KSC CZ75 Version 2 Review

By Brandon
July 13th, 2009

Introduction:

The CZ-75 is one of what I consider to be the unloved bastard-children of KSC’s lineup.  Its a gun with a very narrow fanbase, and an even narrower selection of aftermarket parts.  Like many of KSC’s less loveable guns (The M945 and STI series come to mind, as well as the M8000′s and SigPro’s), this one is easy to miss in the sea of Glocks, Berettas and USPs.  Factor in this gun’s relative expense to other KSC pistols (This model was 147.00 at the time of purchase) and you have a handgun that is scarcely seen to say the least.  KSC has released a few different finishes of this pistol, such as this Stainless Gen 1 and Stainless Gen 2, as well as a KWA released M75 model.  Upgrade parts including metal kits are both rare and expensive, and often sold out at most stores leaving your only option to be the secondary market.  The rarity and level of commitment to maintaining this gun is in my opinion one of its endearing traits, as we’ll discuss.  So, lets talk a bit about a gun noone cares about.

Real Steel History:

Type: Double Action (75B) or Double Action Only (75DAO)
Chamber: 9×19 Luger/Para, 9x21mm IMI, .40SW
Weight with empty magazine: 1000 g
Length: 206 mm
Barrel length: 120 mm
Capacity: 16 (9mm) or 12 (.40SW) rounds

The CZ-75 pistol was developed by the Koucky brothers, who worked at the state-owned arms factory Ceska Zbrojovka in the city of Uhersky Brod (Czechoslovakia, now Czech republic). This full-size semiautomatic pistol first appeared in the 1975, and the production began circa 1976. CZ-75 was obviously intended for the export market. The CZ-75 accumulated best features from many preceding designs. Resulting pistol was aesthetically attractive, comfortable to handle and shoot, quite accurate and reliable in operation. Made by CZ in various versions and modifications, CZ-75 was also widely copied and cloned. Most popular of CZ-75 copies are (or were) made by: IMI (Jericho-941, Israel), Tanfoglio (TZ-75, TZ-90, T-95, Italy), Sarsilmaz (M2000, Turkey), ITM (AT-88, Swiss), Sphinx (mod.2000, Swiss), Norinco (NZ-75, China), Springfield (P9, USA).

CZ-75 is now in service with Czech police (in the form of compact CZ-75 P-01). It is also used by Turkish police, and by several police departments in USA. By opinions of most experts, CZ-75 is one of the best combat pistols in its class

From world.guns.ru

Movie Appearances:

This is one gun that is more common in movies than initial perception indicates.  There are a number of pretty recognizeable films in which the CZ75 makes an appearance;

Bruce Willis as Goodkat in Lucky Number Slevin uses two silenced CZ75s in some of the assassination scenes.  By most standards, an excellent movie.

In Mr. Brooks, Dane Cook’s character carries a CZ75 for a significant portion of the movie.

In Behind Enemy Lines, the CZ-75 is prevalent among the Serbian Forces

Its a lesser known handgun for sure, but its still evident in some pretty large movies.  Now we’ll move on to the actual review.

Initial Impressions

After lifting the unremarkable box lid, one is greeted with the manual.  Like most Japanese guns, the manual for this one is almost exclusively in Japanese, and any westerner will find it of little use, save for the exploded diagram.

Casting that aside, we get to what we came for; the gun itself.  The packaging does a decent job of containing the gun with little wiggle room, so you can feel safe about this one going through the shipping gauntlet of your choice.  KSC also presents you with one of their quick load punches (which are about as useful as the manual, in the authors opinion).  Also in the box but not shown was a bag of 100 bbs, and a hop adjustment tool.  The hop for this one is a split-flat wrench design.

Taking the gun out of the box, we’re greeted with our unloved pistol in its prime.  My example was ordered from WGCshop somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 years ago, and arrived with easy to remove orange, and no trademark coverings.  So in as-intended appearance from KSC, the gun is presented.  The pistol is made of ABS, but has a nice matte finish and a decent texture.  Everything is reasonably solid, with no creaks or rattles when shaken.

The trademarks are a bit shallow, but nicely accurate when compared to the real steel example shown in the introductory sections.  The slide is embossed with the CZ logo, followed by MODEL 75 CAL.9 PARA, along with MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA written in tiny shallow print on the frame.  Also visible in this picture is the proofing mark shown on the trigger guard.

