With the fall of communism in Romania, the Cugir Arsenal complex lost its government financial support. Looking for commercial products to sell to keeps its workers employed, the factory turned to producing hunting rifles for the domestic Romanian market. This was possible because the factory had a stock of spare parts for maintaining the older weapons of the Romanian Patriotic Guards (equivalent to a territorial home guard). These included vz.24 Mausers and MG34 machine guns.
The Model 92 was a rifle built on a vz.24 Mauser action. The first 500 or so were chambered for 7.92x57mm Mauser, using turned-down spare MG34 barrels. When these barrels were exhausted, Mauser barrels were used instead and chambered for .30-06. A few thousand in total were made between 1992 and 1996, and remained available for sale into the late 2000s. The fancier versions have features like double set triggers and Cugir-made telescopic sights. This particular example was given as a gift to the Romanian Prime Minister in 2006.
Thanks to MP Armory and A.N.C.A., the Romanian national firearms collectors’ association, for making this video possible!
https://www.anca.com.ro
Idk if it means something different in romanian, but Dragana is a serbian female name, “Drag” meaning “Dear”.
Sadly, sometimes Bubba has access to the state armories and a factory…
It’s sad to think what the values would have been on legit intact vz.24 rifles and just the parts on the MG34s they had left, plus whatever other rara avis objects were left in those arsenals…
When all the ugliness is over, I really hope Ian gets access to all those salt mine storage depots stretching across Eastern Europe. I’ll lay you long odds that there are things in those things that would have us all weeping with envy, for the experience.
Yeesh… “We’ve got these vintage vz.24 rifles in immaculate condition, and all these MG34 bits and pieces… I know! I know! Let’s build really half-ass civilian hunting rifles out of them…”
Is it just me, or is that not the personification of the “Bubba mentality”?
Kirk:
That was my first reaction. Does the world need new deer rifles made from rare old guns and parts? It’s not as if there is any shortage.
This sort of madness may have made some sort of sense up to the 1960s, but not any more. Umpteen companies make deer rifles, MG34 barrels, not so much. Communism strikes again.
Exactly my thought. Where are all of the MG34 sporters with a Mannlicher stock?
Remember that in such time surplus rifles were dirt cheap, youre approaching this with 2024 eyes, not 1994.
My VZ24 sniper was $85 at the Fayetteville Rose’s in 1994. Fortunes are made and lost during the fall of empires.
If I were a plant manager, keeping my employees working so they could feed their families seems much more important than preserving old things.
The sad reality was that “managers” in post communism transition to capitalist system all over easter europe destroyed many of these companies and sold valuable equipment for scrap, gaining millions just for themselves and their cliques. Diabolical element was that many (or most even) of them were ex communist cadres, before 90s already having their paws on capital and making connections for big steal that came afterwards. Basicly, it was a crook type of people who would swim in any ideology just to gain a profit for themselves, and rotting communism was brimming with such people in the end of 80s, thats why it had no viable future.
The takeup of a double set trigger can usually be adjusted by a small screw, that oftentimes needs disassembly of the gun to be accessible.
In Romanian “draga” also means dear. Probably a loan word
I wonder if it was custom made for the Prime Minister and if so he must have been a pretty big guy. That stock appears to be extra long.
The end of WW2 left Europe swamped with Mauser rifles, and until ~2000s it was entirely feasible for a gunsmith to get Mauser actions and built economic hunting rifles based on them.
The innovations of European gun makers (Mauser 66, Sauer 80 etc) may have been an attempt to try to gain an edge over the surplus Mauser hunting rifles.