Tomiska’s Czech Army Pistol: Empty Magazine Auto-Ejection

Alois Tomiška is best known for designing the first commercially successful double-action semiautomatic pistol, the “Little Tom”. But he also designed this pistol for very early Czechoslovakian military pistol. The first trial in the program was in 1920, and the winner of the trial was Josef Nickl with what became the vz.24 pistol. Tomiška and the South Bohemia Arms Factory continued to develop their gun for the next several years until 1924. The pistol we have today is an intermediate modulating from about 1922. It has a lot of features, including a magazine safety and automatic ejection of empty magazines. Tomiška really thought his gun was better than the Nickl design, and he spent a lot of time trying to get the trial results overturned. By 1924 he had made so much of an annoyance of himself in this endeavor that the South Bohemia Arms Factory fired him, and he spend the next four years working on the Little Tom commercial pistol instead.

Thanks to the Czech Military History Institute (VHU) for graciously giving me access to this one-of-a-kind prototype to film for you! If you have the opportunity, don’t miss seeing their museums in Prague:

https://www.vhu.cz/en/english-summary/

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