Pistol-caliber carbines are a common topic for discussion on this here back porch of mine, and I thought I’d make mention of this puppy, CZ’s latest incarnation of their excellent little Skorpion subby, the Scorpion EVO 3+ which comes with a 16″ barrel and folding stock.
Look, it’s come a long way from their original little full-auto sweetie, the SA vz.61:
…most notably in that the EVO’s chambering has been (marginally) upgraded from the original .32 ACP to the 9mm Europellet, and the new guy just looks better than the toy-sized original. (I also like the fake suppressor on the EVO carbine, guaranteed to give the gun nannies fits, but which is removable so one can add a real suppressor onto its threaded barrel for extra-added hysteria.)
The EVO 3+ also comes in a 4″ pistol configuration:
…but I think it’s butt-ugly and if you want CZ reliability in a pistol, then the CZ 75B will do just fine.
Getting back to the carbine: the nice thing about the new Scorpion is that it retails for well under a grand (compared to the HK MP5 at 3x), and its magazines are, at ~$30, likewise much cheaper than HK. The only bummer, as far as I can see, is that the Scorpion doesn’t accept the CZ 75’s mags but uses a proprietary one.
As I’ve said before, I’m somewhat dubious about the utility of a 9mm carbine, but I reckon that if you must have one, this new Scorpion seems to fit the bill. More about it here, and these guys sell it as well as the mags.
Afterthought: you know what I’d really like to see? A Scorpion chambered in .45 ACP. matched with their manly CZ 97 B pistol:
I used to own one of these (sold during the Great Poverty Episode), and I miss it terribly. What a beautiful gun it is, to be sure.
