Picked up my CZ 97B today

[dale59911]

I had a little delay with FFL info and personal schedule but I finally picked up my new CZ today.  I have to admit to having some misgivings BUT I must say..this is the 70 chevy of handguns.  You KNOW you are holding a real pistol in your hands with this baby.  I have fairly large hands so the ergonomics and fit is absolutely perfect.  The slide action is smooth and not terribly stiff and all the levers just seem to be in exactly the right spot.  Did I mention it is pretty bleeped heavy??    CZs are pretty hard to find in Montana so I never had a chance to actually hold one until mine arrived.  I based my purchase on what I read on this forum.

Everything seems to be extremely well made.  I will get a chance (hopefully) to fire it tomorrow.

At first, I thought it came without any documentation, manual etc but that is tucked away under the egg crate foam on the top of the factory case.  I guess that is why the little circle is cut into the top foam  I happened to notice that it was white instead of the black plastic  :-)

Initial tear down is pretty easy other than the "tap" to start the slide release is more like a BIG TAP...for me, kind of hard to remove but that may be one reason the bottom of the mag is plastic instead of metal.  The manual suggests using the magazine bottom to aid in "tapping" the slide release.   As hard as I had to tap it, I would not have wanted to use a metal piece of any kind.  Getting the slide release pin back in also requires a pretty hard push.  I was surprised on my first tear down to find that the rails actually had a thin layer of grease on them.  The gun was sold as NIB and I am curious if this was the case on other 97B that people have purchased? 

Anyway, so far I am very impressed!

[Riptide439]

Great Choice! It is very accurate out of the boxes. The trigger is a bit stiff and gritty for the first 599 to 700 rounds but really gets nice after that. If you ever want to make it SPECIAL you can send it to Cajun Gun Works for the ultimate tune up.
You WOULD NOT be disappointed.

Enjoy your new toy! 

[ttompkins]

Congratulations, I'll be picking mine up Ina couple of months from a LGS. This will be my first .45 and I can't wait to get it on the range.

[dale59911]

Took it to the range today and put about 150 rounds through it.  When I got the CZ, they included a copy of the test fire ( I assume done at the factory) which showed that the pistol fired to the left.  Yep, the pistol fired to the left.  Could be lots of factors, trigger pull, not used to a 45 and flinching, etc etc).  It just seems odd that the test firing showed that as well.  It did put all the rounds into a very nice hole but to the left.  I am going to give it a couple of hundred rounds to get used to it before I start pushing sights and all that. 

The pistol performed flawlessly with what is definitely range grade ammo so can't complain there.  I did notice that it is very difficult to seat a magazine with the full 10 rounds loaded but that is a spring break in issue. 

The trigger......mmm SA, lots of take-up on the first shot and kind of gritty feeling but I was expecting that from all the forum postings.  It has a nice distinct reset so follow up shots are very nice.  Again, I am going to give it a lot more rounds before I do anything at all to it. 

All in all, pretty pleased with it and it definitely has promise.

[dale59911]

Second time at the range....had a buddy who is a very active competition shooter and has no qualms about doing whatever it takes to get a gun set up.  I let him fire about 40 rounds and he kept firing mine, firing his...trying something else.  He finally looked at me and said, "this fires better out of the box than most of my competition guns....but then it probably cost twice as much".  When I told him what the price was he just sort of stared at me.  Now, he did say that the trigger was pretty bad but that the gun shot beautifully.  Hope for it yet.!!