Now I did it. I went and got a CZ.

scoobysnacker:

Thanks for the heads up. I'll look into buying a spare extractor and pin. CZs aren't really something that I have much experience with, but I admit that back when they were first being produced behind the Iron Curtain, I remember Jeff Cooper giving them grudging praise, Mainly, IIRC, because they could be carried in condition one, or cocked and locked.

But I was intrigued by their appearance, and wanted one, but since they were being produced in Czechoslovakia, we couldn't directly import them, so I never aquired one until this one.

And I like your description: it hits the spot..."elegant, graceful guns"... And indeed they are. I am not a big fan of rails, or the shaped and serrated fronts on the trigger gaurds which appear on the later ones.

One thing that I do think is attractive are those posters above who have had their guns stripped, polished and blued. Those look even more elegant, especially with some nice wooden stocks fitted.

Well, it's not a pressing priority, but maybe one day I'll do a little cosmetic work....do any of you guys have suggestions on bluing services?

Best Regards, Les

I did a small comparison between the Glock 26 and CZ RAMI. The specs and dimensions are almost identical apart from the weight. The CZ weighs about 4 ounces more. I own both these guns and both are priced about the same. Hands down the CZ is a superior gun than the Glock. Both guns are very reliable, no problems with either. The Rami just shoots better for me and is a better quality gun.

After you own a CZ, glocks become kind of Meh.....

Not ONE mention of MY favorite CZ....the CZ40B which was a join venture between Colt and CZ...was only on the market for several years and the partnership ended...don't really know as to why either...I have 2 of them and they are my favorite IDPA/USPSA gun!

AND they use standard CZ75B magazines although EAA Witness magazines are much less money and run like a champ...

Randy

PS. I have a number of CZ75 and 75B's as well as the CZ 82 in Makarov that is awesome! They are ALL awesome.......

PSS. Just found this...The CZ40B was created when Colt requested a .40 S&W DAO and DA/SA handgun from CZ that had a similar outward appearance to the 1911. Because it was designed during the AWB, it was limited to a 10 round magazine in the US market. Some of these CZ40B were also sold as Colt Z40s.



The reason for Colt's decision to work with CZ was that it was losing market share in the handgun market. Neither its 1911 nor its SAA revolvers were holding their own vs the plethora of 1911 clones, polymer wondernines and ruger single actions. Colt had lost confidence in its ability to produce profitable firearms after the catastrophic failure of their 9mm DAO 2000 All American and their 45 ACP Double eagle.

Power to the OP

and great timing for my family on this thread. My brother was in from out of town last week. Honey and I took him to the range one afternoon. We all shot 100 rounds each out of my new to me CZ 75B SA. We can all shoot, the darn CZ made us all shoot well, my older, more experienced brother declared it the best pistol he ever shot (my S&W 25 disagrees). So he goes to my LGS, tells them what he wants and to call me(!) if they get one in. They call me on Tuesday and this came home on Wednesday. He is coming back to my town soon. It is clean, lubed and ready. It is a CZ 75 SP-01 Tactical, I will post pics(I hope).

My baby ...

I found an unusual CZ several years ago...a CZ75 Compact P02 Omega, safety only model. My understanding is that they are more common in Europe.

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TeamPB said:

and great timing for my family on this thread. My brother was in from out of town last week. Honey and I took him to the range one afternoon. We all shot 100 rounds each out of my new to me CZ 75B SA. We can all shoot, the darn CZ made us all shoot well, my older, more experienced brother declared it the best pistol he ever shot (my S&W 25 disagrees). So he goes to my LGS, tells them what he wants and to call me(!) if they get one in. They call me on Tuesday and this came home on Wednesday. He is coming back to my town soon. It is clean, lubed and ready. It is a CZ 75 SP-01 Tactical, I will post pics(I hope).

Click to expand...

He is going to to love that SP01, I guarantee.

There's a batch of about 500 CZ 75 Compacts with the rail and stainless frame. Basically a CZ 75 SP01 compact. I came across one like New from Cabelas. With a coupon code and discounted gift cards I picked it up for about $290.

Irn-Bru said:

There's a batch of about 500 CZ 75 Compacts with the rail and stainless frame. Basically a CZ 75 SP01 compact. I came across one like New from Cabelas. With a coupon code and discounted gift cards I picked it up for about $290.

Click to expand...

I saw one of those at the last gunshow I went to. It was priced right but I really want the alloy frame P01 for the weight savings. That was a right nice price you got that for.

Love my CZ 75 PCR.

I've had my Tanfiglio P19 (now the "Witness") for about 25 years. Before I decided to go to 1911's in IPSC Classic division it was my only competition Auto.

Early on I replaced the double action trigger with a single action unit. I still have the original trigger tucked away but I found shooting in Standard instead of Production division no handicap.

As far as "leather" goes I chose a simple belt slide holster. With never a holster problem or difficulty in drawing the pistol.

I had 3 problems with the gun itself.

1. The rifling protrudes right to the chamber mouth. Even after having the chamber reamed twice the wrong profile bullet would stick in the rifling before the slide was fully forward. The day that I opened another 250 factory rounds on the 3rd stage of a competition to find that they would not chamber after the first mag change was not a good days shooting. That night I turned my bullet seating die down a couple of turns and ran them all through the press. The answer was to chamber drop all commercial competition rounds
before a comp.

2. While it shoots minute of IPSC with standard 115/124/125 projectiles this particular gun prefers light (100-105) grain bullets going 1275-1300 fps. With these I used to shoot ISSF Centrefire at club level using a 12O'clock hold on the target centre. For a long time these projectiles were unavailable so I stopped shooting it, but with the advent of Cowboy Action Shooting 100 - 105 grain .357 projectiles are readily available again and so I have drawn my pistol out of "semi retirement" for some speed shooting.

