Tag Archives: new cz

CZ Shadow 2 Carry, a Deep Dive After 2,000 Rounds

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Shadow line, originally based on the CZ 75 SP-01, has been a top choice in competitive shooting since winning the 2005 IPSC World Shoot. The well-reviewed Shadow 2, launched in 2016 with improved features and an optics-ready option in 2020, is now widely used by leading IPSC competitors, including Eric Grauffel.

In response to demand for a lighter model, CZ released the Shadow 2 Compact in 2023, featuring a 7075-aluminum frame, 4-inch barrel, and 15+1 magazine capacity on a gun that was about a pound lighter. Both versions offer textured grips and smooth trigger action.

full-sized Shadow 2 and Shadow 2 Compact side by side
Testing both models, the full-sized Shadow 2 and Shadow 2 Compact side by side in Czechia at CZ’s range in 2024, revealed impressive performance that differed little between big brother and the new kid on the block. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

As the Shadow 2 Compact is based on a DA/SA competition gun, there’s no firing pin block plunger system, which can be a pucker factor for some, being drop-safe if carried with a round in the chamber. That led to the Shadow 2 Carry, which retains everything folks loved about the S2 Compact but deletes the manual safety lever in favor of a simple de-cocking lever, while adding a safety notch on the hammer and an automatic firing pin block.

Additionally, it features a direct mount with a K-series footprint, while retaining excellent sights, unlike the universal plate-based optics pad on the Compact, which requires removing the rear sights. The magazine release has also been made shorter, more akin to that on the P01– something we complained to CZ about directly back in 2024 on the Shadow Carry, so you are welcome.

CZ Shadow 2 Carry
Boom. The CZ Shadow 2 Carry as made in Europe for the U.S. market. As you can tell from our installation of a Holosun 507K, it is optics-ready (but doesn’t ship with one). 
CZ Shadow 2 Carry
The new CZ Shadow 2 Carry has a 4-inch barrel, giving it an overall length of 7.5 inches. All the dimensions are a 1:1 comparison with the Shadow 2 Compact, which means you can swap barrels, many internals (not controls), and holsters. 
CZ Shadow 2 Carry
The width over the ambi decocker is 1.5 inches, while the height is 5.4 inches. 
CZ Shadow 2 Carry compared
As you can see, when compared to this early 1980s CZ75 “Pre-B,” it carries forth the same lineage that has been the benchmark for the company’s 9mm family of semi-auto pistols for over 50 years. 
CZ Shadow 2 Carry compared
Including the low bore axis and gliding internal slide rails. 
CZ Shadow 2 Carry compared
And the overall grip angles and feel. People love the classics, man. 

Quick summary: CZ responded to those who wanted a safe-to-carry Shadow 2 Compact with the same race gun lineage known and loved for generations, and the resulting Shadow 2 Carry delivers on that promise, blending style, performance, and dependability in one platform.

For the full 2,500-word/30-image review, head on over to my column at Guns.com.

CZ Salutes WWII Free Czech RAF Squadrons

Posted on by Leave a comment

CZ is marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with a salute to the often unsung “Free Czechs” who served with the Allies with a special Spitfire-themed CZ 75.

Occupied by Germany on the eve of the conflict, just months before the shooting started, thousands of Czechs escaped to continue the fight against a common enemy.

Some 2,500 Czechs served in the British RAF during WWII, filling three fighter squadrons (No. 310, 312, and 313), one bomber squadron (No. 311), and one night fighter squadron (No. 68) as well as flying alongside British pilots in other squadrons. They also played a vital role in No. 138 Special Squadron, an outfit that dropped agents and supplies into occupied Europe– including Czechoslovakia.

A Czech Spitfire pilot of No. 313 Squadron
A Czech Spitfire pilot of No. 313 Squadron in conversation with his rigger and fitter at Hornchurch, 8 April 1942. (Photo: Imperial War Museum)

 

These men, exiles far from home, chalked up over 28,000 fighter sorties (at least 16 Czech “aces” flew with the RAF), dropped 2.6 million pounds of bombs on enemy targets, and made a difference from the Battle of Britain to the beaches of Normandy and beyond. Nearly 500 were killed in action.

The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The CZ 75 RAF special edition emulates the famed Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, which was flown by many of the Czech fighter pilots serving with the British during the war. (All photos unless noted: CZ)
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The CZ 75 RAF includes lightening cuts in the slide that recall the exhaust stacks of the Spitfire’s Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, as well as a finish that includes “riveted” body panels. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The grips include a set of Czech aviator’s wings. 

 

The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The serial number sequencing starts with one of the Czech RAF squadrons, in this case, No. 310 Fighter Squadron. Note the British “bullseye” roundel. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
And it is repeated on the front of the slide. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The magazine base has a stylized RAF. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The RAF’s Latin motto, going back to 1918, “Per Ardua ad Astra,” which translates to “Through Adversity to the Stars,” is carried. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
Note the Czech roundel, which is still carried on the country’s military aircraft.
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
The CZ 75 RAF is a thing of beauty. 
The CZ 75 RAF special edition
Besides the pistol itself, its unique case recalls the avionics panel on the Spitfire, while its key is in the shape of the aircraft. Also included are an embroidered squadron badge patch and a hand-painted and signed Spitfire illustration by the well-known Czech painter and illustrator Jaroslav Velc.

