CZ14_Scorpion_EVO3_S1-L-e1416840329704

If you twisted my arm and forced me to pick the most fun SMG I’ve ever shot, then the CZ Škorpion vz. 61 SMG would be my choice. It’s not the deadliest firearm ever built, but it’s a sexy beast and tons o’ fun to shoot. CZ hasn’t really had a “new” bullet hose in a while, but in the last couple years they finally came out with a sexy line of SMGs known as the EVO S3. And now they’ve brought them to the US . . .

From the description page:

Finally available for public consumption is the much anticipated Scorpion sub-gun. Imported as a pistol, it is a blowback-operated semi-auto in 9mm with a short 7¾” barrel. Equipped with our newly designed low-profile sights, its rear sight has four different aperture sizes for everything from close quarters to way out there. The sights ride on an 11” Picatinny rail perfect for mounting optics.
Simple and reliable, the Scorpion not only has ambidextrous controls, its non-reciprocating charging handle is swappable and reach to the trigger is adjustable.

Our favorite accessory for the Scorpion pistol is our new arm brace adapter, which quickly and easily adds an AR-style pistol buffer tube to the rear of the action, enabling the use of an arm brace for added stability.

The most impressive stat on the Scorpion Pistol is the price tag. At just $849, it’s a whole lot of bang for the buck.

Pistol caliber SMGs are the “in” thing this year. From the SIG SAUER MPX to the POF MP5, the new and exciting guns all come in 9mm. The reason is pretty obvious: thanks to the pistol arm brace, the barrier to entry for tiny rifles is now practically gone and people are realizing the utility of a small pistol caliber carbine for home defense as well as funtime at the range. These carbines are new and different — something other than the plain vanilla of the AR-15 platform. And people seem to really like them. At least, I do.

We’ll be asking for one to test, so stay tuned.

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68 COMMENTS

      • Ah right… “vertical foregrip”. I always forget that part because it is so inane.
        Vertical foregrip=AOW, magpul AFG or foreward grip stop = pistol.

        • After getting the immidiate no, I when to the ATF page and it jogged my memory.
          The very knowledgeable SOT I bought my can from said that AFGs were fine because the are not verticle and the ATF FAQ says verticle, but it also says “designed to be fired with two hands”. Obviously you can have a handguard on AR pistols (and the above) or they wouldn’t be legal. You cannot attach a vertical grip according to the ATF, but at what angle does a foregrip become “verticle” or make the pistol designed to be held with two hands? Why would a forward stop be ok and a AFG not be ok since neither are vertical and both are intended to aid the use of a second hand?

          All of this asside, with the risk of 10 years in the pen, I would put no foregrips, other than the handguard, on AR-like pistols. And then maybe I should be calling it a barrel shroud or something. As I said above… completely inane.

        • Just to make it more confusing, if the “pistol” is over 26″ in overall length then the atf no longer classifies it as a pistol (it’s now a “firearm”) and you CAN run a VFG on it. But if you conceal it then it’s a pistol and then it’s an AOW thanks to that grip. The rulings and laws are ridiculous. Also, vertical grips on the magwell are okay on an AR style pistol. Just not out in front of the magwell. Stupid stuff…

  3. Meh.
    Too big to carry and too small to call it a rifle. Put a stock and a 16″ barrel on it and you would have something more useful than a handgun for home defense.

    • Most of that 16 inch barrel would be useless. Need to get SBRs unregulated so we can make it proper.

    • Adding a 16″ barrel to a 9MM is completely pointless. That round does not make any use of that extra barrel length. The 8″ SBR is a vastly superior option. And importing it as a pistol avoids 922r as it a pistol, and that doesn’t matter for NFA items. So no, the 16″ carbine is no where near as good of an option.

      • On average, a 16-inch-barreled carbine will give a velocity increase of about 230 fps over that produced from a 4- or 5-inch-barreled pistol. This equates to about 20 fps per inch of barrel. Increasing a pistol bullet’s impact velocity by 230 fps, about 20 percent, will affect the bullet’s terminal performance. How much so depends on bullet design.

        • I don’t care about 4 inch barrels. How about you compare it to the 8-9 inch barrels these guns actually use? Those 4″ numbers are completely meaningless in this case.

          Depending on bullet, as you said, the difference between 8″ and 16″ is well under 100FPS for the majority of bullets(link below). I will take having a much more compact gun over the 75FPS that will make negligible difference at the ranges this gun is designed for. Most bullets you are looking at 5% or less gain in fps going from 8 to 16″. Not worth it, that is officially way past the point of diminishing returns.

          http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/9luger.html

        • You don’t care, huh? Well. First, the original poster dismissed this firearm as an option, and specifically compared a 16″ barrel 9mm rifle to “a handgun”, finding the PCC preferable. Your response was that adding a 16″ barrel to “a 9mm” was pointless. So I thought you meant a handgun, as well. Now we’re clear that you mean only up to the 7.75″ barrel of this article’s focus (not 8″ to 9″) is the 9mm cartridge incrementally useful, and that up to 16″ adds nothing substantial. Got it. Well, you’re still wrong.

