silhouette the smaller the grouping.


Once sighted in it was easy to hit these little 3 inch Birchwood Casey Shoot ‘N See targets at 75 feet.
The VZ-58 is a well made carbine chambered for the 7.62X39mm bullet that has given the U.S. so much trouble from the Korea War to the Gulf conflicts and the War on Terror. The 7.62, in my opinion, is more effective than our Military 5.56mm cartridge. While the 7.62 124 grain round moves a little slower (about 2400 feet per second) compared to the 55 grain 5.56mm cartridge (about 2700 feet per second) the muzzle energy of the 7.62 is substantially greater at 1600 foot pounds of energy as opposed to the 1300 foot pounds of energy produced by the 5.56 round.


The VZ also sports a very intimidating appearance and if you can get over the fact that it looks like the rifle that the terrorists use you will have one very effective firearms on your hands.

Carbines for Home Defense

I know that the title of this blog is Average Joe’s Handgun Review but I feel that everyone ought to have at least one carbine for the defense of their domicile so we’ll address that in a three part series regardless of the blog’s name.

A handgun is good and there are definitely times when a handgun is the only firearm that you might be able to carry but there are certain advantages to the carbine. Such as:

1. Accuracy. A carbine is easier to aim, steadier to hold, and has a longer barrel and sight radius all of which adds up to more accuracy, especially under stress and especially if a shot needs to be taken at a longer range than the average distance of most encounters.

2. Capacity. Most modern military clone carbines have a capacity of 30 rounds.

3. Power. The 16 inch barrel length of the carbine is going to provide a higher velocity than a 3 to 5 inch handgun barrel and most carbines are chambered for a more powerful cartridge than your average pistol or revolver.

4. Intimidation factor. A home invader or other criminal miscreant will be more intimidated by the sight of a carbine than they will a handgun. That means that you might be able to end the confrontation without firing a shot and that is always preferable to a shootout.

Now there are those who may say that a carbine is too powerful for home use and could easily over penetrate and mortally injure an innocent person, even if you squarely hit the bad guy. Well, yes…with standard full metal jacket ball ammunition that could happen but frangible ammo for most popular carbines calibers is available from Extreme Shok, Fiocchi, Mag Safe, and Winchester. There are also those who may say that the carbine is unwieldy inside your home and presents a temptation for the assailant to try to pull it away from you as the carbine extends too far away from the body. Not necessarily. Some time ago Thunder Ranch owner/operator Clint Smith examined this issue in a GUNS magazine article. In it Smith measured the distance from the butt stock to the muzzle when he had shouldered the carbine and compared that with the distance from shoulder to muzzle when holding a pistol in the isosceles stance. The distance was just about the same.

So who really needs a carbine? Well, let’s list them out:

1. If you live or have a vacation home in a rural area where the response to a 911 emergency call can take from 30 minutes to three hours then you need a carbine, perhaps 10 high capacity magazines and an ample supply (say, oh…900 rounds or so) of ammunition.

2. If you live in a suburban area where the response to a 911 emergency call can take from 10 to 30 minutes then you need a carbine and perhaps five high capacity magazines. In a worst case scenario if you had to keep us a continuous rate of fire for 15 minutes, how much ammo and how many magazines would that take?

3. If you live in an urban area which could fall prey to civil unrest for several days due to an extended power failure or natural disaster (hurricane, flood, earthquake, etc.) then you need a carbine and the same amount of ammo as in the rural scenario in point #1. There may be looting, rioting, and insufficient law enforcement for 72 hours.

I could also throw in a camping scenario but I figure that if you are a camper and a regular reader of this blog then you already have figured out what you need to protect yourself in the deep woods.

So if you have come to feel that you may need to have a carbine, read on!
We are going to look at four different carbines; one that is somewhat expensive but is probably what most people think of when they envision a carbine, one that is a little more reasonably priced and may surprise you as to its actual origin, one that harkens back to WWII, and one that is very reasonably priced but lacks the speed and capacity of a military carbine. However what this last carbine trades off in terms of speed and capacity it makes up for in the accuracy department.

We’ll start by looking at a military clone of an AR-M4 platform made by Bushmaster and is chambered for 5.56mm military ammunition or caliber .223 commercial loads. After the presidential election these have become scarce as they have the 30 round detachable magazine and telescopic butt stock there were temporarily banned during the last time we endured a president from the Democratic Party. Somewhere there must be a high rate of murder committed by psychotic gang members who have bludgeoned people to death with detachable magazines and telescopic butt stocks because the liberal gun grabbers are scared to death of them.

