CZ 97B .45 ACP

OK, when we left off last time I was in the midst of suffering from a bad case of CZ fever.  I had just picked up and fallen in love with a 9mm CZ D PCR.  At the time I made that purchase, Bill's Gun Shop and Range also had several more CZ's on the shelf, one of which was a full-sized CZ 75 with a polished stainless finish and night sights.  As this was the first CZ I had ever seen that sported night sights and, since I was deep in the mist of the CZ fever, I decided to go back the next weekend and pick up the full-sized stainless model with the night sights.  However, while I was there I decided to pick-up the .45 caliber model 97B that was also on the shelf.  I have owned one before, but this one was different.  The first thing that I noticed was this screw-on barrel bushing up front.  I did not recall mine having a bushing, at least not this one.

The second thing that caught my eye was the glossy blue finish.  With the exception of the one nickle-plated model I owned (twice--if you haven't read the last review go back to get the explanation) all of the others have had a polycoat black finish that was nice but dull compared to this glossy blue.  In this world of Parkerized finished slides over polymer or anodized alloy frames it was nice to see a full steel handgun with a great blued finish.  

The third thing I noticed was the trigger pull.  CZ's have always had good triggers on them; this one was very good in Double Action and excellent in Single Action.  The "B" in the CZ 97B model designation means that there is no decocker on the pistol; you can carry it "cocked and locked" for Single Action or you can ease the hammer down and carry it in the Double Action mode.  The DA pull averaged 8.95 pounds and the SA came in at 5.85.  Both the DA and SA pulls were clean and short.  So, let's cut to the chase; I obviously bought it.  One of the first things I wanted to see was whether or not the DA pull would cause me to throw the shot.  When I fire a SIG I have a tendency to throw that first double action shot off to the left a good three to four inches at 21 feet.  So I decided to fire two full magazines (20 rounds) all in the Double Action mode.  After each shot I kept the muzzle pointed down range and carefully lowered the hammer.

The good news for CZ (and bad news for SIG) is that the groups were very well centered.  The Double Action pull did not have an effect on my accuracy.  Now you may notice that the in photo above that the pistol has wooden grips whereas my top image show the 97B sporting Aluminum grips.  This was done to make the grip slimmer.  This is a large pistol.  It is 8.3 inches long with a 4.8 inch barrel and sits 5.9 inches in height.  My medium sized hand found the double action trigger to be just a bit of a reach.  To help with that problem I ordered a set of Aluminum grips with skate board tape inserts from the the CZ Custom Shop.  It trimmed the width from 1.4 to 1.18 inches making the double action pull very reachable which was important as I intended to carry the pistol in the Double Action mode.

As for other specifications, the capacity of the magazine is a Feinstein friendly 10 rounds.  The forward section of the slide contains the very unnecessary (in my opinion) front cocking serrations. The top of the slide contains the very necessary anti-glare serrations so that sunlight reflecting off the top of the slide does not obliterate your sight picture.

CZ's ergonomics are always spot on for me and the model 97B is no exception.   Even though this is a large pistol I had no problem operating the thumb safety, the CZ version of which I actually find preferable to the thumb safety on the 1911.   However, with all due respect to John Moses Browning, CZ did have an additional 64 years to work on theirs.

I think it's time to talk about accuracy.  Feast your eyes on this one shot group fired at fifty feet!

I took quite a chewing out by some reader when I posted this photo on one of the gun forums.  He let me know in no uncertain terms that one shot does not constitute a group and accused me of trying to foist some type of flim-flam scam on the American public.  Maybe he missed the orange burst next to the target that states "I know enough to quit while I am ahead" and didn't realize this was kind of a joke.  Whenever I shoot a first round at any kind of a real distance and  ping the center of the target I reel that baby in, photograph it and save it for the scrapbook because no matter how many additional rounds I fire at that target it ain't gonna look any better than it does right now!  This as well as the next two targets were shot with UMC 230 grain FMJ ammunition.