As you can see, the grip is made of a shinier ABS than the rest of the gun.  Again, this matches the outward appearance of the real CZ model, though the real gun’s furniture is likely made of Bakelite.  The CZ logo again is stamped on these grips, this time nice and deep.  Also visible in this picture are the controls, the slide release on the left, and the safety on the right.  I have a qualm with these parts, and that is that they are made of some of the worst pot-metal cast I’ve seen to date.  This gun has been holstered to one day of insincere skirmishing, and a bit of handling just in examining/holding the gun for this review, and the obligatory pretending to clear your house (Don’t lie to yourself;  I do it and I know you do it too…).   Anyways, back on point, with minimal use the pot metal has aged infinitesimally fast to the point of looking a bit out of place on the gun.  This is due to poor finishing on the parts, which leads to the black color wearing off very quickly, and the whole of the part taking more a brown tinge.  In comparison with the real-steel, this is a bit annoying to me.  The full list of pot metal outer bits on this gun include the safety, slide lock, trigger, rear sight, and front site blade.  All of these parts suffer from rapid wear.

Here is a better view of the grip.  In outward appearance, the grip is somewhat blocky, following the curvature of the frame up to the indentations up at the front of the dust cover.  These lines are part of what makes the gun very elegant in my eyes.  Surprisingly however, the grips are very comfortable, and the grip angle was very natural for me.  The stippling on the grip panels and the cuts on the backstrap combine to counteract any adverse effects of the very smooth material the grip is made of.  Also, the chromed trigger is faithfully replicated.  In both the above and below images, one can see the takedown slash near the back of the slide.  Pulling the slide back to where the slash and the frame’s back-end align allow you to pop out the slide lock and field strip the gun.

Here’s a good shot of the front end of the gun.  One of the trademarks of this weapon (borrowed from the Browning Hi-Power that it was based on) is the stepped-slide which narrows at the front of the gun.  This is another of the aesthetic cues that I feel makes the gun elegant and interesting.  Also visible is the chromed barrel, which is again faithful to the real pistol.

In comparison, the left side of the gun is quite barren, with only the ejection port to break the slab-sides of the gun.

The fake extractor is a good detail on this gun, being a completely seperate piece instead of being molded on like KSC’s glocks.  A number of proofing marks are visible, on the triggerguard, slide, and barrel, as well as the serial number on the barrel.

Here we can see the serial number in all 3 places on the gun; slide, barrel, and frame.  This again is a nice touch of realism.

As is to be expected, the slidelock on the gun is fully functional.  The slidelock is another interesting bit on the gun, as the workings are entirely internal, leaving no locking notch in the slide to disturb the gun’s lines.  Functionally, the slidelock has not yet failed to lock the slide on the last BB for me yet, though this is with relatively little shooting compared to my workhorse guns.

Here is the other side with the slide locked back.  I want to note special attention to the fact that this gun has no recoil-spring guide-rod sticking out the front under the barrel.  This is another throwback to its Hi-Power ancestry.

Field stripping the gun is (as usual) a relatively simple task.  Simply drop the magazine, pull the slide back to the point that the marking notch lines up with the back of the frame, pop out the slide catch using a punch or flat bladed screwdriver, and pull the slide forward off the gun.  Be careful however, when pulling the slide off, do not jostle it too much, as the recoil spring is held on a plug, and is free to bend out of the gun and shoot across the room.  A simple finger on the spring prevents this.  The gun is shown below in all of its major component parts.  Note that the slide lock notch is visible on the slide now, under the rails.

Note that the slide lock notch is visible on the slide now, under the rails.  Also note the plug recoil-spring guide that notches into the bottom bit on the chamber/barrel assembly.

So, photographically, I think this gun is quite a looker.  It combines classic lines and throwbacks into a comfortable and well-replicated combat pistol.  This is good news for anyone wanting to do an eastern-bloc impression due to the absurd non-existance of decent accoutrement sidearms to players’ Kalashnikovs.  This pistol is perfect for a Yugoslavian faction loadout (Serbian,  Croatian, Albanian, Kosovar…), and at least an acceptable substitute for a Russian loadout.  The Russian army and police never adopted this pistol from what I can gather, but I’ve heard rumors of Spetznaz troops carrying them.  It is at least a vast improvement over Russian players wandering around with M9s or 1911s.

