Hiya aales1 and welcome to the forum from phoenix,arizona. I hope you get a moment to post in the welcome new members area for an official greeting. That was a lengthy first post I must say and my reply is a small sincere attempt to speak from my cz experiences to touch on only a couple of your needs,concerns,and gun projects.
What country or city are you located in? We have members from across the planet here and may find a neighbor here with a similar interest in the shooting sports. The forum here has a search feature that you can use to search the forums threads for topics of interest and its time well invested to just read up on your platform of interest. The mods are great at delivering threads to the proper area if they arrived to the wrong place initially.
Was glad to hear your 97b europe version comes standard with the wood grips,I bought a 2015 model and the wood had since been replace with rubber in the USA. It took some hunting and 80USD to get those, and these don't have the palm swell that the black rubber one do,which may fit your medium hands and not require modification. My only experience with the Nill grips was on a SIG Nitrino target .45 and they looked great but since they extended like a mag well they sucked unless using an extended mag. So pretty dosent always equal more functional.
To comment on your recoil rod subject, do as I say not as I do. If it aint broke why do we often find a need to fix it ? Once ones retired and on a fixed income, the wants suddenly are more distinguishable from the needs. That said of the few dozen ca's owned I routinely replaced the plastic to a steel rod or the DPM which incorporates several springs as the guide rod. With it being a thing thats not really force bearing,and its mostly out of view, I took more issue with spending over 1200 on a tactical sport and getting a plastic trigger on a otherwise steel gun,and routinely replaced those also feeling,as you do maybe slighted, as corporations need to squeeze out increasing profits. This in turn opens the doors to aftermarket business which only prosper when we "need" to have steel rods, custom sights, competition hammers,race springs ad (advertising) infinitum. If your mention of no steel rods are available in Europe,because its not needed,kinda saved owners that amount of money,millions over the years. In december of last year on a related thread a forum member shared using door hinge from Lowes,which functioned perfectly well in his 97b. So vast your local hardware store. My 97bs guide rod is 3 3/4inches long and quarter of an inch wide at the base. Of course you can take your factory rod and spring to the hardware store and measure it yourself. With Tanfoglio parts often being compatible with CZ,is your steel rod in it also a .45cal ? And if your countrys laws allow for me to purchase your steel rod and ship it to you,say the word.
Unless cost is no object, I'd avoid milling a slide to just one sight option and at least looking into something like a heine Novak cut that opens the door to many rear sight options. Under your countries gun laws are you restricted to how many guns you own ? If you had the money to own 5 different uppers with different sight set ups but ran them off one lower ,does the law see one or 5 guns ?. So, welcome again, we are glad you found us. Be well.