Now I also took this pistol with me to Chicago to for qualifications where I shot two 29's and one perfect score of 30.  After a little work on my grip the instructor had me popping groups like this one above at 30 feet (and yes I did put the target on the holder upside down--hey a circle is a circle).

Going back to 50 feet here is what two magazines +one in the chamber look like.  You can see now why I pulled the first 50 target down after the first shot hit center.

As ammo was getting a little scarce I only had one box of defensive ammo which was Magtech 230 grain +P Jacketed Hollow Point loads.  This was what I used to shoot the target above at a range of 30 feet.

In all of my shooting trips with this pistol there have been no failures to feed or extract.

If you are looking for a large, all steel .45 caliber handgun for when the chips are down you are not find a better handgun than the CZ Model 97B.  The fit, finish, reliability and accuracy belies the price of $600 and change.

For one last look, here's the film noir version of the first photo above.

CZ 75 D PCR

I'll let you in on a little secret.  In the fall ole' Average Joe was getting bored with shooting.  I didn't care if I shot well and couldn't get motivated to even go to the range.  Then one Saturday at Bill's Gun Shop and Range in Robbinsdale, MN I was looking at the shelf of  CZ pistols.  This thought hit me "why not go back to the pistol that really peaked your interest in shooting because it gave you such sweet groups".  Let me explain what this means.  When I lived in Chicago and Los Angeles I got to the range maybe once or twice a year, fired one box of each caliber I brought with me and went home hardly impress with my shooting skills.  In 2003 when I moved to Boise I got to the range a little more often (a lot more often) and my skills began to improve (I was no longer missing the silhouette at 21 feet).  I continually made the trek between Cliff's Guns, Safes and Reloading, Buck Horn Guns, and the Boise Gun Company and began to get to know the staff's very well.  

One Friday evening in the Spring of 2004 I stopped by the Boise Gun Company and as I maneuvered through the rest of the people in the semi-automatic pistol corner Paul came over.  Paul was the maitre d' over the 3 cases of semi-automatic pistols.  He put into my hands a brand new full-sized CZ 75 BD.  It felt really good in my grip.  The stocks were black checkered hard plastic with palm swells and this pistol felt as good as any pistol ever had.  "But Paul" I said "This has a decocker and you know I hate double action pistols" thereby affirming everything I had ever seen Col. Jeff Cooper write.  He nodded and then said "This double action isn't going to make any difference".  

I still wasn't convinced because I had owned a CZ pistol before.  About six or seven years earlier when I lived in Chicago...back in my fifty rounds a year days, I looked at two handguns over my lunch hour for about a week.  I couldn't decide whether to buy a purple anodized Taurus model 85 .38 special with a compensated barrel or a nickel plated CZ 75 compact with black plastic grips.  I decided on the CZ but after one trip to the range I decided it was inherently inaccurate and sold it back to the shop and bought a Kahr P9 (which surprisingly also turned out to be inherently inaccurate).  My denial about my own shooting abilities knew no bounds.  

Anyway, the next day I went back to the Boise Gun Company shortly after opening and, as usual, the shop was teeming with customer.  There were those who were there to buy a gun, those who were there to just browse and then wound up buying a gun and those who had no intention of buying anything but lied   that they were and took up incessant amounts of the sales staffs time...these folks showed up every Saturday.  When Paul saw me he was already helping two or three other customers but he looked me in the eye and said "I know what you're hear for" as he pushed the federal form and a cheap Paper Mate stick pen in direction.  

I made my purchase and took the CZ 75 BD over to the Impact Gun Range (geez, I'm doin' a lot of free advertising for gun shops that are almost 1500 miles away).   The CZ clover-leafed my rounds and made me look like I knew what I was doing.  My boss shot it and he wanted one.  We spent the next Monday morning looking over the CZ-USA website and finally called down to their offices in Kansas City.  While my CZ 75 BD was a great pistol it was a full-sized handgun and we wanted something a little easier to carry.    Two of their sales people recommended we order their newest and finest pistol, the P-01.  We did.  The double action trigger seemed a little gritty but the accuracy was as good as my full-sized 75.  The next weekend I was back at the Boise Gun Company when I spied a used nickel plated CZ compact.  I bought it because it was downright pretty, the price was right, and I figured it surely would shoot better than the one I owned in Chicago.  I was kind of half right.  It did shoot a lot better but, after checking the serial number against my file of purchase receipts I realized that I had just bought my old Chicago pistol back.  