Now, we’ll discuss how it holds up in actual shooting.

Shooting Impressions:

On the actual shooting performance of this gun, I have mixed feelings.

In terms of accuracy, this pistol has some quirks.  I cannot get rounds to stop overhopping.  I’ve tried disengaging the hop fully, but to no avail.  It could’ve been assembled incorrectly, or it could just be a poor design on the hop.  But BB’s fly straight up out of the barrel, and this is a problem I have not successfully corrected yet.  In its half-hearted day of skirmish, Mike and I got into some pointless argument and decided to settle it with a pistol dogfight.  I specifically remember (while running around in circles shooting at eachother and screaming uncouth epithets) having to point the gun at Mike’s feet to hit in the vicinity of center mass.  When we film the accuracy tests, the shooting angle of the gun will be adjusted so we can at least hit the target and show you all the groupings, which are the positive side of the gun’s shooting capability.   At least you’ll be shooting tight groups when you’re knocking pigeons out of the sky, and your aggressor nails you due to the gun’s inability to shoot on a level trajectory.

In terms of shooting feedback, this gun is a bit on the anemic side.  The recoil isn’t anything I’d call snappy, and the slide action sounds raspy and plasticy all at once.  The report is alright, nothing particularly special there.  The gun had good gas efficiency for me, being able to cycle through two loads of 26 BB’s and lock the slide on both, before pooping out after 3 or 4 BB’s on the third load.

Shooting videos, and target photos will be uploaded shortly.

Durability Alert!

I never like adding these caveats (especially to an underdog I’m trying to defend), but this gun broke in a specific and frustrating way.  During its single day of holster use, the safety fell out of the left side of the gun.  While I found the main bit of the safety, it is held in by a tiny diameter spring/ball bearing combo detente.  The spring diameter was a little over 1.5mm at best, so of course those two pieces are gone.  Initial attempts to mockup another have failed due to every single spring I can find being too large.  I will be ordering an assortment of tiny springs and ball bearings from McMaster-Carr to try and rectify the situation.  If I get a successful set, I‘ll post the specs here.  My current solution is a small drop of CA glue tacking the safety in its axle until I can source a replacement.  The safety can not positively engage in this configuration, which is a definite problem.

Conclusion:

So, how did this gun do overall?

For a collectors item or a loadout-correct sidearm, I think this thing is great.  Its rare to see in others’ hands, stylish, and fills a niche that not many other GBBs have in being a reasonable eastern-bloc pistol.  On the other hand, its expensive, finicky, and upgrade or even spare parts are hard to find at a good price, which could be why it isn’t often seen with others.  To the player, KSC’s bland but brilliant Glocks, Berettas and USPs provide better skirmishability and durability at less cost.  You simply have to ask yourself which category you fall into.

Performance: 2/5
The gun cycles, and that’s about the best that can be said for it.  BB’s shoot straight up, and the aforementioned safety failure makes it hazardous to others if you have bad trigger discipline and field etiquette.  My example probably won’t see field use again.

External Design: 3/5
The external design of this gun is faithful to the original, and relatively solid.  The trademarks are decent, as is the ABS it is constructed of.  The rapid discoloration of the potmetal controls, and the safety falling out with essentially no use ding it here.

Value: 2/5
This gun was purchased from WGCShop for $147.00, where it is now listed for $164.00 and out of stock (likely discontinued).  This was alright for me, but I’m a collector first, a mechanic second, and a player third.  A serious skirmisher would simply not get value for their money out of this gun, aside from it shooting, and a lack of failures that prohibit it to technically function.

Overall: 2.5/5
Style over substance, though cliche, is the phrase I’d use to sum this one up.  It would get a higher rating with a hopup that wasn’t mandatorially more useful than it should be (though hilarious), but even then only a 3.5 tops.

The Final Word

For the players, I flat out recommend you skip it.  Its lack of strong functionality and its delicateness prove to be two characteristics that would make it a bad choice in the field.  For those out there who aren’t afraid of a little work, and like to have something different, this gun is up your alley.  Ultimately, this gun is an underdog for a reason, and should be avoided unless you’re legitimately interested in the gun.  Those who are get a faithful representation of an attractive handgun.  Like I said before, its all really about who you are.