What Can You Tell Me About My New-to-Me CZ83 & Mags

[RedBowTies88]

Hi everyone. I recently pickup up this 83, and I was curious to learn anything I can about it.

The barrel is conventionally rifled, are the 82's the only polygonal ones?

Above the trigger guard it's stamped "85" with a proof mark. Am I correct in assuming that's the year of manufacture?

Are any of these magazines original CZ mags? None of them are marked at all and one does not match the other two. The non-matching one doesn't seem to want to release from the right side button but drops fine when using the left hand side release button.

This was apparently purchased by a serviceman stationed in Germany and brought back wiih him. The gun is not import marked at all, is that a rare and/or desireable condition?

Are these ammunition picky? I don't have any .380 on hand to test with and I plan on placing a large order for several hundred rounds. I would hate to find out that this particular example doesn't care for X brand/type of ammo.

Is there anything I should check/be concerned with before putting it into use? All seems well, but I'm but sure if they have quirks/shortcomings that are well known.

Thanks! 

[eastman]

so far, my CZ 83 has eaten everything I've fed to it, so I think they are one of the least ammo picky .380s I own

[il.bill]

My CZ83 is not picky either. 

I feed it a steady diet of cheap, steel cased FMJ .380 ACP cartridges - as an eastern European com-bloc pistol I figured that is what it was designed for.  My favorite is Silver Bear.  I like it so much I have started using it in my Glock 42 for concealed carry.  The bullet holes may not be perfectly round, but that Silver Bear is plenty accurate out to ten or fifteen yards, and nearly less expensive than plated reloads.

My CZ83 loves them.  I bought 500 rounds on sale over the internet and will probably do it again when I run low.

As is often said, YMMV ...

[rdcinhou]

My CZ83 has not had issues with any ammo. My main complaint is it takes an excessive amount of force to pull down the trigger guard compared to my CZ82.
sent from my Nokia Lumia 1020 from AT&T using Tapatalk

[RedBowTies88]

I have noticed that this one also takes a pretty serious amount of force to pop the trigger guard down. Maybe that's from lack of use, I'm not sure.

[Psyop96]

I'm having trouble viewing the photos on Tapatalk in the thread itself (the infamous Photobucket policy statement) but I see a photo on the thread headline. SN 2172? GI-bring-back with no import mark? In great looking condition? WOW WOW WOW.

That's about the lowest serial number I've seen over the years. It's quite a find from 1985 especially compared to the flood of surplus ones. Congrats.

The trigger guard should be a little stiff but just to be sure... straight out and down per the current manual.

[RedBowTies88]

Thanks!

I just realized it looks like my photobucket links aren't working. I didn't see any way to attach pics to the post directly. Is there anything that I'm missing?

[larryflew]

not missing anything other than Photobucket BS as others have also found out. I use Imgur myself but there are others out there.

[Psyop96]

Thanks!

I just realized it looks like my photobucket links aren't working. I didn't see any way to attach pics to the post directly. Is there anything that I'm missing?

If you are using a mobile device, the easiest way to post photos is the Tapatalk app that lets you post directly from your photo library.