Background: I spent a couple of decades in the Navy where I spent most of my time in security and law enforcement positions (enlisted). That gave me a fair amount of experience with various firearms and some extensive training with handguns, which I also carried in uniform and in civilian clothes. A number of years ago I retired and my handgunning practice died to nothing. The beginning of this year saw me looking to get back into shooting and I started with my local indoor shooting range.
The Experience: I went to a local fun shoot at the range one Friday night. There were 18 steel animals to knock down and you could take up to 20 rounds to do it. I started with my decade old Star M-40 Firestar in .40 S&W and after two strings of fire I was in the middle of the pack. The Star was, at the time I bought it, the smallest and lightest .40 available and makes a good carry gun. But, for this shoot it was way outclassed and I had never practiced this kind of shooting with it, either. For the third, and last, string I switched to my Smith and Wesson model 36 revolver, .38 special caliber, a 5-shot with a 3 inch barrel. I knew I could shoot with this as I had owned it for over two decades and had qualified expert with it in the Navy. Uhhhh, the plates didn't fall. The .38 special LRN just splattered on the plates and wobbled the critters. Some fell, but some took up to 3 hits without much effect. Darn. I needed something better.
Something Better: Research, and an open mind, is the key to good decision making. So, I started doing research. "Most underrated handgun in the United States," and "One of the ten best pistols of the 20th century," were a couple of lines that pointed me toward CZs. I looked at and tried other handguns, but I finally got my hands around a CZ-75B in .40 S&W; I liked it. I bought one.
The Results: Something over a thousand rounds have gone through my CZ-75B (.40) so far. Out of the box it had the best feeling trigger of any new handgun I've ever seen. Ergonomically, the wide and smooth trigger was great, the magazines dropped free and everything worked right out of the box. I have had no FTEs or FTFs caused by the CZ. I've tested about 20 different brands and loads of ammunition, including a couple of reloads, and it has all functioned well.
After a few hundred rounds I field stripped the CZ, used a mild metal polish on the easy-to-get-to parts that slide or feed, cleaned the heck out of it, greased the sear and hammer in the appropriate places, lubed the rest of the parts generously and put it all back together. The slight gritty feel to the trigger is totally gone and it cycles like lightning. I could slick up the hammer released, but kind of like the resistance the way it is; I do not want too light a trigger in SA.
I upgraded the recoil spring to a Wolff 22 pound to cure the muzzle flip, but got some FTEs. Went down to a 20 pound and that works. The front sight should be ground down as it is vertically off, but I'm not ready to do that just yet. Horizontally, it was dead on out of the box.
The factory magazines were made by Mecgar as was the extra one I bought. I have some Promag magazines from two different sources (Maybe different factory runs?) of which the mag from one source is slightly too large, but the mags from Natchez work O.K. A couple of magazines from another source that were supposed to be for the CZ were actually for one of the clones and wouldn't latch. I had some interesting e-mails and talks with the customer service rep at that company. Seems the buyer had the idea that they were all interchangeable.
The factory grips gave way to Hogue grips with finger grooves. The sides of both of those are too flat for me so I got the factory rubber grips. They felt different at first, but the palm swell is just what I was looking for; I'm sticking with them.
Outcome: The fun shoots at the local range differ from week to week; sometimes we shoot the steel critters, while other times we shoot IDPA scenario type shoots. The last two steel critter shoots we had I got 2nd place, only missing 1st by one point in both contests.
