SP-01 Compact (99021) all the way back in 2007!?

[Dreamer]

Hello all.  I picked up a SP-01 Compact this past summer, and have been shooting and reading about it with great pleasure every since.  Thanks to all of you for the great information and discussion on the forum - I'm learning a lot.

Anyway, I was surfing the web this evening and took a look at Jeff Quinn's website - Gunblast - where I ran across a review of what appears to be a twin brother to the SP-01 Compact from all the way back in 2007!  Check it out - what does all this mean?!  Twilight zone, or was my favorite little pistol actually conceived earlier than we all thought?    Food for conversation and intrigue!

http://www.gunblast.com/RKCampbell_CZ75C.htm

[M1A4ME]

And it appears to be in .40 S&W, too.

Isn't it cool when stuff like this shows up?

I wonder how many of those are out there in somebody's safe, or sock drawer, just sitting unused.

Evidently, no one on this forum has one or there'd have been pictures by now to show the ones that came in last year aren't "new."

[Earl Keese]

It was called the "Compact 40". You can Google it, not hard to find. There several images that can be found. There is even an old page from Bud's Gun Shop.

[DaveVLam]

I've spotted a couple of these recently but seem to just miss them. I have a P06 I love but I think this in 40 would be even better and you could get a 9 compact complete slide and have the best of both worlds! I just missed a 40 compact by a month and a half and it went for $375 because so many people are crying 40 is dead now! ugh

[ernie_h]

It was called the "Compact 40". You can Google it, not hard to find. There several images that can be found. There is even an old page from Bud's Gun Shop.

Thanks Earl. Saw the pic on Bud's....o well, something else to keep an eye out for.

[Indy_Tim]

I have one of the .40 Compacts and bought it off of this site last year to match my 99021.  It's not CZs best work I'm afraid.  They will run, but you'll never trust it with your life.  The problem is that they used a standard 9mm slide to make the .40 out of and it's too light.  To make it run, you need a heavy main spring to help tame the recoil.  The recoil spring needs to be up to around 22# to keep the slide from striking the frame and causing the next round to jam nose down in the mag.  The .40 Compact slide on mine comes in at about 289g where as the P06 slide is closer to 330g to 340g.  The P07 slide is around 340g too.

The light slide causes too much slide velocity and the short recoil spring length gets spring bind when you go to heavier springs.  A heavy mainspring helps and with the heavy main spring and fresh recoil spring, mine will run at about the 95% level.  Lighter handloaded ammo helps too.  I ordered a DPM Recoil System for a P06 thinking that might help but the slide spring house is cut shorter on the .40 Compact and it destroyed the DPM System in 10 rounds.  DPM is a great company and not only did they replace the original system with a brand new one that I could use in my P01, but they built a custom one based on measurements of the .40 Compact slide.  Unfortunately, even that one is starting to show a bit of deformation now too.

In my opinion, the .40 Compact was created using a stock 9mm slide with a cut down spring house to allow a bit more travel.  It did not really work out.  It's a shame too as when the gun runs, it runs beautifully.  Especially with the DPM system in it.  It shoots .40 like a 9mm pistol.  I have a friend that does high end custom machine work to guns and is a custom 1911 builder.  I've been thinking of asking him if he could weld the inside of the slide to add the needed weight to make it reliable.  I'd also love to find a P06 slide or even a 40P slide to use on it.

[Scarlett Pistol]

I saw one in the past year. Too bad to hear it has a hard time running....

[Indy_Tim]

If I can figure out what that gun needs to run right, it could easily become one of my favorites.  When it's running well, it's really nice.  Not quite 99021 nice but close.  The biggest issue with the light slide is that it's difficult to control the velocity due to the limited amount of room for a recoil spring.  If I could find a 22# flat wire spring that fit, it could work.  If the slide recoil can be tamed through a recoil spring or added slide mass, then I can add CGW parts to make it truly shine.  If I can find a recipe for fixing that one, I'd probably jump on any I see for sale as it is that good when it works.

[ernie_h]

Thanks Tim for the detail on the compact 40..interesting the weight differences in your post..I had read about issues with it but did not realize those issues were, in fact, characteristic of that model in general. If I can find a compact 40 at a reasonable price, I might grab it; I have an 'extra' P-06, so I could test the P-06 top end on the compact 40 frame.

[Scarlett Pistol]

If I can figure out what that gun needs to run right, it could easily become one of my favorites.  When it's running well, it's really nice.  Not quite 99021 nice but close.  The biggest issue with the light slide is that it's difficult to control the velocity due to the limited amount of room for a recoil spring.  If I could find a 22# flat wire spring that fit, it could work.  If the slide recoil can be tamed through a recoil spring or added slide mass, then I can add CGW parts to make it truly shine.  If I can find a recipe for fixing that one, I'd probably jump on any I see for sale as it is that good when it works.

Have you tried calling CZ to see what they would recommend to get it running?

This is really interesting to me. Seems like this is the answer to where the SP-01 Compact frame came from.

BTW One of our members swaps some cool slides around on this CZ's. The thread was about the Tactical Sport slide, but he snuck in a picture of his SP-01 Compact with his 75 Single Action 40 S&W slide. Sounds like it runs and shoots really well!

Once I machined the dust cover down to the appropriate thickness, it worked on all my CZ frames. I went with a CZ75SA frame since it was the cheapest to get the beavertail and I thought the Shadows were a little nose heavy. It looks really cool on the SP01 Shadows and Shadow 2 though.

[Chicago Dude]

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Very nice Lok grips.
That ugly screw on 75B must go !!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/302343499278

[Indy_Tim]

I took the .40 75B Compact out this morning and ran 50 rounds through it.  Wow, what a sweet shooter.  I had one FTF and that was with a DPM recoil system and a 22# spring.  It was not one of the springs that came with the DPM system though, and the spring is looking really tired.  This gun is really hard on recoil springs and can burn through them in something like 50 to 100 rounds in some configurations.  The DPM Recoil system seems to work the best though, but it's not perfect either.

But, when she's running, she's one of the best .40's I've had the pleasure to shoot.  Right now, I'm just going to keep it in the collection and run it once in a while.  It is not reliable enough for carry but is a really nice shooter when it runs.  I can like with 1 FTF in 50 on a range gun.

[DaveVLam]

Thanks for the info. I've been looking for the 40 compact because with that I could just swap 9 slides and have the best of the frame style. I have a P06 and a PCR and the PCR slide will go on the P06 fine. With the frame shape of the Compact being like the 99021 I thought it would be even more comfortable in 40 even though my P06 is fine. I had no idea the slide on the 40 compact was any different than the P06. The P06 slide is wider and normally when I ask holster makers if they have a P06 mold they say they are the same and I try to tell them no they are not! LOL. I guess in the case of the Compact 40 they might be.  Too bad my 40 slide won't go on my 99021 cause that would be great

[rhart]

I have the compact .40 in a steel frame with rails I found at a gun show about three years ago. I shot about 400 flawless rounds through it when I first bought it, but it has been sitting in the safe since then. I liked the heft of the steel frame, but was unable to find one in 9mm at first. I tried to put a 9mm top end off my P01 on the .40, but it didn't work. Then I found the SP01 compact and stopped trying to fit a 9mm upper to the .40 as it fit what I was looking for to a tee. So I knew CZ used to make a model similar to an SP01 compact.