Tag Archives: CZ 75 B

Czech You Later: CZ 75 B, CZ 75 BD, and CZ 75 Compact Discontinued

Posted on by Leave a comment

Cue the funeral dirge for a few classic CZ models that are being escorted out of the company’s pistol catalog this year. 

CZ announced on Thursday that 2026 will “mark the conclusion of production for three CZ 75 models: the CZ 75 B, CZ 75 BD, and CZ 75 Compact.”

CZ 75 B
The all-steel firing pin block-equipped CZ 75 B was introduced in 1993 as an updated, second-generation version of the original Cold War “Pre-B” CZ 75 model and was the standard for the company for the past three decades. (Photo: CZ)
CZ 75 BD
The CZ 75 BD variant features a decocker (hence the “D”) in addition to the firing pin block and arrived on scene in 1997. (Photos: CZ)
CZ 75 compact
Meanwhile, the CZ 75 Compact debuted in 1992 and chopped about an inch off the slide and frame and a half-inch off the grip to trim the pistol down for concealment while still keeping a 16+1 magazine capacity.  (Photos: CZ)

The move will close out several of the classic era CZ 75 models, save for the new CZ 75 Legend, introduced as a 50th anniversary product for the series. Also still in production will be the assorted SP/P-01 series CZ 75s, the alloy-framed CZ 75 D PCR and the CZC A-01 line, the latter being a CZ Customs-tuned model.

The company noted in a release that the discontinued pistols “have each played an important role in carrying the CZ 75 design forward,” and “have been valued by shooters for their balance, craftsmanship and proven design, becoming lasting parts of the CZ lineup and of the shooting experiences of generations of customers.”

Of course, new old-stock models are still circulating around, at least for now, but will probably start commanding a premium as CZ collectors move to round out the holes in their gun safes.

The best known invention of the brothers Koucký

Posted on by Leave a comment

Designed by brothers Josef and František Koucký at the CZ factory in then-Czechoslovakia after more than six years of development, the all-steel 9mm parabellum double-stack CZ75 was a broadside response in the 1970s to the S&W 59, Browning Hi-Power and Beretta Model 92, the West’s contemporary 1st gen “wonder nines.” It soon became a hit and was a best seller around the globe that has remained in production ever since.

Known originally in the West as “the Brunner pistol” after its West German exporter, Walter Pomeranski began importing the CZ75 to the U.S. in 1979. In January 1980, no less a shootist than Col. Jeff Cooper wrote in American Handgunner, “I think the Brunner is the best of the conventional nines as it stands, and the best conventional pistol if it is modified to a major caliber.” Notably, Cooper would use it as the basis of his own Bren Ten concept.

Besides clones produced by a myriad of Italian, Eastern European and Turkish firms, CZ themselves have made more than 1 million of these iconic combat pistols in the past 45 years.

Speaking of which, there is a limited edition 45th anniversary CZ 75 for 2020.

More in my column at Guns.com.