3. The damm thing insists on shooting low. I filed down the front sight as far as I dared but it still shot about a foot low at 25 meters with most loads. I recently had a higher Bull Cherokee rear sight installed. It looks oversize now but the gunsmith assured me it will now be regulated properly, I just have to take done time and make final sight adjustments. Unfortunately I have been away from home for the last 16 weeks as my wife recovers from some pretty drastic surgery. But once I get back and get some range time ....

Nice shooting handguns with a very comfortable grip!

Here's mine with another favorite.

scoobysnacker said:

The pre-Bs are elegant, graceful guns...

Click to expand...

The trigger on the pre-B is a pleasure not equaled by the later guns either. Mine came from the Grafenwöhr Rod & Gun Club three decades ago. I think it has a nicer trigger than my S&W Model 39. Some comments were made on the superficial resemblance to the Browning High Power. Truly, the best High Power trigger I ever felt was like dragging a reluctant cat across broken milk bottles in comparison.

JohnRippert said:

I saw one of those at the last gunshow I went to. It was priced right but I really want the alloy frame P01 for the weight savings. That was a right nice price you got that for.

Click to expand...

I have both and prefer the alloy frame, especially for carrying. If it wasn't for the low price I might have let it pass. Handled the new CZ P10C but it didn't do much for me, still prefer the 75 Compact allow frame.

I took a brief glance at CZ's website, and the results were disheartening; emphasis placed on the mentioned P10C (a polymer, striker-fired gun), and with other polymer guns like the SP01 Phantom, the P 07 and the P 09.
These are prominent in the Updated/New section.

Looking for all the different varieties of metal pistols, I didn't find many of them until I checked under the Dsicontinued/Limited Edition section.
Not as many options for the 'flagship' gun, but via the Dan Wesson label, there's a lot of 1911 choices.

We saw this progression occur with S&W when they phased out the 3rd Gen guns, a change over to polymer, entry into the 1911 market, and decline/disappearance of original design metal guns.

Sig Sauer is in the early phases of this too- while their P series is still prominently featured for now, the polymer guns are becoming more and more prominent, as are the 1911's.

Beretta, also... while the majority of the pistols they list are of the 92 style, the first 4 on the page are polymer, and they're touting the APX- a polymer striker fired gun.
Still no 1911s, so there's some hope left... I like the 1911 as much as anyone, but I think it's a bad sign when prominent manufacturers give up on their own, more modern designs, and go with that instead. I think it means their marketing and sales divisions have concluded the market is closing.

I'm glad I have the steel guns I do.

Huh?
Plenty of fine Czech steel here:
CZ USA
27 Metal pistols.

Ron M. said:

I have a .32 ACP CZ50 on consignment at a local gun shop. Lots of lookers, no takers, but it was a great little shooter, just had to thin the herd a bit. Surprisingly well made little gun. Maybe time to check out the 9mm variations.

Click to expand...

Ron:
Is your CZ50 still for sale? If so, how much. I am interested.

CZ has a long and well deserved reputation for building quality firearms. Even after WWII they took left over (dou,dot swp) K98k receivers, scrubbed the Waffenampts off and produced really excellent K98s for export. I love mine. And here's their most recent entry into the polymer framed striker fired pistol market, and it's a good one, the P10c.
Beretta is no slouch though with their late entry into the strker fired market with the excellent APX. We're blessed to have so many good options to choose from.

Ah, CZs. My only regret was not buying one earlier - I missed out on the last run of cheap surplus guns about 5 years ago, but I was smart enough to miss out this time.

My first experience with CZ pistols was not a memorable one - I shot a .40 S&W example during a pistol class soon after a turned 21. I wasn't impressed with the trigger or the hard to rack slide, no doubt made more difficult by the heavier recoil spring used on the .40 S&W models.

I looked at them again after it became glaringly obvious a few years back that S&W had no interest in supporting 3rd gens anymore. After shooting - and loving - a 5903 for two years, I decided I should spend my money on a design still supported by the factory. I tried an SP01 at the local shop and range and fell in love, hard. As much as I love S&W automatics, the CZ blew it out of the water. An SP01 Tactical soon followed, along with a bunch of trigger upgrades by CZ Custom to make an already good gun exceptional.



Next came a blued CZ75 Pre-B from CDI Sales on Gunbroker. It's a recent Israeli surplus gun, and its far nicer than you'd expect for something coming out of the Middle East. I usually mount a .22LR Kadet kit on it, but I shoot the gun with it's original slide and barrel regularly. I may send this out for trigger work, and possibly refinishing, but that's a ways off now that CHP 4006TSWs are hitting the surplus market and sucking up my spare cash.



But I'm getting ahead of myself. My first CZ ownership experience wasn't a pistol, it was a CZ rifle. I bought a 455FS
in .22LR back in early 2013, soon after they came out. I had seen pictures of the 452FS and fell in love after holding one in person. With the 452s being discontinued, I jumped on a new 455. It hasn't disappointed, though I wish it had the sliding tangent sights of the 452s.

My next CZ rifle was a 527FS in .223 - the next logical step up from the 455FS. That's a recent purchase, joining the fold in the winter of last year.

My latest is a 455 Varmint in .22LR for target use. I figure after collecting a series of walk about rifles, something dedicated to bench work would be a smart move. Hopefully I'll shoot it soon.



Overall, I'm very happy with every CZ product I've owned and shot. They seem to hit the sweet spot in quality, good design, and price that no one else seems capable of. Until that changes, they'll be my favorite firearm manufacturer.