BRNO ZKM 611, gave me a scare

[beagleye]

I paid handsomely for this gun, it was a "buy it now" full price type situation. It arrived looking lovely and unused in its' original box. The metal work is outstanding! Hard to compare with anything. The texturing of different surfaces, the etched factory marks, the fit of metal to metal, the smooth operation of the bolt, the contour of the stock, the wood itself, metal to wood fit, all just remarkable!

Then there is the checkering. What happened there. Did they just spend all their money on other things, were the checkering workers out on strike, what happened?!

And then the real horror began yesterday when I tried to use it- it won't feed, not once. Every cartridge wedges in diagonally, stuck! I was super bummed, considering the whole mess of sorting these things out with sellers long distance. So I kept messing with it and after a lot of head scratching determined the firing pin was in backwards, preventing it from retracting in the bolt face. The firing pin is almost symmetrical end to end, and considering that this gun appears factory new, I think it probably came from the factory this way and was never sorted out.

I was saying new but not anymore. I shot the heck out of it today. Man that is some super charged plinking. I think I will leave this one in open sights. It is a very handy gun. If I can get smooth with the magazines, I think it would do well for home defense. It is a super fun plinker, it will be an excellent varminter. Also I think this gun will be a favorite for new and young shooters.

The downside of this gun is having had it apart, it's not a simple gun and BRNO is gone. Parts. Maybe I'll get a beater for parts. Some guns I want to preserve and protect. This gun, I just want to wear it out.

[LoboGunLeather]

Welcome to the post Soviet Union collapse world. BRNO was world renowned for quality prior to WW2, and even during Soviet occupation they continued to produce excellent quality sporting arms for the international trade. Somewhere along the line, after the old Soviet Union fell apart, BRNO/Zastava/CZ produced tons of products that were of questionable quality.

Today's CZ products display a very high degree of sophisticated design and production superiority. BRNO products from the 1960's, and especially pre-WW2, are uniformly excellent.

Unfortunately there was a lot of "get it done and ship it out" going on in recent decades.

[beagleye]

One last one of the nice metal

[eveled]

I’ve checkered exactly 1 rifle stock and I can do a better job than that! Lol. Glad you got the firing pin sorted. It’s a handsome rifle enjoy it.

[Walter Rego]

I have always wanted one of those. The last one I saw for sale at a show about a year ago looked new in the box and the seller wanted something like $1200 which was about $500 more that I was prepared to spend. Seems like it would be a great coyote gun.

[beagleye]

Originally Posted by Walter Rego

I have always wanted one of those. The last one I saw for sale at a show about a year ago looked new in the box and the seller wanted something like $1200 which was about $500 more that I was prepared to spend. Seems like it would be a great coyote gun.

I gave north of a grand for this one. Usually I'm a bargain hunter, but this was more of a splurge. I wanted this one for the wood and the box. But man, fun to shoot! I am going to keep this one handy. Hard to imagine a nicer handling gun. Perfect density and barrel heavy feel, like a marlin 30-30. And the 22 WMR bullets apparently strike with energy similar to a 9mm. Which bear out under observation. It's a surprisingly potent round. It would chew you up.

Follow up thought- why did cz discontinue the cz 512 WMR carbine!? I'm sure it was not selling is the answer, but it's a bummer. A new thought I am having is that a 22 WMR Semi Auto carbine is a great home defense devise. I would snag one of those 512 22 WMR carbines in a new york minute.