For those who are wondering what this submachine gun is doing on the Firearms UK Page, you may be surprised to know that this is a fully UK Legal .22LR Rifle. Not only is it fully legal, but it’s also enormous fun and should soon be hitting RFD’s shelves.
It’s a genuine Vz.61 Scorpion. It’s put together in the exact same Czech factory where they put together the military Vz.61 in 7.62×25 and the very well known still currently legal VZ.58 MARS rifles and it feels absolutely rock-solid. I picked this up from Gunfellas (www.gunfellas.co.uk) just after getting my FAC, they were more than happy to run me through what it was and how it worked before posting out to my local RFD.
I have to admit now; this gun raises a few eyebrows. Not only eyebrows, actually it most certainly gained me a few dirty looks when the RFD opened the box up in front of a group of ‘All-In-Tweed and over 80’s’ shooters at my nearest clay club when it first arrived. But at the end of the day, whether people like it or not, it’s legal and it’s fun.
It has a full metal body (upper, lower, shroud, stock) and it breaks apart just like the real thing. Two pins hold the upper and lower together which pop out to break the receiver in two, much like your typical AR. From there you can whip the bolt out the back and strip the whole thing down to the smallest part. From my strips and cleans the whole thing was pain-free and no tools required., Just how you want it.
The rifle is vertical ejecting and has ambidextrous charging, which is nice for those of you firing from the other shoulder but can lead to a bit of a brass-shower if you’re firing indoors with a low ceiling. The magazines are a strong polymer (same as the polymer AK magazines) and hold 22 rounds, but generally I filled them to 20 so as not to entirely destroy my thumb from loading the mag and the magazines fit tightly into the bottom of the magwell but do not audibly click into position.
On to the exciting bit, what does it shoot like? I’ll be honest, you will struggle to hit stuff out to 100. Not to say I didn’t try, it just took a fair bit of time and a decent second pair of eyes to help walk it onto the target. The stock iron sights are fine and allow you to get in the general direction of the target but it certainly isn’t a target rifle.
Indoors and on a practical rifle stage it is a whole different story though; the short rifle and its light weight make it so easy to flick from target to target. The sights are instinctive to use and the stock while a little bit fidgety soon gets buried in your arm pit and you focus more on knocking down the steel targets than you do on what the gun is doing and with 20 rounds in the magazine and in my wisdom me picking up an extra 3 mags meant that you could keep this gun running non-stop. You’re more likely to run out of ammo than have this little beast jam up on you. I’ve put near 500 rounds through it in a single day and had just a single malfunction towards the end. Even that was just an ejected case somehow going full circle and falling back into the open ejection port on the next cycle.
The trigger is light and easy to use, the shroud (Not a real moderator! But looks and feels the part.) is stippled and grippy to hold onto and the whole look and feel of the rifle makes it a real sensation every time you get to use it. Hell, it’s a sensation just getting the thing out of the safe. Would I recommend it? Hell yeah. This is exactly what I want to see more of in the shops!
