| Vz. 24 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Bolt-action rifle |
| Place of origin | Czechoslovakia |
| Service history | |
| Used by | See Users |
| Wars | Constitutionalist Revolution Chaco War Ecuadorian–Peruvian War Spanish Civil War Second Sino-Japanese War World War II Chinese Civil War Biafran War |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1924 |
| Manufacturer | Zbrojovka Brno |
| Produced | 1924–1942 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 4.2 kg (9.2 lb) |
| Length | 1,100 mm (43.3 in) |
| Barrel length | 590 mm (23.23 in) |
| Cartridge | 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, 7.65×53mm Argentine |
| Action | Bolt-action |
| Feed system | 5-round internal box magazine, two-row, integral box, with detachable floorplate |
| Sights | Iron sights |
The vz. 24 rifle is a bolt-action carbine designed and produced in Czechoslovakia from 1924 to 1942. It was developed from the German Mauser Gewehr 98 line, and features a similar bolt design. The rifle was designed in Czechoslovakia shortly after World War I, to replace the Vz. 98/22, also a Czech derivative of the Gewehr 98. The vz. 24 featured a 590 mm (23.2 in) barrel which was shorter and considered more manageable than the 740 mm (29.1 in) Gewehr 98 barrel. The vz. 24 was chambered in 7.92×57mm Mauser like its predecessors.
Throughout the late 1920s and into the 1930s, Czechoslovakia exported hundreds of thousands of vz. 24 rifles to various countries across the globe, with variants chambered in the original 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, and 7.65×53mm Argentine. These included contracts for several South American countries, most of which were 7 mm or 7.65 mm guns. Around 40,000 rifles were sent to Spanish Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. Nearly 200,000 rifles were purchased by China, seeing action in the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Iran purchased vz. 24 rifles, along with two other variants, through the late 1920s and 1930s, and later produced their own copies in the late 1940s.
Germany acquired hundreds of thousands of the rifles in 1939 when they occupied Czechoslovakia and pressed them into service under the designation "Gewehr 24(t)"; during the occupation, production of the rifles continued until 1942, when the factories were converted to the German Karabiner 98k. During this period, several hundred thousand rifles were also built for the Romanian Army. Vz. 24 rifles saw extensive service during World War II in multiple theaters, predominantly with the German and Romanian armies on the Eastern Front. Lithuanian vz. 24s, which had been captured during the German invasion in 1941, were later seized by Soviet forces, who in turn used them to arm the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.