Ran across this CZ99 at a local shop for $260. It's got some wear but seems to be mechanically sound. I need to find a couple more mags for it. I pulled the mag out of my Beretta 92FS and it fits fine. All it needs is the mag latch hole moved to the front.






Anyone have any experience with this model and or have a source for mags? It reminds me of a Sig 226.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

I have one that I got from CDISales, "ugly gun special" for $195+20 sh + 10 FFL. Also an impulse buy, so I fully understand. 1 mag, I bought some really cheap Taurus mags with the intent of making the notch, but farbled it up (note: cut it LOWER, then work up).
My slide looks a little less scratched than yours, but my frame is more worn. WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T WIPE THE FRAME WITH ALCOHOL!!!
I did this to clean some grime off, and the black paint rubbed off like a dry erase marker. Ballistol and and even brake cleaner didn't do that, but those little 1x1 alcohol pads took it right off.

It's got to be among the best buys out there. I find the DA trigger to be long but soft and smooth, and the SA to be a little squishy but light. Very accurate, barrel looks great (it's chromed, so be careful what you clean it with). Sights were dead-on and easy to see. Not much recoil, with a crisper trigger it would be a great gun to get rapid followup shots. Breaks down very easily. I've read that some people have used P226 recoil springs, can't vouch for that.

I just bought a worn old Sig P226, and to compare in the hand: CZ 99 is a little thicker and heavier. Triggers aren't close to comparable, the Sig is better. The decocker is a little different, the CZ 99 releases when you push it down, the Sig releases when you push down, and then release. CZ is ambidextrous, as you notice. Ambi mag release too.
The decocker/slide release works well for me, it releases the slide with no difficulty, and leaves the hammer back until you press it again.

It doesn't match the Sig for trigger, but it isn't terrible, and I have little trouble keeping it on target throughout the pull; it's balanced well.

I checked just to see, and the slides don't swap, nor do the barrels.

All the pictures I've seen of these, the slides stay clean and don't rust like an old Sig does, but you have to take care with the frame. What I did with mine was a stop-gap fix; I rubbed the black paint off the lower frame, scuffed it a little with a scotchbrite pad, and rubbed it with Aluminum Black, and it seems to have worked.

All in all, it's a modest little (big?) pistol, but it has some history attached to it. I believe the Serbs used it during the Bosnian war, it's made by Zastava which is a respectable brand (if not elite), made to be used in duty and does it well, and it has Yugoslavia stamped on it, something you're not going to see anymore, since that country doesn't exist anymore.

I'm keeping mine

Here's mine, with the Sig as a comparison


As you can tell, the Sig is beaten to snot and back, but still shoots well.
The Sig is from 1990, and the CZ 99 I believe is from 1991 and was an Israeli surplus, so I'd imagine that it was treated roughly too. As you can see, the slide finish has held up much better.

Thank you for the reply and photos. I broke it down and gave it a good cleaning last night. Not sure what springs would work with this? Saw a video where they said a Sig 226 recoil spring should fit. Not knowing the round count on this pistol I thought installing a new recoil spring might not be a bad idea.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

Makes me wish I had bought the mint examples that sat in a local store about 12-15 years ago. I ended up with a 9mm Baby desert Eagle that day instead.

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Release the Kraken

I have been watching the GB listings of CDI sales for a while, and they certainly do have a quantity and variety of inexpensive hi-cap 9mm pistols for across the globe. The CZ99 being one. Similar to the SIG in design and operation, it shares no parts and mags are impossible to find. My question, if they have all these pistols they have imported for sale, where are the mags? The lack of spare mags has discouraged me from pulling the trigger on one of the CZ99's to this point.

However, I have a variation on the CZ99 that you guys might find interesting. This pistol is the TZ99, which was manufactured under license in South Africa and marketed as the Tressitu. I found one in typical CZ99 condition a number of years ago, which then set me on the hunt for one in better condition. How fortunate was I to find one that was in almost new condition, and IN THE ORIGINAL BOX. It is the exact same pistol as the CZ99, with the exception of the markings on the frame and slide. These are also imported by an importer I am not familiar with, having never seen these markings on any other rifles or pistols. The serial numbers are low, which implies the numbers manufactured must be limited. Makes you wonder who they were made for, or what they were used for.

