Nerds With Guns

Today marks the birthday of the greatest gun designer of all time, John Moses Browning. While everyone knows him as the man behind the m-2 .50, the pump action shotgun, and of course the 1911, one of the final designs he made was for the daddy of all double stack 9mm’s: the Browning Hi-Power. While many forces worldwide adopted the Hi-Power in the original version, some countries like Bulgaria wanted to modernize this phenomenal pistol, and thus was born the Arcus 94/98. We’ll be look at the Arcus 98 DA today.

For most shooters, the first weapon they get is either a vintage hand-me-down or, like me, a military surplus long gun. I still fondly remember the beaming smile I had the morning of my 18^th birthday when I knew in a few short hours I would have my very first gun that was MINE. For me, this was a Yugoslavian SKS, which in turn sparked a love for all things military. Over the years I have bought dozens of milsurps, and then in 2012, I found a gun that completely shook my concept of what a milsurp could be, the Swiss K31.

Lots of friends ask me about different guns, many of which are obscure and usually from some soviet arsenal somewhere based on my collection of the weird, the unknown, and the mil-surp. One very common question I get is on carry/small sized guns usually in .380. While the average person would automatically conjure up thoughts of a bersa, or a lcp from Ruger I usually come back with 2 options: The polish P-64 and the CZ-83 (.380 or 9×18 Makarov). This article will be dealing with the second, the CZ-83.