This is a very scarce example of an early pre-war Czechoslovakian ZH-29 semi-automatic rifle. This was the second type of semi-automatic rifle designed by the Brno factory in Czechoslovakia, prior to WWII. The left side of the receiver is marked "CESKOSLOVENSKA ZBROJOVKA/AKCIOVA/ SPOLECNOST/ BRNO". The top rear heel of the receiver is marked "10217/AUTOMATICKA PUSKA/Z.H.29". This rifle also has a unique, one-piece aluminum finned cooling block, with the stock and forend manufactured from European walnut. The barrel is fitted with an inverted "v" front sight with a fully adjustable military style rear sight mounted on the top rear area of the receiver. In the late 1920s early 1930s, these rifles were marketed all over the world to various governments to include the U.S. with the intent to develop a military contract for a semi-automatic type service rifle. A similar version was actually built and tested by the Japanese in the their 1935 Test Trials with an almost identical version shown on page 167 in the book "Military Rifles Of Japan" (2nd ed., Honeycutt). It is listed as prototype rifle that was manufactured by the Tokyo Gas and Electric (TGE) Company. This weapon is very unique in that it has gas-operating mechanism, and the bolt locking system is very similar to the Belgium FN-FAL series of rifles only it's mounted on the right side of the rifle instead on top. The rifle used 100% machined parts that were held to close tolerances with final hand fitting, polishing and bluing. The action was designed to be disassembled using only the tip of a bullet as all the major takedown pins are non-tapered, and two large pins hold the upper and lower receiver groups together making field disassembly very easy. During firing, the rear of the breech bolt actually slides to the right during unlocking and then recoils to the rear of the receiver inside the bolt carrier. A fine example of a very unique early production semi-automatic rifle. This scarce rifle comes with an original small armorers' repair/cleaning kit stored in a wooden box, with two rare spare magazines; one 5 round and one 10 round box magazines.

Very fine with 75% plus of the original blue finish overall with blue wear and thinning on the receiver and sides of the exposed barrel area. The wood components are all in very fine condition with a nice medium brown color overall showing light handling marks/pressure dents in some areas. A very fine example of a scarce early semi-automatic test rifle.