Back in the late 70's as Kids my brothers and I were not that well off, when it came to buying our own guns every dollar counted. So when my older Brother wanted to get a brand new scoped .22 the price difference between a TOZ 17 and a BRNO model 2 really mattered (about $20-25 from memory) so he went with the Russian. It took him about six weeks for him to loose the first of the two supplied magazines, and a decade or two to loose the second leaving him with a single shot rifle...... The magazines for these have always been a PITA to source even when they were still being made as they were fitted to each rifle, and engraved with the serial number- spares when available were someones 2nd magazine that the dealer kept instead of supplying with their gun.
Anyway last year he asked my for help to source one (He's in outback NT and not big on the internet) so I started looking - and the first one I found was local and in great nick, the only issue being that it was in a Rifle, but It was cheap so I just bought it for the magazine. Then I made the mistake of shooting it . The thing was accurate, rough as guts but it shot very well- no way I was going to let go of it....So the search resumed.
Work takes me all over the state and I found one at a gunshop at a reasonable price, problem over you'd think. But then I got home and slotted it into my rifle and the thing fitted and fed like it was one of the pair it came with.....Bugger, cant let this go.They normally need fettling to work.
So I kept looking and found one for sale on one of the gun sales sites, rang the bloke and when I found out where he was told him I wanted it but wouldn't be down his way for a couple of weeks. That couple of weeks ended today and I went to pay the bloke and pick it up. When I arrived he walked out with three magazines instead of one. I'm thinking bugger, I've only brought cash for one ( as we agreed to) but he handed me all three, saying that he'd never use them and he was happy with the price we'd talked about.
Made my day and my Brothers when I rang him to let him know they were on their way