But I had fun with the purchase.  I swapped the slides between the nickel plated compact and the black poly-coated P-01 and then told the clerks and other shooters at Impact Guns that I was a part of an elite CZ consumer consortium and was testing possible prototypes for the home office in Kansas City and...oh, one or two out of the fifty or so people I told actually bought it.

But let's get back to the gun at hand, the CZ 75 D PCR and I'll address the most obvious thing first.  I replaced the grips.  

This pistol comes with checkered rubber grips that have nice palm swells and they work great.  However, I wanted to make the grip slimmer and these VZ grips fit the bill perfectly reducing the width from 1.38 inches to 1.18 inches.  

So, let's cover the rest of the specifications:

The CZ 75 D PCR is a Double Action/Single Action operation and is basically the same size as the CZ 75 Compact model.  The differences are primarily in the material of the frame and the sights.  The compact model has a steel frame while the D PCR has an alloy frame that shaves a quarter pound off the weight.  The rear sights on the compact model are of the straight post variety while the D PCR sports low profile, anti-snag sights.  The rest of the specs stack up like this:

Capacity: 14 + 1 rounds

Overall Length: 7.2 inches

Barrel Length: 3.8 inches

Height: 5 inches

Trigger Pull: Double Action-8.14 lbs. Single Action-4.15 lbs.

This photo clearly shows the front and rear sight configuration and as well as the grip palm swells.  I want to reiterate that the rubber grips worked fine I just wanted to slim them down a little and a little pizzazz to the product.  

The ergonomics of the pistol is fantastic.  The design of the grips and grip frame allows my  finger to reach the trigger in just the right spot to ensure well centered hits.  While we're talking about the trigger the double action pull comes in at 8.14 pounds does not cause me to throw shots. The single action pull at 4.15 pounds allows me fast follow up shots and the accuracy to put one right over the other and I think this 4 plus pounds of trigger pull is just about right for a single action pull.  Far too often I have shied away from carrying a 1911 simply because some of the more expensive ones have very light trigger pulls and I find myself with an accidental discharge during recoil.  

Now getting back to ergonomics the placement of the decocker is perfect for my reach and I can manipulate it easily without shifting the pistol or changing my grip.  

One of the other very noticeable features of CZ pistols is that the slide rides inside the frame.  Because of this the portion of the slide inside the frame means there is less of the frame exposed when you need to grasp it to rack the slide or clear jams.  The good news is that I didn't have any jams; however, in the heat of battle things always go wrong.  But there are some advantages of the inside-the frame slide set-up.  First of all it allows for a higher grip which helps control recoil therefore helping your accuracy and follow-up time.  It has also been said that the slide inside-the-frame set-up helps accuracy as in the design of the exulted SIG P210 which was once thought to be the most accurate pistol in production.

As for accuracy?  I took this pistol to Chicago in October to shoot it when my Chicago team qualified.  I ran the course three times with the CZ 75 D PCR and out of a possible score of 30 points I racked up two 29s and a 30.  In fact I loaned it one of the team members who carries a SIG P226 as a part-time police officer.  He shot a 28, 29, and a 30 with it and felt it was every bit as good, if not better, than his larger, heavier and twice as expensive SIG.  

So let's see some targets!

