The 1911 was mentioned. Every look at real 1911? Not the A1 (improvements based on WW1 results/reports). Not the modern variants with all kinds of different sights, safeties, firing pin blocks, etc., etc.
The 1911 was designed when the revolver was king. Look at a real Colt 1911. The hammer has a wide spur to facilitate thumb cocking, like a Colt SA revolver. The sights are like the tiny sights on the Colt SA revolvers. Short (in height) front sight that is rounded on top, not flat and not serrated to break up glare/light. The rear is short (height) and has a tiny U shaped notch in it for the front sight. The main spring housing is rounded (no humps) and smooth, like the grip frame on a Colt SA revolver. The contact surface on the safety is small compared to just about any modern semi auto safety or decocking lever. I'm not sure the safety was expected to be used like they are used today. If so, why make it so small/difficult to operate as compared to modern safeties?
The Hi-Power was also a John Browning design (or started that way before he died before it was complete/accepted for production. Many people say the Hi-Power has improvements that the US Military and Colt would not allow him to put into the 1911.
Someone made a comment (above post) that he CZ75 was designed to compete with the other semi-auto pistols already in service at the time. So it was designed with a thumb safety, not decocking levers. Those came later.
How does the government tell soldiers to carry a weapon? As safely as possible (where all the dumb rules come from about no round in the weapon - if they even issued you rounds at all). A soldier or two gets killed here and there due to poor training and poor policies? THEY DON"T CARE! Accept that. They really don't care, as long as they don't look bad to the government, their higher officers and the public. You will never see a report that says the poor guy died because he wasn't properly trained/armed. Even if you did do you really think the officer(s) who came up with the stupid rules will be properly disciplined?
Why double action? Makes it real quick/easy to hit that primer a second time if it didn't go off the first time. Much quicker than racking the slide. How many times have all of us read here/else where about a round not going off the first time but going off the second time? Of course, it always gets blamed on the primer not being seated correctly but consider it could be something else, sometimes.
A new guy eases the slide forward rather than letting it go. Training, not wanting to damage the pistol, etc. The slide doesn't quite close (and it doesn't take much on a CZ75) so when the trigger is pulled the hammer finishes pushing the slide into battery but the round didn't go off. The second time the trigger is pulled through double action it goes bang and then it operates normally as the new guy isn't easing the slide forward.
The pistol is lacking some lubricant, or it hasn't been properly cleaned and it's dragging due to dirt/friction and you get a similar situation where the slide just didn't make it all the way forward. The hammer could knock it into battery and the double action pull would set off the primer.
Military guys seldom get to practice enough that they don't have two different POI's vs. POA's when going from a DA first round to SA following that first round. If they're smart, once they get away from that dumb officer, they'll "fix" that pistol/rifle/shotgun so that it is ready to save their lives and the lives of their buddies around them when they need it.
And, as a DA/SA design, the pistol would appeal to more buyers as they could have their soldiers/officers carry it the way their leaders felt the safest/most comfortable. Either SA/cocked and locked or DA with the hammer down.
I know how I carry mine. Cocked and locked. I don't have a single decocker CZ. The Omega pistols are set up with the safeties instead of the decocking levers. I even bought a big old XD Tactical .45 just because the darn thing is one of those seldom seen models with, you guessed it, ambidextrous thumb safeties.
I read/see all the time where people say, "I don't trust myself that I'll remember to push the safety to the off position if I need to use my pistol." Really, you carry a pistol you don't practice with/use enough to know how to operate without having to take the time to remember how? Do you have to remember:
How to grab it with your hand?
How to line the sights up with each other and the target?
How to squeeze the trigger?
How to grab the spare magazine and insert it (as long as you didn't forget to hit the magazine release before trying to insert the spare).
How to release the slide to chamber that first round from the spare magazine?
Drive a manual transmission car/truck? Who has to remember how, or even when, to shift gears? Who has to remember when they need to hit the brakes?
I really like my M1 Garands and even my M1A but I've just about quit shooting them or taking them on road trips. Know why? When I had an AR15 in my hands I kept hitting the mag. release button instead of the safety. Dropping a loaded magazine is just wrong. The only thing I could figure was using my trigger finger to push the mag. release was a similar (instinctive) movement to using my trigger finger to put the M1/M1A on safe after I shot a group. I had to choose between one or the other. To keep the .30 caliber muscle available I bought a GII 7.62X51/.308. And I like it. Works just like the AR15's. Looks like the AR15's (just a bit bigger here and there.)
