Romania Copies the Jericho: Cugir Models 95 & 98
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Published 2024-05-10
weaponsandwar.tv
By the end of communism in Romania in 1989, the standard service pistols for the army and police were still the old Tokarevs and the Cugir Model 74 "Carpați" Walther PP copy. These were obviously outdated, and as it moved more towards the West, the Romanian military wanted a modern handgun. In 1992 they assessed what was available, and decided to make a domestic copy of the IMI Jericho, with a few minor tweaks. The process of reverse engineering the design took until 1995, when production began on an order of 10,000 for the Army as the Model 95.
The guns performed well, but were considered too heavy. When the Romanian police decided to adopt the pistol in 1998 and placed an order themselves, they asked Cugir to reduce the weight. This was done by eliminating metal in several different places, most notably shorting the full-length frame dust cover and replacing the steel grip backstrap with a more skeletonized design covered by a wraparound grip. This shaved a few ounces off the gun, and 5,000 were made as the Model 98. In addition, a few manufacturing changes were made during this production run, most notably moving from chrome-lined barrels to hard nitrided barrels.
Production of the guns ceased in the mid 2000s, until the Army requested another small batch in 2021. By this time Romanian industry had moved form Russia material standards to Western ones, and much of the TDP had to be reworked to accommodate the materials now available. Once that was done, 1100 were produced - 1,000 for the Army and 100 as a commemorative batch for ANCA, the Romanian national arms collectors' association. These remain the standard service pistol for Romanian army and police forces, although they have not entirely replaced the Model 74 today.
Thanks to Uzina Mecanica Cugir S.A. for giving me access to these pistols for filming, and to A.N.C.A., the Romanian national firearms collectors' association, for organizing the trip that made this video possible!
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All Comments (21)
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It's impressive how many manufacturers copied the CZ-75.
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The fact that Ian visited Cugir to makes this world feel like a smaller place. Cheers!
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Fun fact: Anca is a common traditional Romanian women's name . The diminutive Ancuța is also widely used.
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Well, the Jericho Copied the Tanfoglio (Jericho parts where Tanfoglio made) and Tanfoglio copied the CZ 75.
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Being half Romanian with a full Romanian mom makes me really appreciate these videos on Romanian guns! Id love to visit that museum some day!
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I have a single observation to make to what you said: Right at the end, you said that this is the standard handgun of most Romanian Army and Police units. That is true as far as the Army is concerned. But the use of this gun by the Police was very limited. This is confirmed by the small size of that Police order you talk about. Maybe there were some Police units that used it, but most used the Carpati. And over the last few years the Police switched to Beretta PX4 handguns.
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Jericho... one of my favorites pistols i own.... why? Cowboy Bebop 🤠
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Bine ai venit la noi Ian.
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I not only love the fact that Ian can show and talk about various guns from different countries but also that we're able to see what kind of wall outlets those various countries use. Yes, I really do. Greetings from Belgium! :)
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Very neat. I hope some of the originals get imported into the US as surplus one day, and i'm amazed that Century or somebody else hasn't imported some of the newer ones, since they are currently in production. The machining and finish aren't as nice as IMI or IWI Jericho's, but as long as they weren't supper expensive they would still be a neat option compared to surplus Israeli Jericho's.
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Romania copies the copy of the ČZ 75 (which in some aspects is a copy of the Hi-Power) Edit: This oversimplification is a joke.
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Damn, you know it's a good day when Forgotten Weapons uploads a new video!
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Bun venit în România! Welcome to Romania! Thanks Ian for this series done with ANCA. Very informative.
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You had me at "forged and milled"😁
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I honestly had no clue Romania tried to adopt the Jericho pistol. Ironically, as much as I am into Military History, I haven't looked much into Romania (my country of origin essentially, this makes me feel less patriotic tbh), and haven't really looked into the weapons that the Romanian Military might've adopted or wanted to adopt. It's honestly really cool!
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Loved the Jericho ever since Cowboy Bebop!
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I love the decocker lever on the Jericho IMI handgun.👍👍
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Had I known Ian was going to Cugir, I could have had him pick up a few spare mags for my 308 Win PSL. 😊
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Bine ai venit în România.
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It makes you wonder why they didn't copy one of the many CZ designs directly but instead copied a clone. CZ had many models based on its CZ75 designs by 1998 that were more modern and better suited for miltary use than the older Jericho type clone.