 

Price? Availability? Just 56 CZ 75 RAF models will be created and will be offered…soon.

On a side note, as CZ now owns Colt, it would be neat to think that, at some point in the future, there may be a similar line of 1911s that salute famed American military units. Send those emails, folks!

Finally, the CZ Shadow 2 Carry

Posted on by Leave a comment

The CZ Shadow 2 is one of the best guns of the century. Full stop.

The original Shadow line, an all-steel, large-capacity SA/DA pistol, was descended from the CZ 75 SP-01 and used successfully to pull down a first-place production division finish in the 2005 IPSC World Shoot. Given improved sights, a longer barrel, and better ergos, the Shadow 2 debuted in 2016, followed by an optics-ready model in 2020.

Today, it is used by two out of three of the top competitors in IPSC Production and Production Optics divisions, most notably by nine-time IPSC World Champ Eric Grauffe.

With Shadow 2 fans petitioning CZ for a slimmed-down version of the gun, the company introduced the Shadow 2 Compact in 2023, which cut weight with a forged 7075 aluminum frame and a 4-inch barrel. The magazine’s capacity is 15+1 with a flush-fit double-stack mag. Like the standard Shadow 2, the Compact ships with textured aluminum grips and a “butter smooth” trigger pull (single action 3.4 pounds; 10.3 for double action).

We shot the Shadow 2 and Shadow 2 Compact side by side while touring the CZ factory at the foothills of the Carpathians in Czechia last year and were thoroughly impressed with how they performed.

The Shadow 2 Compact, for all intents and purposes, is just a little brother to the more competition-oriented Shadow 2. It is smaller, lighter, and easier to carry, but retains the DA/SA with a manual safety. As it’s based on a competition gun, there’s no firing pin block plunger system, which can be a pucker factor for some on being drop-safe if carried with a round in the chamber.

With the Shadow 2 Compact’s safety question, folks were gun-shy, pardon the pun, about carrying it, especially concealed.

However, CZ has updated the design in the new Shadow 2 Carry, introduced this week. It retains everything folks loved about the Shadow 2 Compact but deletes the manual safety lever in favor of a simple de-cocking lever while adding a safety notch on the hammer and an automatic firing pin block.

I’ve been testing one that CZ sent me, and I have to admit, it is pretty sweet. I mean, it should be at $1,400…

More in my column at Guns.com.

 

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.

So a 1911 and a CZ75 swiped right…

Posted on by Leave a comment

Billed as a dream match using DNA from two of the most iconic handguns of the old and new world, the new Dan Wesson DWX has been announced.

Teased this week, the new gun has a release date only of “2020” and is promised in both full-size and compact variants.

“It started as an experiment — a grand melding of Dan Wesson and CZ pistols,” says the company. “Borrowing the crisp single-action fire control group of a DW 1911 and combining it with the ergonomics and capacity of a CZ, the resulting pistol emerged as something great.”

The Dan Wesson DWX. Concept art firearm vaporware? We shall see…

Using a locked-breech barrel system and a CZ-style takedown, the 9mm DWX incorporates a 5-inch match-grade barrel without the 1911’s link system or barrel bushing. However, it contains many 1911 parts while coming to the party with a 19+1 magazine capacity based on the CZ P-09/P-10 and aluminum CZ 75 grips.

More in my column at Guns.com 

The optics-ready pistol is going to be the standard moving forward

Posted on by Leave a comment

When the M17 was adopted by the Army, I thought it was neat when talking to Sig that a production requirement was that the gun have a removable top plate to accept Leupold Deltapoint Pro reflex sights (red dots optics) as standard. Since then, it seems like handguns that incorporate such slide mods are factory standard– likely in large part due to the fact that almost every big name pistol maker in the world at one time or another tried to compete for the M17 contract, so they already both (a) saw the writing on the wall, and (b) had done the engineering for it.

It should make no surprise then that this week two different manufacturers have entered the factory-standard optics-ready game.

CZ-USA announced their new Kansas City-made P-10S subcompact, P-10C compact and P-10F full-size variants.

Each ship with a blank filler plate with plates for both the Trijicon RMR and the DeltaPoint Pro available with an option to co-witness the iron sights. With that being said, they still incorporate irons in the form of a single tritium lamp in the front with a large orange surround and a serrated black combat rear. All are in 9mm.

Idaho-based Nemo Arms has branched out from the upper shelf AR business to bring a new 9mm handgun platform to market. The new feature-rich Monark was teased extensively by Nemo on social media over the last couple weeks and shown off at the recent 2018 NASGW Expo in Pittsburgh. The all-metal pistol series spans four different models, all in 9mm with 5-inch barrels complete with a mini red dot sight adapter plate system.

Featuring a billet aluminum frame with checkering and a lightened stainless steel slide with fore and aft cocking serrations, the striker-fired handguns weigh in at 31.5 ounces while eschewing polymer. Other features standard across the line are interchangeable grips, a single action billet trigger, a dustcover-mounted accessory rail, ambi slide catches, and a right or left-hand magazine release.

More on both in my column at Guns.com.