This popular Czech-made pistol is a favorite of many, in a peculiar way. Fires a high powered machine gun round (7.62 x 25), and brings good luck in an “ugly” way. Love it or hate it, and lots of people love it!

But… it has some flaws. One major shortcoming is the disarm mechanism (short version: don’t trust your disarm!). A second deficiency is the weak stock firing pin. Finally, a third weakness is the lack of a thumb-activated slider release.

Once your slide locks back, the only way to release it forward is to put it back in by hand…after inserting a magazine. There is no thumb tab to push to release the slide like most modern autoloading pistols.

This weakness is easily remedied: there are several aftermarket slider release mechanisms that can be easily installed. Here’s how to do it.

Before you begin, remove the magazine and double check the chamber to make sure the gun is safe. Next, remove the single U-clamp that holds the grips in place.

I find it almost impossible to remove the u-clamp without scratching the wood of the grip. You can’t move the clamp by hand, you have to stick a screwdriver in to lift it. Every time you do this, you will lose a bit of wood. So…don’t do it too often!

After removing the clamp, the grips should come off. You may need to “get them started” by placing a prying tool (thin blade screwdriver) between the grip and the frame. Do this near the back of the grip.

The grips may not lift up; there is a small notch in the front edge…you will need to lift from the rear first. you have to.

Next, I removed the slide. Use the same steps you would use if you cleaned the gun.

Once you do this, note the position of the slider release spring; the spring should be at the top of the release tab.

Here’s the tricky part: there’s a single pin that holds the slide release in place. Flip the frame on its side (slide the release down) and use a punch to remove the pin. I had to give mine a few hard hits to get it to start. Once you push the pin in all the way, LEAVE THE PIN PUNCH IN PLACE! This is important because the takedown release is held in place by the same pin. Since the pin punch now holds the takedown release in place, if you remove the pin punch, your takedown release can pop out of the frame!

Remove the slide release. Pull it off the punch and pull it out of the frame at an angle.

If you have a replacement extended slide release, compare it to your old slide release; note the extended thumb tab. This extended tab will facilitate manual release of the locked rear slide.

Angle the new slide release into place, positioning the hole over the pin punch. Frankly, mine felt really gritty after doing this. I removed it and cleaned the frame and the back of the trigger. I lubricated both parts and replaced them. It worked much better, but still had a slight gritty feel to it. I think I could have polished the back of the new slide to make it smoother.

Be sure to position the slider release spring so that it sits on top of the end of the slider release!

Replace the pin; be careful to let him replace the piercing pin slowly so that the takedown release stays in place. Once I manually pushed the pin halfway, the pin fell out and I hit the slide release pin into place.
Replaced pin. Notice the large thumb latch on the new slide release!

It’s time to start putting things in order. We’ll start with the grips.

Note that the front of the hilt has a slight angled cut. Because of this, you will not be able to press the grips down into place. You’ll need to slide them to the front first, then press down on the back of the grip.

Once your grips are engaged, slide the u-clamp back into its notch. Keep in mind that the u-clamp can go the “right way” or the “wrong way”. Take into account the angle of the clamp to select the “right way”.

Once the grips are back on, put the slide back on, and voila!

Although you now have a thumb tab on the slide release, be aware that you may have to press very firmly on it to get it to work.