Josef Koucký ("kou-tsky") was a Czechoslovakian firearms designer who designed arms from the 1930s to 1970s for a variety of companies. An influential firearms designer in Czechoslovakia, he often worked alongside his brother František to design arms until he retired in 1985.
History[]
Born the second of four children, Koucký was born into a family of highly prolific engineers. He schooled alongside his younger brother František in a high school in Prague, with Josef graduating with honors.[1]
After he graduated, Koucký applied for a job at Zbrojovce Ing. František Janeček (or ZJ); he was accepted into this post and it was here that he familiarized himself with the production of automatic weapons. He worked at ZJ until 1930, when he was employed by Zbrojovka Brno that year. Come 1931, the Great Depression took its toll on the country, causing ZB to retrench him and leave him unemployed.[1]
A year later, Koucký was re-employed by ZJ. His second stint at ZJ lasted until 1933, when he was retrenched again and left unemployed until 1934, when he was re-employed by ZB. When he was re-employed by ZB, he acted as the chief designer and later head of arms research at ZB; he was joined by his brother František at ZB in 1941, working on various firearms with his brother, giving them the prefix "ZK"; both worked there until 1949 when they left the company.[1]
Josef would work for a number of other companies until 1964, when he retired. Despite his "retirement", Koucký would seek temporary employment at Ceska Zbrojovka Uhersky Brod; he would later go on to design the CZ 75 pistol for CZ with his brother. Josef would serve at CZ for varying lengths of time until 1985 when he officially retired and died in 1989, aged 85.[2]
Works[]
Koucký was known for the design of the ZK 383, CZ 75 and various other firearms with the ZK prefix.