Bushmaster’s version of the M4A3 carbine sports a detachable carry handle with fully adjustable front and rear sights calibrated for accurate fire from 300 to 600 meters. So…she should work just fine in the 25 yard indoor range (as I write this it is minus 17 degrees so outside shooting just ain’t going to happen unless I see Osama Bin Laden parachuting into our subdivision).

The carbine has a lightweight 14 inch barrel with a combined compensator/flash suppressor permanently attached to the muzzle bringing the total barrel length to the 16 inch legal minimum. Within the barrel both the bore and chamber are chromed line to protect and increase the longevity of the barrel, enhance reliability, and make clean-up easier.

As mentioned earlier the butt stock is telescopic and allegedly had six positions although I seem to need only two; fully extended for shooting and fully closed for ease of carry and storage. I guess those other four positions are there should I ever need them.

AR rifles have a reputation for accuracy and this little carbine can turn in a great performance as well. These military clones have a wide price range between $700 and $3,000 bucks so this is not a purchase to be entered into lightly. In doing some internet searching you can find the AR platform available from Colt, Smith & Wesson, Bushmaster, Rock River Arms, Saber Defense, DPMS, Les Baer, Wilson Combat, and a whole host of others. Even Canada’s Para Ordnance has opened a factory in the U.S. and is producing a good looking AR rifle under the name of their new division, Para USA. In researching the various internet forums and boards you can find all sorts of wannabe gun experts (and that includes me) that will happily give you their opinion about every firearm out there. The differentiating factor is that I have owned and shot every firearms posted on this blog several times (some for several years) before I have written about them. It is amazing to see the number of people on the internet who will tell you that a certain firearm that you are interested in is a complete POS and when you pin them down for specifics they eventually admit that they have never so much as even held the firearm. This is neither a commercial for me nor a condemnation of every person who pens an internet opinion merely a caution to make sure the person who is giving you advice actually has formed it through personal experience. The main reason I bring this up is that in researching whether or not to buy this Bushmaster carbine the internet gun gurus were pretty much split down the middle. What I began to see is that the people who were “Pro-Bushmaster” said things like “I love mine”, “Mine is very accurate”, “I’ve never had a problem with mine” while the group that was “Anti-Bushmaster” spouted advice like “They’re a piece of crap”, “You can do better than that”, and my favorite “I had a friend who had nothing but problems…”. The people who liked them actually spoke of owning and shooting the Bushmaster. The people who condemned them never spoke of currently owning one, previously owning one, trading one away, selling one, giving one away or even beating it into the proverbial plowshare. Along with that none of the disdainers mentioned any personal shooting experience either.

One of the advantages of a carbine over a rifle is that it is handier and easier to tote around. Of the three that we will be looking at over the next several weeks that certainly rings true with the Bushmaster M4A3 due to its telescopic stock. This baby is easy to carry and easy to get into action. The standard AR rifle weighs between 8.5 and 9 pounds while the carbine weighs 6.22 pounds. Those 6 plus pounds along with the low recoil of the 5.56mm ammunition makes the carbine easy to shoot and makes follow up shots fast and quick.

The adjustable sights on the Bushmaster were easy to regulate however I had a very difficult time seeing them in the in-hospitable indoor range lighting. Regardless, the Bushmaster turned in a pretty good 5.5 inch target at 75 feet as seen below.

Not wanting to go through the eye muscle gymnastics that it took to get this group I decided to put an economical red dot sight on the carbine to make shooting a little more easier and pleasurable. In asking for a recommendation at the gun shop/range they pointed me to this little BSA optic which retailed for $79.00. Installation was a breeze but sighting in was a little more problematic. They offered to laser bore sight it in for me which seemed to be a fairly simple process of affixing a laser pointer type device inside the barrel and zeroing the red dot on your optic to where the red dot from the laser bore optic is hitting down range. What I found by this experience is that the laser bore sight has to fit very snuggly in the barrel in order for the sighting process to be accurate. It apparently wasn’t tight and the BSA red dot optic was off. In the target below you will see some hits above the small orange silhouette in the upper left hand corner…I was aiming for center mass…of the silhouette below it. Therefore the three silhouettes you see are all a part of my manual sighting in process.
I know that these target are not easy to see and I will post some better one soon.

There is no doubt in my mind that I will continue to fine tune this little gem and get these groups tighter and tighter. The final word on the Bushmaster M4A3 is that it is one really fun little carbine to shoot, of course…that’s only my opinion.

