01 Experimental Light Machine Gun Praga I-23 Model Calibre 7,92 mm Mauser, No. 30

Fotogalerie

Between 1920 and 1924, gunsmith and designer Vaclav Holek (1886-1954) developed experimental models of light machine guns at Zbrojovka Praga and entered them in army competitions at the military training area in Milovice. From the originally submitted Praga II A and Praga II B models, in the spring of 1923, the I-23 model was created with a quick-change barrel, fed by a belt, stored in a drum box, suspended underneath the gun. The machine gun gradually worked its way to the top in competitions with foreign designs, but the Armaments Commission preferred the Belgian FN BAR 1919 in the summer of 1924, which was introduced into the equipment of the Czechoslovak Army in the summer of 1924. However, a completely different model of the light machine gun, also designed by Vaclav Holek, became part of the armaments.

In March 1924, Zbrojovka Praga handed over the specimen with serial number 30 to the test committee in Milovice for the second round of the machine gun competition, and in 1929 the Ministry of National Defence transferred it to the collections of the Military Museum in Prague.