Hi, I just purchased a new PCR from
www.krausewerk.com/ , a local shop. Picked it up on 5/26 and went shooting with it today. Frame mark indicates that it was made in 1999.
This is my second gun after my Browning Buckmark 5.5 standard which I bought around 4 years ago. Also a very nice gun, but impossible to get any custom parts other than barrels. I've put around 5 or 6 bricks through it over the years. With Remington Thunderbolts or other high velocity cheap ammo, I have trouble keeping it in the black (B-3 target) off one hand at 50' but with the Federal Target, I can pretty keep all of my shots in the black with slow fire. Timed and rapid fire still needs some work.
First impressions were that, empty, it is really light. Much lighter than the Buckmark with it's bull barrel and steel frame. The PCR fits my hand extremely well, even better than the Buckmark. SA is pretty good, but DA was a little stiffer than I expected. My right trigger finger must be alot stronger than my left because I don't have any trouble firing it DA with my right, but my left hand has trouble. (I also have pretty small hands so that may be part of the problem). Maybe I could use some thinner grips. Maybe some Hakan's? I need to work on my trigger pull strength also.
The single action pull is pretty rough out of the box with some roughness during take up (moving the firing pin block out of the way?) and then some creep (which cams the hammer back further from full cock) before breaking cleanly. The break is pretty crisp but the roughness and creep is bothersome. Compared to the Buckmark, the SA trigger feels slightly lighter but much rougher.
The gun was very well finished, inside and out, with no rough tooling marks and such. The recoil spring was one of the new fangled double coiled jobs which I had never seen before (just goes to show you what a cave I've been living in). Everything was covered in the oil which needed to be wiped off. After wiping it all off, I lightly oiled the rails on the frame and slide. I was surprised that the recoil rod was made of some kind of synthetic material. Just curious but does anyone know of any after-market alternatives? I was surprised that the rubber grips were exposed to the mag chamber. In contrast, the rubber grips on the Buckmark have a metal insert on the inside.
There was also an included dry firing insert made of plastic, but it was a pain to insert. It evidently needs to be inserted by hand into the barrel and the slide slammed home. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that doing this is probably not good for the extractor. Fortunately, I had purchased a set of 9mm snap caps from
www.pistoleer which arrived that same day. These snap caps are profiled like a real 9mm FMJ round, anodized black and with a resilient piece of stuff in place of the primer. I dry fired with this a for about an hour on Friday.
Taking it to the range (Jackson Arms in South San Francisco) I loaded up the first mag with one round and shot at the standard NRA B-3 50 ft timed and rapid fire target. I had ordered 1000 round of S&B 115 grain ammo from cheaper than dirt (along with a brick of .22 Federal Target) so I was well prepared. It shot exactly POA at 50 ft. Recoil was, of course, much sharper than the Buckmark :-) with a lot of muzzle flip. I shot 3 boxes of 9mm, along with 2 boxes of .22. I had one FTE in the second mag full, where the extractor seemed to slip off of the round and leave it in the barrel. Opening night jitters I guess. I needed to drop the mag and cycle the slide to clear it.
BTW, the right ammunition really makes a big difference in the Buckmark.
Afterwards, one of the RO's gave me some of his .45 SWC reloads to test with the rental Sig 220. I don't know if it was because it was broken in, but WOW! The Sig trigger was much, much better. No creep and a very crisp consistent break. No comparison with the PCR. I'm hoping the PCR's will improve after I break it in, but i'm also considering sending it to Mike at CZ-USA.
All in all, the PCR is a very, very nice gun, with the long DA pull and rough SA trigger being the only problems out of the box. Fit and finish seem to be very good. After my holster arrives from Don Hume, I'm looking forward to PPC and IDPA shooting next month at the Chabot gun club. Thanks to everybody on these forums for their advice and help. I'm looking forward to lots of fun shooting my PCR and talking about them on CZForum.com.
