SP-01 Sight Choices

[ck1]

Just picked up an SP-01 (standard non-decocker version) that I plan on shooting in IDPA, did a trigger job, got rid of 99% of the hammer-camming, can't feel the FPB, and have it breaking really sweet already... springs to make it even a hair better and grips to make weight for SSP are on the way. I chose the standard as I'm more of an IDPAer and it's easier and cheaper to make weight with the standard one than with the Shadow, and also 'cause I didn't really like the Shadow's sight picture or care for the extended controls and figure I'll just upgrade/change what I want as I get used to it, scored it like-new with the factory Meprolight night sights (bright in the dark, but wide-as-hell and pretty lame otherwise).

I'm coming over from the darkside, and as a longtime Glock shooter I'm finding I've been fairly spoiled as far as sight choices are concerned as I'm finding there are virtually no options for the CZs out there that I can locate... I'm looking for something similar to what I run on my Glocks, which is a .115" front with a wider .150" rear notch, not a fan of FOs and would prefer plain black irons with a serrated front blade, but thus far, looks as though it's the competition rears and FO fronts from czcustoms or nothing...

can anyone point me in the right direction towards some sights I may have missed? and if it's going to have to be those (ones from czcustoms), anyone know the specs on those rears (specifically the rear notch width), and can they be opened up if I need to go that route?

thanks in advance.

Edited September 24, 2010 by ck1

[burningsquirrels]

i took the front sight blank and trimmed it down to an 090 blade. i sure wish they'd come up with an all black front sight that's drop-in though.

[mike4045]

You can have any sights you want as long as they are from CZcustom. I also switched from a Glock. I heard a rumor that Dawson is coming out with some. It took some getting used to, but I like the comp sights avail. I am considering putting the LPA adj. sights on my backup gun.

Try Sean at Power factor shooting. He is in the dealer forum. He has access to Briley. They have alot of parts.

Mike

[eerw]

no rumor on Dawson.

FO front sights are on the website.

I usually just run a plain black..narrowed to .100 and serrated.

[ck1]

Thanks guys. Looks like I may just have to get used to what's available... if anyone knows the rear notch width that'd still be helpful.

I know CZs aren't that popular but I had no idea that aftermarket sights for them were this limited, seems the ones offered are pretty traditional in that they pretty much stick to the classic Bomar/LPA type of thing (1911/2011's seem to as well I guess), never really thought about the Warren/Sevigny type ratios (.115" front, wide .150" rear notch) as a Glock-only type thing but after searching around I guess they kind of are, seems strange to me, they're super-fast (and super popular on Glocks in games) and would've thought they'd be a match made in heaven on guns that tend to be a little more inherently accurate and forgiving like the SP-01s and 1911/2011s...

eerw, what plain black front are you referring to?

[eerw]

Thanks guys. Looks like I may just have to get used to what's available... if anyone knows the rear notch width that'd still be helpful.

I know CZs aren't that popular but I had no idea that aftermarket sights for them were this limited, seems the ones offered are pretty traditional in that they pretty much stick to the classic Bomar/LPA type of thing (1911/2011's seem to as well I guess), never really thought about the Warren/Sevigny type ratios (.115" front, wide .150" rear notch) as a Glock-only type thing but after searching around I guess they kind of are, seems strange to me, they're super-fast (and super popular on Glocks in games) and would've thought they'd be a match made in heaven on guns that tend to be a little more inherently accurate and forgiving like the SP-01s and 1911/2011s...

eerw, what plain black front are you referring to?

This sight or a TS plain sight.

http://czcustom.com/frontsightts.aspx

[pevadijk]

You can use a TS front sight, which is 7.5mm high.

If you use it with a CZcustom competition/carry rear sight, you need to shorter it by 1mm.

I'm not handy enough with a file to cut it and make it look good, so I sure would like to see other front sight options.

[burningsquirrels]

i used a metal file and a cold blue touch up pen, lol

[WARDOG]

I did the same thing, but how do you keep the sides SQUARE? my file-mangled front sight is basically inclined 30 degree or so it seems..lol.

[justaute]

As long as you mangled both sides "equally," you should be ok.

I did the same thing, but how do you keep the sides SQUARE? my file-mangled front sight is basically inclined 30 degree or so it seems..lol.

Edited September 24, 2010 by justaute

[burningsquirrels]

Steady hand? Lol. Worked in small increments.

[ck1]

Geez guys, this is kind of bumming me out, never really realized how much sight picture has an effect on my shooting, but if I can't find something that works better I'm going to have to get rid of the CZ, as while I'm loving the gun, the sight pictures available are a huge step backwards from what i'm used to IMO.

