Zastava M70

The Zastava M70 (Serbian Cyrillic: Застава М70) is an assault rifle developed and produced by Zastava Arms in Kragujevac, Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia). The design of the M70 was based on modified Soviet AK-47 and AKM assault rifles and it became the standard issue weapon in the Yugoslav People's Army in 1970. The M70 is an air-cooled, magazine-fed, selective fire rifle. This weapon is also available as a modern sporting rifle in the US without select fire capabilities.

History

Development of the domestic Kalashnikov variant began in 1959, and the first models submitted by Zastava for military field trials were with the early M64 (or M59) series of rifles with milled receivers, threaded barrels, familiar Zastava handguards, gas cutoffs for grenade launching, and several other diversities from the mainstay AK design, such as a bolt hold open device on the right side of the receiver, and a charging handle that appeared different from other AK models. Though performances were satisfactory, the Yugoslav military did not adopt the rifle as the standard infantry armament.

Zastava M70 (pistol)

The Zastava M70 (formerly known as CZ M70 (Crvena Zastava Model 1970) is produced by Zastava Arms as a sidearm for Yugoslavian police and certain military officers. The pistol was loosely based on the Zastava M57, but is scaled down to accept smaller and less powerful 7,65mm Browning (.32 ACP) or 9mm Kratak (.380 ACP).

Design details

The M70 pistol is a recoil action design and can be easily removed during disassembly of the pistol. The trigger is Single Action. Owing to its Tokarev design lineage, the hammer unit is removable as one piece. The manual safety lever is located on the left side of the frame, above grip panel, and is forward to fire, back for "safe." The sights are fixed.

Users

For many years these pistols were used by Yugoslavian police and military. Today many of these pistols are sold worldwide as surplus and are popular among the civilians in Serbia (sometimes referred as "Pčelica" (little bee)) as well as backup guns for police.

See also