CZ-75 retro

[runfiverun]

I may have mentioned I have been looking for a 9mm pistol around the site a couple of times now.
I have been unable to locate anything even close to what I thought I wanted.

untill today.
I looked at several C-Z pistols, and decided to put a CZ-75b Retro in layaway.
it's been some time since I bought a new gun [heck any gun] and I think this is gonna be a good one as a cast shooter.
I didn't get a good look at the throat in the barrel so it may have to go off to Doug-guy to get one cut.
but i'll give it a try first.

anyway here is a list of my takes on the guns attributes.
the pistol has two white dots on the rear sight, and a spot on the front sight [I will paint green to contrast them]
the rear sight is windage adjustable, and the front is staked in place so I will have to adjust the load for elevation.
the grip shape is the classic cz type, however it has plastic grips which can be changed if you can find replacements.
it has two 16 round magazines.
the gun is all steel and the slide fit has very minimal play in it. [it doesn't have the ambidextrous slide release lever but the pin looked exactly like the other 75-B I looked at so it may be 'upgradeable']
the barrel has little/no perceptible slop/wiggle when the slide is locked up.
the trigger has a bit of free travel before you take up the slack [like a 2 stage military rifle] and then you can feel it stack up a bit before the break.
with a little practice I'm positive I will be able to feel the break point exactly when it will fire.
the gun has no de-cocker but is a double action, and the safety is positively on or off.
the magazine ejects smoothly and pretty easily even at a slight side angle [30* or so]
the release button is a decent size but not obtrusive.
the bottom metal for the magazine is actually metal, and it snaps in place in the mag-well with a nice solid click.
one thing I did notice [and I noticed it in all of the samples I looked at]
was a slight hesitation spot when lowering the slide to lock-up it occurred about 1/2" from fully closed, and might be the trigger re-setting, or the barrel going into battery.
the feed ramp to the barrel is well polished although steep, so this one might be a little picky to oal as far as feeding.

anyway those are my impressions, and I can't wait to get it home and start shooting it to see how it does.

[dragon813gt]

You won't be disappointed w/ it. They're extremely accurate pistols. You can fix the trigger issues by sending it out to Cajun Gunworks or CZ Custom. Both of them offer short reset triggers that are butter smooth. Friends have them and it's on my list to send mine out.

Wood grips are easy to find. There are usually a lot on eBay. And you can buy them directly from CZ as well. If you don't want to spend money stay off the CZ Custom site

[Zim]

I am very happy with my CZ. Very nice trigger and no hammer bites. I wanted to like the High Power, just had to get my fat hands just right. Problem solved.

[Scout800a]

love my cz

[Ola]

runfiverun: Always remember to keep one or two slide release levers in reserve. The lever breaks quite easily.

[runfiverun]

hmm,, i'll have to see about getting a spare.
the pin for the release lever on this one looks to be about 3/16ths thick and should be the same as the 75-B, but not ambidextrous.

[Ola]

The lever can break off or the the pin it self can break. I've had them both in my CZ and I've seen it happen in others maybe 10 times. The model doesn't matter: 75, 85, 75B, 85B...

But that is the only weakness of the CZ I'm aware of.

[Ed_Shot]

You won't be disappointed w/ it. They're extremely accurate pistols. You can fix the trigger issues by sending it out to Cajun Gunworks or CZ Custom. Both of them offer short reset triggers that are butter smooth. Friends have them and it's on my list to send mine out.

Wood grips are easy to find. There are usually a lot on eBay. And you can buy them directly from CZ as well. If you don't want to spend money stay off the CZ Custom site

+1 on the trigger job by either CZ Custom or Cajun Gunworks. The E-Z Drift Sight set from Cajun Gunworks is also fantastic. I recommend you try the Hogue wrap-around grip for the 75B.

[PB234]

And another +1 on Cajun Gunworks.

[Bullwolf]

The lever can break off or the the pin it self can break. I've had them both in my CZ and I've seen it happen in others maybe 10 times. The model doesn't matter: 75, 85, 75B, 85B...

But that is the only weakness of the CZ I'm aware of.

I've had a slide release pin break on my old Tanfoglio TZ-75 (CZ-75 clone) during a shooting session. Haven't had it happen yet with one of the newer CZ-USA pistols though.

Picked up a new pin from EAA, and fit it. I like it better than the dog leg slide release lever anyhow. It functions just fine in the older pistol.