Coming Soon...Average Joe on Carbines for Protection of Hearth and Home

The Name is “Joe, Average Joe”
An Examination of the Walther PPK and the PPK/S

My friend Doc Wesson has inferred that I have reviewed so many 9mm pistols recently that the blog should be renamed “Average Joe’s 9mm Handgun Review”. So in deference to Ole Doc we’ll leave the 9mms in the safe today and examine a pair of small pistols chambered for the .380 ACP or, as it is know in Europe, the 9mm Kurtz (short) or 9mm Browning…hmmm, doesn’t seem like we distanced ourselves too much from the 9mm after all.

Anyway, we are going to look at platform for one of the most successful pocket pistols of all time, the Wather PPK (choice of the James Bond) and its Americanized version, the PPK/S.
Carl Walther (1860 -1915) began his career as an apprentice gunsmith and eventually opened up his own business in 1886 focusing on making target rifles. He became infatuated by the small blowback pistols designed by American firearms genius John Browning, who had a great following in Europe as Fabrique Nationale of Belgium was producing many of Browning’s designs.

Walther worked on his designs for many years until success was reached in 1911 with Model #1, a small pocket pistol chambered for the 6.35mm (or .25 ACP) round. From this point until 1929 Walther’s company continued to build small pistols in the 6.35mm caliber as well as the 7.65 (or .32 ACP) in models 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. All of these pistols were straight blowback designs with internal firing mechanisms.

In November of 1930 the Walther Company was granted a patent for their Polizei-Pistole (Model PP) which was a revolutionary design for its time. The PP was a 7.65mm/.32 ACP caliber pistol with a 7 round magazine, a 3.86 inch barrel, an external hammer and traditional double action mode of firing (first round is a long double action pull and the subsequent rounds are fired in the single action mode as the retraction of the slide cocks the hammer). The PP also sported a “loaded chamber” indicator in a pin that extended from the rear of the slide, just above the exposed hammer, when there was a round in the chamber. Another revolutionary feature of the PP was the frame mounted magazine release located on the left side of the frame, just in back of the trigger, instead of the heal mounted magazine release more commonly found on European pistols. Lastly, after chambering the first round (which would leave the hammer in the cocked, single action position) activating the safety lever would safely lower the hammer onto the live round rendering the pistol safe and ready for double action fire.

The PP became widely popular, especially with the German police and paramilitary factions and Walther produced it in .380 ACP, .25 ACP and .22 Long Rifle as well as the original .32 ACP chambering.

The success of the PP, which is by no means a large pistol, brought about requests for a more compact version for plainclothes police officers. Thus the Kriminalpolizei-Pistole or Model PPK was born. This was merely a shortened PP with a grip frame that held a 6 round magazine and a shortened slide containing a 3.35 inch barrel. This was another extremely successful design and was chosen for the cinematic depiction of the British Secret Service as just about every James Bond, from Connery to Craig, has carried the PPK.

PPKs sold well in the United States and were employed as the pocket pistol back-up guns for many police officers until the Gun Control Act of 1968 restricted their importation due to its small size (and as we all know, crime plummeted and became almost non-existent…pardon my sarcasm aimed at the misguided and naïve notions of the liberals who think that the mere prohibition of material items will curb crime and violence—it’s not things, it’s people). This lead Walther to combine the PP and PPK to meet the requirement for importation by using the shortened slide of the PPK on top of the larger grip frame of the PP which they named the PPK/S. The PPK/S became a hit as Americans liked the longer grip frame which allowed them to get their entire hand around the pistol.

The first pistol we are going to examine is a vintage 1966 PPK produced 2 years before the GCA of ’68. This is an original Walther with no importation markings on the pistol. The PPK sports brown plastic wrap-around grips and a lanyard ring at the bottom of the grip frame. This small pocket pistol is, for lack of a better term, a honey. It is very accurate for its intended range (I could work with it very well out to 31 feet and was still getting solid upper torso hits out to 50 feet).

(upper torso shot with 50 rounds at 21 feet--bottom torso shot with 50 rounds at 31 feet.)

(head shot at 21 feet--torso shot at 50 feet)

One of the things that I was expecting but did not experience was the famous Walther slide bite. This has been written about for years and I did experience it in two PPK/S pistols I owned in the past, one an Interarms import in the early 1980’s and the other one was a stainless steel more recent model now made by Smith & Wesson. In both of those the bottom of the slide ripped into the web of my hand when the slide retracted drawing blood during shooting sessions of more than 50 rounds. However, this 1966 made pistol leaves no mark on my hands whatsoever.