Here is the my first find, came with one mag:







Here is the one that came in the box, w/spare mag and cleaning brush:







Compared to the SIG P229 in .40 they are slightly wider:



The SIG P228 in 9mm is noticibly narrower:



Thought you guys might enjoy learning a little more about these intriguing pistols.

Thank you. I'd read else where about the TZ99. I'm going to try and modify one of my Beretta mags tomorrow. Supposedly you just need to drill the hole for the mag catch. No other mods are needed. If it works I've got plenty of 92FS mags so making a couple of spares for the CZ99 will be easy.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

Beretta (and Taurus) 92 mags are perfect, when you put the notch in the front.

From my botched attempt, I would say that unless you really know what you are doing, make the cut a little low, and then file it to raise, to fit. If you go a bit high (I missed by maybe a millimeter), the mag will sit too low and won't feed correctly, and you won't be able to correct it. If you don't square the top of the cut (I used a drill), you may find the mag will drop out with shooting.

For mags try Century Arms. But your best bet will probably be GunBroker.

Nothing interchanges between the CZ and the Sig.

Guns themselves are OK. I wish I could find the post but on another board a member did an extensive test on a bunch of them. He was stationed in Iraq and trained Iraqi police who were issued the CZ99, among others. They had a lot of frames crack in continuous use. For a 9mm to start cracking frames is a little troubling, especially with a gun built for military and police. I realize most people in the US don't shoot that much but between the frames cracking, lack of mags and lack of parts I decided to spend my money on other things

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So far so good. Drilled and filed a hole in my Beretta mag. It's not quit flush with the butt and has a little up and down play but it feeds the rounds when cycled by hand, locks the slide back after the last round and drops free. I just need to get it to the range before I call it good. Took all of 10 minutes including disassembly and reassembly of the mag.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

Beretta 92 mags must be universal. I have one of the Radom MAG98 pistols that Century was selling, and the Beretta 92 mag will work in them as well, with some modification.

After a little TLC

Before


After



Before



After

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BCCI Life Member #2068

I'm going the modified mag route for this, I don't plan on buying on gunbroker just out of principle... someone posted about 10 mags at a reasonable price for each, and there was an option to buy now for a little higher. It was a money order only sale, and I bid on one. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go the higher price and go through the money order route... I decided I would, but in the 2 minutes between my bid and going back to buy one, somebody (one individual buyer) bought them all at the buy-now bid price. I'm sure he plans to flip them for double the price.

He won't get my money

ooks good, what'd you touch up with?

I'd like to find that post; I've heard of there being problems with the guns in Iraq, but it was always a later reference, not the actual one you refer to.

I don't doubt it, but just can't find much on these. It's like their forums; gone from the internet.

Cold blue on the slide (plan on doing a few more application with steel wool rub down in between) and permanent black marker on the frame.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

I tried. This was a long time ago and some people have left on bad terms and asked for their post to be deleted. Or maybe it was deleted for bandwidth. Or I just suck at searching. It was on M4Carbine

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I'm going to work up the courage to wet-dry sand the pitting down on the Sig's slide, and try to do a home re-blue afterwards. Most of the damage is fairly shallow and along the flats, I THINK I can take it slow and get it pretty good with a block. The other side looks good around the stampings.

I saw a video of someone using a propane torch to heat the metal afterwards, apply some quick-brown, and then follow with several coats of cold blue. Looked good from what I saw, and shouldn't require too much disassemble and time.

I bought one from CDI also. It has some interesting features. The thing that really surprised me the most was how reliable it is. It will basically feed anything. I brought a variety of 9mm ammo to the range and grabbed random rounds and never experienced a failure to feed or eject. Mine has permanent duty as a downstairs gun.







Best,
Charles

Congrats- impulse buys are often some of the best buys

Now that you mention it they often are. Usually I have hell to pay from my wife but in this case the amount was small so it's really been a win, win for the moment. I was actually on the hunt for a used Hi-Point simply because they are cheap, I've never owned one and I thought it might be fun. I paid more than I would have had I found the used HP but I think I broke even on the other two reasons.

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BCCI Life Member #2068