How Many Transferable ZB 26's Are On the Registry?

[themacanerd]

Does anyone know or have a rough estimate of how many transferable ZB 26 LMG's there are on the registry? 

Of those, is there an estimate of how many of them are Czech BRNO guns, how many are German service guns, and how many are the Chinese made copies? 

 

[Mongo]

I have a Czech BRNO gun.

[themacanerd]

Looks gorgeous! I am curious to know how many legal ones are out there, seems like there aren't that many. How do people who say there are only X amount of Y guns in the registry get their info? Do they just know all the other collectors who own then or can you get that info from ATF? 

[Mongo]

Bob Naess seems to know pretty good numbers on rarer guns like these because he deals with working on them. Not sure there is any way to get the data out of ATF. I think there might be more ZB26 guns than you think. They are pretty regular at the RIA and Murphy's big MG auctions. ZB30 are much rarer but if I would guess I would say the ZB26 might be 1/5 the number of US BARs not that gives any numbers.

[themacanerd]

I spoke to Bob Naess yesterday and he estimated 4-5 Chinese ZB 26's on the registry. I didn't ask about the Czech or German ZB's because I have no interest in them. I might be missing a couple of auctions and private sales, but I saw zero auctions for ZB 26's in 2023 and zero private sale ads. None in the upcoming RIA or Morphys auction either, bummer.