Here are the 21 foot targets:

Here are two targets at 30 feet:

40 Feet:

50 Feet:

75 Feet:

Part of the reason that CZ pistols work so well for me as it did my team member is that the pistol fits well.  I have written and talked about this before, most recently on the Gun Nation when we discussed Grant Cunningham's new book, the proper fit of the pistol in your hand is very important.  These pistols fit my hand well but if you have smaller hands they may not fit your.  But I will end with a challenge that the next time you are in a gun shop that stocks CZs, ask to examine one closer.  See how it fits in your hand and see how well you can reach the controls.  For my sized hands the CZ pistols fit so well that I don't have to think about how to operate it as it seems to become an extension of my arm and during the intensity and confusion of a shooting incident that fit makes your mission just a little bit easier.

STI Guardian .45 ACP

The Guardian is an aptly named pistol.  If I were in the executive or VIP protection business this is the type of pistol I would want to carry; a compact, easy to shoot single action pistol, with the comfortable and familiar 1911 ergonomics and chambered for the hard hitting .45 ACP.  In fact maybe I'd carry two of them.  The appearance of the pistol also befits someone guarding a VIP with its deep richly blackened alloy frame topped off with a matte finished stainless steel slide whose sides have been nicely polished.  The slide also contains a section of generously cut rear cocking serrations; thankfully there are no abysmal front cocking serrations breaking up the sleek lines of the slide.  The package is complete with a set of beautiful cocobolo grips combining checkering along with sweeping smoothly finished sections that swirl into the STI logo in the center.  This is a very handsome pistol.

The Guardian is 7.5 inches in length, weighs 32.4 ounces, has a skeletonized trigger that breaks cleanly at 5.9 pounds and sports a 3.9 inch fully supported ramped bull barrel.  As such there is no barrel bushing and unfortunately that means that the pistol contains a full length guide rod.  STI has branded this design the "Recoil Master" guide rod which is a multi-springed contraption that supposed reduces muzzle flip and recoil.  Honestly, I cannot tell if it does but I can tell you it makes the pistol difficult to break down and reassemble.  To disassemble you must retract the slide and the push the cylinder surrounding the guide rod that contains the interior set of springs backward.  While holding the retracted cylinder back, you clip a plastic collar over the rod between the retracted cylinder and the tip of the guide rod.  This holds the spring in it's retracted state allowing you the ability to slip the entire Recoil Master guide rod out of the slide. This is difficult to do and my plastic collar was too long requiring me to file it down a bit until it could be properly deployed.

Atop the slide sits a nice set of 3 dot sights Tactical Adjustable Sights.  The sights are a low-profile Novak-type configuration, designed to eliminate the chances of them snagging upon being drawn from concealment.  I was slightly surprised to see that they did not have a "racking shelf" cut into the rear sight which would allow an injured shooter to hook the rear sight on a belt, table edge, etc. in order to rack the slide one-handed.  Sometimes I wonder how necessary the racking shelf actually is.  If I am carrying with a round in the chamber I won't need to retract the slide in order to ready the pistol to shoot.

STI is known for making competition pistols on the 1911 platform and as such they know how to make an accurate and reliable pistol.  Inaccuracy and unreliability will cost you points in a competition and could cost your life if you are faced with imminent danger.

During my time with this pistol I fired 650 rounds through it.  600 of them were Federal 230 grain FMJ ammunition.  The other 50 were  various brands of hollowpoint ammo to include Magtech 230 JHP, Federal Hydra Shok 230 grain hollowpoint +P, and Speer 230 grain Gold Dot hollowpoint.  There were no malfunctions

The target above was the first 12 rounds of Federal 230 Grain FMJ ammo fired at 21 feet.  While the rounds landed a little left of the point of aim, it is a great grouping with one shooter induced flier.  The target below was also shot at 21 feet.  By now I had worked with my grip and trigger finger placement and was able to post this grouping on a smaller four inch target and much more centered.

The target below was fired at 30 feet with the hot Hydra Shok 230 grain + P ammo.

And this target was shot with Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point 230 grain ammunition.

The STI Guardian is a serious pistol; it is a serious performer and seriously handsome.  A side benefit is its 6 + 1 capacity which will pass muster with the ridiculous magazine restrictions being proposed by various federal and state governments.