Been shooting my SP-01 for now with the stock Mepros with the rear dots blacked out with a sharpie, pretty slow and unprecise (think the Mepro front is a whopping .160 wide), also, put 50+ rounds through my buddies Shadow with the Czcustoms comp sights on it (black comp rear, .100 FO front) and think I like those even less... neither have much light around the front blade and really hurts the speed I'm used to (also, in my case, the FO is just distracting and makes me have to work extra to ignore it to really line up the blade).

Looking down my G17 with .115" front and .150" rear notch is so much better that I'm starting to think that the better sight picture might be more impactful than the nicer trigger and ergos of the CZ, I don't know, gotta figure something out and maybe see if a gunsmith can make me some custom sights or something.

Edited September 25, 2010 by ck1

[burningsquirrels]

have the gunsmith work the competition sights. people here have narrowed the front FO and left the FO piece in, ask EERW about it, he has some sample pics. i hope as the popularity of the CZ platform goes up that our choices will get better.

[burningsquirrels]

also, call CZ custom themselves, they have an in-house shop and can also probably make anything you want with the front sight blank and the several choices for rear sights.

[bofe954]

A local gunsmith was modifying bomar style sights for CZ's. I PM'd you a link with a pic you can get his info from. I am not sure how many he made, and I don't shoot CZ's so I don't know much about them...

[ck1]

Thanks guy, i'm going to try to figure something out since i like the gun a whole lot.

Anyone know what other guns have rear dovetail cuts similar to the CZ? Thinking I could just maybe alter the tang on another rear sight for another gun and put it on the CZ... and again, if anyone's got calipers please let me know what the comp's rear notch width is? If the notch isn't too narrow I could probably just open it up with a small file and make it work....

[Walküre]

Anyone know what other guns have rear dovetail cuts similar to the CZ? Thinking I could just maybe alter the tang on another rear sight for another gun and put it on the CZ...

Not sure on the standard CZs, I'll have to measure one.

The TS uses what is usually referred to as an "LPA cut" and is found on a few certain 1911s that come with adjustable rears (usually made by LPA) from the factory. The Kensight rears for that cut will fit a TS without any issue whatsoever. I just picked up a fixed Harrison Design rear for the same cut again, but it doesn't drop-in on the TS - the rear "overhang" is a bit too long, but it shouldn't take much work with a file to fix that.

[ck1]

So, after spending far too much time looking up CZ or SP-01 sight info on google and reading about all kinds of things, looks like I'm left with this: seems the prospect of running a wider rear notch on a CZ or more specifically an SP-01 is not very popular, or at least I seem to be one of the first of the kind... also, seems most SP-01 owners are just fine with running an FO front blade, as tracking down any other option for a plain black front other then the single offering found on Czcustoms has turned up nothing.

Interesting to note, finding clear, relevant and specific specs/data on ANY of the sights offered for CZ pistols (other than roughly what guns they'll fit onto) has proved quite difficult. For comparison, with Glock or say 1911 sights, you can be just about as specific as can be and track down the info you're looking for to fit what you're after, example: an IDPA/IPSC guy will usually be looking for rear's with a .130-.150 rear notch width and fronts in widths from .90-.140, and depending on the shooter looking for a six o'clock hold, a dead-on hold, or anything else... while a bullseye/bench-rest guy would more likely be after a rear notch width of say .110-.125 or so paired with the thinner fronts, in heights for a six o'clock hold... What I mean is that the numbers matter: rear notch width, front blade width and heights beyond "maybe a #3 or #6"... I might be being a bit OCD here but sight picture IMO is very personal, everyone's eyes are different and one-size does not fit all here, once you've found what works best for you and your eyes you don't want to go back to before you knew better.

Seems all the rear sights available that'll work on an SP-01 have rear notch widths ranging from .115-.125... Just me, but IMHO, that sucks (or at least it does for my eyes anyways)!!! I'd say 98% of the shooters who try out a wider rear notch and see what having larger light-bars around the front blade does for them never go back, the common accepted myth is that the front will "swim" in the big notch making a shooter inaccurate, but in reality the light and space around the blade make it easier for our eyes/brains to center it, bonus is it happens MUCH quicker too, try some sometime if you don't believe me, Scott Warren and Dave Sevigny sell a lot of sights for good reason.

Also, the FO fronts available as far as I've found are all .125 wide (Dawson makes a .95 and a .100, but only at one height) with differences in the size of the fiber (1mm or 1.5mm), then the plain-black blade that's offered is supposedly .98 (or around there) but you have to file it down to the height you need and add serrations yourself, so if you're good (and lucky) no problem, if not it requires a gunsmith's help (I'm pretty handy, but don't know s**t about making serrations).

