An interesting lil piece of hand artillery... The CZ-52 is a has unique single action auto that incorporates a three-position safety-decocker system. In fully lowered position the pistol is ready to fire, in the middle position is the "safe" mode. The firing pin design looks similar to Walther's firing pin block system. Pushing the safety to its fully up position de-***** the piece.
The slide is a roller-locking mechanism that looks a whole lot like the HK 91/G3 rifles.. This system utilizes two rollers that recess into the sides of the chamber and are pushed into recesses on the slide by a cam that is held in place by pressure from the recoil spring.
Unlike lock breech systems such as the 1911, the roller-locking system's barrel does not tilt, rather recoiling straight back. This minimizes the muzzle flip characteristic quite a bit. The damn thing is VERY accurate and can put up a very fast rate of accurate fire..
The ammo's pretty interesting too.. looks like lil rifle slugs in lil necked cases. It's .30cal (7.62x25) and the cheapo FMJ it eats gets launched at about 1700FPS and the muzzel energy is in the 525 ft lbs range. Whoof. Very fast.. fmj ammo tends to puch thru cover very well, it's rumored to be able to chop through class III body armor. Not willing to test that myself...

Soft points are available from Sellier & Belloit. probably be a better pick for 'soft' targets.

Firing pin is the weak point, originals wern't heat treated so they snapped if dry fired.. upgraded mine with a stainless one, no problems yet. I've got a nice 'inside the pants' nylon holster for a colt commander.. fits it perfectly. It's a 'big' pistol, just a mite smaller than a 1911, about the same mass. Feels good in the hand, points up just like a 1911.
These things are mil-surp commie (czech) from the early 50's, and can be had for under 200 bucks in arsenal refurb condition.. (mine was 175, delivered) An outstanding piece of hand artillery, remarkably accurate and a very strong hitter.