Brno VZ24 crest gone

[dualsport]

Can someone tell me why the crest would be ground off my Cz24? Everything else is normal. Marked 1937, no German or Israeli markings.

[Who's this Guy ?]

If it is marked 1937 on the top of the reciever it went to Japan and was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Serial numbers start with a P. Some have been modified to accept the Japanese bayonet

[dualsport]

I should have made that clearer, it's not actually marked "1937", just the factory "E3[lion]37". Someone on another forum said it was done by the Russians after they took it from the Czechs.

[Who's this Guy ?]

I use to own a vz-24 much like yours however the crest was defaced and not totally taken off. It is very probable yours fell into Communist hands and was thrown about to different countries for use. Vz-24's that made it to Nicaragua had their crests removed and still maintained some original markings and some added extras as they changed hands. Usually those that were used in Nicaragua have on the left side of the buttstock under a big triangle the words "Gobierno De Nicaragua".

[junkbug]

The great bulk of Czeckoslovakian issue VZ-24 rifles eventually went to Romania during the early part of WWII. Romania had several regime changes during the war, going from a monarchy to a fascist dictatorship. No doubt the new fascist regime went to considerable effort to erase all signs of the former monarchy, even on rifle receivers, but they didn't get them all.

I don't buy that the Russians defaced them during their refurbishment of captured arms. They made little effort to deface Nazi markings, why bother with the Romanian monarchy? A lot of russian capture/refurbished VZ-24 rifles have scrubbed crests, but I believe they were already scrubbed when they were captured.

Plenty of VZ-24 rifles from documented Romanian sources are scrubbed also.