ck1

Beyond "pick one and practice", which is true of course, when it comes to the hardware for a very long time I was Glock, Glock, Glock, Glock, etc. right up until I shot an SP-01 and became skeptical, then I shot a Shadow, and since have been CZ, CZ, CZ, CZ, etc. A Glock will not hold one back and will do no wrong, but, it also won't do you any favors, I always put it like this: for me, the same bad shot that might land 6" left at 25 yards with the Shadow, would've been off the paper with the Glock, there's just no contest which one is more forgiving and just plain easier to shoot, and the CZ's have been just as reliable (more so if compared to Glock's running reduced striker springs). Also, the trigger on my Shadow is as good or better than any 1911/2011 I've ever owned or felt and I've felt some pretty good one's, the best and/or most expensive Glock kits available are just garbage in comparison... My $0.02. Good luck, maybe shoot both and see which works better for you...

LOL! Looks like you almost ended up shooting that last stage without any rear sight at all...

Wow, that sucks. Guess I've been lucky, have never had that happen to me... that said, I've heard of that happening to guys before so now once I get a gun sighted-in or am positive it shoots straight I Loctite it since I'm kind of paranoid. FWIW, red works fine for dovetails that are tight to at least fairly-tight, but with looser dovetails I use green which is their penetrating type that you have to get at an auto parts store, it can get under sight and really lock it down. I prefer and stick to fixed rears now as I've been bitten by a few different things with the adjustable rears and don't like the narrow .115" Bo-Mar rear notches anyway, but blue Loctite is a good idea on them too IMO so they don't adjust themselves....

As far as guns go, IMHO I think saying that CZ's can be finicky with ammo is kind of like saying that Glocks can be unreliable now and then, or to put it another way I'd guess that as far handgun platforms go they're one of the least finicky. Try a 9mm 1911 or maybe a large-frame 9/40 Tanfoglio sometime...

Besides for capacity like running Limited-minor or something like Stu mentioned, another reason I to stick with the Factory SP/Shadow-style 19rd mags can be how they work with one's grip index depending on the shooter... In my case, I really like the factory 19rd basepads as they enable me to get the same kind of "lock-up" with my support-hand that one gets when running a magwell-equipped gun, and for that reason I far and away prefer shooting/running the gun using these particular mags over the others (even the 19rd AFC's which feel different). Now that said, yeah, the factory 19 rounders are much more expensive which is lame and it's true that the supplied springs are indeed weak, which is also lame (they pretty much require replacement +15% springs after not very long), so unless the way the factory basepad feels means a whole lot to you the Mec-Gar options are better not only money-wise, but quality-wise as well IMO.

No freakin' doubt. I've got a pile of tacti-cool Eotac stuff that I don't even really need showing up on Friday in exchange for some stuff that was out-of-stock that I ordered so long ago that I can't even remember what it was... That said, I did score 6 17rd AFC's for $120 with free shipping and they showed up.

Here's the best deal going, but it's Botach so they'll either show up in a week or so no problem, or well... they'll forget to ship 'em and it'll take a month or be out of stock: http://www.botachtactical.com/meczpima.html The factory 19rounders are hard to find for less than $50 or so, I sure wish cz-usa would run that 3 for $90 special again soon...

+1 to the 85 Combat, no firing pin block means if you decide to add a $65 cz-customs competition hammer (which you should), you'll have the same trigger those of us with the higher-end Shadows have for a few hundred less. That said, add a competition hammer to any 75-variant and you'll be pretty impressed I bet, no FPB just means a shorter reset and cleaner, slightly lighter trigger pull. You'll want a model in the classic CZ SA/DA with a safety configuration, avoid the models with decockers. I'd also recommend seeing if you can try and handle the two different types of frames, most 75's and 85's have the older short beavertail that angles down and can be uncomfortable to some, a few of the 75-variants as well as the SP-variants have a higher upswept beavertail that feels different and IMO is much better feeling.

....sounds like someone has spent some time fighting with, errr, I mean running a 9mm 1911

If you use a reduced power striker spring, use Federal primers too, or else you might as well plan on having light-strikes... hankfan79 getting 1 every 3-400rds with WWB means he's WAY luckier than most guys, with a reduced power striker springs and WWB, from what I've experienced and seen at my club, 1 or 2 per mag is more like the norm. A lightened and extended striker can mitigate that though somewhat.

FWIW, changed out the slide-stop from the 75-type to the SP-01-type that extends further back towards the rear of the gun... another huge improvement IMHO. I play IDPA more often then USPSA, and dropping the slide with my thumb on a slide-lock reload is burned into my muscle-memory, with the smaller slide-stop that means twisting my hand considerably in order to hit it (or miss it, which has become way more likely) and in the past month or so that I've had the new gun I've been really indecisive in the heat of the moment during reloads... I'd fallen into the habit of not being consistent about it: I'd hope slamming a fresh mag home would drop the slide for me as it does sometimes but unreliably regularly, but if not, I'd either mess up my strong-hand grip dropping it with my strong-hand thumb or awkwardly hit it with my support-hand thumb (one of the things I've never liked when running 1911's), or, just sling-shot it as I almost never do as it throws me off and is slow. Well, problem solved, now I can reliably drop the slide with only just a slight shift and can get back to business as easier and more smoothly. Also, didn't notice it before but the smaller lever requires twice as much pressure to release as the longer one does as it has half the leverage, another part of why it seemed harder. Small change, huge difference. YMMV.