My current mode of carry for this pocket pistol is…in an Uncle Mike’s basic pocket holster placed in my pocket. With a length of 6.1 inches, a height of 3.8 inches, and a width of .98 inches the PPK is not uncomfortable to carry in a side pocket and loaded with potent defensive ammo like Hornady’s new “Critical Defense ammo”, you are well protected. Hornady’s .380 ACP Critical Defense ammo pushes a 90 grain bullet at 1,000 feet per second with 200 foot pounds of energy. The Critical Defense ammunition is a hollowpoint bullet where the cavity is filled with a red rubber substance ending in a tip that swells upon contact. The rubber tip means reliable feeding in a small semi-automatic pistol and also insures consistent bullet expansion as the rubber substance swell and forces the hollowpoint bullet to expand. Many hollow points can get clogged with any clothing material (like thick denim) that limits proper performance. The Hornady Critical Defense ammo was designed to remedy this situation.

We have already discussed the origins of the PPK/S In the 1980’s the Walther pistols were being imported by Interarms of Alexandria, Virginia and, for reasons unknown to me, the quality varied. Now Walther is having them made by Smith & Wesson in their Maine plant and the quality is certainly up to par. Since they are being made in the U.S. they can once again produce the smaller PPK but to date I have not seen one for sale anywhere near me. The Walther-America catalogue shows offerings for the PPK and PPK/S in Stainless Steel only, however the model I picked up for this review is a very handsome two-toned model with a blued frame and stainless slide with polished sides and a matte finish on top to reduce glare. This pistol is also very accurate as this target which shows the first 28 rounds out of the box at 21 feet demonstrates. [ Shots out to 31 Feet and 50 feet are accurate enough to get the job done.

The dimensions for the PPK/S are similar to the PPK except for the height which is 4.3 inches for the PPK/S as opposed to 3.8 inches for the PPK. The PPK/S comes with two 7 round magazines one which fits flush with the bottom of the grip frame and one that has a finger extension. I like the finger extension magazine the best; however it makes the grips a little long for pocket carry. It is thin and small enough to make a great belt pistol which I find very comfortable with an inside-the-waistband holster that also allows you to tuck your shirt in between your pants and the holster such as with this Galco hoslter.

One thing that this PPK/S shared with the 1966 PPK is, again, the lack of any slide bite. I was very happy that neither of these pistols lived up to their reputation for shredding your hand. Both pistols also had good trigger pulls coming in at around 8 pounds for the double action pull and just under 5 for the single action pull.

There are only two recommendations I could make. One is for both pistol’s sights. They are very small and although it does not hamper the accuracy very much I would prefer it if they were larger. The second recommendation is for the modern PPK/S. The edges of the grip frame are fairly sharp all the way from the trigger guard around the grip frame up to the hammer. These sharp edges did not injure my hand, but the pistol would be more comfortable if they were rounded off.

The only thing I think that is left open for discussion is the caliber of these pistols. Many of you may be thinking that a .380 just doesn’t cut it as a defensive round and I understand that notion but I have come across some interesting commentary in a book that I would like to share with you. The following passages come from The Complete Gun Owner, Your guide to Selection, Use, Safety, and Self Defense by James M. Ayres. The book was published in 2008 by Krause Publications. In this first passage Ayres is talking about the PPK in its .32 ACP chambering:

The pocket sized Walther was first recommended to me by a Hungarian Freedom Fighter who had fought Russian tanks with bottles of flaming gasoline in the streets of Budapest. Gabor (not his real name) had also accounted for a number of Russian soldiers with his 7.65 (.32) Walther PPK….Gabor said “I know, I know, in America everything must be jumbo….but you should understand that it’s not only the Cowboys with their blazing .45s that know how to employ guns”.

In this second passage, Ayres talks about the .380 cartridge:

One of my training sergeants, Sergeant First Class Poleaski, carried a Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless .380 ACP in a shoulder holster during his service with the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. He jumped into Italy and fought his way up the boot. Then he was pulled out and sent north. He jumped into Normandy before the D-Day landings and later at Nimagen (A Bridge Too Far).

One night when we were getting close to the bottom of a bottle of bourbon I asked him why he didn’t carry a .45. He said, “The .45 is over-rated and too heavy. I killed Nazis with this little pistol all over Europe. What counts son is where you shoot them.”

I, for one, do not think that the .45 ACP is over-rated. But I do agree with the two points being made in these two passages:
1. You need to know your weapon very well meaning practice and training and quite a bit of it.
2. Shot placement is the most important factor.

I am very confident that the PPK-PPK/S provides a package that can be with you just about all the time, is accurate enough to get the job done, and good defensive ammunition is available for it. The rest is up to me.