          That mere 5% in fps you dismiss is actually more like 10%+ difference in muzzle energy, due to the prominence of fps in the muzzle energy calculation, which ultimately is the more is the more relevant parameter, anyway. Plenty of cartridges have muzzle velocities separated by just a 10% factor or so (.308 & 30.06, 22-250 & .243, for examples), yet have very different performance characteristics.

          Whether someone values the trade-offs the same way you do is not the issue. The issue is that there is value in the velocity and resulting energy of a 9mm round out of 16″ barrel, versus an 8″ barrel. Rejecting that value in favor of another option might reflect interesting subjective preference, but it does not make for a convincing objective argument.

      • After a little experimenting with powders, I achieved 1,550 fps average muzzle velocity from my Hi-Point 16.5″ 9mm carbine, approximately 300 fps more than I got with the same load from a 4″ barrel handgun.

        The longer barrel also provides for a longer sight radius for improved accuracy, and perhaps most importantly, allows for a foregrip for better control.

        … not to mention the fact that a 16 inch+ barrel allows you to put a shoulder stock on it. These factors combine for more accuracy, faster follow-up shots, and (slightly) more stopping power.

        Now consider the fact that 9mm brass is free at most ranges and can be loaded for about 16 cents a round. This means you can practice a lot for cheap.

        • The stopping power difference is negligible, as the 9mm reaches near maximum velocity out of the CZ’s 8″ barrel (as Ian T points out above).
          Longer barrels don’t inherently provide greater accuracy. A longer barrel can reduce accuracy, if the harmonics aren’t good. But if you’re using this at SMG distances (such as in the home for intruder perforation), missing is pretty much impossible.
          Longer barrels do provide a bigger, bulkier item to maneuver around with, a bigger target for an attacker to grab, and more difficulty to fire if your off hand is busy (such as grabbing a family member, or struggling with an attacker at arms length).
          You can’t put a shoulder stock on the CZ, but you can put a Sig Brace on it, which is just as good to many people.

  4. With the price for these as low as they are and the issues CZ already has with meeting demands in the US for their guns, this thing is going to be really hard to find. I still want one.

    • I don’t know that there’s very high demand for CZ pistols at the moment. This may change if the EVO is successful (and it looks like it will be), but CZ’s still remain largely unknown outside of the people who comment on gun blogs/forums. And I say this as someone who owns four CZ’s – we’re a niche market.

      I really do hope this increases CZ’s visibility to a wider market. Pre-orders apparently sold out within a day. On the one hand, I had similarly high hopes for the R51. On the other hand, this is just the civilian release of a product that’s been in the LE/military market for some time, so hopefully there aren’t any production issues which might sour people on a brand they hadn’t previously been familiar with.

  6. Very cool. Not needed but definitely wanted. I have my doubts that I will see one in the wild never mind one that is for sale to put me at risk of purchasing it. Assuming it was reliable, making it in 10 mm and having it take Glock 20 mags would put it in the no brainer category for me.

    The advent of the Sig brace and AR pistols (especially in 300 BLK subsonic) coupled with some professional CQB training has challenged my thinking about my go to home defense weapon for sure.

      • Admittedly, ignorance mostly. I have limited hands on experience, but the ergonomics of the Vector keep it out of serious consideration. The only one I saw in the wild, in 45 acp, was awkward as hell to handle for me. I would throw out its ugly and too expensive for a pygmy gun but that would be just mean.

  7. Cute, but I’d really really really want to get my paws on the Kalis 9mm sub gun.

    And now I’m never likely to do so with the embargoes that will never end.

  8. CZUSA has already confirmed the factory buttstocks will be available for purchase for those of us making an SBR. Just FYI. I asked them directly on their FB and they confirmed there.

    • That seams like an ATF nono. If a factory stock can be readily attached to a gun sold as a pistol that seems to make it an SBR or AOW by ATF reconning.

      • No. That would make basically every AR pistol illegal, or make it illegal for an AR pistol owner to also have a rifle since you could swap uppers. There are some “constructive possession” laws, but mostly the legality is in how it’s configured, not in how it could be configured. CZ also has an adapter that allows this pistol to accept AR buffer tubes, which means you could use any AR-15 buttstock on the market or the Sig SB15 brace on a pistol buffer tube (Odin Works makes the slickest one out there).

    • Enjoy, the bastards sell it for equivalent of USD 1.350 back in the Czech Republic (SBR version).