I keep a spare on hand as well now.



- Bullwolf

[runfiverun]

I'm definitely gonna have to find a spare lever or two.
I picked the pistol up earlier today, went and grabbed a couple of pounds of H-414 at another shop and looked over a win super x-3 20 ga shotgun [now on my wish list], then took the wife out to dinner.
we got home with about 1-1/2 hours of daylight left, so I grabbed some loaded rounds and we headed to the range with the oldest girl.

I figured I better try the cast loads first so I loaded 6 in the first magazine and cleaned the 6" plate rack from 20+ yards with a center hold.
the wife said well it's accurate.
so I handed it to her and she hit 5 out of 6 shooting one low.
next up was some 115 jacketed/plated.... sumthin they been around for so long I forget but the load was with 231.
they shot a tick lower and we had to hold the top half of the plates but they were consistent.

the girl gave it a go and was having a hard time comprehending that the boolits were hitting behind the dot on the front sight so she kept hitting the rack instead of the plates.
she is blonde,,,, thanks for asking

we burned through about 150 rounds, shooting about half and half cast and copper wrapped.
this gun is gonna see some serious range time, after I paint the front sight bright green.
it will then match the 624 for sight alignment and point of impact at the same distances.

ohhh zero failures to feed even with some 89gr power ball bullets I had in the truck.
and only one fail to fire which was a high primer which escaped inspection and fired on the second try so not the guns fault at all.

[DrCaveman]

Sounds great, man, youve got a good one there. I discovered (maybe btroj suggested it) that the cz75 platform shoots as nicely as a 1911 in many ways. Turns out my IMI baby eagle 9mm circa 2001 shoots quite similar

As for the slide hesitation when going into battery: is there also a hesitation at the same spot when manually racking the slide from full battery? My Jericho defiitely has this, and i consider it to be a visual "loaded chamber indicator". Easy to rack it a half inch, then hit a speed bump, check if chamber is loaded, then proceed to either let slide forward to maintain current status or rack it to load a bullet into the chamber. Kinda like a double action revolver set point.

Is your CZ this way?

[runfiverun]

i only noticed it on the way down and only when I let the slide down by hand fairly slowly.
when dropping the slide with the release and when I cleared the one round with the high primer I never noticed the hesitation on the way back.

I might could feel it if I slowly did a press check for a round and could use it as an indicator to stop and look.

[Bigslug]

I can tell you that they make a DAMN fine rifle. I've been able to prevent the moment of weakness with regards to the S.A.O. variant of the 75. . .so far. It's probably inevitable - I think it's far more irresistible force than I am immovable object.

[Petrol & Powder]

It has been a while since I had a CZ-75 but they are great pistols. There's a lot of good engineering in that pistol. Inside the frame slide rails and one of the best grips on a high capacity gun since the Hi-Power just to highlight a couple of positive traits. The guns are a bit heavy for carry but they are excellent range toys. They are well made and very accurate guns.
The CZ-75 has withstood the test of time and as a direct result of that excellent design it continues to thrive.

If you look at the history surrounding the pistol you realize that it was not only a collection of desirable traits but that it put those traits together better than anyone had before.

*Long slide rails inside the frame like a SIG P210/Model 49.
*A high Capacity magazine in a well shaped grip like a Browning Hi-Power
*A double action capability that retained the "cocked & locked" single action capability (winning acceptance by Jeff Cooper of all people!)
*A simplified Browning type locking system
*A 1911 style magazine release (not common in European pistols of its day)

When you look at the time frame (1975) The CZ-75 really stands out. The West Germans were looking for new pistol designs but all of the police pistol candidates in West Germany were single stack designs (Walther P5, SIG P6 and the H&K P7). A lot of European NATO members were happy with the Browning Hi-Power. The U.S. was using the 1911 and the Soviets were dominated by the Makarov's and Tokarev's. The Czech's were behind the iron curtain but always had their own excellent firearms.
Very few of the early CZ-75's made it out of communist Czechoslovakia but the ones that did heavily influenced firearms designs worldwide. It was a significant design and a milestone in the history of firearms.

[Ola]

Heh, here in Finland the communist era CZ's are quite common. One of the benefits of being "neutral" during the cold war..

F.e. I have one of those, a CZ85. It has a very low serial number but I have no idea when it was manufactured. I bought it second hand maybe 20 years ago.