Slavia 630 Airgun Series – A Great Trainer

What was the first true gun you ever held in your hands? Do you remember? In my case, it was Slavia 631 Lux airgun and those memories will never fade away. It was the 1990s, we did not know the internet and computers were quite expensive. The pellets were not, however!

Airguns may not seem all that attractive as a topic for history lessons compared to submachine guns, handguns, or assault rifles. But they were once very closely bound to the CZ. Over the years CZ produced a large variety of airguns including pistols and rifles, single shot as well as semi-automatic, spring piston as well as pneumatic. And the most popular spring piston airgun in CZ’s portfolio will be a topic of today’s article.

In 1967 it was decided that a brand new series of airguns needs to replace the existing 4,5mm (aka .177) Slavia 620 line. Not that it would be bad, after all, many of us still own one of those but it had its problems, namely a stiff trigger and to achieve great accuracy the quality trigger pull is essential.

One year later the first prototype was introduced. Slavia 630 Standard was, as the name indicates the basic model. Among the most important upgrades compared to Slavia 620, we need to mention fully adjustable sights, an improved trigger that now offered a rather short and smooth pull as well as a very well-designed safety.

Upon opening the barrel and thus compressing the piston spring, loading the pellet, and closing the barrel, an automatic safety was put on. It was a button in the rear part of the “receiver” and was typically disengaged by a thumb of the shooting hand. This type of safety was typical for all the 630 series air rifles up until the end of production.

The trigger itself was adjustable, even though it was necessary to remove the whole assembly from the stock which was not really user-friendly.

Very soon after the Standard model came to the market CZ introduced a bit more „posh“ 631 model called Lux. When it hit the shelves in 1972 it featured several improvements to the original Slavia 630.

The first and the most obvious one was a „Monte Carlo“ style stock, which we all know so well. The less apparent upgrade was the trigger.  As a contribution of the never-introduced Slavia 632 prototype, the 631 model was given an adjustable trigger system allowing the shooter to fine-tune the pull between 3 and 10 newtons simply by loosening or tightening a screw in the trigger guard.

Apart from these add-ons the rifle also received an additional safety lever just in front of the barrel hinge. It was necessary to push it forward to unlock the barrel and „break it“ to charge the weapon.

Both Slavia 630 and 631 were a very firm part of the CZ portfolio even though they were not as important as the military production.

Another refresh came in 1977 and brought rather less visible improvements but the quality and the lifespan of all the airguns were improved significantly. These rifles were marked as „Mod. 77“

In 2004 CZ came up with the last model in Slavia’s portfolio. With the change of the Czech legislation allowing for airguns of up to 16 joules of energy to be owned without a license, CZ  introduced a model with higher potential – Slavia 634.

The 4,5mm pellet can be sent against whatever target you have with 220 m/s of muzzle energy, which is not bad at all. The 634 models were also offered in 5,5 mm caliber for those who „like bigger calibers“, so if you feel like a Harry Callahan of airguns, you are welcome!

Unfortunately, the airgun production was slowly pushed out of the CZ production lines in 2003, but not from their portfolio. Since that year the manufacturing was moved to Slovakia but the rifles were still marketed as Slavia and were to be found in CZ catalogs up until 2015.

Over the years the Slavia series airguns were there when we began with sport shooting and many generations, especially in the Czech Republic and Slovakia remember them from all those summer camps, civil defence lections at school, or carnivals. And I dare to say that many future generations will remember them in the very same way because they simply are eternal!

Children practicing shooting with Slavia airguns in 1974 Czechoslovakia | Source: www.denik.cz

Sources:

D. Pazdera – Legenda Jménem CZ

CZ archives

Denik.cz