    • Plus you could buy two of these and still have some money for mags and ammo for the same price as the MPX.

  12. Just out of curiosity has anyone seen these in person (if you’re one of those lucky ones who gets to see everything before it comes out), and if so how close does that slight forward lip on the handguard (the handguard itself, not the handstop) get to the barrel threads? I would want to suppress it but I have an Osprey 9, so it looks like the handguard would disallow the can to fully attach.

  13. I’d like to see more of these in .45ACP, combined with a decent “brace” this would make a decent home defense gun with more punch than a piddly 9mm.

    • 9mm isn’t piddly. Unless you are talking about .380 and even that will kill you good.

      Only reason I would like one in .45 acp is for suppressor use. And even that isn’t a big selling point since subsonic 9×19 exists.

  14. I think this pistol will give the Sig MPX a run for its money. At a little less than half the price of MSRP on the MPX ($1599.00 for the pistol variant) I see the CZ satiating those who desire to own an MP-5 style pistol without taking out a second mortgage on the house. Also with the Sig Brace attachment this would be a perfect PSB style SBR especially when equipping it with an suppressor. Adding a AAC suppressor @ MSRP along with the current promotions you can have a suppressed CZ for around 200 (for the tax stamp) bucks (That’s US Dollars not deer) more than the MSRP of the MPX. Looks like Sig has got some stiff competition. May the odds be ever in your favor.

  15. I am purchasing the first one I see, barring a useless barrel thread pitch or “it’s actually not threaded under the muzzle device. Because we are lazy and 922r”

    We are at least another year out from actually seeing MPXs in the wild. Sig needs to give up on the ridiculously long not-fooling-anyone “muzzle brake” and actually put guns to market.

  16. Unless it has a giggle switch, not interested. It’s too big for a handgun, and in a similar sized package I can get a good 5.56 rifle.

    We need to repeal the machingun ban.

    • So what makes this without a giggle switch so much worse than a similar 5.56 rifle without a giggle switch? It’s quieter and makes a bigger hole? Cheaper to shoot? Neither will be good at long range, the 5.56 will be a bit better at range, but who buys an SBR to shoot at range, really? Wrong tool for the job at that point. And once you have a 5.56 rifle in that size, as many people do, why would you get another one instead of something different?

      But indeed, the Hughes Amendment should be repealed as the useless BS it is.

      • Two words… Stopping Power. At short range a 75 grain OTM center mass from a 5.56 SBR will do far more damage than a 9mm. On top of that, in a pinch, my 10.5″ SBR will reach out to 400 yards.

        The real advantages of most pistol caliber sub guns is ease of control under full auto fire. Since full auto is not an option, I’ll take the rifle cartridge please.

        • It has been proven over and over and over that almost all modern cartridges have about the same stopping potential. Just about all pistol rounds will put a person down with one shot if placed right. And at close range, like personal defense ranges this might be used for, 9mm is more than good enough barring the use of body armor. Which your average home invader does not have. All that ends up mattering in a normal defense situation is shot placement, not caliber. Yes the 5.56 will do more damage, but the 9mm does more than enough as well. If you need the overkill to put your mind at ease that is fine, but that is just not a factor in reality.

          And the 5.56 round is not intended as a short range round, and particularly not from a barrel half the length the round was designed for. If you want a short range rifle round from a short barrel at least get something that was designed for that use, like 300BLK, instead of a round shoehorned into a roll it was never intended for.

        • While you’re right about sufficient, I would point out that there is exactly zero advantage to going with a pistol caliber for a semi-auto system when a rifle caliber is available. The rounds are not lighter, the recoil is equivalent, etc… So why have a pistol when you can have a rifle?

          As for the design of the 5.56×45… We have long moved past the old m855 round. There are plenty of SBR friendly loadings available that a 10″ barrel makes full use of. (The mk262 for example.)

  18. It may only be a 9mm, but that is ideal for home defense because you won’t deafen and blind yourself if you have to shoot indoors. The price is also right at $850, similar pieces of kit chambered for rifle cartridges are selling for over $1200. This is very appealing.

  19. Call me picky. The one thing that I don’t like on this is the grip angle. With a Sig Brace (and a shorter LOP), a more vertical grip angle is much easier on the wrist. I swapped out the Magpul for a BCM Mod1 on my AR pistol because of this and it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes.

    Love CZ though. Can’t say enough about them and wouldn’t trade my P09 for anything, including a new StrikeOne. If I didn’t already have a couple Pistol Caliber Carbines, and an AR and AK pistol, I’d probably jump on this….

  24. This is actually pretty nice. For a change, a 9mm carbine that doesn’t weigh more than my AR: they list the weight at 6.1 lbs with a loaded magazine. This would put it at about 5.2 lbs empty.

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