Hi y'all!
I've recently become the proud owner of a CZ Shadow and CZ Kadet and I thought it would be nice to write a little range report about my first experiences with these babies. While I was doing research on what to spend my hard earned cash on, I read some horror stories about Kadet kits not fitting or working properly with the Shadow. However, the gentleman at the gun store assured me that this combination would work and that several of his customers also used this combination. So I decided to ignore the horror stories and go for it. And boy, was I right to do so!
So this is what you get when you spend some ?1100 at the toy shop:
The Kadet kit consists of an "outer slide," which houses the fixed barrel, recoil spring and the "actual slide." When you field strip the Kadet it looks like this:
The Kadet kit comes with two sturdy magazines, which appear to be regular CZ75 magazines with an insert:
The magazines are easy to load, although when you're just starting out loading the tiny .22 rounds may take some fumbling and getting used to.
The Kadet kit is not a drop-in-and-go part. This is mentioned in the user manual, which also contains instructions on how to fit the kit to your frame. I've read stories about Kadets that required no modification at all and I've also read stories about Kadets not wanting to function at all no matter what was done with them. My particular setup just required the first step of the instrucions to get it to work, so I guess your kilometrage may vary...
What I did was to VERY CAREFULLY file a bit off of the part of the slide nearest to the muzzle (on both sides of the slide of course). This is the tiny slide rail that is part of the fixed "outer slide." The arrow points to the modified surface:
When you're done the thing looks like this:
For the more artistically inclined:
As the contour of the Kadet is modelled on the regular CZ75 models (i.e. without the full dust cover) the business end may look a bit weird:
And now for the fun bit! The results of my first trip to the range were outstanding! One hundred and forty rounds of 9x19 (Magtech and Geco) without a single hiccup. No FTFs, no FTEs, only BANGs and HOLEs. This is the result of rapid fire at twelve meters:
The Kadet also proved to be a success. One hundred and twenty five rounds, again without a single hiccup. No FTEs, no FTFs, just BANGs and HOLEs again. The slide locked open after every last round. This is the result of rapid fire with the Kadet at twelve meters:
And finally, a five shot group with the Kadet, slow fire at twelve meters (CCI Standard). The target is an A4 print. The flyer was caused by a shooter malfunction. Hey, I'm only human...
Well, that's it for now. Hopefully you've enjoyed my little range report. I'm very (and I do mean VERY) happy with my Shadow/Kadet pair.
Cheers,
Frank.
