History:
After the company C.Z. had transferred the production of the "Fox"-pistols to the new company in Strakonice, in March 1922 the Russian A.P.Zalubovskyi was nominated as technical leader, and the development of the " Fox"-Pistols ended under his management, simultaneously however the production of a new automatic-pistol calibers .25 was started, which was named "vz. 1922 ", model 1922.
This pistol was the only or at least one of the few arms in caliber .25, which actually has been adopted officially as service-weapon by the army.
If one takes into consideration, that the company besides the main-production of the pistols vz.1924 was nearly fully busy with the redesigning of the Lewis-machine gun for airplanes, with the manufacture of machine gun and rifle parts as well as with the production of the signal-pistols and "Fox"-pistols, it is astonishing that they also were able to produced the pistols vz.1922. It is assumed that they had to manufacture these arms, because they were already ordered by the army. The proofmarks of the army, existing on these arms, indicate that too.
Nevertheless no evidence was found, when and how much pieces of these pistols were ordered.by the ministry of defense. The written records about the order are missing, and some records exist only from the proofing of the arms. There are some facts however, that may help:
In December 1910, the management of the Skoda-works confirmed the order of the ministry of defense of 10000 selfloading-pistols. The ministry called this pistols literally as "your model". But the Skoda-Werkes manufactured no pistols! At this time only Alois Tomiska built pistols in Pilzen, and at that time he established the " Jihoceska Zbrojovka ".
In June 1920, the Skoda works told the ministry that they could not deliver the ordered pistols because they didn't fit into their production-program.
It is not to be determined which pistols the ministry of defense had ordered at the Skoda-works and how relations between the two contract-partners were established. Only the existence of the .25 caliber pistols marked by the army are reality and stay mysterious.
It therfore may be assumed that the order of the ministry of defense for the delivery of pistols calibers .25 mm was for certain higher-rank-officers of the army as personal service-weapon. Still only the "Fox"-pistols, which were built just in Pilzen at that time, could have been meant. But the army certainly had some arguments against the "Fox"-pistol, as it was a typical civilian pocket-gun, so they asked for redesign.
The Skoda-works had transferred the order to the "Jihoceska Zbrojovka" financed by them , and so they had helped the new company with the first steps. The design changes demanded by the army now took place in the "Ceska zbrojovka", and the final pattern got the typical military name "vz.1922 ". One also must point out at this opportunity, that all Czechoslovak civilian pocket-pistols had names like "Praga, Perla, Mars", and never were marked with numbers.
Caused by the already mentioned production-difficulties, the delivery-date was postponed, and the suspected number of 10000 pistols could not be produced before the year 1927 or even beginning of the year 1928. This fact is proved by the weapon with the No. 9268 and the number of the examination-protocol 307027, which indicates, that the proofing took place on the 3. Octobers 1927.
As conclusion of all thess facts, one comes to following results:
These automatic-pistols were manufactured presumably only for the Czechoslovak army during a relatively short time from 1922 to 1927 or 1928. The number of the manufactured pistols was very low and should not overstep 10000 pieces.
Technical Data:
SYSTEM: self-cocking pistol with mass system and firing pin
CARTRIDGES : 6
CALIBRE : .25 ACP
BARREL LENGTH : 63 mm , 6 grooves right hand twisting
WEIGHT EMPTY : 390 g
TOTAL LENGTH : 123 mm
TOTAL HEIGHT : 78 mm
TOTAL WIDTH : 22 mm
TRIGGER : Single Action
SIGHT : groove and front sight
SAFETY : safety-lever
FINISH : blued
GRIPS : hard rubber