Sgt. Sykesville
O'mortified
In the early 1950's, my grandfather was given a toy gun in exchange for some chores he had completed for a neighbor (weren't the 50's awesome?) He and his brother played with it for several years until they were old enough to determine that their toy gun was infact a real gun that was missing key parts. 40 some odd years later, my grandfather looked into the gun, but had very little luck gathering information about it or where it had come from. He handed the gun off to me 3 years ago as a gift. He told me this portion of the story, and said he believed it would be a nice wall hanger collector piece for my growing collection. I thanked him, but knew the story wasn't ending here. I checked the gun out and did some reading. I had determined from the very little information available that this gun was a prototype for the Czech VZ 24. The VZ22 began its production run in early 1920 and ceased in mid 1922 when the VZ24 had been designed and dubbed superior. How this gun wound up in White Oak, MD; I will never know. The one thing I did know, however; was it was up to me to see that this firearm would function again! The story sat untouched in my safe for nearly three years until I happened to stumble across Bollinger's Gunsmithing. I presented Mr. Bollinger with a challenge, and he quickly accepted! I left it with him for a week or so before returning to pick up a rifle I had left with him. He gave me some not so happy news about the state of my pistol. It was repairable, but for a sum worthy of a new Sig pistol 
I understood his point, but was still considering it due to the sentimental value this gun had to me. After conversing with Mr. Bollinger for several minutes, he took off into his shop in mid sentence. I followed him to discover my pistol on the bench completely broken down. He tinkered with the pistol for a few solid minutes when he calmly said, "I can fix this, and for a lot less than I had once thought." I was so caught off gaurd by his statement that I asked him to repeat it! I smiled huge as I shook his hand in agreement to the price and told him to fix 'er up! Not a week later he called to say that not only was it working like new, but that it was shooting like new! I couldnt beileve it!!! My grandfathers defunct pistol was in perfect working order again thanks to Bollingers! I drove up there as soon as time permitted and was greeted with a smile, handshake, and a 1921 CZ pistol! I was then asked if I wanted to shoot it. 
We'll let the smiles tell that part! In the end, I'm absolutely thrilled with the outcome of this story; and even more so by the awesomeness that is the Bollinger's and there shop! I presented the pistol to my grandfather Memorial day weekend. He used words like "Miraculous" and "Amazing"! He never in a million years thought he'd see this day; and it was even more amazing to me that I was there to share the moment with him! So after catching my breath here, I'd like to say THANK YOU to the Bollingers AGAIN for an amazing job and seeing to it that my story had a happy ending! 
And now for your viewing pleasure, my WORKING 1921 Ceska zbrojovka VZ 22!
~Sgt. Sykesville
I understood his point, but was still considering it due to the sentimental value this gun had to me. After conversing with Mr. Bollinger for several minutes, he took off into his shop in mid sentence. I followed him to discover my pistol on the bench completely broken down. He tinkered with the pistol for a few solid minutes when he calmly said, "I can fix this, and for a lot less than I had once thought." I was so caught off gaurd by his statement that I asked him to repeat it! I smiled huge as I shook his hand in agreement to the price and told him to fix 'er up! Not a week later he called to say that not only was it working like new, but that it was shooting like new! I couldnt beileve it!!! My grandfathers defunct pistol was in perfect working order again thanks to Bollingers! I drove up there as soon as time permitted and was greeted with a smile, handshake, and a 1921 CZ pistol! I was then asked if I wanted to shoot it. We'll let the smiles tell that part! In the end, I'm absolutely thrilled with the outcome of this story; and even more so by the awesomeness that is the Bollinger's and there shop! I presented the pistol to my grandfather Memorial day weekend. He used words like "Miraculous" and "Amazing"! He never in a million years thought he'd see this day; and it was even more amazing to me that I was there to share the moment with him! So after catching my breath here, I'd like to say THANK YOU to the Bollingers AGAIN for an amazing job and seeing to it that my story had a happy ending! And now for your viewing pleasure, my WORKING 1921 Ceska zbrojovka VZ 22!
~Sgt. Sykesville
