In the polishing department he points out showers of acid and basic solutions used in conjunction with abrasives to produce high surface gloss. "CZ pistol frames, both steel and alloy, are most commonly phosphated, then painted with a special black compound," says Milan. "It is very tough, outlasting a blued finish." The paint booth is small, manned by two people.

"About 65 percent of our production now is handguns," Milan recites. "The rest is rifles. Almost all are for sporting use. The only military arms we build now are sniper rifles, and the market for those is, of course, limited. Would you like to shoot one?"

We slip into a building where racks of new rifles line the benches. Milan opens a steel door to a shooting tunnel. A cradle and remote triggering device tell me it's mainly for proofing, not targeting. We move to another station, obviously for handguns. Milan hangs a target and runs it out a few meters on the cable. "Your choice." He indicates a rack of CZ pistols, mostly 75s. I pick up a stainless target version, the Champion in .40 S&W. After stacking 10 cartridges in the magazine, I hold carefully and empty it. The two-inch group forms neatly at 12 o'clock with no fliers. Milan informs me the pistol will soon be replaced by a similar model expressly for ISPC competition. I tell him the trigger, sights and grip don't need changing. Neither does the mechanism. "We test every pistol by cycling it 120 times a minute for up to five minutes in an oil bath," Milan points out. He doesn't explain why CZ is replacing this lovely version of the 75.

Dark skies dump a steady rain in front of the rifle bench. A few rounds with an M750 sniper rifle in .308 don't do as much for my ego as did the Champion pistol. But I manage to keep a pair of solids from an iron-sighted .416 inside a bullseye the size of a tennis ball at 100 yards.

Milan is right; we cannot see the factory in a day. But the gun room offers a fast trip through CZ's product history. The first CZs were machine guns, bored to 7.92 (8x57) Mauser and fed by an ingenious cartridge wheel. From 1966 to 1969, CZ also made a revolver. Military accomplishments also include the Model 61 Skorpion, a selective-fire 7.65mm gun with a folding stock. A modern version in 9x19 is still available; the Model 411 autoloading .22 rifle is not. CZ catalogs its 200S (.22) and 200T (.17) air rifles in Europe but not in the U.S. The 200T features competition sights and an adjustable comb. A big panel holds rows of Model 75s, one of the most successful pistol designs ever. "I like the Compact," says Milan. "It's very quick and points naturally but has a tight, solid feel." In my hand it gives the same impressions. "Not many shooters are aware that CZ offered a decocking mechanism on an autoloading pistol before World War II. It also appeared on the Model 50 after the war."

I'm almost pleased, in retrospect, to have the following day free--not just to rewrite notes and edit photographs but to explore Uhersky Brod and the countryside beyond. I walk past the centrum, uphill on stone streets threading rows of stucco buildings joined at the hip. Geraniums overflow sill boxes above an old woman sweeping sidewalks under steep tile roofs. Uhersky Brod holds only about 19,000 people, and soon I'm among rolling fields. Beyond the Moravia River a lemon sun polishes green pastures, and deciduous tracts of forest warm the slopes with the first blush of autumn color. Cars whoosh by as I climb into hills much like those you'd find in Pennsylvania or southern Indiana. Except this place has more tales to tell. Not just about CZ but of empires seized and lost, of generations breaking soil and gathering wood, patching governments, enduring despots and bearing children. It's truly a wonder there was time or energy left for building guns, let alone finding mushrooms.