Stop the Left-Wing Media Madness

I am so sick of the news media and left-wing, gun grabbing politicians railing on about how "the influential NRA" is causing republican senators and representatives to block the so called "common sense" anti-gun efforts.  I've got new for them...it's the voice of the people.  As great as the NRA is the NRA membership alone would not be enough to cause any politician to alter their course.  There are millions of people not in the NRA who are also making their voices heard.

Also, I want the President to stop saying that "70% of NRA members support his common sense proposals".  Sorry, Mr. Pres...I just don't believe you!

Lastly, I also want Joe Biden to stop giving self-defense advice.  Did you hear the latest where he told women they don't need an AR for home defense.  He told them to get a double barreled shotgun.  He went on to say he's often told his wife if she hears someone trying to break into their mansion she should go into their closet, unlock the cabinet, grab the shotgun, load it, go out on the balcony and fire two rounds to scare the person away.  Yeah, that might work in his secluded estate out in the woods with the latest security technology to alert her, but try that in an urban or suburban environment where most of the public lives.  First of all our apartments and small homes will not provide the adequate buffer to give us time to go to the closet, unlock the cabinet, load, etc.  When the front door comes crashing in it's go time and you'd better be ready.  Secondly, opening the window and cranking off a couple of rounds is a violation of the law and may cause you to have your firearms confiscated and wind up with a stiff fine and possibly some jail time.  Great advice, Mr. Vice-President.  

Obama's administration: doing for the second amendment the same thing they've done for the economy.

"Shooter's Guide to Handguns" by Grant Cunningham

I just received my copy of Grant Cunningham's new book "Shooter's Guide to Handguns" published by Gun Digest.  This is a book that every shooter needs to have in their personal library.  And I am not saying this because Grant is a frequent contributor on the Gun Nation Podcast I am saying it because it is true.  The advantage of having this work at your fingertips is that Grant is a highly accomplished gunsmith and he is able communicate his valuable insights in layman's language.  His photos, although all in black & white, are large close-up shots that illustrate each point he is making.  There are many books on shooting and handguns written by instructors and operators but this publication is coming from an instructor and gunsmith and the gunsmith's perspective on shooting is rare.  For instance do you know the difference between conventional grooved rifling and polygonal rifling?  Have you ever tried to explain that to someone?  I have and it wasn't easy!  It's on page 93 in Grant's book and it is easily understandable.  

Grant also demonstrates, through written description and sharp close up photographs, the lost art of ejecting shell casings from your revolver and reloading it.  You get the correct technique for both right handed and left handed shooters and this is something that I see people struggling with on just about each trip to the range.  

There are two chapters where I found Grant's information to be particularly invaluable and worth the price of the book alone (currently a paltry $13.28 on Amazon).  The first invaluable chapter is on cleaning and maintenance.  It would be great if each gun shop had a gunsmith available to show you the finer points of cleaning and maintaining the handgun when you purchased it.  That's is no longer impractical once you have Grant's book.  You will learn exactly how to properly clean and maintain your barrel and exactly where to put lubrication on your semi-automatic pistol  and revolver.  Most of us put lubrication where it seems logical to do so.  Now you will see exactly where to put that drop of oil via Grant's close-up photographs.  

The second chapter that is indispensable to me addresses purchasing a used handgun.  If a gun shop has a gunsmith onsite they will usually, but not always, have the gun smith give a used handgun a brief inspection before it goes into the display counter.  However the majority of used guns that are traded-in, sold to the dealer, or put on consignment go on display without much oversight.  I have looked at used guns that were extremely dirty, had a cracks in the frame or barrel, and I was once very interested in a light-weight Smith & Wesson Model 12 with a two inch barrel...until I noticed that the forcing cone had been filed right down flush with the frame.  Becoming familiar with the information in this chapter is the next best thing to having a gunsmith go with you when you shop for a used pistol.  

At $13.28 this book is less expensive than one box of centerfire handgun ammunition but it will last you a heck of a lot longer with a greater benefit.  Buy one less box this weekend and order or download this book.  You'll be glad you did! 

This is the Last Time I Write About Beckett Media