I recently got a surplus Browning Hi Power, and have been eying the CZ-75SA for a while, here are my thoughts:
1) The stock BHP trigger pretty much sucks. You can improve it quite a bit by removing the mag safety and replacing the hammer springs. The mag safety is easy to remove (if you have punches), the hammer spring is a enormous pain in the rear (but you can find decent instructions). The stock CZ-75SA trigger is much nicer - it is lighter - but it still has some camming, which can seem like creep, but is apparently a design choice by CZ to increase reliability.
2) The CZ-75SA has less felt recoil (IMO) than the BHP. The CZ is a bigger gun, and if it weren't for the louder sound, it is kind of like shooting my Ruger .22
3) A NIB CZ-75SA will cost you about $200 less than a NIB BHP practical. That $200 could buy you upgraded grips, better sights and maybe even a trigger job - which would give you a vastly superior value than the stock BHP practical.
4) As Kevin noted, the CZ-75SA has excellent accuracy, supposedly more accurate than the BHP. New BHP's are supposed to be sub 3" @ 25yards guns, the CZ-75SA seems to get about half that size. On the other hand, that is accuracy that I am incapable of using.
5) The internal slide rails of the CZ-75SA contributes to a tighter gun. BHP's are known to rattle quite a bit. My BHP rattles more than my CZ-75PCR, but the barrel to slide fit on the BHP seems tighter than on my PCR. I am assuming that my PCR's tolerances are comparable to the CZ-75SA.
The bad things about the CZ-75SA
1) The CZ-75SA has a bigger grip. The BHP has a compact sized grip on a full length slide. The BHP is a very flat gun with a fairly narrow grip. In my hands, the BHP with the "fat" Hogue rubber grips feels better than a CZ-75SA with Hakan's custom wood grips (my PCR with Hakan grips feels almost as good). No doubt with some Spegels, the BHP would be even flatter. You may be able to approach the flatness of the BHP with very thin grips on the CZ, but the shape of the backstrap on the BHP is subtly better (imo). The trigger and safety on the CZ-75SA are within easy reach, but the slide release is not. On the BHP (and the CZ compacts) all controls are reachable without shifting my grip.
2) The CZ has fewer customization options and fewer smiths who know it. The BHP is an old design that is remarkably easy to work on - you can make real improvements in the trigger of a BHP on your own - it is easy to get parts.
3) The BHP trigger, while heavy, is much crisper than the CZ-75. I'm going to swap in a new hammer spring, and if I run into Spazz at the range, I'll compare them side by side. Breaking in the triggers on CZ's will make them silky smooth, but I don't think they ever become crisp. Mike@CZ-USA can give you a crisp trigger for about $60 + shipping.
4) The BHP is a flat gun with a short grip, so it is not out of the question to use the BHP has a CCW weapon (the BHP seems easier to conceal than my PCR, due to it's flatness but it is much heavier). The CZ-75SA is definitely a full sized gun - probably never a contender for concealed carry.
5) The BHP seems to be faster to bring on target, I think that this is because the balance is weighted more towards the grip on the BHP, and more towards the muzzle/top on the CZ-75SA.
Subjectively, I think the BHP is a faster, more elegant gun than the full sized CZ's, but I think that objectively, the CZ-75SA is in many ways the better gun. I got my BHP for (relatively) cheap, it fit my hands better and I wanted a project gun, so it was the right gun for my purposes. But I think you can't go wrong with the CZ-75SA.
Steve
