Original Cz-75~!

[Armed Squid]

To be fair, this wonder of combat engineering wasn't always mine; some god of pistol shooting obviously had it before I did. They must also have been a big person; they left a set of rubber grips on it, which makes the handle almost 2" across. Small-handed people might think this makes it a cow of a gun, but it fits my enormous hand wonderfully! It came with a 15-round mag, and was definitely worked on; apparently 100% untouched 75's had a problem with tiny front sights; this baby has had a set of combat sights put in, the front being nice and tall. They're white outline with a flame orange tip on the front sight, and for being a 30-something year old gun, it's in remarkably good shape. All 3 serial numbers match, which is a serious biggie I'm led to believe; we put it through about 100 rounds at one trip to the firing range, without a single misfeed, misfire, or stovepipe at all. I see the CZ logo on the side, and what looks like the number "887" imprinted, just aft of the breech. Maybe it's some sort of factory identification symbol/number? I dunno. I just know that it's a marvelous pistol, and I feel blessed to have found it for $300 @ a local pawn shop.


(sorry for the TERRIBLE image quality; I was using my less than professional-level webcam to take the shots; I did as well as I could...)


To begin, the entire thing....




The inscriptions:




Combat sights:




And finally, the (like-new?) barrel:

[CM Rich]

$300 for a "Pre-B" CZ 75 sounds like a good deal to me! Congrats.

That "887" marking is actually the Czech proofmark, a lion, followed by the year of birth, in this case 1987. The semi-modern plastic checkered grips and the two-hole safety also ID it as a mid-to-late 80s model, as I recall (those grips debuted in 1987, I believe).

The one factor that throws me off is the lack of the sight rib on top of the slide. In my understanding, the rib first appeared on the original CZ 85, and followed suit onto the standard CZ 75s soon afterwards. CZ has a history of using old stock for quite some time after official changes are made (most famously the "transitional" models of 1993-94).

Can anybody pin point when the sight rib really first appeared on the 75s? I thought it was 86-87, but this gentleman's excellent pistol puts a hole in that theory.

Well, enough of my rambling. You have an excellent gun in your hands, man. You're gonna love shooting with it.

[Armed Squid]

(What's a site rib, and does the absence of it make my gun horrible somehow? )


We already have shot it, and it shoots like you wouldn't believe. Dad was with me, and we wanted to get my little sister in on the experience, so we took her too, and she literally clung to it like an iron nail to a magnet (HQ: Mission complete!). She completely snubbed dad's .357 colt python; she claimed it was too harsh on her hands. Incredibly enough, her very first shot was a bullseye; dad and I nearly had heart attacks. At 13, she was dirty harry, writing her name and stuff in the paper!

[CM Rich]

(What's a site rib, and does the absence of it make my gun horrible somehow? )

A sight rib is a flattened area at the top of the slide that extends the entire length of the slide. It has a bunch of length-wise grooves, which are meant to reduce glare. It works, but I've always felt that the completely smooth top slides were the best looking. Its really a matter of personal taste and trivia.