I've never seen a flush/flat safety on a CZ before, out of curiosity I'd like to see one though if anyone has a pic? I far and away favor the smaller/higher safeties found on standard 75's and 85's over the extended/lower one's found on the 75SA's and Shadow's, and feel your pain if a dumb little lever is getting in your way and changing it out could make a big improvment. FWIW, when I was looking into finding the right one's in order to switch out the one's on my 75 Shadow, I noticed that from what I can tell by just looking at pics, looks like the one's from the Rami's are used on the Adam Tyc "333" models. Not sure if they're directly from or exactly the same part as on the little Rami's, but externally they sure look like it, and while not totally flat, they're as low-profile as I've seen on a CZ.

There's the "thumbler"-style and then there's the "D"-style... different attachment, sear-cages for each type and maybe slightly different holes in the sides of the frames. 75 SA's, 75 Shadow's and 85's are the thumbler style so the SP one's won't work (but feel exactly the same externally just to check "feel").

Yeah I got both in the interest of symmetry but one would do if you just wanted to check it out. Really might be better and less of a PITA to just find an SP-01 and see if it feels like an improvement, in my case it seemed obvious that the higher 85 safeties fit me much better...

Hellz yeah. You'll probably need to fit the safety a bit to accommodate the sear leg and competition hammer, but that literally means about 5 minutes filing the corner off of the pad on the new safety, if you were to look at the pad on the one you pull out vs. tge new one, it's pretty obvious and self-explanatory... but if need be, just PM me and I could take a pic or two and go further into it, It's really pretty darn easy.

Finding this forum and doing a lot more reading than posting.

Yeah, I dunno... really does seem differently shaped safeties can give theses guns vastly different feels/ergos. I've sort of experienced a similar thing with 1911's, the stock safeties that come on RIA Tacticals and a few others are downright painful to me, yet the one's that come stock on STI single-stacks and Dan Wesson's feel just right (think they're Brown's), and I've heard of more than a few guys having the Wilson "high-ride" safeties put on their guns saying they felt different than any other as well. I dunno,who knew...

Wow. Just installed a set of the the 85-style, higher/smaller safeties (instead of the SA-style lower/extended one's it came with) and can't believe how much they transform the feel of the gun... about 1000 times better for me. Ever since I got mine something was bugging me about my grip with it, I tried pretty much every set of grips available trying to get it to feel "right" like my old SP-01 felt to no avail, this did the trick. I really don't find the smaller safety any less difficult to operate and it still provides plenty of surface for my thumb to ride it comfortably, it's just higher and not in the way anymore. One of my favorite attributes about the CZ's is how they allow one to get so much support-hand on the gun, I shoot with a high-thumbs-forward-style and previously before shooting them I'd only experienced the same kind of "locked-in" feeling with my shooting grip on Glocks... The best Glock trigger can't touch a Shadow's . Might even be able to try out some of the thinner grips I was more fond of in the past now too as there's now plenty of room to get my grip ratcheted-down as I like, that 1/4" change in thumb position makes a huge difference, don't think my problem was the grip widths, think it was the other safeties all along... This may be something very much worth trying if anyone finds they aren't getting enough support-hand contact on the these guns.

I pay a guy to make sure my lawn gets mowed yet I own a pretty decent lawnmower and know what to do with it (it's a Honda, and I actually test drove an A8L yesterday, just weird)... There will always be plenty of guys out there that won't mind kicking down some loot to have someone else do it for them even though they could do it themselves, it's just that with some things the premium is maybe more worth it than with other things... Speaking for myself, I'd rather buy 6 guns for the money and get it to where I wanted by gun No. 3. I hate to agree with Ted as he always posts stuff that makes IDPA seem super-lame and also because I'm a better shooter, far better looking, and much more successful in life than him, but when it comes to Glock's he's probably right about it mostly being a matter of springs, connector, and more than anything practice (for once, plus I think he knows Bill Wilson ). (mostly being sarcastic btw, kidding around )

Whenever the major vs. minor discussion pops up I can't help but think the obvious... the rules are imperfect, and maybe/probably should be looked at... How the majority of stages are laid out in a given match, or whether or not a guy happens to reload or just buys his ammo at a box store seems to have more of an influence upon who ends up at the top of the standings more so than many of us may wish and beyond being squarely based on shooting skill sometimes. IMHO, the gaming shouldn't start before you've decided upon which caliber gun to drop in your holster.

I believe that is a FTDR, you know you only made master because my grandma couldn't make it to that one! :0

Or sharks with freaking lasers...

Just looked at them... All I can say is I've got a soldering iron and know a guy with a milling set-up, know a couple people who're great with cool lighting and photography too, think I might get into the custom Glocks business! Freaking ridiculous... they probably send you a certificate that says you're a "real operator" too if you're dumb enough to buy one of those for that much...

Pretty cool aren't they. I just got one shipped in for a trigger job and this is the gun I have always thought I wanted from CZ. I can get a little more out of the trigger and it is really a sweet trigger. I just now have to save up for one now. anyone care to donate? Mine was great out of the box, but I did end up doing one of the tricks you told me about a while back when I detail-stripped it to give mine it's first real cleaning and dropped another 1/2lb off of the trigger... Kinda stinks in a way, when I suck I sure can't blame the gun at this point.

Your 75B+ a Competition hammer + 13lb hammer-spring and then maybe talk to Stu about helping him a little to get closer to that new Shadow...