I mention this since it's really a light-bar ratio thing: a tighter notch isn't a problem if you can get a skinny front, and a wider front isn't too big a deal if you can get a wider notch, but currently for the CZ shooter neither option is available right now, you have to use what everybody else is using whether your eyes are like theirs or not. (I suppose most of this stems from CZs being not that popular and really only Angus and co. tend to be doing what they can, I'm thankful he/they are offering what they offer, but I guess i'm just not a fan of his preferred sight picture is all...) Overwhelmingly amongst most advanced shooters a relative 40%-50% light-bar to front blade width is preferred, but the sights I've found out there for the CZs have mere slivers of light around their front's in comparison... I wish this were not so, and have already inquired with Ameriglo to consider making product for the CZ shooting community (please drop them an email if you can as it might help, who knows).

My plan for now is to wait to hear back from a few guys (Czcustoms, a couple gunsmiths) on what I could do, but I imagine I'll be having a competition rear opened up and having the plain-black front blade cut and serrated for me, but that could get costly for just a set of plain black sights, so I may just try opening up a stock CZ rear and just shooting it with the Mepro front for a while to see if it'd be worth it.

End tirade.

Edited September 26, 2010 by ck1

[Walküre]

Seems all the rear sights available that'll work on an SP-01 have rear notch widths ranging from .115-.125... Just me, but IMHO, that sucks (or at least it does for my eyes anyways)!!! I'd say 98% of the shooters who try out a wider rear notch and see what having larger light-bars around the front blade does for them never go back...

Making the front sight smaller also increases the relative size of the light-bars, which is my preferred setup on all of my guns (~.125 rear with a .1 or .09 front). I don't like the wide notches, as they will allow way too much light (because I don't like wide fronts at all, I'm not likely to be running a wider front that makes the ratio equivalent with a wider notch.)

(ETA - And yes, you do mention this later, but much later...)

... then the plain-black blade that's offered is supposedly .98 (or around there) but you have to file it down to the height you need and add serrations yourself, so if you're good (and lucky) no problem, if not it requires a gunsmith's help (I'm pretty handy, but don't know s**t about making serrations)...

Not sure where you dug up that dimension... I'd LOVE it if the front started at .098 (I'll assume that was a typo at .98). I have my TS sight down to ~.105, whereupon I got tired of it and declared it "good enough". I have a stock front sitting here; it measures out at ~.120".

(Also, serrations are very easy to do on a flat surface like the sight face - you just need to buy a checkering file.)

Keep in mind that CZ has never really been slanted towards competition; they've only started really getting interested in the past few years. Their focus is really more on things like the LEO, military, and defensive markets, and always has been. Tanfo has always been the answer for a competition-oriented CZ-type platform. (For example, what I would consider to be CZs first truly sensible open gun - the Czechmate - didn't come out until this year. Tanfo et al has had ready-to-run Open guns for quite some time...)

Edited September 26, 2010 by Walküre

[ck1]

Yeah, sorry for the rant, it's just super annoying to me because these guns are so damn good... I just feel like with the right sights I could fly with this thing!

[WARDOG]

This is how I thinned my FO front sight. Now it's .95 more or less. It's not perfectly square, but unfortunately dawson do not ship their excellent front sights outside USA, so I'm SOL on this..(hey any forum member willing to ship two .100 dawson front sights to Italy? I will gladly pay any exp!)

BTW here's a pic:

[justaute]

Antonello...I'd be happy to look into the possibility of buying Dawson sights on your behalf. Send me a PM. By the way... you may want to first measure the height of your front sight.

This is how I thinned my FO front sight. Now it's .95 more or less. It's not perfectly square, but unfortunately dawson do not ship their excellent front sights outside USA, so I'm SOL on this..(hey any forum member willing to ship two .100 dawson front sights to Italy? I will gladly pay any exp!)

BTW here's a pic:

[WARDOG]

PM sent!

[ck1]

Good news! Talked to Czcustoms today and they'll open up the notch on a Competition rear for an extra $30... so, just like anything else, the answer to 99 out of 100 questions is: money. I'm going to shoot a buddies Shadow in a few days to see where his hits elevation-wise to hopefully get a better idea on what to use up front, but thinking I might actually leave the stock Mepro on it, still undecided, should've asked Czcustoms if they could just thin-out and serrate one of their plain-black fronts too (think I'll find out as that'll probably be what I'll want sooner or later anyways)...

Edited September 27, 2010 by ck1

[ck1]

Talked to Dawson Precision yesterday on a whim to see if they had an ideas for me after checking out the sights that they offer for CZs on their site (3 different FO fronts, two of 'em in .095" and .105" widths in case anyone's looking for a thinner front option) and surprisingly they'll make custom sights for you in whatever size/specs you want if you're willing to wait about 4 weeks or so (and not any more expensive than stocked offerings which is surprising)...

So, for about $30 including shipping I ordered up a plain black-serrated front in a real skinny .090" width, which when matched up with either the Cz Custom Competition or Tactical rears should give me the same sight-to-lightbar ratios I prefer in an overall narrower set-up. I'm hoping it'll be awesome (if not, I'll order a wider front and out will come the file to widen that rear notch).